Backyard
Nature's Direct Feed from |
Backyard
Nature's Direct Feed from |
Last updated on February 4th, 2012
| Why do cells age? Discovery of extremely long-lived proteins may provide insight into cell aging and neurodegenerative diseases: Click here |
| One of the big mysteries in biology is why cells age. Now scientists report that they have discovered a weakness in a component of brain cells that may explain how the aging process occurs in the brain. |
| Preference for fatty foods may have genetic roots: Click here |
| A preference for fatty foods has a genetic basis, according to researchers, who discovered that people with certain forms of the CD36 gene may like high-fat foods more than those who have other forms of this gene. |
| Global extinction: Gradual doom is just as bad as abrupt: Click here |
| Around 250 million years ago, most life on Earth was wiped out in an extinction known as the "Great Dying." Geologists have learned that the end came slowly from thousands of centuries of volcanic activity. |
| A battle of the vampires, 20 million years ago?: Click here |
| They are tiny, ugly, disease-carrying little blood-suckers that most people have never seen or heard of, but a new discovery in a one-of-a-kind fossil shows that "bat flies" have been doing their noxious business with bats for at least 20 million years. |
| New procedure repairs severed nerves in minutes, restoring limb use in days or weeks: Click here |
| Scientists believe a new procedure to repair severed nerves could result in patients recovering in days or weeks, rather than months or years. The team used a cellular mechanism similar to that used by many invertebrates to repair damage to nerve axons. |
| Surface of Mars an unlikely place for life after 600-million-year drought, say scientists: Click here |
| Mars may have been arid for more than 600 million years, making it too hostile for any life to survive on the planet’s surface, according to researchers who have been carrying out the painstaking task of analyzing individual particles of Martian soil. |
| Collective action: Occupied genetic switches hold clues to cells' history: Click here |
| If you wanted to draw your family tree, you could start by searching for people who share your surname. Cells, of course, don’t have surnames, but scientists have found that genetic switches called enhancers, and the molecules that activate those switches – transcription factors – can be used in a similar way, as clues to a cell’s developmental history. The study also unveils a new model for how enhancers function. |
| Parasites or not? Transposable elements in DNA of fruit flies may be beneficial: Click here |
| Many living organisms suffer from parasites, which use the hosts’ resources for their own purposes. The problem of parasitism occurs at all levels right down to the DNA scale. Genomes may contain up to 80% “foreign” DNA but details of the mechanisms by which this enters the host genome and how hosts attempt to combat its spread are still the subject of conjecture. Nearly all organisms contain pieces of DNA that do not really belong to them. |
| Holding back immunity: Click here |
| A ‘gatekeeper’ protein plays a critical role in helping immune cells to sound a warning after encountering signs of tumor growth or infection. |
| Scientists coax shy microorganisms to stand out in a crowd: Click here |
| Scientists have advanced a method that allowed them to single out a marine microorganism and map its genome even though the organism made up less than 10 percent of a water sample teeming with many millions of individuals from dozens of identifiable groups of microbes. |
| Unraveling a butterfly's aerial antics could help builders of bug-size flying robots: Click here |
| By figuring out how butterflies flutter among flowers with amazing grace and agility, researchers hope to help build small airborne robots that can mimic those maneuvers. |
| Food poisoning: Understanding how bacteria come back from the 'dead': Click here |
| Salmonella remains a serious cause of food poisoning, in part due to its ability to thrive and quickly adapt to the different environments in which it can grow. New research has taken a detailed look at what Salmonella does when it enters a new environment, which could provide clues to finding new ways of reducing transmission through the food chain and preventing human illness. |
| 'Yellow biotechnology': Using plants to silence insect genes in a high-throughput manner: Click here |
| 'Yellow biotechnology' refers to biotechnology with insects -- analogous to the green (plants) and red (animals) biotechnology. Active ingredients or genes in insects are characterized and used for research or application in agriculture and medicine. Scientists in Germany are now using a procedure which brings forward ecological research on insects: They study gene functions in moth larvae by manipulating genes using the RNA interference technology (RNAi). RNAi is induced by feeding larvae with plants that have been treated with viral vectors. This method -- called "plant virus based dsRNA producing system" (VDPS) -- increases sample throughput compared to the use of genetically transformed plants. |
