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Recall a memory under certain circumstances, and the brain might erase it, recent rodent research suggests. If that possibility seems like science fiction, consider other weird tricks played by the mind's memory machinery. False recollections, for example, can occur during a déjà vu experience or after hypnosis. And true recollections which can reconstruct experiences from decades earlier, often seem almost supernatural, even to those fully aware of the brain's complexity.Because of it

Looking to improve the quality of tools for discovering genomic regulatory regions, researchers at the National Institutes of Health combined Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) of hyper-acetylated histones, with serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) technology. The process that they call genome-wide mapping technique (GMAT) could provide an alternative to ChIP-on-a-Chip techniques.1Developers and others call it unbiased and quantitatively better. "They sequence everything they bring down,

Perhaps a nose-full of virus can fight cocaine addiction. Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., report that a bacteriophage with anticocaine antibodies can be used to block or sequester cocaine in the brain.1 Chemist Kim Janda and colleagues injected the antibody-displaying phages nasally, finding that treated rats moved less and showed reduced rearing and sniffing when injected with cocaine.Other attempts to block cocaine have used antibodies in the blood stream, bu

These papers were selected from multiple disciplines from the Faculty of 1000, a Web-based literature awareness tool http://www.facultyof1000.com.O.O. Glebov et al., "Lipid raft proteins have a random distribution during localized activation of the T-cell receptor," Nat Cell Biol, 6:238–43, March 2004.This study ... challenges the view that lipid rafts exist as large and stable physical structures with functional roles, at least in T cells. Using FRET [fluorescence resonance energy transfe

Courtesy of http://Neurodatabase.orgCompared to gene and protein data, which involve relatively simple sequences, the diverse nature of data characterizing brain activity is, well, mind-boggling. Data can range from functional magnetic resonance images of brain structures to action potentials. According to the Society for Neuroscience, more than 70 neuroinformatics databases and tools are in development right now; but most of them gather imaging, rather than action potential, data. A select few,

Courtesy of ParacelResearchers use BLAST to search previously characterized DNA or protein sequences for partial or total matches. For the last 12 years, Pasadena, Calif.-based Paracel http://www.paracel.com has been a major provider of clustered hardware and software used to perform these searches. Now the company offers a new release optimized for Paracel's latest 64-bit cluster hardware based on Advanced Micro Devices' (AMD's) Opteron processor."Unlike NCBI [National Center for Biotechnology

Courtesy of Center for Biomolecular Modeling, Milwaulkee School of EngineeringUntil recently structural biology has been limited by the fact that it relies on two-dimensional computer representations of three-dimensional objects. Now 3D Molecular Designs http://www.moleculardesigns.com of Wauwatosa, Wis., hopes to make the field truly three-dimensional, allowing new insights into known structures and giving hope to those not blessed with the space-manipulation skills needed to make sense of flat

Taxation of fat, an idea that has been kicked around on both sides of the Atlantic for a few years, has suddenly been elevated to the forefront of government consciousness in the United Kingdom. The premise, which is dubious at best, is that a fat tax might make the population healthier and happier, and simultaneously reduce the financial burden of healthcare. Here I examine this compulsion to legislate the populace towards health. Can it possibly be good for us?PROBLEM 1The confusion of a mixed

New powers for police aimed at curbing animal rights extremists

Americans seek glial cell transplants in Beijing for spinal injury and other conditions

Report does not draw a distinction between GMOs and crops created by traditional breeding

Publishers and editors meet Zerhouni plans for publicly available papers with exasperation