Science News
clock | August 7, 2007Glia Play An Important Role In Circadian Timing:
Glial cells of the nervous system, once thought to function strictly as support cells for neurons, are now thought to actively modulate them. Providing further evidence in support of this theory, researchers at the Department of Neuroscience and the Center for Neuroscience Research (CNR) at Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM) recently identified a specific population of glial cells that is required for the control of circadian behavior in Drosophila (the fruit fly). Their findings, which confirm and extend their earlier work, are…
clock | August 3, 2007PERIOD-TIMELESS Interval Timer May Require an Additional Feedback Loop by Robert S. Kuczenski, Kevin C. Hong, Jordi GarcÃa-Ojalvo and Kelvin H. Lee:
The ability of an organism to adapt to daily changes in the environment, via a circadian clock, is an inherently interesting phenomenon recently connected to several human health issues. Decades of experiments on one of the smallest model animals, the fruit fly Drosophila, has illustrated significant similarities with the mammal circadian system. Within Drosophila, the PERIOD and TIMELESS proteins are central to controlling this rhythmicity and…
clock | July 31, 2007There are 32 new papers that just went live on PLoS ONE and here are a couple of titles that got my immediate attention:
Changing Hydrozoan Bauplans by Silencing Hox-Like Genes by Wolfgang Jakob and Bernd Schierwater:
Regulatory genes of the Antp class have been a major factor for the invention and radiation of animal bauplans. One of the most diverse animal phyla are the Cnidaria, which are close to the root of metazoan life and which often appear in two distinct generations and a remarkable variety of body forms. Hox-like genes have been known to be involved in axial patterning in the…
clock | July 31, 2007Flip Of Genetic Switch Causes Cancers In Mice To Self-destruct:
Killing cancerous tumors isn't easy, as anyone who has suffered through chemotherapy can attest. But a new study in mice shows that switching off a single malfunctioning gene can halt the limitless division of tumor cells and turn them back to the path of their own planned obsolescence.
Zebrafish Research Provides Answers About Neurological Development:
Zebrafish cost about a dollar at the pet store. They grow from eggs to hunting their own food in three days. Adults can lay up to 500 eggs at once... and you have more in common…
clock | July 30, 2007Is there a new Tuberculosis vaccine in the making?
Another movie is being made about Ivory-Bill woodpeckers.
A new astronomical explanation for the cycles of extinctions.
clock | July 28, 2007
Sleep-Wake Controls Identified: Implications For Coma Patients And Those Under Anesthesia:
How do we wake up? How do we shift from restful sleep to dreaming? Researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) have discovered a new brain mechanism that just might explain how we do that. This new mechanism also may help us understand how certain anesthetics put us to sleep and how certain stimulants wake us up. In their first published study on this topic, researchers in the UAMS Center for Translational Neuroscience found that some neurons in the reticular activating system…
clock | July 28, 2007Electronic Eggs Used To Help Save Threatened African Bird:
This is an important summer for kori bustards at the Smithsonian's National Zoo. Four chicks of this threatened African bird have hatched in June and July. Along with the bumper crop of baby birds is a bumper crop of new information for scientists working to preserve the species, thanks to an electronic egg that transmits real-time incubation data from the nest.
Reef Corals: How To Structure A Complex Body Plan:
Phenotypic flexibility enables multicellular organisms to adjust morphologies to variable environmental challenges. Such…
clock | July 27, 2007There are 31 new papers published on PLoS ONE this week, and here are some of my first, quick picks of titles that got my attention, but you should go and see them all, then rate, annotate and comment on them:
Stable Isotope Ratios in Hair and Teeth Reflect Biologic Rhythms by Otto Appenzeller, Clifford Qualls, Franca Barbic, Raffaello Furlan and Alberto Porta:
Biologic rhythms give insight into normal physiology and disease. They can be used as biomarkers for neuronal degenerations. We present a diverse data set to show that hair and teeth contain an extended record of biologic rhythms, and…
clock | July 24, 2007The US Anti-Prostitution Pledge: First Amendment Challenges and Public Health Priorities by Nicole Franck Masenior and Chris Beyrer:
In order for an HIV organization to receive funding from the United States, grantees must explicitly oppose prostitution.
Male Circumcision for Prevention of HIV Transmission: What the New Data Mean for HIV Prevention in the United States by Patrick S. Sullivan, Peter H. Kilmarx, Thomas A. Peterman, Allan W. Taylor, Allyn K. Nakashima, Mary L. Kamb, Lee Warner and Timothy D. Mastro:
Recent clinical trials in Africa found that male circumcision reduces the risk…
clock | July 24, 2007Did Pterosaurs Feed by Skimming? Physical Modelling and Anatomical Evaluation of an Unusual Feeding Method by Stuart Humphries, Richard H. C. Bonser, Mark P. Witton and David M. Martill:
Just because a component of an extinct animal resembles that of a living one does not necessarily imply that both were used for the same task. The lifestyles of pterosaurs, long-extinct flying reptiles that soared ancient skies above the dinosaurs, have long been the subject of debate among palaeontologists. Similarities between the skulls of living birds (black skimmers) that feed by skimming the water…
clock | July 24, 2007Paleontologists Study A Remarkably Well-preserved Baby Siberian Mammoth:
University of Michigan paleontologist Daniel Fisher just returned from Siberia where he spent a week as part of a six-member international team that examined the frozen, nearly intact remains of a 4-month-old female woolly mammoth.
