Getting Little Sleep May Be Associated With Risk Of Heart Disease (this is chronic sleep deprivation):
Sleeping less than seven and a half hours per day may be associated with future risk of heart disease, according to a new article. In addition, a combination of little sleep and overnight elevated blood pressure appears to be associated with an increased risk of the disease.
Daily Rhythms In Blood Vessels May Explain Morning Peak In Heart Attacks:
It's not just the stress of going to work. Daily rhythms in the activity of cells that line blood vessels may help explain why heart attacks and strokes occur most often in early morning hours, researchers from Emory University School of Medicine have found.
Limb Loss In Lizards: Evidence For Rapid Evolution:
Small skink lizards, Lerista, demonstrate extensive changes in body shape over geologically brief periods. Research published in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology shows that several species of these skinks have rapidly evolved an elongate, limbless body form.
Web-spinning Spiders And 'Wannabe Butterflies' Head To Space Shuttle:
A NASA space shuttle mission carrying a University of Colorado at Boulder payload of web-spinning spiders and wannabe butterflies will be closely monitored by hundreds of K-12 students from Colorado's Front Range after Endeavour launches from Florida for the International Space Station Nov. 14.
Annual Plants Converted Into Perennials:
Annual crops grow, blossom and die within one year. Perennials overwinter and grow again the following year. The life strategy of many annuals consists of rapid growth following germination and rapid transition to flower and seed formation, thus preventing the loss of energy needed to create permanent structures.
Without Enzyme, Biological Reaction Essential To Life Takes 2.3 Billion Years:
All biological reactions within human cells depend on enzymes. Their power as catalysts enables biological reactions to occur usually in milliseconds. But how slowly would these reactions proceed spontaneously, in the absence of enzymes - minutes, hours, days? And why even pose the question?
One scientist who studies these issues is Richard Wolfenden, Ph.D., Alumni Distinguished Professor Biochemistry and Biophysics and Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Wolfenden holds posts in both the School of Medicine and in the College of Arts and Sciences and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
In 1995, Wolfenden reported that without a particular enzyme, a biological transformation he deemed "absolutely essential" in creating the building blocks of DNA and RNA would take 78 million years.
"Now we've found a reaction that - again, in the absence of an enzyme - is almost 30 times slower than that," Wolfenden said. "Its half-life - the time it takes for half the substance to be consumed - is 2.3 billion years, about half the age of the Earth. Enzymes can make that reaction happen in milliseconds."
In The Absence Of Sexual Prospects, Parasitic Male Worms Go Spermless:
When females aren't around, one species of parasitic nematode worm doesn't even bother to make any sperm, reveals a new report in the November 11th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.
The Bonsai Effect: Wounded Plants Make Jasmonates, Inhibiting Cell Division, Stunting Growth:
It is well known that plants growing under unfavourable conditions are generally smaller than those growing in stress-free conditions: indeed it is estimated that in the US, abiotic stress reduces the yield of agricultural crops by an average of 22%.
Scientific Community Called Upon To Resolve Debate On 'Net Energy' Once And For All:
"Net energy is a (mostly) irrelevant, misleading and dangerous metric," says Professor Bruce Dale, editor-in-chief of Biofuels, Bioresources and Biorefining (Biofpr) in the latest issue of the journal published November 7.
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