News: Newton the gumshoe Posted by Margaret Guthrie [Entry posted at 31st July 2009 02:03 PM GMT] Everyone knows the story about Sir Isaac Newton's run-in with an apple. But when you read Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson, you realize that ... Click to continue Comment on this news story News: Stressed brains rely on habit Posted by Jef Akst [Entry posted at 30th July 2009 07:01 PM GMT] Exposure to chronic stress causes alterations in brain anatomy that may compel rats to rely too much on routine, even when a change in circumstances calls for a change in behavior, according to a new study published this week in Science. Image: ... Click to continue View comments (6) | Comment on this news story News: NIH 2010 budget tweaked Posted by Alison McCook [Entry posted at 30th July 2009 03:29 PM GMT] A U.S. Senate panel has okayed President Barack Obama's request for next year's funding for the National Institutes of Health -- a $442 million boost, for a total of $30.8 billion. According to ... Click to continue Comment on this news story News: Alzheimer's clue found Posted by Jef Akst [Entry posted at 29th July 2009 06:01 PM GMT] Researchers report a step forward in understanding the pathology of Alzheimer's disease. Two genes that are commonly mutated in the early-onset form of Alzheimer's may cause the disorder by altering how presynaptic neurons release neurotransmitters, ... Click to continue View comments (4) | Comment on this news story News: Curves guide bacterial proteins Posted by Alla Katsnelson [Entry posted at 29th July 2009 05:29 PM GMT] Researchers are puzzling out a central mechanism for how some proteins navigate inside bacterial cells: Rather than using biochemical cues, they appear to rely on the cells' geometry, sensing the membrane's curvature, two recent studies suggest. ... Click to continue View comment (1) | Comment on this news story News: Retracted: stem cell paper Posted by Alison McCook [Entry posted at 29th July 2009 02:40 PM GMT] A journal editor has retracted a ... Click to continue Comment on this news story News: Butterfly sperm explained Posted by Jef Akst [Entry posted at 29th July 2009 12:01 AM GMT] New research has proposed a genetic explanation for the evolution of a bizarre method used by male butterflies to ensure the success of their sperm. Image: Flickr/Dave-F The sperm of male ... Click to continue Comment on this news story News: Food dye lessens spinal injuries Posted by Edyta Zielinska [Entry posted at 27th July 2009 10:15 PM GMT] A synthetic blue dye commonly used in food coloring could protect damaged spinal cords from a second wave of injury brought on by inflammatory response to the damage, according to a study ... Click to continue View comments (5) | Comment on this news story News: Synthetic enzyme pioneer dies Posted by Jef Akst [Entry posted at 27th July 2009 04:54 PM GMT] Ralph F. Hirschmann, a medicinal chemist who was one of the first to synthesize an enzyme in the lab, died last week (June 20) at age 87 from renal disease complications. Image: University of Pennsylvania"He was extraordinarily forward thinking," ... Click to continue View comment (1) | Comment on this news story News: Biolab site choice flawed: report Posted by Alla Katsnelson [Entry posted at 27th July 2009 04:33 PM GMT] A government report to be released later this week slams the plan to build a contested high security pathogen lab in Kansas, saying the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not properly evaluate the risks of conducting such research in the ... Click to continue View comment (1) | Comment on this news story News: Airway cilia taste toxins Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 23rd July 2009 07:00 PM GMT] Your sense of taste doesn't end in your mouth: Cilia lining airways leading to the lungs express taste receptors and alter their undulations in the presence of bitter chemicals, says a study ... Click to continue View comments (9) | Comment on this news story News: The poetryome Posted by Jef Akst [Entry posted at 23rd July 2009 05:17 PM GMT] Biology is, of course, creative. Without a little non-linear thinking to dream up new conceptual approaches and methodologies, some of the best experiments ever conducted would have never left the drawing board. But when it comes to communicating ... Click to continue View comments (4) | Comment on this news story News: Furloughs for state school profs Posted by Jef Akst [Entry posted at 22nd July 2009 08:46 PM GMT] Universities across the US are forcing their employees to take unpaid leave, effectively reducing the salary budget without reflecting pay cuts on paper. But for most researchers, who cannot easily pause their studies, what furloughs really amount ... Click to continue View comments (7) | Comment on this news story News: Chimps get AIDS too Posted by Jef Akst [Entry posted at 22nd July 2009 06:00 PM GMT] SIV, the simian form of HIV, causes illness in chimpanzees similar to human AIDS, despite the longstanding belief that such viruses had no effect on non-humans primates, according to a new study published this week in Nature. Image: ... Click to continue View comments (7) | Comment on this news story News: NCI tackles trial enrollment Posted by Edyta Zielinska [Entry posted at 22nd July 2009 05:03 PM GMT] Why does it take so long to complete a clinical trial? One bottleneck that many researchers face is enrolling enough participants to make the study statistically significant. On Monday (20 July), the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Biomedical ... Click to continue View comments (2) | Comment on this news story News: Brain (minus machine) interface Posted by Edyta Zielinska [Entry posted at 21st July 2009 02:10 PM GMT] Learning to use an implanted brain electrode to control a prosthetic or robotic arm might be easier than researchers thought, suggests a study published online ... Click to continue Comment on this news story News: Vector did not kill HIV trial Posted by Jef Akst [Entry posted at 20th July 2009 06:00 PM GMT] New findings have disproved a leading explanation for why an experimental HIV vaccine made subjects more susceptible to the virus, reopening the door for further HIV vaccine efforts based on similar principles. Human Immunodeficiency VirusImage: ... Click to continue View comments (4) | Comment on this news story News: DNA may differ between tissues Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 20th July 2009 04:52 PM GMT] Recent findings may spell trouble for genome-wide association studies based on DNA obtained through blood samples: Genetic material may vary between blood cells and other tissues in a single individual, a ... Click to continue View comments (10) | Comment on this news story News: Spontaneous speciation? Posted by Jef Akst [Entry posted at 15th July 2009 06:01 PM GMT] In a world without natural selection and no vast mountain ranges dividing populations, one might expect biodiversity to remain forever stagnant. But according to a study published this week in Nature, new species can arise arbitrarily and without ... Click to continue View comments (10) | Comment on this news story News: FASEB head outlines funding goals Posted by Jef Akst [Entry posted at 14th July 2009 04:29 PM GMT] Mark Lively, a professor of biochemistry at Wake Forest University, took over as the president of the ... Click to continue View comments (7) | Comment on this news story News: Renal researchers faked data Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 13th July 2009 04:22 PM GMT] Two researchers conducting animal studies on immunosuppression lied about experimental methodologies and falsified data in 16 papers and several grants produced over the past 8 years, according to the Office of Research Integrity (ORI). Image: ... Click to continue View comments (23) | Comment on this news story News: The bio-comedian Posted by Jef Akst [Entry posted at 9th July 2009 08:33 PM GMT] It may be hard to find the humor in biology for researchers crouched over lab benches or dozing through yet another conference presentation. What's so funny about biology? Plenty, if you ask ecologist-turned-comedian ... Click to continue View comments (3) | Comment on this news story News: Embryonic twist yields turtle shell Posted by Jef Akst [Entry posted at 9th July 2009 07:00 PM GMT] The bizarre body plan of turtles may be less of an evolutionary feat than scientists once believed. According to a study published online today in Science, the unique organization ... Click to continue Comment on this news story News: Collins seen as boon to NIH Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 9th July 2009 03:42 PM GMT] It would be difficult to find a more universally lauded and liked researcher than geneticist Francis Collins, who the Obama administration nominated yesterday (July 8) to take the reins at the ... Click to continue View comments (12) | Comment on this news story News: Collins tapped to lead NIH Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 8th July 2009 07:50 PM GMT] The Obama administration has nominated geneticist Francis Collins to take the helm of the National Institutes of Health. Francis CollinsImage: WikipediaCollins, who led the US government's push to sequence the human genome as head of the National ... Click to continue Comment on this news story News: DNA sorts carbon nanotubes Posted by Elie Dolgin [Entry posted at 8th July 2009 06:03 PM GMT] Researchers have coopted DNA for a non-biological use -- sorting carbon nanotubes. A new study reports that synthetic DNA molecules can form paper-like sheets that can be ... Click to continue View comment (1) | Comment on this news story News: New FASEB head takes office Posted by Jef Akst [Entry posted at 8th July 2009 06:00 PM GMT] Mark Lively, who took office as the 94th president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) last week (July 1), plans to focus ... Click to continue Comment on this news story News: Immune drug boosts lifespan Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 8th July 2009 06:00 PM GMT] A drug used to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs and as an experimental cancer treatment in humans can significantly increase lifespan when given to adult mice, researchers have found. Mice that were administered the immunosuppressant ... Click to continue View comments (5) | Comment on this news story News: NIH loosens stem cell consent rules Posted by Elie Dolgin [Entry posted at 6th July 2009 07:58 PM GMT] Final rules for human embryonic stem (ES) cell research, announced this afternoon (July 6) by the National Institutes of Health, require strict documentation detailing voluntary donation of embryos leftover from in-vitro fertilization procedures, ... Click to continue Comment on this news story News: Animal use details to go online Posted by Jef Akst [Entry posted at 6th July 2009 05:00 PM GMT] The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) must post annual reports from animal research facilities that document the levels of pain and distress experienced by animals in experimental procedures, according to a ... Click to continue View comments (3) | Comment on this news story News: Spores spill evolution's secrets Posted by Elie Dolgin [Entry posted at 6th July 2009 02:58 PM GMT] Developmental "noise" -- the imprecision in molecular pathways that leads to minor slip-ups in development -- creates fodder for evolution. That's the conclusion of a ... Click to continue View comment (1) | Comment on this news story News: Limbs regrow without pluripotency Posted by Jef Akst [Entry posted at 1st July 2009 06:00 PM GMT] The cells responsible for the salamander's famed ability to regenerate amputated limbs aren't pluripotent, as scientists have thought, a study published online in Nature ... Click to continue View comments (2) | Comment on this news story News: New tool for grant seekers Posted by Edyta Zielinska [Entry posted at 1st July 2009 05:41 PM GMT] Elsevier is launching a new grant searching tool called SciVal Funding, which allows researchers to collate grant information that is otherwise dispersed in many locations across the Web. The computer program plugs researchers into the usual ... Click to continue View comment (1) | Comment on this news story News: Union busting at NIEHS? Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 1st July 2009 04:58 PM GMT] Union organizers at a federal science agency have failed in their efforts to unionize researchers and technicians there, prompting allegations of suppression and union busting. In a mid-May ballot, scientists and technicians at the National ... Click to continue View comments (12) | Comment on this news story

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