Novel Method of Creating New Species Observed in Laboratory Yeast

The sex life of yeast has University of Houston biologists fermenting new ideas about evolution and beer.

Researchers studying yeast reproductive habits have for the first time observed a rapid method for the creation of new species, shedding light on the way organisms evolve and suggesting possible ways to improve yeast biotechnology and fermentation processes used in beer and wine-making.

“Most mod

A group of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have solved the structure of an enzyme that modulates central nervous system (CNS) functions such as pain perception, cognition, feeding, sleep, and locomotor activity.

The enzyme, described in the latest issue of the journal Science, is called fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), and it breaks down certain fatty signaling molecules that reside in the lipid membranes of CNS cells. The TSRI group reports that FAAH modulates the

A new model of mid-ocean ridge propagation: Introducing the process zone

The site of extensive volcanic activity and sea-floor spreading, the Galapagos Rise in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean has yielded groundbreaking research results for the field of plate tectonics. Jacqueline Floyd and her colleagues, all of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, are introducing a new model for the process of mid-ocean ridge propagation (lengthening), which is responsibl

While many Americans will be relaxing after their Thanksgiving Day feast, many people around the world may have a shortage of food, particularly potatoes, a staple that is being seriously threatened by a disease called potato late blight.

In a news story appearing in the journal Science (Nov. 29), “Taking the Bite Out of Blight,” writer Glenn Garelik examines the disease that is affecting potato production globally.

Potato late blight (Phytophthora infestans ) is the pathogen tha

Study opens door for faster, simpler methods of measuring carbon nanotubes

Building upon this summer’s groundbreaking finding that carbon nanotubes are fluorescent, chemists at Rice University have precisely identified the optical signatures of 33 “species” of nanotubes, establishing a new methodology for assaying nanotubes that is simpler and faster than existing methods.

In research published this week by Science magazine, a spectroscopy research team led by Rice Chem

A new study, just published in the journal Science, shows for the first time that some bacteria that cause diseases in humans use molecular hydrogen as an energy source. The research could point the way toward new treatment regimens for everything from ulcers and chronic gastritis to stomach cancer.

Microbiologists at the University of Georgia worked specifically in mice with the gastric bacterium Helicobacter pylori, a pathogen that colonizes the mucosal surfaces of the human stomach and g