| Probable mechanism underlying resveratrol activity uncovered: Chemical found in red wine and other foods: Click here |
| Researchers have identified how resveratrol, a naturally occurring chemical found in red wine and other plant products, may confer its health benefits. The authors present evidence that resveratrol does not directly activate sirtuin 1, a protein associated with aging. Rather, the authors found that resveratrol inhibits certain types of proteins known as phosphodiesterases (PDEs), enzymes that help regulate cell energy. |
| Castaway lizards provide insight into elusive evolutionary process, founder effects: Click here |
| A biologist who released lizards on tiny uninhabited islands in the Bahamas has shed light on the interaction between evolutionary processes that are seldom observed. He found that the lizards' genetic and morphological traits were determined by both natural selection and a phenomenon called founder effects, which occur when species colonize new territory. |
| Coffee consumption reduces fibrosis risk in those with fatty liver disease, study suggests: Click here |
| Caffeine consumption has long been associated with decreased risk of liver disease and reduced fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease. Now, new research confirms that coffee caffeine consumption reduces the risk of advanced fibrosis in those with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. New findings show that increased coffee intake, specifically among patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, decreases risk of hepatic fibrosis. |
| Zap of cold plasma reduces harmful bacteria on raw chicken: Click here |
| A new study demonstrates that plasma can be an effective method for killing pathogens on uncooked poultry. |
| Heat and cold damage corals in their own ways: Click here |
| Around the world coral reefs are facing threats brought by climate change and dramatic shifts in sea temperatures. While warming has been the primary focus for scientists and ocean policy managers, cold can also cause significant damage. Scientists have shown that cool temperatures can inflict more damage in the short term, but heat is more destructive in the long run. |
| Rearranging the cell's skeleton: Small molecules at the cell’s membrane enable cell movement: Click here |
| Cell biologists have identified key steps in how certain molecules alter a cell’s skeletal shape and drive the cell’s movement. |
| Prolific plant hunters provide insight in strategy for collecting undiscovered plant species: Click here |
| Today's alarmingly high rate of plant extinction necessitates an increased understanding of the world's biodiversity. An estimated 15 to 30 percent of the world's flowering plants have yet to be discovered, making efficiency an integral function of future botanical research. |
| Are nuisance jellyfish really taking over the world's oceans?: Click here |
| Evidence is lacking that populations of jellyfish and similar gelatinous plankton are surging in numbers globally and will likely dominate the seas in coming decades. Rather, increasing scientific and media interest as well as the lack of good baseline data seem to explain the widespread perception of an increase. |
| Global experts question claims about jellyfish populations: Click here |
| Blooms, or proliferation, of jellyfish have shown a substantial, visible impact on coastal populations -- clogged nets for fishermen, stinging waters for tourists, even choked intake lines for power plants -- and recent media reports have created a perception that the world's oceans are experiencing increases in jellyfish due to human activities such as global warming and overharvesting of fish. Now, a new study questions claims that jellyfish are increasing worldwide and suggests claims are not supported with any hard evidence or scientific analyses to date. |
| Yellow-cedar are dying in Alaska: Scientists now know why: Click here |
| Yellow-cedar, a culturally and economically valuable tree in southeastern Alaska and adjacent parts of British Columbia, has been dying off across large expanses of these areas for the past 100 years. But no one could say why -- until now. |
| Are jellyfish increasing in world's oceans?: Click here |
| A global study has questioned claims that jellyfish are increasing worldwide. Blooms, or proliferation, of jellyfish have shown a substantial, visible impact on coastal populations -- clogged nets for fishermen, stinging waters for tourists, even choked intake lines for power plants -- and recent media reports have created a perception that the world's oceans are experiencing increases in jellyfish due to human activities such as global warming and overharvesting of fish. Now, a new global and collaborative study questions claims that jellyfish are increasing worldwide and suggests claims are not supported with any hard evidence or scientific analyses to date. |
