Posts Tagged ‘biology’
Society & Culture - Aug 26, 2009 14:44 - 2 Comments
What does she see in you?
Split face photo used in evaluation of how women determine facial attractiveness by psychologists Robert Franklin and Reginald Adams. (Credit: Robert Franklin/Penn State)
Earth & Environment - Aug 24, 2009 4:00 - 0 Comments
How ‘tubes with teeth’ fight infection
Lampreys in a laboratory tank. (Courtesy: Masa Hirano)
Health & Medicine - Aug 21, 2009 12:18 - 0 Comments
Nose keeps smells separated
When the participants received a different smell in each nostril at the same time, they were actually experiencing an “olfactory illusion,” says study coauthor Denise Chen. “Although both smells are equally present, the brain attends to predominantly one of them at a time.” (Courtesy: Rice University)
Science & Technology - Aug 19, 2009 15:23 - 0 Comments
See the writing on the cells
University of Michigan researchers demonstrate their technique for sketching experiments on a canvas of live cells by writing “UMICH” with a fluorescent water-based solution on cells growing in another water-based medium. (Courtesy: Hossein Tavana)
Earth & Environment - Aug 19, 2009 14:56 - 0 Comments
Global fisheries launch a comeback
The cowcod rockfish population collapsed in the 1980s but is now showing signs of recovery. (Courtesy: Stanford University)
Science & Technology - Aug 18, 2009 11:19 - 0 Comments
To get a reaction, molecules do the twist
A folded molecule is a new type of catalyst, and can selectively speed chemical reactions. A chain-like molecule (grey, lower right) was designed to fold in a helical pattern, mimicking the folding of peptides found in nature. This arrangement allows it to selectively interact with a pair of mirror-image chemical compounds (in green). The trajectory depicts how the folded molecule interacts with only one member of the pair, and selectively accelerates its conversion to a new chemical form.
Earth & Environment - Aug 13, 2009 12:37 - 0 Comments
Toastier temps make for smaller sheep
Soay sheep graze on the Scottish island of Hirta. Their average size has been declining since 1985, and researchers suspect warmer temperatures are playing a role. (Credit: Tim Coulson)
Earth & Environment - Aug 7, 2009 4:00 - 0 Comments
Malady makes OJ taste like jet fuel
Researchers are using an advanced method for genome sequence analysis—known as metagenomics—to identify the pathogen responsible for citrus greening, a disease that could devastate the citrus industry.
Earth & Environment - Jul 31, 2009 15:33 - 0 Comments
Solar energy solution buried in the mud
“We envision producing hydrogen in a photochemically driven process, where the electrons and protons needed to produce the hydrogen are furnished by water,” chemist Brian Dyer explains. “You could then burn the hydrogen as fuel and get water back. It would be a perfectly clean cycle.”
Health & Medicine - Jul 29, 2009 14:04 - 1 Comment
Prenatal tension leaves lasting mark on kids
Five-year-old Sydney Gadol plays with her mother, Nancy, under the watchful eye of Elysia Poggi Davis, who’s studying the effects of prenatal stress on children’s health. (Credit: Hoang Xuan Pham/UC Irvine Communications)
Earth & Environment - Jul 24, 2009 14:43 - 0 Comments
Noisy nests not for the birds
“Understanding how birds respond to noise, especially birds with critical links to ecosystems, are crucial in maintaining biodiversity in growing areas of landscapes disturbed by urban clamor,” says lead author Clinton Francis. (Western Tanager pictured above. Courtesy: Clinton Francis)
Earth & Environment - Jul 24, 2009 12:17 - 2 Comments
Predator and prey direct nature’s synchronicity
“Predators fundamentally change the way that their prey vary through time, creating a cyclic pattern that is quickly synchronized across many locations with only small amounts of dispersal,” says Yale’s David Vasseur.
Earth & Environment - Jul 23, 2009 12:32 - 1 Comment
Green revolution fueled by duckweed?
Todd Michael, a plant biologist at Rutgers, says U.S. Department of Energy’s duckweed genome sequencing project “could unlock the remarkable potential of a rapidly growing aquatic plant for absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide, ecosystem carbon cycling, and biofuel production.”
Society & Culture - Jul 23, 2009 5:00 - 0 Comments
Nature? Nurture? Or simply neither?
“This is one attempt at getting the ideas out there and starting a dialogue, continuing to educate the public and the scientific community, especially the younger generation of researchers,” psychologist Mark Blumberg explains. “We know we don’t have a sound bite that’s as clean and simple and sexy as saying ‘it’s genetic.’ But we’re working on it.”
Health & Medicine - Jul 20, 2009 11:32 - 0 Comments
Nanoalerts from healthy cells signal cancer
Vadim Backman, the study’s senior author, says nanoscale changes in both cancer cells and normal cells far away from the tumor site “are general phenomena in carcinogenesis and occur early in the process.”
Earth & Environment - Jul 15, 2009 14:38 - 0 Comments
For lemurs, bigger is not better
Unlike most primates, where the males have a size advantage over females, lemurs of both genders are the same size. New research supposes that the passive nature of mate protection may have played a role in their evolution.
Earth & Environment - Jul 14, 2009 9:30 - 0 Comments
Ancient ferns bum a ride off giant trees
Hymenophyllum jamesonii, an epiphytic fern of neotropical rain forests, has berry-like clusters of sporangia where reproductive spores are produced. (Courtesy: Eric Schuettpelz)
Earth & Environment - Jul 9, 2009 13:25 - 3 Comments
Potato famine blight resurfaces in U.S. gardens
One of the most visible early symptoms of the disease is brown spots (lesions) on stems and leaf tips.
