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Prions play powerful role in the survival and evolution of wild yeast strains
Hopeful consumers choose fruit, happy consumers choose candy bars
Preventing the devil's downfall: Genome of the Tasmanian devil contagious cancer sheds light on disease origin and spread
Think Fast! Take Risks! New Study Finds a Link Between Fast Thinking and Risk Taking
Perception, work-life balance key factors in workplace safety, says UGA study
Georgia Tech Develops Braille-Like Texting App: Software eliminates need to look at mobile screen
Live from the thymus: T-cells on the move
A single protein helps the body keep watch over the Epstein-Barr virus
How mitochondrial DNA defects cause inherited deafness
New study looks at medication use of kids with ASD, ADHD
In the mouth, smoking zaps healthy bacteria, welcomes pathogens
How body fends off bacteria: Team develops first 3D look at interaction between immune sensor and protein that helps bacteria move
Fever Control with Cooling Reduces Early Death in Septic Shock
Mother of pearl tells a tale of ocean temperature, depth
Did an evolutionary arms race cause lupus?
Protein That Functions in Normal Breast May Also Contribute to Breast Cancer Metastasis
How the 'Quarter' Horse won the rodeo
Nano-technology uses virus' coats to fool cancer cells

Prions play powerful role in the survival and evolution of wild yeast strains

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 07:53 PM PST

Prions, the much-maligned proteins most commonly known for causing “mad cow” disease, are commonly used in yeast to produce beneficial traits in the wild. Moreover, such traits can be passed on to subsequent generations and eventually become “hard-wired” into the genome, contributing to evolutionary change.

Hopeful consumers choose fruit, happy consumers choose candy bars

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 12:22 PM PST

Many people fall victim to emotional eating, but it doesn't happen only when they're feeling bad, according to researchers.

Having a good day at work, for example, can sometimes lead to a candy bar treat from the vending machine, according to Karen Winterich, assistant professor of marketing, Penn State Smeal College of Business, and Kelly Haws of Texas A&M University. At other times, positive feelings lead to choosing a healthier option, such as fruit.

Preventing the devil's downfall: Genome of the Tasmanian devil contagious cancer sheds light on disease origin and spread

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 12:18 PM PST

Researchers have sequenced the genome of a contagious cancer that is threatening the Tasmanian devil, the world's largest carnivorous marsupial, with extinction. Cataloguing the mutations present in the cancer has led to clues about where the cancer came from and how it became contagious.

Think Fast! Take Risks! New Study Finds a Link Between Fast Thinking and Risk Taking

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 12:05 PM PST

New experiments show that the experience of thinking fast makes people more likely to take risks. This discovery suggests that some of the innovations of the modern world—fast-paced movies, social media sites with a constant flow of fresh updates—are pushing people toward riskier behavior. An article describing two experiments showing this effect will appear in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Perception, work-life balance key factors in workplace safety, says UGA study

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 11:43 AM PST

Six thousand workers die on the job in the U.S. each year, and millions more are injured. According to a recent University of Georgia study, a worker's perception of safety in the workplace and the work-life balance established by businesses has a significant effect on on-the-job injury.

Georgia Tech Develops Braille-Like Texting App: Software eliminates need to look at mobile screen

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 11:25 AM PST

Imagine if smartphone and tablet users could text a note under the table during a meeting without anyone being the wiser. Mobile gadget users might also be enabled to text while walking, watching TV or socializing without taking their eyes off what they’re doing.

Georgia Tech researchers have built a prototype app for touch-screen mobile devices that is vying to be a complete solution for texting without the need to look at a mobile gadget’s screen.

Live from the thymus: T-cells on the move

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 11:13 AM PST

For the first time, scientists follow the development of individual immune cells in a living zebrafish embryo. T-cells are the immune system’s security force. They seek out pathogens and rogue cells in the body and put them out of action. Their precursors are formed in the bone marrow and migrate from there into the thymus. Here, they mature and differentiate to perform a variety of tasks. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have now succeeded for the first time in observing the maturation of immune cells in live zebrafish embryos.