| Spider web's strength lies in more than its silk: Click here |
| A study that combines experimental observations of spider webs with complex computer simulations has shown that web durability depends not only on silk strength, but on how overall web design compensates for damage and the response of individual strands to continuously varying stresses. |
| Bacterial plasmids -- the freeloading and the heavy-lifters -- balance the high price of disease: Click here |
| Studying self-replicating genetic units, called plasmids, found in one of the world's widest-ranging pathogenic soil bacteria -- the crown-gall-disease-causing microorganism Agrobacterium tumefaciens -- biologists are showing how freeloading, mutant derivatives of these plasmids benefit while the virulent, disease-causing plasmids do the heavy-lifting of initiating infection in plant hosts. The research confirms that the ability of bacteria to cause disease comes at a significant cost that is only counterbalanced by the benefits they experience from infected host organisms. |
| Societal control of sugar essential to ease public health burden, experts urge: Click here |
| Sugar should be controlled like alcohol and tobacco to protect public health, according to a team of researchers, who maintain in a new report that sugar is fueling a global obesity pandemic, contributing to 35 million deaths annually worldwide from non-communicable diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. |
| Chaos in the cell's command center: Click here |
| Researchers have determined the critical role one enzyme, lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1), plays as mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) differentiate. This research may provide targets for developing drugs to push cells with dysfunctional gene expression programs back to a more normal, healthier state. |
| Potatoes lower blood pressure in people with obesity and hypertension without increasing weight: Click here |
| The first study to check the effects of eating potatoes on blood pressure in humans has concluded that two small helpings of purple potatoes a day decreases blood pressure by about four percent without causing weight gain. The researchers say that decrease, although seemingly small, is sufficient to potentially reduce the risk of several forms of heart disease. |
| Road runoff spurring spotted salamander evolution: Click here |
| Spotted salamanders exposed to contaminated roadside ponds are adapting to their toxic environments, according to new research. The study provides the first documented evidence that a vertebrate has adapted to the negative effects of roads apparently by evolving rapidly. |
| Available information on the free release of genetically modified insects into the wild is highly restricted: Click here |
| Scientists analyzing the release of genetically modified insects into the environment have found that access to accurate scientific information can be misleading. |
| First plants caused ice ages, new research reveals: Click here |
| New research reveals how the arrival of the first plants 470 million years ago triggered a series of ice ages. The research reveals the effects that the first land plants had on the climate during the Ordovician Period, which ended 444 million years ago. During this period the climate gradually cooled, leading to a series of 'ice ages.' This global cooling was caused by a dramatic reduction in atmospheric carbon, which this research now suggests was triggered by the arrival of plants. |
| Infections in childhood linked to high risk of ischemic stroke: Click here |
| Common infections in children pose a high risk of ischemic stroke, according to new research. In a review of 2.5 million children, the researchers identified 126 childhood ischemic stroke cases and then randomly selected 378 age-matched controls from the remaining children without stroke. They discovered that 29 percent of those who suffered a stroke had a medical encounter for infection in the two days preceding the stroke versus one percent of controls during the same dates. |
| Genetic information migrates from plant to plant: Click here |
| To generate phylogenetic trees and investigate relationships between organisms, scientists usually look for similarities and differences in the DNA. Plant scientists were confounded by the fact that the DNA extracted from the plants’ green chloroplasts sometimes showed the greatest similarities when related species grew in the same area. Scientists have now discovered that a transfer of entire chloroplasts, or at least their genomes, can occur in contact zones between plants. Inter-species crossing is not necessary. The new chloroplast genome can even be handed down to the next generation and, thereby, give a plant with new traits. These findings are of great importance to the understanding of evolution as well as the breeding of new plant varieties. |
