Home>Topics>Biology & Nature

Popular Science articles about Biology & Nature

Possible help in fight against muscle-wasting disease

Andrew Berglund, a member of the University of Oregon's Institute of Molecular Biology, studies myotonic dystrophy. His team has found an existing FDA-approved compound for a variety of diseases might be modified to treat RNA slicing defects that lead to the disease.

Genomes of biofuel yeasts reveal clues that could boost fuel ethanol production worldwide

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...

Crossing the line: how aggressive cells invade the brain

The picture shows the movement of creeping T-cells (green) inside blood vessels (red) over a period of about 20 minutes. It clearly shows that some T-cells leave the blood vessels -- the long exposure lets them leave a green trail as the cells make their way through the brain tissue.This press release is available in German.

Scientists reveal how induced pluripotent stem cells differ from embryonic stem cells

The same genes that are chemically altered during normal cell differentiation, as well as when normal cells become cancer cells, are also changed in stem cells that scientists derive from...

Pathogen protection and virulence: Dark side of fungal membrane protein revealed

Researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech and Montana State University have discovered a fungal protein that plays a key role in causing disease in plants and...

Study reveals how plants and bacteria 'talk' to thwart disease

When it comes to plants' innate immunity, like many of the dances of life, it takes two to tango. A receptor molecule in the plant pairs up with a specific...

Why nice guys usually get the girls

The <i>Aquarius remigis</i> water strider on the right, identified by the blue-red-white dot sequence, is a highly aggressive male who is trying to break up a mating. The low-aggression water strider with the white-yellow-blue dots is mating with the female beneath him. The female, who has green dots near her head, is almost completely covered by the male on top of her.Female water striders often reject their most persistent and aggressive suitors and prefer the males who aren't so grabby, according to new research. Water striders are insects commonly seen skittering...

Taking aim at mysterious DNA structures in the battle against cancer

Designers of anti-cancer drugs are aiming their arrows at mysterious chunks of the genetic material DNA that may play a key role in preventing the growth and spread of cancer...

Bacteria expect the unexpected

Within a generation, genetically identical offspring is produced that varies in the degree of adaptation to the current environment. Anticipating drastic changes of the environmental conditions in future, some variants have an increased chance to survive if the event occurs. This ensures the survival of the species as a whole.This press release is available in German.

Researchers identify drug candidate for treating spinal muscular atrophy

A chemical cousin of the common antibiotic tetracycline might be useful in treating spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a currently incurable disease that is the leading genetic cause of death in...

Horse genome sequence and analysis published in Science

An international team of researchers has decoded the genome of the domestic horse Equus caballus, revealing a genome structure with remarkable similarities to humans and more than one million genetic...

Related science articles

CU-Boulder map of human bacterial diversity shows wide interpersonal differences

Personalized bacterial communities located across the human body have wide implications for overall health, according to University of Colorado at Boulder study.A University of Colorado at Boulder team has developed the first atlas of bacterial diversity across the human body, charting wide variations in microbe populations that live in different regions...

Caught in the act: Butterfly mate preference shows how 1 species can become 2

Polymorphic mimicry in <i>Heliconius cydno alithea</i> in western Ecuador, where the white form mimics the white species <i>Heliconius sapho</i> and the yellow form mimics the yellow species <i>Heliconius eleuchia</i>.Breaking up may actually not be hard to do, say scientists who've found a population of tropical butterflies that may be on its way to a split into two distinct...

Ants are friendly to some trees, but not others

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...

Stanford study shows neural stem cells in mice affected by gene associated with longevity

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...

DNA molecules in moss open door to new biotechnology

Plasmids, which are DNA molecules capable of independent replication in cells, have played an important role in gene technology. Researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden have now demonstrated that plasmid-based...

'Genome 10K' proposal aims to sequence 10,000 vertebrates

An international group of scientists is proposing to generate whole genome sequences for 10,000 vertebrate species using technology so new it hasn't yet been invented. But the scientists say new...

Related science articles

Lung tissue generated from human embryonic stem cells

Scientists in Belgium have successfully differentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESC) into major cell types of lung epithelial tissue using a convenient air-liquid interface. The technique, published in BioMed Central's...

Hybrid molecules show promise for exploring, treating Alzheimer's

One of the many mysteries of Alzheimer's disease is how protein-like snippets called amyloid-beta peptides, which clump together to form plaques in the brain, may cause cell death, leading to...

Deciphering the regulatory code

These fluorescence microscopy images of fruit fly embryos demonstrate that the scientists' computer predictions were correct. As predicted, during the early stages of development (top) a CRM called 1070 is active (red) in the mesoderm (green) -- the tissue which will give rise to all muscle types. At a later developmental stage (middle), the same CRM is active (red/pink) in the embryo’s body wall muscle (blue), but not in its gut muscle (green). At the same time (bottom), another CRM, called 5570 (red), drives development in the gut muscle (green) but not in the body wall muscle (blue).Embryonic development is like a well-organised building project, with the embryo's DNA serving as the blueprint from which all construction details are derived. Cells carry out different functions according to...

Tags reveal white sharks have neighborhoods in the north Pacific, say Stanford researchers

White shark biologist Scot Anderson looks on as a large white shark glides past.The white shark may be the ultimate loner of the ocean, cruising thousands of miles in a solitary trek, but a team of researchers has discovered that the sharks have...

Organic weed control options for highbush blueberry

Researchers study mulching options for weed control at Blueberry Acres in Nova Scotia.Research scientists at Nova Scotia Agricultural College have been working steadily to find effective organic methods to control weeds in cultivated blueberry crops. One resulting study, published in a recent...

More news about Biology & Nature

Biology News in Images

Breaking science news from the newsfeed about Biology & Nature