Summaries | Headlines

Scientists Unveil Piece Of HIV Protein That May Be Key To AIDS Vaccine Development (February 18, 2007) -- In a finding that could have profound implications for AIDS vaccine design, researchers led by a team at the NIAID have generated an atomic-level picture of a key portion of an HIV surface protein as ... > full story

Biochip Allows Genes To Express Themselves (February 18, 2007) -- Biochip platforms that work as artificial cells are attractive for medical diagnostics, interrogation of biological processes, and for the production of important biomolecules. In a major ... > full story

Fatal Attraction: Elephants And Marula Fruit (February 18, 2007) -- Being female can be a risky business, especially if you are a Marula tree in Africa receiving the attention of elephants. Research published in African Journal of Ecology shows that the female Marula ... > full story

The 'Shear Stress' Of It Impacts Heart Disease (February 18, 2007) -- Dutch researchers report that in mice, different types of shear stress induce the production of different soluble factors known as chemokines, and that the chemokine expression pattern influences the ... > full story

Little Creatures, Big Blooms (February 17, 2007) -- The San Francisco area is one of the most biologically productive areas in US waters. But with global warming, says Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council grantee Vera Pospelova, those ... > full story

Bacterial Gene May Affect Climate And Weather (February 17, 2007) -- A University of Queensland microbiologist is part of an international team that has identified a bacterial gene that may affect climate and weather. Phil Bond and colleagues have found how a ... > full story

Antarctic Warming To Reduce Animals At Base Of Ecosystem, Shift Some Penguin Populations Southward (February 16, 2007) -- The warming most global climate models predict will do more harm than simply raise the sea levels that most observers fear. It will make drastic changes in fragile ecosystems throughout the world, ... > full story

Protein Sensor For Fatty Acid Buildup In Mitochondria (February 16, 2007) -- Just as homes have smoke detectors, cells have an enzyme that responds to a buildup of fatty acids by triggering the production of a key molecule in the biochemical pathway that breaks down these ... > full story

Stem Cells Determine Their Daughters' Fate (February 16, 2007) -- From roundworm to human, most cells in an animal's body ultimately come from stem cells. When one of these versatile, unspecialized cells divides, the resulting "daughter" cell receives instructions ... > full story

Researchers Improve Soy Processing By Boosting Protein And Sugar Yields (February 16, 2007) -- In Iowa State University laboratory tests, adding ultrasonic treatment to soy processing has increased the release of soy proteins by 46 percent. The treatment has also boosted sugar yields by 50 ... > full story

'Regressive Evolution' In Cavefish: Natural Selection Or Genetic Drift (February 16, 2007) -- "Regressive evolution," or the reduction of traits over time, is the result of either natural selection or genetic drift, according to a study on cavefish by researchers at New York University's ... > full story

Out Of Africa -- Bacteria, As Well: Homo Sapiens And H. Pylori Jointly Spread Across The Globe (February 16, 2007) -- When man made his way out of Africa some 60,000 years ago to populate the world, he was not alone: He was accompanied by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which causes gastritis in many people ... > full story

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Apple -- The apple is a tree and its pomaceous fruit, of species Malus domestica in the rose family Rosaceae, is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits. It is a small deciduous tree reaching 5-12 m ... > full article

Brain -- In animals, the brain, or encephalon, is the control center of the central nervous system. In most animals, the brain is located in the head, protected by the skull and close to the primary sensory ... > full article

Motor neuron -- In vertebrates, motor neurons (also called motoneurons) are efferent neurons that originate in the spinal cord and synapse with muscle fibers to facilitate muscle contraction and with muscle spindles ... > full article

Sensory neuron -- Sensory neurons are nerve cells within the nervous system responsible for converting external stimuli from the organism's environment into internal electrical impulses. For example, some sensory ... > full article

Heart -- The heart is a hollow, muscular organ in vertebrates that pumps blood through the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions, or a similar structure in annelids, mollusks, and arthropods. The ... > full article

Lung -- The lung is the essential organ of respiration in air-breathing vertebrates. Its principal function is to transport oxygen from the atmosphere into the bloodstream, and to excrete carbon dioxide from ... > full article

Immune system -- The immune system is the system of specialized cells and organs that protect an organism from outside biological influences. (Though in a broad sense, almost every organ has a protective function - ... > full article

Enzyme -- Enzymes are proteins that catalyze (i.e. accelerate) chemical reactions. Enzymes are biochemical catalysts. In these reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called substrates, ... > full article

Pathogen -- A pathogen or infectious agent is a biological agent that causes disease or illness to its host. The term is most often used for agents that disrupt the normal physiology of a multicellular animal or ... > full article

Vaccination -- Vaccination is the process of administering weakened or dead pathogens to a healthy person or animal, with the intent of conferring immunity against a targeted form of a related disease agent. It ... > full article

Anthrax -- Anthrax, also referred to as splenic fever, is an acute infectious disease caused by the bacteria Bacillus anthracis and is highly lethal in some forms. Anthrax most commonly occurs in wild and ... > full article

Deer -- A deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. A number of broadly similar animals, from related families within the order Artiodactyla, are often also called ... > full article

Pheromone -- A pheromone is any chemical produced by a living organism that transmits a message to other members of the same species. There are alarm pheromones, food trail pheromones, sex pheromones, and many ... > full article

Japanese beetle -- The Japanese Beetle (Popillia japonica) is a beetle about 1.5 cm (0.6 inches) long and 1 cm (0.4 inches) wide (smaller in Canada), with shiny copper-colored elytra and a shiny green top of the thorax ... > full article

Gypsy moth -- The gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, is a moth of European origin. Gypsy moth larvae prefer hardwoods, but may feed on several hundred different species of trees and shrubs. In the East the gypsy moth ... > full article

Tree -- A tree can be defined as a large, perennial, woody plant. Though there is no set definition regarding minimum size, the term generally applies to plants at least 6 m (20 ft) high at maturity and, ... > full article

Agriculture -- Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and many other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). The practice of ... > full article

Plant -- Plants are a major group of living things including familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, ferns, and mosses. About 350,000 species of plants, defined as seed plants, bryophytes, ferns and ... > full article

Fungus -- A fungus (plural fungi) is a eukaryotic organism that digests its food externally and absorbs the nutrient molecules into its cells. Fungi are very important economically: yeasts are responsible for ... > full article

Photosynthesis -- Photosynthesis, generally, is the synthesis of sugar from light, carbon dioxide and water, with oxygen as a waste product. It is arguably the most important biochemical pathway known; nearly all life ... > full article