| Decaffeinated coffee may help improve memory function and reduce risk of diabetes: Click here |
| In an animal study, researchers found that decaffeinated coffee may improve glucose utilization in the brain, reducing the risk for Type 2 diabetes and the brain dysfunction associated with some neurological disorders. |
| Honey could be effective at treating and preventing wound infections: Click here |
| Manuka honey could help clear chronic wound infections and even prevent them from developing in the first place, according to a new study. The findings provide further evidence for the clinical use of manuka honey to treat bacterial infections in the face of growing antibiotic resistance. |
| Scientists prove plausibility of new pathway to life's chemical building blocks: Click here |
| Scientists have demonstrated an alternative pathway to life-essential sugars called the glyoxylate scenario, which may push the field of pre-life chemistry past the formose reaction hurdle. |
| New species of ancient crocodile discovered; 'Sheildcroc' was ancestor of today's species: Click here |
| A new species of prehistoric crocodile has been discovered. The extinct creature, nicknamed "Shieldcroc" due to a thick-skinned shield on its head, is an ancestor of today's crocodiles. |
| Botany: Moonlighting enzyme works double shift 24/7: Click here |
| A team of researchers has discovered an overachieving plant enzyme that works both the day and night shifts. The discovery shows that plants evolved a new function for this enzyme by changing merely one of its protein building blocks. |
| Golf course weeds are developing resistance to the herbicide glyphosate: Click here |
| If your golf game isn’t up to par, you may be able to blame it on those tufts of weeds on the course. Annual bluegrass is a problematic winter weed on many U.S. golf courses. After years of management with the herbicide glyphosate, resistant biotypes of this weed have developed, which will make keeping a clean fairway more challenging. |
| Volunteers clear tiger snares in China: Click here |
| Volunteers working in northeast China have cleared 162 illegal wire snares in an ongoing effort to protect the nation’s remaining population of critically endangered Amur (Siberian) tigers. |
| Severe declines in Everglades mammals linked to invasive pythons, researchers find: Click here |
| New research links precipitous declines in formerly common mammals in Everglades National Park to the presence of invasive Burmese pythons. |
| Exposure to common environmental bacteria may be source of some allergic inflammation: Click here |
| Could some cases of asthma actually be caused by an allergic reaction to a common environmental bacteria? New research findings suggests that this idea may not be as far-fetched as it seems. |
| Protein study gives fresh impetus in fight against superbugs: Click here |
| Scientists have shed new light on the way superbugs such as MRSA are able to become resistant to treatment with antibiotics. |
| Ancient DNA holds clues to climate change adaptation: Click here |
| Thirty-thousand-year-old bison bones discovered in permafrost at a Canadian goldmine are helping scientists unravel the mystery about how animals adapt to rapid environmental change. |
| Evolutionary geneticist helps to find butterfly gene, clue to age-old question: Click here |
| An evolutionary geneticist helped discover the gene in passion vine butterflies that keeps predators from eating them. The gene is responsible for red patterns on the butterflies' wings. |
| Severe python damage to Florida's native Everglades animals documented in new study: Click here |
| Precipitous declines in formerly common mammals in Everglades National Park in Florida have been linked to the presence of invasive Burmese pythons, according to new research. The study, the first to document the ecological impacts of this invasive species, strongly supports that animal communities in the 1.5-million-acre park have been markedly altered by the introduction of pythons within 11 years of their establishment as an invasive species. Mid-sized mammals are the most dramatically affected, but some Everglades pythons are as large as 16 feet long, and their prey have included animals as large as deer and alligators. |
| New probiotic bacteria shows promise for use in shellfish aquaculture: Click here |
| The use of probiotic bacteria, isolated from naturally occurring bacterial communities, is gaining in popularity in the aquaculture industry as the preferred, environmentally friendly management alternative to the use of antibiotics and other antimicrobials for disease prevention. Known to the public for their use in yogurt and other foods to improve human digestion and health, probiotic bacteria isolated from other sources can also be used to improve survival, nutrition and disease prevention in larvae grown in shellfish hatcheries. |
