Search

The article investigates the implication of ancient rock traces on the Earth's early evolution. Geochemist Dewashish Upadhyay at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India found that the rocks he examined have different geochemical properties that can be associated to the early formation of the Earth. The rocks contain chemicals that represents several events including the formation of Earth's crust and mantle.

The article reports on the research project related to climate change in Greenland conducted by researchers Ian Harding and James Eldrett. In their study, they were able to gather evidences which are useful in constructing the climatic conditions during the Eocene-Oligocene transition in Greenland. They admit the research allows them to capitalize on the pollen fossil record to track changes in vegetation and even climate changes.

The article reports on the resignation of Bambang Parmanto, the editor-in-chief of "The Open Information Science Journal" in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It notes that the Parmanto claimed the its publisher Bentham Science Publishing received a fake article without his knowledge. Mahmood Alam, director of publications at Bentham Science Publishing emphasizes the conviction of submitting fake manuscripts because of its being unethical.

The article profiles Phil Baran, a researcher and author for the journal "Nature Chemical Biology." It states the Baran is also an organic chemist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. According to the article, since he was called up to work on the review of the terpenes, he agreed to do the task and developed his knowledge in terpene field. Further information on the researches of Baran related to chemical synthesis is presented.

The article focuses on the protein evolution study conducted by researchers Nobuhiko Tokuriki and Dan Tawfik at the Weismann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. It mentions about the work of Brian Shoichet and his colleagues which gave idea on Tawfik about chaperone proteins and states that Tokuriki joined into the laboratory just as the idea is taking shape. It offers information on their work in testing the ability GroEL/GroES chaperone protein in directed evolution.

The article discusses the environmental and genetic roots of songbird melodies. Male birds teach their offspring to sing similarly to the way in which humans teach their children to speak. Topics include research by scientist Olga Fehér who studied what happens when a young zebra finch is not tutored by its parent and details regarding the experimental methods she used in determining if an individual's genes and environment have an impact on its ability to produce a species-specific song.

The article discusses postage stamps that have been issued by Britain’s Royal Mail throughout the years and examines the latest set, which commemorates the founding of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, England. This set belongs to the Action for Species series, which depicts threatened species in Great Britain. Other sets of stamps have featured evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin and England’s Queen Elizabeth II.

The article profiles astronomer and post-doctoral student Joris De Ridder and his research of sound waves emitted from red giant stars. De Ridder and his research team use asteroseismology to measure variations in star brightness that reveal information about a star's makeup and age. The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Agency has asked De Ridder to lead a red giant observation project using the Kepler telescope.

The article discusses research of autism and social development being led by clinical psychologist Ami Klin. It describes experimentation using lights and sound to mimic human movements and assess the responses of children to social interaction. Autistic children were found to be more attentive when sound was synchronized with light motion. Planned supplemental research is noted.

The article discusses research conducted by Hendrikje Nienborg and Bruce Cumming of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland on ways in which the brain favors certain interpretations of sensory input over others. Signals from sensory organs activate sensory neurons, yet data analysis proved that these neurons do not have a direct effect on decision-making.

The article discusses scientific investigations of the concept that biological evolution can affect ecology. Research on the freshwater threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) by biologist Luke Harmon is highlighted. He concludes that the feeding habits of two subspecies it evolved into influence the size of dissolved organic carbon matter found in each one's ecosystem.

The article discusses the discovery of a fossil within Canada's Devon Island that provides a link in the evolution of pinniped ancestry. It was discovered by undergraduate researcher Elizabeth Ross while traveling with a palaeontology filed crew. The crew was headed by Canadian Museum of Nature palaeobiologist Natalia Rybczynski, who provides quotes.

The article discusses research conducted by Chinese Academy of Sciences' Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics physicist Wenjie Shen on metal-oxide catalysts. It was discovered that when the shape of one of these catalysts is altered, it becomes practical for use at a lower temperature. This is pertinent, as metal oxides aid in cleaning up toxic pollutants that are created due to vehicle exhaust gas emissions and other anthropogenic activities.

The article states that University of Rome Tor Vergata physicist Piergiorgio Picozza may have discovered the existence of invisible dark matter, which is undetectable mass within galaxies. He has studied the formation of antimatter in space, in which protons and electrons have opposite properties such as charge and positrons can be produced by secondary processes. Picozza assembled a team of colleagues from numerous countries to accrue data for this study.