A single protein helps the body keep watch over the Epstein-Barr virus

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 09:26 AM PST

Some 90 percent of people are exposed to the Epstein Barr virus (EBV) at some point in their life. Even though it is quickly cleared from the body, the virus can linger silently for years in small numbers of infected B cells. According to researchers at Children’s Hospital Bostonand the Immune Disease Institute (IDI), the immune system subdues the virus by watching for a single viral protein called LMP1, knowledge that has already helped suggest two new treatments for the EBV-fueled cancers seen in some immunosuppressed patients.

How mitochondrial DNA defects cause inherited deafness

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 09:13 AM PST

Yale scientists have discovered the molecular pathway by which maternally inherited deafness appears to occur: Mitochondrial DNA mutations trigger a signaling cascade, resulting in programmed cell death. The study is in the Feb. 17 issue of Cell.

Mitochondria are cellular structures that function as "cellular power plants" because they generate most of the cell's supply of energy. They contain DNA inherited from one’s mother. Mitochondria determine whether a cell lives or dies via the process of programmed cell death, or apoptosis.

New study looks at medication use of kids with ASD, ADHD

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 08:52 AM PST

In the mouth, smoking zaps healthy bacteria, welcomes pathogens

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 08:42 AM PST

According to a new study, smoking causes the body to turn against its own helpful bacteria, leaving smokers more vulnerable to disease.

Despite the daily disturbance of brushing and flossing, the mouth of a healthy person contains a stable ecosystem of healthy bacteria. New research shows that the mouth of a smoker is a much more chaotic, diverse ecosystem—and is much more susceptible to invasion by harmful bacteria.

How body fends off bacteria: Team develops first 3D look at interaction between immune sensor and protein that helps bacteria move

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 08:36 AM PST

To invade organisms such as humans, bacteria make use of a protein called flagellin, part of a tail-like appendage that helps the bacteria move about. Now, for the first time, a team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute has determined the 3D structure of the interaction between this critical bacterial protein and an immune molecule called TLR5, shedding light on how the body protects itself from such foreign invaders.

Fever Control with Cooling Reduces Early Death in Septic Shock

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 08:25 AM PST

Fever control using external cooling in sedated patients with septic shock is safe and decreases vasopressor requirements and early mortality, according to a new study from researchers in France.

Mother of pearl tells a tale of ocean temperature, depth

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 07:50 AM PST

Nacre -- or mother of pearl, scientists and artisans know, is one of nature's amazing utilitarian materials. Mother of pearl or nacre, such as this from a New Zealand Paua shell, is one of nature’s wonder materials. Made by a host of mollusks, the material has proven to be an accurate barometer of environmental conditions as signatures of both water temperature and water depth reside in the material, according to new research by UW-Madison professor of physics and chemistry Pupa Gilbert.

Did an evolutionary arms race cause lupus?

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 07:38 AM PST

Evolutionary biologist Harmit Singh Malik, Ph.D., of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has received a $300,000 grant from the Lupus Research Institute to study the potential role of “genetic conflicts” in the development of lupus, an autoimmune disease.

Malik and colleagues want to find out whether a lost evolutionary arms race causes lupus autoimmunity.

Protein That Functions in Normal Breast May Also Contribute to Breast Cancer Metastasis

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 07:26 AM PST

The trefoil factor 3 (TFF3) protein protects and maintains the integrity of the epithelial surface in the normal breast. New research has found that while TFF3 protein expression is higher in well-differentiated low grade tumors and therefore associated with features of a good prognosis, it has a more sinister role in breast cancer invasion and metastasis. The report is published in the March issue of The American Journal of Pathology.

How the 'Quarter' Horse won the rodeo

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 07:20 AM PST

American Quarter Horses are renowned for their speed, agility, and calm disposition. Consequently over four million Quarter horses are used as working horses on ranches, as show horses or at rodeos. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Genomics used 'next-generation' sequencing to map variation in the genome of a Quarter Horse mare.

Nano-technology uses virus' coats to fool cancer cells

Posted: 17 Feb 2012 07:17 AM PST

While there have been major advances in the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of tumors within the brain, brain cancer continues to have a very low survival rate in part to high levels of resistance to treatment.