When Ralph Waldo Emerson said that nature pardons no mistakes, he wasn’t thinking about RNA polymerase (RNAP) – the versatile enzyme that copies genes from DNA onto strands of RNA, which then serve as templates for all of the proteins that make life possible.

Emerson’s comment notwithstanding, RNAP makes plenty of mistakes but also proofreads and corrects them before they have a chance to create abnormal proteins. The error-prone nature of RNAP is not surprising given the size of its task.

Since their discovery, cytokines have provided biomedical researchers with a tangled web of immune-system pathways to unknot. While most known cytokines have a role in stimulating immunity, one cytokine, IL-27, may actually suppress CD4 T cells, the helper T cells that orchestrate the immune system response to infections, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

Their findings could provide researchers with a way to clamp down on dozens of

Children usually spill if trying to drink from a full cup, but adults rarely do. How we learn to almost automatically complete complex movements — like how to lift a cup and tip it so the liquid is right at the edge when we’re ready to drink — is one of our brain’s mysterious abilities.

Now, by conducting experiments with robots and humans, scientists at Johns Hopkins have solved part of this mystery and created a new computer model that accurately reflects how the brain uses ex

When a cell needs a protein to function, it sometimes uses molecule-sized fishing poles to “catch” one and “cast” it across the cell membrane, reports a research team of Purdue University biologists.

Using high-resolution X-ray crystallography, a team including William A. Cramer has determined the structure and surprising behavior of a protein receptor complex, or “gate,” found in the outer membrane of an E. coli bacterium. The complex is one of thousands of such tiny gates that the cell us

Australian scientists have had their first view of the habitats and ecosystem that support Australia’s largest commercial crab – the “giant crab”.

A series of five surveys are planned in waters of 150-350 metres depth to assess the seabed habitats of the giant crab (Pseudocarcinus gigas) at the edge of the continental shelf around Tasmania.

The pilot survey was completed on the State’s east coast earlier this month in a collaborative project between CSIRO Marine Research

Basic research into a tumor suppressor gene that controls cell size has uncovered a link between three different genetic diseases and points to a possible treatment for all of them.

The tie that binds these three seemingly disparate medical conditions is a biochemical chain of events that govern cell size. At the end of this chain, a known drug may work to replace missing or broken parts of the biochemical chain.

“We were doing basic cell biology, investigating how cell growth is

Although prolonged breastfeeding is well known to be a major route of transmission of HIV infection to infants and is estimated to cause one-third to one-half of new infant HIV-1 infections worldwide, the majority of breastfed infants with HIV-positive mothers remain uninfected, even after months of exposure.

Investigators at Emory University School of Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Emory Vaccine Center, and the University of Paris reviewed the scientific lite

Researchers tracking the ebb and flow of cognitive function in the human brain have discovered surprising differences in the ability of younger and older adults to shut down a brain network normally active during periods of passive daydreaming. The differences, which are especially pronounced in people with dementia, may provide a clear and powerful new method for diagnosing individuals in the very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

“In young adults, there are parts of the brain that

UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas researchers have shown that the absence of a key oxygen-sensing molecule can lead to multiple developmental defects – from an enlarged heart to eye problems.

The researchers generated the first mouse model that lacks entirely a member of an important family of proteins involved in sensing hypoxia, a state of reduced oxygen in the body’s cells that is associated with conditions such as heart attacks, stroke and lung disease.

This new mode

While breathalyzers help police crack down on drunk driving, a similar new device is helping a University of Rhode Island graduate student analyze the dietary changes of migrating songbirds.

Just as human breathalyzers measure an individual’s blood-alcohol level, David Podlesak says that his bird breathalyzer measures the “carbon signature” of a bird’s last meal.

“We measure the ratio of the isotopes of carbon 12 to carbon 13, and this carbon signature in their breath can

Black bears living in and around urban areas are up to a third less active and weigh up to thirty percent more than bears living in wild areas, according to a recent study by scientists from the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

The study, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Zoology says that black bears are spending less time hunting for natural food, which can consist of everything from berries up to adult deer. Instead, they are choosing to forage in dumpste

Brain researchers would dearly love to reliably identify changes in brain structure and metabolism associated with early Alzheimer’s disease — before symptoms emerge.

Such information would buy precious time and perhaps permit potential therapies to delay or even prevent the memory-robbing disease. Now, a new study by NYU School of Medicine researchers brings this goal one step closer to being realized.

Using a new technique to measure the volume of the brain, they were able

Children with unusually delayed speech tend to listen with the right side of the brain rather than the left side of the brain, according to a study published in the December issue of the journal Radiology. Preliminary study results were presented at the Radiological Society of North America’s (RSNA) Annual Meeting in 2002.

The research represents the first time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used to investigate brain activity associated with speech delay. “With t

A gene responsible for lymphatic vessel formation

Novel discoveries at the University of Helsinki, Finland, about the development of the lymphatic network may help researchers to better understand the mechanisms of cancer and its metastasis, and also diseases such as lymphedema, wound healing and inflammatory and autoimmune disorders.

Lymphatic vascular network is essential in transporting the tissue fluids and immune cells from tissues to the nearby lymph nodes and back to t

Adding greenery in the form of a garden to the often sterile, cold environment of hospitals and other healthcare facilities can reduce stress in patients, visitors and staff and even lessen a patient’s pain in some instances, says a Texas A&M University authority on health care design.

Roger Ulrich, professor and director of the Center for Health Systems & Design at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture, says a growing body of research is giving credibility to the widely held belief

Duke University Medical Center researchers have shown an association between changes in nitrate, a biochemical marker of nitric oxide production, and physiological changes in arteries’ reaction to stress. They hope their discovery could eventually lead to a non-invasive method of determining which patients are at risk for developing cardiovascular disease.

Such a simple diagnostic is important, they said, because up to half of patients who develop heart disease do not have the typical risk