Backyard
Nature's Direct Feed from |
Backyard
Nature's Direct Feed from |
Last updated on November 7th, 2009
| Precuneus Region Of Human And Monkey Brain Is Divided Into Four Distinct Regions: Click here |
| New research provides a comprehensive comparative functional anatomy study in human and monkey brains which reveals highly similar brain networks preserved across evolution. Scientists examined patterns of connectivity to show that the precuneus, long thought to be a single structure, is actually divided into four distinct functional regions. |
| Seafloor Fossils Provide Clues To Climate Change: Click here |
| Deep under the sea, a fossil the size of a sand grain is nestled among a billion of its closest dead relatives. Known as foraminifera, these complex little shells of calcium carbonate can tell you the sea level, temperature, and ocean conditions of Earth millions of years ago. That is, if you know what to look for. |
| Pathogen Protection And Virulence: Dark Side Of Fungal Membrane Protein Revealed: Click here |
| Researchers have discovered a fungal protein that plays a key role in causing disease in plants and animals and which also shields the pathogen from oxidative stress. |
| ChIA-PET: Novel Method For 3-D Whole Genome Mapping Research: Click here |
| Technological advance in the study of gene expression and regulation in the genome's 3-D folding and looping state through the development of a novel technology. |
| Breeding Better Broccoli: Research Points To Pumped Up Lutein Levels In Broccoli: Click here |
| Plant carotenoids are the most important source of vitamin A in the human diet and are considered to be valuable antioxidants capable of protecting humans from chronic diseases including macular degeneration, cancer and cardiovascular disease. Researchers investigating the carotenoid content of field-grown broccoli discovered that when it comes to breeding broccoli, lutein levels were linked to the plants' genetics; the environment in which the vegetables were grown had little effect on carotenoid production. |
| Drunken Fruit Flies Help Scientists Find Potential Drug Target For Alcoholism: Click here |
| Drunken fruit flies have helped researchers identify networks of genes -- also present in humans -- that play a key role in alcohol drinking behavior. This discovery provides an indication of why some people seem to tolerate alcohol better than others, and points toward a potential target for drugs aimed at preventing or eliminating alcoholism. |
| Hormone That Affects Finger Length Key To Social Behavior: Click here |
| Research in the UK into the finger length of primate species has revealed that cooperative behavior is linked to exposure to hormone levels in the womb. |
| Boosting Coastal Economics With Crustacean Molting On Demand: Click here |
| Researchers are close to unraveling intricate cellular pathways that control molting in blue crabs. The discoveries could revolutionize the soft-shell crab industry, generating new jobs and additional profits for the US fishing industry along the coastal Southeast. |
| Male Sabertoothed Cats Were Pussycats Compared To Macho Lions: Click here |
| Despite their fearsome fangs, male sabertoothed cats may have been less aggressive than many of their feline cousins, says a new study of male-female size differences in extinct big cats. |
| Bacteria Expect The Unexpected: Click here |
| Organisms ensure the survival of their species by genetically adapting to the environment. If environmental conditions change too rapidly, the extinction of a species may be the consequence. A strategy to successfully cope with such a challenge is the generation of variable offspring that can survive in different environments. For the first time scientists have now observed the evolution of such a strategy under lab conditions in an experiment with the bacterial species Pseudomonas fluorescens. |
| Genomes Of Biofuel Yeasts Reveal Clues That Could Boost Fuel Ethanol Production Worldwide: Click here |
| As global temperatures and energy costs continue to soar, renewable sources of energy will be key to a sustainable future. An attractive replacement for gasoline is biofuel, and in two new studies, scientists have analyzed the genome structures of bioethanol-producing microorganisms, uncovering genetic clues that will be critical in developing new technologies needed to implement production on a global scale. |
| 'Duck-billed' Dinosaurs: Last European Hadrosaurs Lived In Iberian Peninsula: Click here |
| Spanish researchers have studied the fossil record of hadrosaurs, the so-called "duck-billed" dinosaurs, in the Iberian Peninsula for the purpose of determining that they were the last of their kind to inhabit the European continent before disappearing during the K/T extinction event that occurred 65.5 million years ago. Most notable among these fossils is the discovery of a new hadrosaur, the Arenysaurus ardevoli, found in Huesca, Spain. |
| Chemists Describe Solar Energy Progress And Challenges, Including The 'Artificial Leaf': Click here |
| Scientists are making progress toward development of an "artificial leaf" that mimics a real leaf's chemical magic with photosynthesis -- but instead converts sunlight and water into a liquid fuel such as methanol for cars and trucks. |
| Map Of Human Bacterial Diversity Shows Wide Interpersonal Differences: Click here |
| Scientists have developed the first atlas of bacterial diversity across the human body, charting wide variations in microbe populations that live in different regions of the human body and which aid us in physiological functions that contribute to our health. |
| Caught In The Act: Butterfly Mate Preference Shows How One Species Can Become Two: Click here |
| Breaking up may not be hard to do, say scientists who've found a population of tropical butterflies that may be splitting into two distinct species. The cause of this particular break-up? A shift in wing color and mate preference. In a new study, the researchers describe the relationship between diverging color patterns in Heliconius butterflies and the long-term divergence of populations into new and distinct species. |
| Inconspicuous Leaf Beetles Reveal Environment's Role In Formation Of New Species: Click here |
| Unnoticed by the nearby residents of St. Johnsbury, Vt., tiny leaf beetles that flit among the maple and willow trees in the area have just provided some of the clearest evidence yet that environmental factors play a major role in the formation of new species. |
| New Technique For Specifying Location Of Sugars On Proteins Paves Way For Medical Discoveries: Click here |
| Researchers have previously been able to analyse which sugar structures are to be found on certain proteins, but not exactly where on the protein they are positioned. |
| Heavy Metals Accumulate More In Some Mushrooms Than In Others: Click here |
| Researchers in Spain have analyzed the presence of heavy metals in 12 species of mushroom collected from non-contaminated natural areas, and has found that the levels vary depending on the type of mushroom. The results of the study show that the largest quantities of lead and neodymium are found in chanterelles. |
| Ants Are Friendly To Some Trees, But Not Others: Click here |
| Tree-dwelling ants generally live in harmony with their arboreal hosts. But new research suggests that when they run out of space in their trees of choice, the ants can get destructive to neighboring trees. |
| Nitrogen Loss Threatens Desert Plant Life, Study Shows: Click here |
| As the climate gets warmer, arid soils lose nitrogen as gas, reports a new study. That could lead to deserts with even less plant life than they sustain today, say the researchers. |
| DNA Molecules In Moss Open Door To New Biotechnology: Click here |
| Plasmids, which are DNA molecules capable of independent replication in cells, have played an important role in gene technology. Researchers have now demonstrated that plasmid-based methods, which had been limited to single-cell organisms such as bacteria and yeasts, can be extended to mosses, opening the door to applications of a number of powerful techniques in plant research. |
| Scientists Reveal A New Mechanism That Increases Atherosclerosis In Mice: Click here |
| A shot of espresso may rev you up in the morning, but the downside is that it may also ramp up levels of bad cholesterol due to its effects on a unique liver protein called PXR. New research now shows that when chronically activated, the protein rejiggers how cholesterol is broken down in and cleared from the liver, a disturbance that can lead to high levels of the waxy substance or worse, full-blown atherosclerosis. |
| Can Biodiversity Persist In The Face Of Climate Change?: Click here |
| Predictions made over the last decade about the impacts of climate change on biodiversity may be exaggerated, according to a paper published in the journal Science. |
| Discovery Of The Oldest European Marsupial In SW France: Click here |
| Remains of one of the oldest known marsupials have been recovered in Charente-Maritime, France, by palaeontologists. This discovery raises a new hypothesis about the dispersal route of the earliest marsupial mammals. |
| DNA 'Barcode' For Tropical Trees: Click here |
| In foods, soil samples or customs checks, plant fragments sometimes need to be quickly identified. The use of DNA "barcodes" to itemize plant biodiversity was proposed during the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Summit. Researchers have now tested this method in the tropical forest. |
| Polycystins: Proteins That Regulate The Cellular Barometer: Click here |
