Don’t stop and smell the roses: “blinding” an insect’s sense of smell may be the best repellent, according to research by Rockefeller University scientists “Pest insects have a profound negative impact on agriculture and human health,” says Rockefeller University’s Leslie Vosshall, Ph.D. “They are responsible for global losses of crops and stored agricultural products as well as the spread of many diseases.”
In the heated battle between people and insect pests, Vosshall and collea
New findings by Swedish and German scientists on the regulation of cellular growth are published in the March issue of Nature Cell Biology.
A greatly increased synthesis of new proteins is one of the first and most important events that occur in both normal and tumour cells upon growth stimulation.
The new proteins are formed in the part of the cell known as the ribosome. Assembly of ribosomes requires coordinated activation of genes that is mainly performed by two enz
Nature utilizes energy from the sun for its production. Some algae produce hydrogen from water with the help of solar energy. So why not imitate nature to extract renewable energy without harming the environment? The EU is now giving European research a boost by allocating €1.8 million to a new network to be led by Uppsala University.
Plant photosynthesis has long been studied with an eye to understanding its underlying mechanisms and then applying this knowledge to the product
How can workers be protected from detrimental production factors? Russian researchers have come to the conclusion that this can be done by a large number of actively working ribosomal genes.
Specialists of the Chair of Genetics, Kemerovo State University, have discovered that people with a large number of actively working ribosomal genes are found more frequently among workers of the by-product coke plant than among ordinary townsmen (ribosomal genes are responsible for the ribosom
Stomach ulcer not only aches, it also fluoresce. Russian researchers believe that the brighter the fluorescence is, the less chances the patient has to do without the operation.
Specialists of the Moscow Regional Scientific-Research Clinical Institute “MONIKI” named after M.F. Vladimirsky and the Chair of Biophysics, Russian State Medical University, have developed a fiber-optic spectrum analyzer that allows to measure intensity of fluorescence from the surface of the gastroint
Extremophiles are microbes that live in conditions that other creatures can’t. Most archaea, some bacteria and a few protists are able to survive in the harshest environments; colder than ice and hotter than steam; environments without light or without water and environments of great physical or osmotic pressure. This issue looks at how Extremophiles are able survive and what we can learn from them.
The February issue also contains the Biochemical Society’s Graduate Emp
A groundbreaking new treatment to combat the hospital killer bug MRSA, which is estimated to cause up to 5,000 deaths a year in Britain, is being developed by a University of Sussex scientist.
Philip Parsons, a professor of organic chemistry, has devised a simple “one-pot” method to make a synthetic version of a natural antibiotic, lactonamycin, which could be used to treat infected patients. He has now received a £280,000 grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
Music lovers could be in for the ultimate listening experience, thanks to a new range of speakers containing parts made of diamond, writes Marina Murphy in the Chemistry & Industry magazine. The unique properties of diamond make the speakers less susceptible to distortion and thus provide a clearer sound, say their manufacturers Bowers & Wilkins (B&W), UK.
The 800 Series speakers contain diamond ‘tweeter domes’ – the parts responsible for producing high-frequency sound. The domes are
A leading Canadian fish farming scientist is stirring the scientific waters by arguing that it may be safer to risk introducing exotic salmon into a marine ecosystem than to farm native ones there.
“The biggest environmental danger we face from salmon escapes is when farming species within their native range, such as Atlantic salmon in the Atlantic Ocean,” says Dr. Ian Fleming, Director of the Ocean Sciences Centre at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
He is prese
Researchers have created a way to transform the dead bone of a transplanted skeletal graft into living tissue in an experiment involving mice. The advance, which uses gene therapy to stimulate the body into treating the foreign splint as living bone, is a promising development for the thousands of cancer and trauma patients each year who suffer with fragile and failing bone grafts. The findings were posted online Feb. 13 and will appear in the March 1 issue of Nature Medicine.
The
The crystallized form of a molecular machine that can cut and paste genetic material is revealing possible new paths for treating diseases such as some forms of cancer and opportunistic infections that plague HIV patients.
Purdue University researchers froze one of these molecular machines, which are chemical complexes known as a Group I intron, at mid-point in its work cycle. When frozen, crystallized introns reveal their structure and the sites at which they bind with various mo
Steve Palumbi is no stranger to controversy. A marine biologist at Stanford University, Palumbi incurred the wrath of the Japanese whaling industry more than a decade ago by conducting the first genetic study of whale meat sold in Tokyo food markets.
Japan harvests more than 300 Antarctic minke whales every year for scientific research. The Japanese government, arguing that minke whales are relatively abundant, allows the slaughtered giants to be sold as food.
In the earl
Advanced technologies reveal new knowledge about the lives and deaths of whales
Using genetics, Navy sonar, deep-sea submersibles, and toxicology, scientists are peering into the lives of whales – past and present – in ways never before possible. At a 3:00 PM press conference on February 19th at the annual meeting of AAAS, Steve Palumbi of Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station, Christopher W. Clark of Cornell University, Craig Smith of the University of Hawaii and Roger Payne of the Oc
Navy’sundersea microphones — but sound pollution threatens
Why do whales in the North Atlantic Ocean seem to be moving together and coherently? What is impelling them forward. How do they communicate with each other, seemingly over thousands of miles of ocean? And how can this acoustical habitat be protected?
For nearly nine years Cornell University researcher Christopher Clark — together with former U.S. Navy acoustics experts Chuck Gagnon and Paula Loveday — has b
Business as usual threatens future of fish – Scientists call on managers to incorporate new scientific understanding into fishery plans
In a scientific double whammy, researchers report that fishing pressure is causing fish to evolve to smaller sizes, just as new studies show that larger fish are critical to sustaining populations. In species such as Pacific rockfish, the big, old females not only produce exponentially more eggs than younger, smaller females, but their hearty larv
Findings could help with design of combination products that are not compromised by adverse host responses
Medical devices are traditionally thought of as fairly simple implants such as stents and hip replacements – pieces of plastic or metal that are placed in the body to handle a very specific function. But biomedical devices now on the drawing board are considerably more sophisticated and represent an unprecedented melding of man and machine.
Combination products, dev
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