YOSSI YOVELTwo papers published this week highlight how bats navigate their environments. In a December 3 Nature paper, researchers from Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science and their colleagues showed that the flying mammals have specialized brain cells that track their movements as they navigate through space. In Current Biology (December 4), investigators from Tel Aviv University demonstrated that species of bat that were once thought not to use echolocation do, in fact, navigate their environments in part through feedback from audible clicks.
BAHTIYAR YILMAZCommensal microbes like E. coli appear to help protect mice from malaria infection because of antibodies the animals produce in response to chemicals released by the bacteria, according to a Cell study published this week (December 4).
Harvard Medical School microbiologist Gerald Pier, who was not involved in the work, told The Scientist that the study provides “a more molecular basis for associating immune response to normal flora and resistance to infection.”
CNICNeutrophils bind to platelets in order to migrate to the source of infection during an inflammatory response, investigators from the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research and their colleagues reported this week (December 4) in Science. The finding underscores a role for platelets in inflammation, immunologist Paul Kubes of the University of Calgary told The Scientist.
“It’s a very interesting concept that platelets would be so important in inflammation and in regulating neutrophil biology,” he said. “I think people are starting to appreciate that platelets are becoming more and more important in immunity.”
FLICKR, ROMAN PAVLYUKLoss of the Y chromosome, a relatively common phenomenon among aging men, could help explain different rates of cancer between male and female smokers, according to a paper published in Science this week (December 4). Researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden have found in three cohorts of men that smoking is associated with loss of the Y.