| Livestock, not Mongolian gazelles, drive foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks: Click here |
| Wildlife health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society have published evidence which supports the conclusion that Mongolian gazelles -- one of the most populous large land mammals on the planet -- are not a reservoir of foot-and-mouth disease, a highly contagious viral disease that threatens both wildlife and livestock in Asia. |
| Mammals shrink at faster rates than they grow: Research helps explain large-scale size changes and recovery from mass extinctions: Click here |
| It took about 10 million generations for terrestrial mammals to hit their maximum mass: that's about the size of a cat evolving into the size of an elephant. Sea mammals, such as whales took about half the number of generations to hit their maximum. |
| Mouse to elephant? Just wait 24 million generations: Click here |
| Scientists have for the first time measured how fast large-scale evolution can occur in mammals, showing it takes 24 million generations for a mouse-sized animal to evolve to the size of an elephant. |
| Skin cells turned into neural precusors, bypassing stem-cell stage: Click here |
| Mouse skin cells can be converted directly into cells that become the three main parts of the nervous system, according to researchers. The finding is an extension of a previous study by the same group showing that mouse and human skin cells can be directly converted into functional neurons. |
| Ferroelectric switching discovered for first time in soft biological tissue: Click here |
| The walls of the aorta, the largest blood vessel carrying blood from the heart, exhibits a response to electric fields known to exist in inorganic and synthetic materials. The discovery could have implications for treating human heart disease. |
| Alcohol and your heart: Friend or foe?: Click here |
| A meta-analysis of the relationship between alcohol consumption and heart disease provides new insight into the long-held belief that drinking a glass of red wine a day can help protect against heart disease. |
| Chimp 'X factor': Extensive adaptive evolution specifically targeting the X chromosome of chimpanzees: Click here |
| Genetic mutations that boost an individual's adaptability have greater chances of getting through to X chromosomes -- at least in chimpanzees, according to new Danish research. An analysis of the genes of 12 chimpanzees has now demonstrated that the chimpanzee X chromosome plays a very special role in the animal's evolutionary development. |
| What do killer whales eat in the Arctic?: Click here |
| Killer whales are the top marine predator. The increase in hunting territories available to killer whales in the Arctic due to climate change and melting sea ice could seriously affect the marine ecosystem balance. New research has combined scientific observations with Canadian Inuit traditional knowledge to determine killer whale behavior and diet in the Arctic. |
| That which does not kill yeast makes it stronger: Stress-induced genomic instability facilitates rapid cellular adaption in yeast: Click here |
| Cells trying to keep pace with constantly changing environmental conditions need to strike a fine balance between maintaining their genomic integrity and allowing enough genetic flexibility to adapt to inhospitable conditions. In their latest study, researchers were able to show that under stressful conditions yeast genomes become unstable, readily acquiring or losing whole chromosomes to enable rapid adaption. |
| Grasslands soils offer some insurance against climate change: Click here |
| The earth beneath our feet plays an important role in carbon storage – a key factor in climate change – and new research shows that in times of drought some types of soil perform better than others. |
| Good news about carbon storage in tropical vegetation: Click here |
| Tropical vegetation contains 21 percent more carbon than previously thought. Using a combination of remote sensing and field data, scientists were able to produce the first "wall-to-wall" map (with a spatial resolution of 500 m x 500 m) of carbon storage of forests, shrublands, and savannas in the tropics of Africa, Asia, and South America. |
| New information for flu fight: Researchers study RNA interference to determine host genes used by influenza for virus replication: Click here |
| Influenza virus can rapidly evolve from one form to another, complicating the effectiveness of vaccines and anti-viral drugs used to treat it. By first understanding the complex host cell pathways that the flu uses for replication, researchers are finding new strategies for therapies and vaccines, according to a new study. |
