Micro-organisms in salt lakes produce chlorinated air pollutants

Salt lakes have a greater impact on climate change than was previously understood. This has been established by scientists from the UFZ Centre for Environmental Research (Umweltforschungszentrum Leipzig-Halle) together with colleagues from Austria, Russia and South Africa. They found evidence that bacteria in salt lakes produce substances which act as greenhouse gases and destroy the ozone layer. These substances a

Measuring a biological chemical called hyaluronan found naturally in joints and the fluid that lubricates cartilage might enable doctors to diagnose osteoarthritis of the knee and hip earlier or more accurately, a new study concludes. Improving diagnosis of the painful inflammatory disorder should become increasingly important as baby boomer age, doctors say.

The research, conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and in Johnston County, N.C., revealed that leve

When scientists finished sequencing the genomes of seven species of fruit fly last year, little did they know that they had also sequenced the genes of several bacteria that dwell undetected inside fruit fly embryos.

The genes of these bacteria, from a genus Wolbachia that infects many insects, have been sitting in the fruit fly gene database since then, unnoticed, according to Michael B. Eisen, a UC Berkeley assistant professor of molecular and cell biology and a faculty scient

Physicians have long been puzzled by a condition called intracranial arterial dolichoectasia, in which the larger arteries of the brain become elongated and misshapen. Typically, it has been considered a complication of atherosclerosis (“hardening of the arteries”), and not directly life-threatening. However, there is recent evidence that people with dolichoectasia are more likely to have aortic aneurysms, a potentially fatal weakening of the main artery that carries blood out from the heart

Many implications seen for biomedical research

The human brain is estimated to contain 100 billion neurons (the number 1 followed by eleven zeros). Because a typical neuron forms ~1,000 synaptic connections to other neurons, the total number of synapses in the brain is estimated to be 100 trillion (the number 1 followed by 14 zeros). The thin projections from neurons that form connections with each other (axons and dendrites) can be thought of as the biological “wiring” of the br

In a new and novel study, scientists are looking to nature — specifically, to ants, bees and viruses — for ways to improve human collaboration during disaster relief efforts.

At the center of the scientists’ sights are a sub-group of their own species — specifically, civil engineers, who historically have had a limited role in such efforts, especially those involving critical physical infrastructures.

Supported by a five-year $2.37 million grant from the Nationa

Research by a University of Nottingham expert has shed new light on a genetic mystery that has its origins millions of years ago.

A study by Dr Angus Davison has helped to uncover new facts about the most common organic compound found on earth — a substance called cellulose. Cellulose is found in large amounts in all crops and plant life, making it one of the foundations of modern farming, human diet and the global economy.There is just one problem with it: most animals are unable to

Discovery points to new class of astronomical objects

Astronomers at Sweet Briar College and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have detected a powerful new bursting radio source whose unique properties suggest the discovery of a new class of astronomical objects. The researchers have monitored the center of the Milky Way Galaxy for several years and reveal their findings in the March 3, 2005 edition of the journal, “Nature.”

Principal investigator, Dr. Scott Hyman, pr

The human brain is like a general in a bunker. Floating in its bubble of cerebrospinal fluid, it has no direct window to the outside world, so the only way for the brain to observe, comprehend, and order the body into action is to rely on information it receives. This information comes to it through a sophisticated system of sensory neurons that connect the brain to organs like the eye, ear, nose, and mouth.

In recent years, biologists and neuroscientists have been trying

Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered a genetic marker that may pave the way for a fast, inexpensive blood test to predict one type of deadly stroke that strikes 30,000 people in the United States annually.

The article and an editorial appear in the March edition of the Journal of Neurosurgery, http://www.thejns-net.org/jns/issues/toc_pre.html. The Mayo Clinic researchers report that people with key variations in a gene that affects the ability of blood vessels to relax are 10 ti

Livermore scientists are working to solve a 50-year-old question: Can neutrinos – a particle that is relatively massless, has no electric charge yet is fundamental to the make-up of the universe – transform from one type to another?
Scientists are using two giant detectors, one at Fermi Lab and another in a historic iron mine in northern Minnesota, to work on the answer.

As part of the international team working on the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) proj

The genetic cause of the devastating skin disease Harlequin Ichthyosis has been discovered by a team at Barts and the London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry.

In a paper to be published online in April in the American Journal of Human Genetics, Professor David Kelsell, of Queen Mary’s Centre for Cutaneous Research, outlines the recent breakthrough. Harlequin Ichthyosis (HI) is a rare, life threatening condition, where babies are born covered in a thick ‘coat of armo

A group of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute is reporting a discovery that sheds light on an area of research fundamental to everything from the normal processes that govern the everyday life of human cells to the aberrant mechanisms that underlie many diseases, including cancer and septic shock.

The discovery concerns tiny fragments of RNA known as microRNA and their relationship to the genetic transcripts known as messenger RNA (mRNA). All genes expressed in the

A new tumor-suppressor gene has been discovered by a team of researchers at Penn State, which also has discovered how the gene works with another tumor suppressor to control tissue growth. The team’s genetic and biochemical studies will be published in the 11 March 2005 issue of the journal Cell. “This discovery extends our understanding of how tissue growth is controlled both during normal development and during the formation of tumors, and it raises the possibility that the function of t

Black holes have a reputation for voraciously eating everything in their immediate neighborhood, but these large gravity wells also affect electromagnetic radiation and may hinder our ability to ever locate the center of the universe, according to an international research team.

“Any attempt to discover what was happening a long time ago at the beginning of our universe must take into account what gravitationally assisted negative refraction does to the radiation being viewed,” say

In search of vegetable preparations for nervous system diseases prophylaxis and treatment Russian researchers have turned to green tea. Specialists of the Kuban State University, the Kuban Research-and-Production Laboratory of Physiologically Active Substances and the Institute of Brain (Russian Academy of Medical Sciences) have discovered that ethanolic extract of green tea stimulates spinal cord neurons’ regeneration.

Spinal ganglia were cultivated in nutrient medium. Dry extract

Star Trek-like technology being developed at The University of Arizona might soon screen airplane passengers for explosives as they walk through a portal similar to a metal detector while hand-held units scan their baggage.

The new device is about 1,000 times more sensitive than the equipment currently used in airports to discern explosives. Rather than analyzing a swab from a person’s briefcase, the new technology could detect the traces of explosives left in air that passes

A detailed and extensive new analysis of the fossil records of marine animals over the past 542 million years has yielded a stunning surprise. Biodiversity appears to rise and fall in mysterious cycles of 62 million years for which science has no satisfactory explanation. The analysis, performed by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley, has withstood thorough testing so that confide

You have to learn to crack eggs if you’re going to cook an omelet. You have to jump in the water if you’re going to learn to swim. And you have to get your hands on telescopes that can search for signs of life beyond Earth if you’re going to study extraterrestrial biology. That’s why 14 University of Washington graduate biology students will be at Kitt Peak National Observatory this week (March 17 – 21) to learn observing techniques from University of Arizona and N

Efficient, effective and reliable remote healthcare monitoring is a holy grail in medicine but solutions have so far proved elusive. But it took a step closer to reality with the successful conclusion of pilot tests under the E-Care project.

The project developed a comprehensive monitoring system to capture, transmit and distribute vital health data to doctors, carers and family. Pilot tests of the system indicate that doctors, nurses, patients and their families found E-Care rel