In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois have identified and visualized the signaling pathways in protein-RNA complexes that help set the genetic code in all organisms. The genetic code allows information stored in DNA to be translated into proteins.
Synthetic chemists from Vanderbilt University have found an efficient way to create one of the complex alkaloids found in club moss, a plant used in traditional Chinese medicine, so that it can be made in sufficient quantity to test the compound's therapeutic value.
The results indicate that inhibition of return occurs during visual search tasks, but not during other visual tasks. That is, volunteers in the search group were slower to shift their eyes to previously fixated locations than to new locations, consistent with earlier findings of inhibition of return.
Freezer burn is a common problem that significantly affects the color, texture and flavor of frozen foods. An article in the Journal of Food Science Education explains what freezer burn is, how to prevent it and how self-defrosting freezers and individually quick frozen products contribute to the problem.
Some vegetable cooking methods may be better than others when it comes to maintaining beneficial antioxidant levels, according to a new study in the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists. Results showed that, depending on the vegetable, cooking on a flat metal surface with no oil (griddling) and microwave cooking maintained the highest antioxidant levels.
Along with the increased worldwide demand for fish and seafood is a rise in the illegal practice of substituting lesser-valued seafood for the more highly prized varieties, such as sea bass labeled as halibut or rockfish labeled as red snapper. To prevent this illegal practice, a number of DNA-based methods have been developed to detect fish and seafood species in commercial products.
Researchers from the Monell Center report that the red panda is the first non-primate mammal to display a liking for the artificial sweetener aspartame. This unexpected affinity for an artificial sweetener may reflect structural variation in the red panda's sweet taste receptor. The findings may shed light on how individual taste preferences and diet choice are shaped by molecular differences in taste receptors.
Cooling a supercomputer consumes more electricity than is required to run the machine, even machines as powerful as the IBM Blue Gene/P"”called Intrepid"”at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. Though Intrepid is one of the fastest and most energy-efficient computers in the world, researchers at Argonne's Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) are continually looking for ways to further reduce the power needed to operate the machine.
If Mark Twain were alive today he might rephrase his frequently cited observation about everyone talking about the weather but not doing anything about it to say, "Everyone reads or watches weather forecasts, but many people don't understand them."
After 70 years of careful stewardship by Cornell scientists, a collection of nearly 2,000 species of native Chinese fungi -- spirited out of the China for safety before World War II -- is finally set to make its way home.
Picture the textbook atom. It would resemble a miniature solar system "” an atomic nucleus orbited by electrons, drawn in nice tidy elliptical orbits "” like planets orbiting the Sun. This is a reasonable classical depiction of an atom, but it is completely at odds with the usual quantum description of an atom. Now, a University of Virginia physicist has engineered, in a sense, the classical picture-perfect textbook atom.
After about seven months growing in the womb, a human fetus spends most of its time asleep. Its brain cycles back and forth between the frenzied activity of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and the quiet resting state of non-REM sleep. But whether the brains of younger, immature fetuses cycle with sleep or are simply inactive has remained a mystery, until now.
Investigators at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research have developed a protocol to rapidly differentiate human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into neural progenitor cells that may be ideal for transplantation. The research, conducted by Alexei Terskikh, Ph.D., and colleagues, outlines a method to create these committed neural precursor cells (C-NPCs) that is replicable, does not produce mutations in the cells and could be useful for clinical applications.
Kenneth Golden, an expert in mathematical models of percolation in sea ice, is a leader in the international effort to model polar climate dynamics and has brought a new level of rigor and precision to this area of research. A forthcoming article describes the mathematics he and collaborators have developed to study sea ice.
A protein that the heart produces during its early development reactivates the embryonic coronary developmental program and initiates migration of heart cells and blood vessel growth after a heart attack, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
A team of researchers from Northeastern University and Harvard University has created a map summarizing disease associations expressed in a population of more than 30 million people. Using a database of insurance claims, the researchers have created the largest disease network database ever built.
Ohio State University researchers have developed a new strategy to overcome one of the major obstacles to a grand challenge in physics. What they've discovered could eventually aid high-temperature superconductivity, as well as the development of new high-tech materials.
In the classic waterfall illusion, if you stare at the downward motion of a waterfall for some period of time, stationary objects "” like rocks "” appear to drift upward. MIT neuroscientists have found that this phenomenon, called motion aftereffect, occurs not only in our visual perception but also in our tactile perception, and that these senses actually influence one another. Put another way, how you feel the world can actually change how you see it "” and vice versa.
Recent experiments to create a fast-reacting explosive by concocting it at the nanoscopic level could result in more spectacular firework displays. But more impressive to the Missouri University of Science and Technology professor who led the research, the method used to mix chemicals at that tiny scale could lead to new strong porous materials for high temperature applications, from thermal insulation in jet engines to industrial chemical reactors.
Highlighting another challenge to the development of quantum computers, theorists at NIST have shown that a type of software operation, proposed as a solution to fundamental problems with the computers' hardware, will not function as some designers had hoped.
NIST physicists have demonstrated a new ion trap that enables ions to go through an intersection at temperatures ten million times cooler than prior similar trips. The demonstration is a step toward scaling up trap technology to build a large-scale quantum computer using ions.
A new technique called Delta X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure (delta XANES) provides information that enables us to understand why some catalysts in fuel cells work better than others, why some get poisoned more than others, and why some age (deteriorate) more than others.
Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research have deciphered a large percentage of the total protein complement (proteome) in Schizosaccharomyces pombe (S. pombe) fission yeast.