The article discusses research conducted by chemist Dennis Dougherty of the California Institute of Technology on the relationship between brain cell receptors for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and the intake of nicotine. By finding an attraction between acetylcholine and an aromatic amino acid, Dougherty elucidates why nicotine does not bind as effectively in muscles.

The article discusses research by Tim Naish and Ross Powell investigating climate change through the study of sediment cores extracted from the sea bed of the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS). The goal of climate scientists is to ascertain what the WAIS looked like during the Pliocene epoch. Topics include the difficulty in obtaining sediment cores, a description of the cores' contents, and what the cores reveal about projected climate changes.

The article discusses the use of isotopes in quartz to reveal the age of China's Peking Man. The Peking Man fossils which belong to Homo erectus were found during archaeological excavations in the 1920s and 30s. The cave in which they were found collapsed leaving the question of their age unanswered. Topics include the collaboration of Darryl Granger and Guanjun Shen and colleagues to produce a suitable method in which the age of the fossils could reliably be determined using isotopic analysis.

The article discusses research conducted by marine chemist Benjamin Van Mooy and colleagues at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on the ways in which marine microorganisms affect global nutrient cycles. Van Mooy has focused on phosphorus cycling and phospholipids. The study shows that sulfur and nitrogen-containing lipids are more abundant than phospholipids in some Sargasso Sea species.

The article discusses how a light-sensing algal protein rapidly map brain circuits. Topics include an in-depth analysis of research by Leopoldo Petreanu and colleagues from the Janelia Farm Research Campus at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Ashburn, Virginia, who have found a way to locate synapses and map neuronal circuits. Also discussed are details regarding the function of channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2), which is a light-sensitive ion channel protein found in algae.

The article discusses research by Simon Lewis and colleagues investigating the role of forests in carbon sequestration. Topics include an overview of the research methodology used by the team to monitor African forests over a ten-year period, where carbon dioxide goes when not sequestered by the world's oceans, and how the study impacted the importance of collecting and archiving standardized data. Also discussed is the challenge of identifying each species of tree and their growth rates.

The article discusses research by Jan Schroers and colleagues at Yale University exploring a class of amorphous metals called bulk metallic glasses (BMG). Topics include the difficulties in finding a low-cost yet durable means of molding tiny components such as those used in computer chips, how Schroers and colleagues were able to mold BMGs at nanoscale dimensions, and its potential application in the semiconductor industry.

The article discusses how palaeontologists have been searching for clues regarding the evolution of tropical vertebrates after the death of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. Topics include an overview of research by a team of palaeontologists, including Jonathan Bloch and Jason Head, studying the reptile fossil records of the Cerrejón Coal Mine in Columbia and the significance of the discovery of a giant snake fossil to the ancient tropical climate.

The article discusses research on an opportunistic bacteria that may be able to prevent the spread of algal blooms that is likely to occur with global warming. These populations of proteobacteria, known as chemolithotrophs, live on organic matter. They were discovered by a team of researchers that included Marcel Kuypers of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology. Algal blooms facilitate environmental degradation by creating hypoxic conditions and producing hydrogen sulfide.

The article states that a research team led by Eric Steig of the University of Washington has discovered that the warming trend once thought confined to the western edge of the Antarctic Peninsula has spread beyond the peninsula and over most of West Antarctica. This warming trend has allowed for the encroachment of flora and has resulted in the outflow of Adélie penguins.

The article discusses the discovery by paleontologist Martin Brazeau regarding a missing link in the fossil fish record. Acanthodian, which is a fossilized fish that resembles bony fishes such as eels and salmon and cartilaginous fish such as sharks, and the family it belongs to has been a mystery to paleontologists. Topics include how Brazeau was able to link acanthodian fishes to present day species and a brief overview of the species history.

The article discusses research conducted by Dorian McGavern of the Scripps Research Institute and Jiyun Kim of New York University School of Medicine, along with colleagues, on the causes of viral meningitis. While scientists once believed that cytotoxic lymphocytes (CTLs) caused the condition, this study has found that CTLs actually recruit other immune cells that degrade the cells lining the brain.

The article discusses research regarding the discovery of an anti-HIV therapy. The focus of the article is research by Dan Barouch and colleagues who tested adenovirus-based vaccines in monkeys using the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), which is an HIV-related virus. Also discussed is the phase II HIV-vaccine trial by Merck called STEP, the problems with the STEP study, such as the kind of adenovirus used, and how Barouch's group identified and developed rare-serotype adenovirus vectors.

