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How a microbial biorefinery regulates genes
Avoiding virus dangers in ‘domesticating’ wild plants for biofuel use
NASA's FERMI proves supernova remnants produce cosmic rays
A Dual Look at Photosystem II Using the World’s Most Powerful X-Ray Laser
Scientists Create Method to Personalize Chemotherapy Drug Selection
Value of modified corn is more in reducing losses than boosting yields
Emerging cancer drugs may drive bone tumors
Study supports regulation of hospitals
A new model facilitates predictions about how nanoparticles form
NASA's Chandra Suggests Rare Explosion Created Our Galaxy's Youngest Black Hole
Epigenetics Shapes Fate of Brain vs. Brawn Castes in Carpenter Ants
Stem Cell Survival Strategy Is Key to Blood and Immune System Health
University of Wisconsin’s veterinary medical school adopts wildlife health project
Study shows how the gene defect of Angelman syndrome disrupts neurological processes
New room-temperature process could lead to less expensive solar cells and other electronic devices
City birds that experience light at night are ready to breed earlier than their rural cousins
NIST Captures Chemical Composition with Nanoscale Resolution
Molecular Master Switch for Pancreatic Cancer Identified, Potential Predictor of Treatment Outcome
Research quest aims to cure hearing loss at its root
NASA Satellite Data find Freshwater Losses in Middle East

How a microbial biorefinery regulates genes

Posted: 15 Feb 2013 07:09 AM PST

Digesting lignin, a highly stable polymer that accounts for up to a third of biomass, is a limiting step to producing a variety of biofuels. Researchers at Brown have figured out the microscopic chemical switch that allows Streptomyces bacteria to get to work, breaking lignin down into its constituent parts.

Avoiding virus dangers in ‘domesticating’ wild plants for biofuel use

Posted: 15 Feb 2013 07:00 AM PST

In our ongoing quest for alternative energy sources, researchers are looking more to plants that grow in the wild for use in biofuels, plants such as switchgrass.

However, attempts to “domesticate” wild-growing plants have a downside, as it could make the plants more susceptible to any number of plant viruses.

NASA's FERMI proves supernova remnants produce cosmic rays

Posted: 14 Feb 2013 12:16 PM PST

A new study using observations from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveals the first clear-cut evidence the expanding debris of exploded stars produces some of the fastest-moving matter in the universe. This discovery is a major step toward understanding the origin of cosmic rays, one of Fermi's primary mission goals.

A Dual Look at Photosystem II Using the World’s Most Powerful X-Ray Laser

Posted: 14 Feb 2013 11:53 AM PST

From providing living cells with energy, to nitrogen fixation, to the splitting of water molecules, the catalytic activities of metalloenzymes – proteins that contain a metal ion – are vital to life on Earth. A better understanding of the chemistry behind these catalytic activities could pave the way for exciting new technologies, most prominently artificial photosynthesis systems that would provide clean, green and renewable energy. Now, researchers with the U.S.

Scientists Create Method to Personalize Chemotherapy Drug Selection

Posted: 14 Feb 2013 11:36 AM PST

In laboratory studies, scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have developed a way to personalize chemotherapy drug selection for cancer patients by using cell lines created from their own tumors.

If the technique is successful in further studies, it could replace current laboratory tests to optimize drug selection that have proven technically challenging, of limited use, and slow, the researchers say.

Value of modified corn is more in reducing losses than boosting yields

Posted: 14 Feb 2013 11:30 AM PST

While there's no end of robust and heated conversation about genetically modified foods, there are strikingly few comprehensive studies that put a numeric value on the costs and benefits.

Now, there's more to talk about.

Emerging cancer drugs may drive bone tumors

Posted: 14 Feb 2013 07:48 AM PST

Cancer drugs should kill tumors, not encourage their spread. But new evidence suggests that an otherwise promising class of drugs may actually increase the risk of tumors spreading to bone, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The drugs, IAP antagonists, block survival signals that many cancer cells rely on to stay alive. Working in mice, the investigators found that targeting the same protein that makes tumors vulnerable to death also overactivates cells called osteoclasts, which are responsible for tearing down bone.

Study supports regulation of hospitals

Posted: 14 Feb 2013 07:38 AM PST

Hospital beds tend to get used because they’re available, not necessarily because they’re needed, according to a first-of-its-kind study that supports continued regulation of new hospitals.

A new model facilitates predictions about how nanoparticles form

Posted: 14 Feb 2013 07:11 AM PST

Nanoparticles are versatile harbingers of hope: They can serve as active medical agents or contrast media just as well as electronic storage media or reinforcement for structural materials. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam-Golm and from the Eindoven University of Technology in the Netherlands made a fundamental contribution to make such nanoparticles usable for these various applications. While studying magnetite nanoparticles, they developed a model of how crystalline particles of a material form depending on their physical properties.