NCAR scientists this month are testing a technological system to alert drivers to nearby hazardous weather conditions. The goal of the research, funded by the Department of Transportation, is to prevent accidents by informing drivers about hazards such as black ice and fog that may be just minutes away.
Researchers in the Midwestern United States have examined the effects of flooding on soil, and have learned more about ways in which short-term ponding conditions can affect soil aggregation and the chemistry of the soil-water system. These conditions can have a great impact on soil quality and agriculture in the region.
Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have developed a simple, accurate, and highly sensitive test to detect and quantify ricin, an extremely potent toxin with potential use as a bioterrorism agent. The report appears as a featured article in the April 12th issue of Analytical Chemistry.
Researchers at the University of Arkansas have shown that changing the chirality, or direction of spin, of a nanoscale magnetic vortex creates an electric pulse, suggesting that such a pulse might be of use in creating computer memory and writing information.
Former major league pitcher, Mike Marshall, explains his pitching methodology based on Sir Isaac Newton's three laws of motion. In the April 2009 edition of Mechanical Engineering magazine, he says that traditional pitching methodologies contradict the laws of physics.
It may be wise to trust the female nose when it comes to body odor. According to new research from the Monell Center, it is more difficult to mask underarm odor when women are doing the smelling. The researchers speculate that females are more attuned to biologically relevant information in sweat that may guide women when choosing a mate.
About 1.25 million neurons in the retina -- each of which views the world only through a small jagged window called a receptive field -- collectively form the seamless picture we rely on to navigate our environment. Receptive fields fit together like pieces of a puzzle, preventing "blind spots" and excessive overlap that could blur our perception of the world, according to researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), the world's largest ocean research program, has expanded its base of international and scientific support by welcoming Australia, India, and New Zealand as its newest Associate Members.
The side effects of an experimental "gene-silencing" treatment that is currently being investigated for a variety of diseases are even more wide-ranging than previously discovered, according to a study by a University of Kentucky researcher.
A new analytical technique is helping scientists learn how organisms as simple as seaweed can mount complex chemical defenses to protect themselves from microbial threats such as fungus. The technique for the first time allows researchers to study unique chemical activity taking place on the surfaces of these organisms.
Techniques discovered by ORNL is making sense of information from sensors. ORNL is hosting the Cyber Security and Information Intelligence Research Workshop. Graphene can be used in electronics . ORNL is gathering data on energy efficiency buildings.
Biomedical engineers have developed a new type of probe that allows them to visualize single ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules within live cells more easily than existing methods. The tool will help scientists learn more about how RNA operates within living cells.
Innovators, influencers and decision makers in the heat treating community from North America and around the world will "Gear Up for the Winds of Change" at the 2009 ASM Heat Treating Society Conference and Exposition, Sept. 14-17 in Indianapolis.
The rise in organic cropping has led agronomists at the University of Wisconsin to study whether or not it can be as profitable for farmers as monocropping systems, and they were able to conclude that governmental policy supporting mono-culture is outdated and should be shifted to promote organic farming practices.
As the U.S. Southwest grew warmer from 18,700 to 10,000 years ago, juniper trees vanished from what is now the Mojave Desert, robbing packrats of their favorite food. Now, University of Utah biologists have narrowed the hunt for detoxification genes that let the rodents eat toxic creosote bushes that replaced juniper. They have identified 24 candidate genes.
By identifying a novel compound that primes a plant's immune system, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Chicago may be on a path to developing disease-resistant plants.
The advantages of cloud computing were dramatically illustrated last week by researchers working on the STAR nuclear physics experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider. New simulation results were needed for presentation at the Quark Matter physics conference; but all the computational resources were either committed to other tasks or did not support the environment needed for STAR computations.
Being Isaac Newton: Cornell researchers develop computer algorithm that derives natural law from raw data.
A newly discovered genetic abnormality that appears to prevent some men from conceiving children could be the key for developing a male contraceptive, according to University of Iowa researchers reporting their findings in the April 2 online edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics.
Nikki Pohl, an associate professor of chemistry at Iowa State University, and Beatrice Collet, the principal scientist for LuCELLa Biosciences Inc. in Ames, Iowa, have developed a process for synthesizing custom-order carbohydrates. They're launching LuCELLa to produce and market the carbohydrates to researchers.
Some types of rice are naturally resistant to the Xanthomonas bacteria. In those varieties the team is exposing the plants to the two bacteria. They then check to see which plant genes are activated, and to what extent.
Alfred University researchers have developed a process for making super-strong glass that is nearly unbreakable, even when dropped from 10 feet high onto a concrete floor.
Analytical chemists have developed the first accurate test for arsenic compounds in soil, providing improved environmental and health impact assessment for children playing on treated wood, cats and dogs under the deck, and for detecting high arsenic levels in some Asian rice supplies, for example.
Researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a novel optical technique that permits rapid analysis of single human immune cells using only light. Because of this, cellular researchers may soon be able to observe the responses of individual cells to various stimuli, rather than relying on aggregate data from large cell populations.
A new, not-so-secret recipe uses artist-grade ceramics powder for 3-D printing. Ceramics objects can now be printed for about 3 percent the cost of commercial printing mixes.
Yield losses from stem rust in Africa and Middle East have been significant since Ug99 was reported, but the greater concern is that this race will spread to the major wheat producing areas of India, China, Europe and the United States. Oklahoma State scientist explains level of concern, historical threat.
The greenbug is a cereal aphid that can cause serious problems for wheat producers if untreated. Scouting for these aphids is well advised, especially in light of dry conditions this winter.
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