Steroids, Not Songs, Spur Growth Of Brain Regions In Sparrows:
Neuroscientists are attempting to understand if structural changes in the brain are related to sensory experience or the performance of learned behavior, and now University of Washington researchers have found evidence that one…
evolgen | July 22, 2007Mark Liberman at Language Log has been posting on genetics recently. A couple of days ago he tried to track down the origins of the components of the gene name BTBD9. The letters and numbers in the name stand for complex-tramtrack-bric-a-brac-domain 9, which are hijacked from Drosophila nomenclature. Liberman then tries to figure out the origins of the names tramtrack and bric-a-brac using FlyNome (a cool webpage that I hadn't seen before) and FlyBase. In the end, he couldn't track down the (clever) story behind either one.
I was amused by that post, and I was further impressed by Liberman's…
clock | July 21, 2007Number Of Published Science And Engineering Articles Flattens, But US Influence Remains Strong:
A new National Science Foundation (NSF) report finds the number of U.S. science and engineering (S&E) articles in major peer-reviewed journals flattened in the 1990s, after more than two decades of growth, but U.S. influence in world science and technology remains strong.
Art And Music For The Birds:
Nature is a valued source of inspiration for artists. But what have artists offered the natural world? Would a bird even like rock and roll? Conceptual sculptor Elizabeth Demaray, an assistant…
clock | July 19, 2007Student Results Show Benefits Of Math And Science Partnerships:
Students' performance on annual math and science assessments improved in almost every age group when their schools were involved in a program that partners K-12 teachers with their colleagues in higher education.
The End Of Barroom Brawls: Study Shows Alcohol Can Reduce Aggression:
The link between alcohol and aggression is well known. What's not so clear is just why drunks get belligerent. What is it about the brain-on-alcohol that makes fighting seem like a good idea? And do all intoxicated people get more aggressive? Or does…
clock | July 18, 2007Synthetic Adhesive Mimics Sticking Powers Of Gecko And Mussel:
Geckos are remarkable in their ability to scurry up vertical surfaces and even move along upside down. Their feet stick but only temporarily, coming off of surfaces again and again like a sticky note. But put those feet underwater, and their ability to stick is dramatically reduced.
Monkeys Don't Go For Easy Pickings: Study Shows Primates Consider More Than Distance When Searching For Food:
Animals' natural foraging decisions give an insight into their cognitive abilities, and primates do not automatically choose the easy option.…
j7uy5 | July 18, 2007
There is new information
indicating that an
rel="tag">oxytocin
nasal spray could be used to
treat shyness. Oxytocin is a peptide hormone best known for
its role in childbirth and breastfeeding. These are known as
peripheral actions, meaning they take place outside of the central
nervous system (CNS).
However,
it also is
known as a neurotransmitter, having effects within the CNS.
It
has been touted as a chemical that can increase trust and reduce fear.
It also has been claimed to have a role in the difference in
how
href="http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/471090,CST-FTR-…
j7uy5 | July 14, 2007Remember
the
href="http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/07/cdc-halts-texas.html">recent
reports about lab workers at a biodefense
laboratory (Texas
A&M) who became infected with "select agents" (
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brucellosis">Brucella
and Coxiella
burnetii)? An editorial in Nature
expands upon this report. The findings are not reassuring.
Indeed, they are frightening. The problems are not
limited to a single lab:
rev="review"
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v448/n7150/full/448105b.html">Safety
clause
US research on bioweapons has…
clock | July 11, 2007There are 19 new papers on ONE that were published this week (thus breaking the 600 papers number). Here are a couple that caught my eye (apart from those I already blogged about or will soon):
Imitation as Faithful Copying of a Novel Technique in Marmoset Monkeys:
This evidence of imitation in non-human primates questions the dominant opinion that imitation is a human-specific ability. Furthermore, the high matching degree suggests that marmosets possess the neuronal mechanism to code the actions of others and to map them onto their own motor repertoire, rather than priming existing motor-…
clock | July 11, 2007Songbirds Prefer The Latest Music: Golden Oldies Just Don't Cut It With The Chicks:
When it's time to mate, female white-crowned sparrows are looking for a male who sings the latest version of the love song, not some 1979 relic. And territorial males simply find the golden oldie much less threatening. Duke University graduate student Elizabeth Derryberry played two versions of the white-crowned sparrow song to the birds as part of her thesis research and found that a 1979 recording didn't inspire them nearly as well as a 2003 recording of the very same song.
Birds Take Cues From Their…
clock | July 11, 2007New Habanero Blasts Taste Buds -- And Pepper Pests:
The super-hot, bright orange TigerPaw-NR habanero pepper offers extreme pungency for pepper aficionados, plus nematode resistance that will make it a hit with growers and home gardeners. Plant geneticist Richard L. Fery and plant pathologist Judy A. Thies at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) U.S. Vegetable Laboratory, Charleston, S.C., put the pepper through three years of greenhouse and field tests before determining, in 2006, that it was ready for commercial fields and backyard gardens.
Exhibiting A Pepper For Every Pot:
Peppers don'…