The article discusses research by Manolo Gouy and colleagues from the University of Lyon in France regarding the search for different means of tracing the last universal common ancestor (LUCA). Topics include a brief explanation of LUCA, a description of the ribosomal RNA and protein sequence analysis Gouy and colleagues performed, and Gouy and his colleagues' hypothesis regarding LUCA's environmental adaptations.

The article discusses research conducted on cancer-stem-cells by developmental biologist Wei-Qiang Gao and colleagues at Genentech in South San Francisco, California. The team is primarily concerned with identifying prostate-cancer stem cells, but in order to accomplish that they also needed to identify the normal prostate stem cells.

The article discusses how a scientific program, which was part of the 2007 International Polar Year, helped to advance the study by a group of researchers. Topics include how the extension of the program benefited methane emissions research by Torben Christensen and his colleagues on the Greenland tundra, an explanation of the International Polar Year, and a description of methane, which is a greenhouse gas, and its effects on the environment.

The article discusses a scientific technique that reduces the time and resources it takes to make a complex drug. Topics include a brief overview of the use of natural therapeutics by ancient Egyptians and Greeks, such as willow-bark extract to kill pain and combat inflammation, the synthesis of complex natural structures such as the compound bryostatin 16, and an examination of bryostatin 16 and its properties.

The article discusses how Gáspár Jékely and colleagues were able to establish a link between light perception and movement in the larvae of Platynereis dumerilii, a marine worm. Phototaxis, which is the process by which deep sea organisms use light-sensing eyespots to navigate toward light-drenched surface water, is discussed. Topics an analysis of the brain of the larvae of P. dumerilli and how cilia bodies help mediate navigation.

The article discusses how brain circuits control behavior. The focus of the article is a study by neuroscientist Michale Fee investigating how a male zebra finch's brain controls the timing of his singing. Topics include a description of the study method, a brief explanation of the male zebra finch and its song, including an area of the brain responsible for song timing called the premotor nucleus HVC, and the results of the study.

The article analyzes the use of a planet-dating technique to simulate early Earth and discusses related studies by the team of Markus Lagos, a geochemist affiliated with the University of Bonn. Lagos argues against the previous belief that core formation could explain the lead isotope signature of the Earth by asserting that lead does not have a preference for metallic iron.

The article provides information on pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. According to a research, such pathogen takes advantage of a facet of its host's immune response and it produces a protein called listeriolysin O (LLO) that injects pores into membranes. This action allows the bacterium to escape from intracellular areas charged with its destruction and to replicate and spread.

The article provides information on the research of different teams led by Redouan Bshary and Olof Leimar regarding the behaviour of bluestreak cleaner wrasse fish or Labroides dimidiatus. The research team of Bshary first observed that pairs of bluestreak cleaner wrasse cheat less than individuals. When his team presented the findings, Leimar proposed a solution and subsequently developed a new model of game theory to explain how pairs provide more efficient cleaning. Based on the results of both research, the researchers found out the male in a pair increases the female's cooperation by punishing her for cheating behaviour.

The article details researcher Daniel Stark's research into distant galaxies. In 2006, co-author Ian Smail of Durham University and his collaborators had discovered a galaxy called the Cosmic Eye using gravitational lensing. In 2007, Star, co-author Mark Swinbank and their colleagues measured the galaxy's internal structure on Hawaii's Keck telescope.

The article discusses findings by Gerard Evan and his colleagues at the University of California in San Francisco on protein inhibition. Evan's team has shown that the inhibition of the protein Myc in mice can reverse cancer with minimal damage to normal tissues. According to Evan, Myc functions as a super-coordinator of growth in both healthy tissues and tumors.

The article discusses the study conducted by a team of researchers led by John Brigande, a developmental neurobiologist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Oregon, on the significance of genes control in hearing development. The study revealed that in mouse embryos in utero, transferring the Atoh1 gene, a transcription factor, into cells that will become the cochlea creates additional working hair cells that form connections with nerve cells.

The article elaborates on the study conducted by Charles Cobb, a neurosurgeon at the California Pacific Medical Center, in San Francisco, California. Aside from practicing his profession, he is also a virus hunter, Since 1998, he studied on whether viruses have an association with brain tumours. He and his co-authors discovered that the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) needs a particular cellular receptor, normally involved in growth-factor signaling, to infect a type of cancer cell in the brain. He found out that this type of virus causes defects at birth and fatal diseases in immunocompromised people, especially patients with AIDS. People who are infected with the virus is associated with the occurrence of glioma, an extremely aggressive form of brain cancer that is difficult to treat.

