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How do we choose our mates?

For quite some time now, scientists suspect that it is not for looks or fashion, neither for love or sympathy.

25 Sep 2007

Social cheating in bacterial communication

Baseball had its steroids and Black Sox. Politics lived through Watergate. Wall Street has been riddled with insider trading scandals. And before we cast the first stone, who among us has never tried to get through an intersection on a yellow light?

25 Sep 2007

Scientists study the spread of ragweed pollen

To a person with a pollen allergy, an 18-acre ragweed field sounds like a sneezy, red-eyed zone of misery. But to two environmental engineering researchers at Johns Hopkins, the parcel presented a rare and valuable opportunity to learn how the troublesome weeds grow, reproduce and scatter their pollen under varying weather conditions.

24 Sep 2007

Scientists discover technique to help 'friendly bacteria'

There is currently a great deal of interest in the health-associated properties of probiotics, also known as 'beneficial' or 'friendly' bacteria, and prebiotics, the food needed for the growth of probiotic when inside our bodies.

24 Sep 2007

New understanding of principles behind computations in the brain

A University of Leicester mathematician has been working with scientists in Japan and The Netherlands to develop a new technique that produces accurate mathematical models of the actual behaviour of nerve (neural) cells.

24 Sep 2007

Two genes in mammalian cells act as gatekeepers for cellular longevity

In everything from yeast to primates, a significant decrease in calories can extend lifespan by as much as one-third. But getting under the hood of the molecular machinery that drives this longevity has remained elusive.

21 Sep 2007

Scientists solve genetic code of parasitic worm that causes elephantiasis

More than 150 million people worldwide are infected with filarial parasites -- long, thread-like worms that can live for years inside the human body and cause severe, debilitating diseases such as elephantiasis.

21 Sep 2007

Prediction of RNA pseudoknots using heuristic modeling with mapping and sequential folding

An algorithm utilizing structure mapping and thermodynamics is introduced for RNA pseudoknot prediction.

20 Sep 2007

Cell growth technology promises more successful drug development

Scientists have developed unique technology to grow stem cells and other tissue in the laboratory in conditions similar to the way they grow in the human body.

20 Sep 2007

3-D Petri dish that grows cells in three dimensions

A team of Brown University biomedical engineers has invented a 3-D Petri dish that can grow cells in three dimensions, a method that promises to quickly and cheaply produce more realistic cells for drug development and tissue transplantation.

20 Sep 2007

Reverse-engineering brain neurons to build better computers

By understanding how neurons process chemical signals when a person learns and remembers information, researchers believe they can create more reliable computers that employ stochastic computing components.

18 Sep 2007

Real time footage reveals DNA-enzyme interaction

For the first time scientists have been able to film, in real time, the nanoscale interaction of an enzyme and a DNA strand from an attacking virus.

18 Sep 2007

Scientists learn three-dimensional structure of enzyme in unusual virus

Biologists have determined the three-dimensional structure of an unusual viral enzyme that is required in the assembly of new viruses.

18 Sep 2007

Nanoparticle that delivers vaccines more effectively

Good news for public health: Bioengineering researchers from the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, have developed and patented a nanoparticle that can deliver vaccines more effectively, with fewer side effects, and at a fraction of the cost of current vaccine technologies.

18 Sep 2007

Life on Mars experiment launched

Key components of a new approach to discover life on Mars were successfully launched into space Friday as part of a twelve-day, low-Earth orbit experiment to assess their survivability in the space radiation environment - a prelude future journeys to Mars.

18 Sep 2007

Scientists synthesize DNA-based memory loop in yeast cells

Harvard Medical School researchers have successfully synthesized a DNA-based memory loop in yeast cells, findings that mark a significant step forward in the emerging field of synthetic biology.

17 Sep 2007

Solid state NMR spectroscopy reveals the workings of 'Mother Nature's Blowtorch'

Using atom-level imaging techniques, University of Michigan researchers have revealed important structural details of an enzyme system known as "Mother Nature's blowtorch" for its role in helping the body efficiently break down many drugs and toxins.

17 Sep 2007

DNA as a picoforce standard

DNA, the biomolecule that provides the blueprint for life, has a lesser-known identity as a stretchy polymer.

17 Sep 2007

Zebrafish shed light on human mitochondrial diseases

Zebrafish can now be used to study COX deficiencies in humans, a discovery that gives scientists an unprecedented window to view the earliest stages of mitochondrial impairments that lead to potentially fatal metabolic disorders, according to researchers at the University of Oregon.

13 Sep 2007

Delivery of anti-cancer drug paclitaxel on a tiny ball of gold

Rice University chemists have discovered a way to load dozens of molecules of the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel onto tiny gold spheres. The result is a tiny ball, many times smaller than a living cell that literally bristles with the drug.

13 Sep 2007