| What is the role of proteins called polycystins in patients with polycystic kidney disease? Scientists have elucidated the molecular and cellular mechanisms linked to polycystin malfunctions that cause this common hereditary disease. |
| Mimicking Nature, Scientists Can Now Extend Redox Potentials: Click here |
| New insight into how nature handles some fundamental processes is guiding researchers in the design of tailor-made proteins for applications such as artificial photosynthetic centers, long-range electron transfers, and fuel-cell catalysts for energy conversion. |
| Water-conserving Irrigation Strategies Minimize Overwatering, Runoff: Click here |
| Conserving water and reducing the environmental impact of runoff are two important issues confronting container nursery operations. Current regulations in five states limit water consumption and/or nutrient concentrations in runoff. Researchers investigated whether irrigation scheduling based on daily water use (DWU) -- the combined loss of water from plant transpiration and substrate evaporation -- could conserve water. According to the study, "scheduling irrigation according to plant DWU substantially reduced the amount of irrigation applied. |
| Domestic Horse Genome Sequenced: Click here |
| Scientists have decoded the genome of the domestic horse, revealing a genome structure with remarkable similarities to humans and more than one million genetic differences across a variety of horse breeds. In addition to shedding light on a key part of the mammalian branch of the evolutionary tree, the work also provides a critical starting point for mapping disease genes in horses. |
| Neural Stem Cells In Mice Affected By Gene Associated With Longevity: Click here |
| A gene associated with longevity in roundworms and humans has been shown to affect the function of stem cells that generate new neurons in the adult brain, according to researchers. The study in mice suggests that the gene may play an important role in maintaining cognitive function during aging. |
| Portable 3-D Laser Technology Preserves Texas Dinosaur's Rare Footprint: Click here |
| Using portable 3-D laser technology, scientists have electronically preserved a rare 110 million-year-old fossilized dinosaur footprint excavated in 1933, and built into the wall of a bandstand at a Texas courthouse. The laser image preserves an original track used to describe a species of dinosaur identified in 1935 as ichnospecies Eubrontes glenrosensis. |
| Scientists Launch Effort To Sequence The DNA Of 10,000 Vertebrates: Click here |
| Scientists have an ambitious new strategy for untangling the evolutionary history of humans and their biological relatives: Create a genetic menagerie made of the DNA of more than 10,000 vertebrate species. The plan, proposed by an international consortium of scientists, is to obtain, preserve, and sequence the DNA of approximately one species for each genus of living mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. |
| 'Spoonful Of Sugar' Makes The Worms' Life Span Go Down: Click here |
| If worms are any indication, all the sugar in your diet could spell much more than obesity and type 2 diabetes. Researchers say it might also be taking years off your life. |
| Paleoecologists Offer New Insight Into How Climate Change Will Affect Organisms: Click here |
| New research examines some of the potential problems with current prediction methods and calls for the use of a range of approaches when predicting the impact of climate change on organisms. The study uses examples from recent paleoecological studies to highlight how climate variability of the past has affected the distributions of tree species, and even how events that occurred many centuries ago still shape present-day distributions patterns. |
| Creating Cultured Pearls From The Queen Conch: Scientists Unlock Mystery: Click here |
| In their natural form, conch pearls are among the rarest pearls in the world. For more than 25 years, all attempts at culturing pearls from the queen conch have been unsuccessful -- until now. For the first time, novel and proprietary seeding techniques to produce beaded and non-beaded high-quality cultured pearls from the queen conch have been developed by scientists. |
| Common Plants Can Eliminate Indoor Air Pollutants: Click here |
| Air quality in homes and offices is becoming a major health concern. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) found in indoor air emanate from adhesives, furnishings, clothing, and solvents and have been shown to cause illnesses in people. Researchers tested ornamental indoor plants for their ability to remove harmful VOCs from indoor air. The study concluded that simply introducing common ornamental plants into indoor spaces has the potential to significantly improve the quality of indoor air. |
| Airborne Nitrogen Shifts Aquatic Nutrient Limitation In Pristine Lakes: Click here |