The article provides information on the efforts of researcher Abraham Stroock to investigate how plants transport water against gravity. When he was still a graduate student in engineering at Harvard University, his interests turned to a question on how do Sequoia sempervirens transport water all the way from their roots to distant leaves. Ten years later, Stroock and a graduate student Tobias Wheeler built a synthetic tree, a microfluidic device that mimics the water-transportation capabilities of nature's tallest plants.

The article reports on the decision of the management of "The Lancet" to retract medical entry by urologists at the Medical University of Innsbruck in Austria. It states that the write-up claimed positive results for a clinical trial using stem cells to treat urinary incontinence. However, an investigation by the government found serious flaws in the trial such as incomplete patient consent forms and forged insurance documents. As a result, the university suspended principal investigator Hannes Strasser.

The article reports on the research conducted by David Bartel and Nikolaus Rajewsky regarding the implication of RNA to the production of cellular proteins in the U.S. When both intellectuals presented their work during the molecular biology symposium in Miami, they discovered that they were tackling the same issue. To unveil the mystery behind these cellular proteins, they need to look at changes in thousands of proteins at once and detect the differences in protein abundance. They found a glean insight into how miRNA act to fine tune the levels of thousands of proteins in a cell.

The article provides information on the experiment designed by economist Ernst Fehr and his colleagues which measures the 'other-regarding' preferences of children. Fehr and his colleagues enlisted the help of some pint-sized participants from playgroups, kindergartens and primary school classes. A child was asked to make an equal share of taking one packet of sweets for themselves and one for their partner. They found that young children between the ages three and eight develop a particular form of other-regarding behaviour called inequality aversion. Moreover, almost 90% of seven- and eight-year-old children prefer in giving sweets equally rather than give their partner extra.

The article examines the filamentous structure of NGC 1275, the giant elliptical galaxy at the center of the Perseus constellation. It mentions that bright streams of gas fan out from NGC 1275 makes it look a bit like a supersized space jellyfish. The astronomer Andrew Fabian and his colleagues at the Institute of Astronomy were able to discern how these filaments maintain their structure. Images of the galaxy had already been attained by ground-based telescopes such as the WIYN telescope, which is owned and operated by a consortium comprising the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory.

The article reports on the discovery of David Colquhoun and Lucia Sivilotti on the mechanism that explains the response of receptors to partial agonists in London, England. It reveals that many drugs work by binding to a specific cell receptors and stimulating its activity triggers a cascade of events in the cell. These drugs and the naturally occurring chemicals with the same modus operandi are called agonists but some of these elicit a powerful response while others generate smaller responses even at high levels to occupy all the available receptors. Both of them discovered a new mechanism to explain how receptors respond to partial agonists wherein they found that agonist-bound receptor can exist in one of three states, resting, partially activated or flipped from resting.

The article discusses that David Pines and Yi-feng Yang, the two theoretical physicists at the University of California in Berkeley, California have discovered an equation to calculate the temperature scale that governs the emergence of heavy-electron behavior. Yang says the acquisition of this scale is the first step to understand the fundamental physics. Pines also believes that the experimental and theoretical work on the heavy electron compounds is the only way to progress in the emerging behaviors of new classes of materials. Details of the collaborative work are also presented.

The article reports on the work of Scott Fendorf to prevent health crisis in south and south east Asia regions due to arsenic contamination. It notes that Fendorf began collaborating with a colleague who had hydrological and geochemical data from the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh and the Mekong Delta in nearby Cambodia. A physician working for the Cambodia-based nonprofit organization and Cambodian government also collaborated with Fendorf's group work. His group came up with a well array that would first determine water flows, and later allows water and soil monitoring. Fendorf added that it would take more than 100 years for arsenic to travel naturally through river-based sediments to reach the underlying aquifer.

This article discusses the neurobiological research of Geoffrey Schoenbaum, which is presented elsewhere in this issue. The experiments that Schoenbaum carried out concerned the question of whether animals pursued specific expectations with their behavior. The inspiration for Schoenbaum's work is explored.

The article discusses the success of Erica Ollmann Saphire, an immunologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and her team in winning the race on providing a picture of how the deadly Ebola virus evades the immune system and enter cells. The move was risky and the work was long and difficult. It took them over four years to express 130 versions of the Ebola virus glycoprotein, grow and test crystal diffractions. The team found out that the virus can lie in wait for years. Saphire and her colleagues managed to solve the structure of an infection-blocking antibody bound to a viral protein, revealing a possible defence against the virus.