Eggs of female hamsters are significantly less likely to be transported by the oviduct when the eggs or the oviduct have been exposed to cigarette smoke, and this could result in disruption of fertilization and pregnancy, according to reproductive scientists at the University of California, Riverside.

In a paper to be published in Biology of Reproduction, Christine Gieseke and Prue Talbot report that various types of cigarette smoke cause freshly ovulated hamster eggs, envelop

Covering ship hulls with artificial shark skin could help ships sailing smoothly. The growth of marine organisms such as barnacles on ship hulls is a major cause of increased energy costs in the naval industry. Shark skin offers a structural design that prevents this so called ’bio-fouling’.

Ralph Liedert from the University of Applied Sciences, Bremen, Germany, is presenting his work on the application of artificial shark skin in a new anti-fouling strategy at the Society

New model challenges textbook definition

Researchers have constructed a new detailed map of the three-dimensional terrain of a synapse — the junction between neurons which are critical for communication in the brain and nervous system. The “nano-map,” which shows the tiny spines and valleys resolved at nanometer scale, or one-billionth of a meter, has already proven its worth in changing scientists’ views of the synaptic landscape.

Using the map as a guide, the r

A product produced by lung cancer tumors fuels the cells that suppress immune function in patients and may be a target for Celebrex therapy, giving oncologists another weapon to fight cancer, according to a study by researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center.

Researchers found that PGE2, which is produced normally by epithelial cells but at very high levels in lung cancer and other malignancies, up-regulates the activity of lymphocytes called T-regulatory cells, which s

Men! Fed up with women faking headaches? Grant yourself lucky that you are not a mosquito fish, as females wouldn’t think twice about attacking you when you make a pass at them. As they are not keen on intercourse, females select for strong male genes by attacking those that show them some interest. Therefore, the lucky (it’s often the little) one sneaks up from behind, quickly retracting after copulation to prevent a nasty blast.

All sexual activity among mosquito fish relies on male

Are plants dependent on nitric oxide for successful reproduction? Margarida Prado (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal) has discovered that pollen tubes depend on nitric oxide (NO) to guide them to the right place to fertilise the plant. In the presence of drugs such as Viagra the plant’s sensitivity to NO increases thereby influencing pollen tube bending. Prado will present her work on pollen tube redirection at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Main Meeting in Barcelona o

Microtubules need a helping hand to find chromosomes in dividing egg cells, scientists have discovered. Although it was generally accepted that microtubules act alone as the cellular ropes to pull chromosomes into place, a new study by researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) shows that this is not the case. They found that in large cells such as animal eggs, something else is needed to move the chromosomes into the correct location – fibres of the cytoskeletal molecule actin

A team of scientists, led by researchers at The University of Nottingham, is studying the secret sex life of a fungus that causes potentially life-threatening infections in an effort to find new ways of controlling the disease.

Aspergillus fumigatus causes respiratory infection in up to 5,000 people per year in the UK alone and is also a major cause of respiratory allergy, implicated in asthma, affecting tens of thousands of people.

The fungus has always been thought to la

Resistance to antibiotics is spreading dangerously among bacteria, some of them being resistant to all known medicine. To face this challenge, a radically novel line of attack consists in disorganizing infections, instead of killing individual bacteria. Just like the coordinated activity of our cells is the basis of the proper functioning of our body, the coordinated activity of bacteria is often the basis of infections’ efficiency, and certain drugs have been shown experimentally to impede

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, have discovered a new method that could accelerate the way cancer-causing genes are found and could lead to a more accurate identification of the genes, according to two studies in the July 14, 2005, issue of Nature*.

The gene identification method was developed in genetically modified mice and utilized a piece of jumping DNA, called Sleep

Could mean new test, treatments

Researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have identified six genes associated with lymphocytic bronchitis, which is thought to lead to obliterative bronchitis (OB), the most common cause of long-term failure of transplanted lungs.

The researchers hope their results will lead to an earlier, more sensitive, and more accurate standard test for chronic lung rejection

Scientists have identified the first reported case in Asia of primate-to-human transmission of simian foamy virus (SFV), a retrovirus found in macaques and other primates that so far has not been shown to cause disease in humans. The transmission of the virus from a monkey to a human took place at a monkey temple in Bali, Indonesia, the researchers report in the July issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. Even though this particular virus jumping to humans may not prove dangerous,

Nerve cells relay messages at blink-of-the-eye speeds by squirting chemicals called neurotransmitters across tiny gaps called synapses to awaiting message receptors. But lots of different receptors and neurotransmitters work simultaneously. Which goes where to send the proper message?

Research reported in the July 20 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience (released online July 13) by a team led by David Featherstone, a University of Illinois at Chicago assistant professor of biology

New search method could aid in the discovery of biomarkers

Using a super-efficient method they invented to search for a type of cancer-related change in all genes of a cell, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers have discovered new evidence about how the “microenvironment” of breast cancers helps drive the cancers’ growth and migration.

The scientists found that non-cancerous cells surrounding young breast cancers — the microenvironment — undergo epigenetic mo

Researchers at the San Raffaele Hospital (Milan, Italy) published unexpected results of studies in which immature nerve cells (adult mouse neural stem cells) injected into the blood of mice with MS-like disease were able to suppress the immune attacks that damage the brain and spinal cord tissues. The study, funded in part by the National MS Society, is being reported by Drs. Stefano Pluchino, Gianvito Martino and colleagues in the July 14, 2005 issue of Nature. These surprising findings, if confi

The positive outcomes of therapy for alcoholism may have less to do with the therapy itself and more to do with participants’ determination to quit. These are the findings of a study published today in the international Open Access journal, BMC Public Health, which provides a new analysis of previous data from Project MATCH, a clinical trial of three common forms of therapy used for the treatment of alcoholism. This analysis shows that the participants in the trial who attended all sessions did