| The impact of airborne nitrogen released from the burning of fossil fuels and wide-spread use of fertilizers in agriculture is much greater that previously recognized and even extends to remote alpine lakes. |
| US And European Experts Applaud New Transatlantic Task Force On Antibiotic Resistance Threat: Click here |
| Experts on both sides of the Atlantic applaud President Barack Obama and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, representing the European Union (EU) Presidency, for establishing a transatlantic task force to address antibiotic resistance, an urgent and growing problem that threatens patient safety and public health worldwide. During a summit held this week in Washington, D.C., President Obama and Prime Minister Reinfeldt joined forces to address the urgency of the problem and the need for solutions by signing an international agreement that seeks cooperative ways in which the United States and EU countries can help combat the global health crisis. |
| Innovative Plan To Save Rainforest, Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Click here |
| An innovative proposal by the Ecuadorian government to protect an untouched, oil rich region of Amazon rainforest is a precedent-setting and potentially economically viable approach, says a team of environmental researchers. |
| Coral Reefs Inspire Rare Consensus -- Just Save Them: Click here |
| One of the first set of studies to examine what tourists and recreation enthusiasts actually think about coral reef ecosystems suggests they are a rare exception to controversies over human use versus environmental conservation -- their stunning beauty is so extraordinary that almost everyone wants them protected in perpetuity. |
| Why Nice Guys Usually Get The Girls: Click here |
| For the insects called water striders, the pushiest guys don't always get the girls. New research provides support for the theory of multi-level selection and contradicts previous laboratory experiments that suggested that the most aggressive males are the most successful at reproducing. |
| How Plants And Bacteria 'Talk' To Thwart Disease: Click here |
| Unwrapping some of the mystery from how plants and bacteria communicate to trigger an innate immune response, scientists have identified the bacterial signaling molecule that matches up with a specific receptor in rice plants to ward off a devastating disease known as bacterial blight of rice. |
| Deciphering The Regulatory Code: Scientists Take New Approach To Predict Gene Expression: Click here |
| New research by European scientists is a first step towards forecasting the expression of all genes in a given organism and demonstrates that the genetic regulation that is crucial for correct embryonic development is more flexible than previously thought. |
| Timber Harvest Impacts Amphibians Differently During Life Stages: Click here |
| Researchers found that removing all of the trees from a section of the forest had a negative effect on amphibians during their later life cycles, but had some positive effects during amphibians' aquatic larva stages at the beginning of their lives. To lessen the negative effects during the later life stage, scientists recommend partial or selection cuts to forests rather than completely removing trees from an area. |
| Calm Before The Spawn: Climate Change And Coral Spawning: Click here |
| Biologists have explained why corals spawn for just a few nights in some places but elsewhere string out their love life over many months. A new study shows that corals spawn when regional wind fields are light. When it is calm, the eggs and sperm have the chance to unite before they are dispersed. |
| Not Just Bleach: Hydrogen Peroxide May Tell Time For Living Cells: Click here |
| The common household chemical hydrogen peroxide, also made naturally by living cells, appears to be involved in regulation of circadian rhythms, according to a new study. |
| Reducing Consumption of Glycotoxins From Heat-processing Of Foods Reduces Risk Of Chronic Disease: Click here |
| Researchers report that cutting back on the consumption of processed and fried foods, which are high in toxins called Advanced Glycation End products (AGEs), can reduce inflammation and actually help restore the body's natural defenses regardless of age or health status. The benefits of a diet lower in glycotoxins are present even without changing caloric or nutrient intake. |
| Green Is Cool, But US Land Changes Generally Are Not: Click here |
| Most land use changes occurring in the continental US result in raised regional surface temperatures, according to new research. The study found that almost any change that makes land cover less "green" contributes to warming. A perhaps less intuitive finding is that conversion of any land to agricultural use results in cooling, even land that was previously forested. |