NASA's Chandra Suggests Rare Explosion Created Our Galaxy's Youngest Black Hole

Posted: 13 Feb 2013 09:59 AM PST

New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggest a highly distorted supernova remnant may contain the most recent black hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy. The remnant appears to be the product of a rare explosion in which matter is ejected at high speeds along the poles of a rotating star.

The remnant, called W49B, is about a thousand years old as seen from Earth and located about 26,000 light-years away.

Epigenetics Shapes Fate of Brain vs. Brawn Castes in Carpenter Ants

Posted: 13 Feb 2013 09:43 AM PST

The recently published genome sequences of seven well-studied ant species are opening up new vistas for biology and medicine. A detailed look at molecular mechanisms that underlie the complex behavioral differences in two worker castes in the Florida carpenter ant, Camponotus floridanus, has revealed a link to epigenetics. This is the study of how the expression or suppression of particular genes by chemical modifications affects an organism’s physical characteristics, development, and behavior.

Stem Cell Survival Strategy Is Key to Blood and Immune System Health

Posted: 13 Feb 2013 09:32 AM PST

Stem cells of the aging bone marrow recycle their own molecules to survive and keep replenishing the blood and immune systems as the body ages, researchers at UC San Francisco (UCSF) have discovered.

The recycling process, known as autophagy, or self-eating, involves reusing molecules and the chemical energy obtained from these molecules to withstand the killing effect of metabolic stress that intensifies as the body ages.

University of Wisconsin’s veterinary medical school adopts wildlife health project

Posted: 13 Feb 2013 09:24 AM PST

Outbreaks of disease in wildlife may seem remote and, for most humans, inconsequential.

But disease events that arise in wild animal populations can be far-reaching and can even pose a threat to humans and domestic animals far removed from the source of animal affliction. New strains of flu, for example, often arise in birds and are first detected in surveys of waterfowl long before they begin to infect domestic animals and humans.

Study shows how the gene defect of Angelman syndrome disrupts neurological processes

Posted: 13 Feb 2013 07:54 AM PST

In the journal PLoS Biology, a team of scientists reports experiments showing how the gene defect of Angelman syndrome disrupts neurological processes that may be needed for memory and learning. In tests in mice, the team showed that a novel compound could restore the healthy processes.

New room-temperature process could lead to less expensive solar cells and other electronic devices

Posted: 13 Feb 2013 07:07 AM PST

Silicon, the material of high-tech devices from computer chips to solar cells, requires a surface coating before use in these applications. The coating “passivates” the material, tying up loose atomic bonds to prevent oxidation that would ruin its electrical properties. But this passivation process consumes a lot of heat and energy, making it costly and limiting the kinds of materials that can be added to the devices.

City birds that experience light at night are ready to breed earlier than their rural cousins

Posted: 13 Feb 2013 06:59 AM PST

Street lamps, traffic lights and lighting from homes are causing a rise in our night-time light levels. For some time now, scientists have suspected that artificial light in our towns and cities at night could affect plants, animals and us, humans, too. Studies, however, that have tested this influence directly are few. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell, Germany, recently investigated how light conditions in urban areas at night affect European blackbirds (Turdus merula).

NIST Captures Chemical Composition with Nanoscale Resolution

Posted: 12 Feb 2013 02:11 PM PST

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland have demonstrated that a new spectroscopy technique can simultaneously measure a material's topography and chemical composition with nanometer-scale spatial resolution.

Molecular Master Switch for Pancreatic Cancer Identified, Potential Predictor of Treatment Outcome

Posted: 12 Feb 2013 12:03 PM PST

A recently described master regulator protein may explain the development of aberrant cell growth in the pancreas spurred by inflammation.

An intermediate cell type which emerges during inflammation and regeneration in acute pancreatitis regulated by the transcription factor Prrx1, termed acinar-to-ductal metaplasia.

Research quest aims to cure hearing loss at its root

Posted: 12 Feb 2013 09:33 AM PST

The ultimate cause of hearing loss is usually found in the tiny hair cells that play the crucial role of converting sound waves into nerve impulses for delivery to the brain.

"Whether hearing loss is related to age, noise, or many hereditary causes, it's the hair cell that is the Achilles heel," says Samuel Gubbels, a surgeon-scientist at the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "When enough hair cells die, hearing is lost."

NASA Satellite Data find Freshwater Losses in Middle East

Posted: 12 Feb 2013 09:02 AM PST

A new study using data from a pair of gravity-measuring NASA satellites finds that large parts of the arid Middle East region lost freshwater reserves rapidly during the past decade.