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How Do Cells Tell Time? Scientists Develop Single-Cell Imaging to Watch the Cell Clock

By Guest PostNovember 18, 2012Science24 hour, activity, biological noise, cell, cell division, circadian clock, cyclic gene, cyclic protein, cyclical behavior, embryonic segmentation, embryonic segments, emilie delaune, gene, gene activation, life, lifespan, mesoderm, mitosis, molecular clock, muscle, nathan shih, nervous system, notch signaling pathway, oscillating pattern, oscillation, paul françois, phase, protein, sharon amacher, signal, signal reception, single cell, somites, synchronization, tissue segments, vasculature, vertebrae, visualization, visualize, zebrafish embryos

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new way to visualize single-cell activity in living zebrafish embryos has allowed scientists to clarify how cells line up in the right place at the right time to receive signals about the next phase of their life.

Scientists developed the imaging tool in single living cells by fusing a protein defining the cells’ cyclical behavior to a yellow fluorescent protein that allows for visualization. Zebrafish embryos are already transparent, but with this closer microscopic look at the earliest stages of life, the researchers have answered two long-standing questions about how cells cooperate to form embryonic segments that later become muscle and vertebrae. (more…)

Researchers Report Potential New Treatment to Stop Alzheimer’s Disease

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2012Health, Sciencealzheimer, amyloid beta, blood brain barrier, brain, brain pathology, cell, clr01, disease, disorders, gal bitan, inhibitor, mammalian animal model, memory, molecular compound, molecular tweezer, mouse model, neuron, parkinsons disease, pathologic feature, process specific, radioactive label, tau, toxic protein, ucla

Molecular ‘tweezers’ break up toxic aggregations of proteins in mouse model

Last March, researchers at UCLA reported the development of a molecular compound called CLR01 that prevented toxic proteins associated with Parkinson’s disease from binding together and killing the brain’s neurons.

Building on those findings, they have now turned their attention to Alzheimer’s disease, which is thought to be caused by a similar toxic aggregation or clumping, but with different proteins, especially amyloid-beta and tau. (more…)

A Better Route to Xylan

By Guest PostNovember 13, 2012Sciencealex schultink, aromatic compound, atmosphere, biofuel, biofuel generation, biomass, carbon, cell wall, cellulose, cellulosic biofuel, component, coumaric acid, dawn chiniquy, dwarf phenotype, earth, extraction, ferulic, gene, glycosyltransferases, gt61 enzymes, henrik scheller, jbei, lignin, material, metric tons, pamela ronald, plant, rice, saccharification, solar energy, store, sugar, vaishali sharma, xax1, xax1 mutant, xylan, xylan chain

Joint BioEnergy Institute Researchers Find New Access to Abundant Biomass for Advanced Biofuels

After cellulose, xylan is the most abundant biomass material on Earth, and therefore represents an enormous potential source of stored solar energy for the production of advance biofuels. A major roadblock, however, has been extracting xylan from plant cell walls. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have taken a significant step towards removing this roadblock by identifying a gene in rice plants whose suppression improves both the extraction of xylan and the overall release of the sugars needed to make biofuels.

The newly identified gene – dubbed XAX1 – acts to make xylan less extractable from plant cell walls. JBEI researchers, working with a mutant variety of rice plant – dubbed xax1 – in which the XAX1 gene has been “knocked-out” found that not only was xylan more extractable, but saccharification – the breakdown of carbohydrates into releasable sugars – also improved by better than 60-percent. Increased saccharification is key to more efficient production of advanced biofuels. (more…)

Preschoolers’ Counting Abilities Relate to Future Math Performance, MU Researcher Says

By Guest PostNovember 13, 2012Education, Scienceadults, alphabet, carrots, chronological order, cognitive activity, data, elementary school, essential skill, future success, louis manfra, math score, math skills, memory, missouri, number, numerical values, object, quantity, reciting numbers, set, university, young children

Counting, in addition to reciting, should be emphasized in early childhood education to establish foundation for future academic success

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Along with reciting the days of the week and the alphabet, adults often practice reciting numbers with young children. Now, new research from the University of Missouri suggests reciting numbers is not enough to prepare children for math success in elementary school. The research indicates that counting, which requires assigning numerical values to objects in chronological order, is more important for helping preschoolers acquire math skills.

“Reciting means saying the numbers from memory in chronological order, whereas counting involves understanding that each item in the set is counted once and that the last number stated is the amount for the entire set,” said Louis Manfra, an assistant professor in MU’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies. “When children are just reciting, they’re basically repeating what seems like a memorized sentence. When they’re counting, they’re performing a more cognitive activity in which they’re associating a one-to-one correspondence with the object and the number to represent a quantity.” (more…)

Study Reveals Declining Influence of High Impact Factor Journals

By Guest PostNovember 12, 2012Scienceacademic journal, article citations, bibliometrics, impact factor, journal impact factor, research evaluation, scholarly journals

The most prestigious peer-reviewed journals in the world, such as Cell, Nature, Science, and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), have less and less influence amongst scientists, according to a paper co-authored by Vincent Larivière, a professor at the University of Montreal’s School of Library and Information Sciences. He questions the relationship between journal “impact factor” and number of citations subsequently received by papers. (more…)

How Butterfly Wings Can Inspire New High-Tech Surfaces

By Guest PostNovember 11, 2012Nature, Scienceaircraft, bacteria, bharat bhushan, butterfly, butterfly wings, catheter, coated, crude oil, electron microscope, fluid flow, giant blue, gregory bixler, high tech surfaces, iconic butterfly, industrial powder, jo mcculty, medical equipment, micrometer scale feature, microscopic texture, morpho butterfly, morpho didius, nano channel, Nanotechnology, Nature, ohio, ohio state university, oriza sativa, pipelines, plastic surface, rice leaves, silicon carbide powder, south american, watercraft, wings

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A South American butterfly flapped its wings, and caused a flurry of nanotechnology research to happen in Ohio.

Researchers here have taken a new look at butterfly wings and rice leaves, and learned things about their microscopic texture that could improve a variety of products.

For example, the researchers were able to clean up to 85 percent of dust off a coated plastic surface that mimicked the texture of a butterfly wing, compared to only 70 percent off a flat surface. (more…)

Saving Storm-Damaged Photos

By Guest PostNovember 10, 2012General, Science, Technologyart conservation, cellulose acetate, debra hess norris, film negative, heather brown, humidity condition, hurricane sandy, marsh grass, msnbc, news clip, photo album, photograph, photos, phyllis, save my photograph, saving, staten island, storm damaged, superstorm, von stein, wedding gown

UD conservators triage to provide advice, resources

In a news clip on MSNBC, Phyllis, a 62-year-old grandmother from Staten Island, clutches a black-and-white photograph of her mother in her wedding gown. She found the family treasure strewn among the muck and marsh grass where her shattered home ended up in Hurricane Sandy’s wake.

If you have recovered photographs or photo albums that were damaged by the superstorm, don’t throw them out. There is hope for saving storm-damaged photos, according to Debra Hess Norris, professor and chair of the Department of Art Conservation at the University of Delaware. (more…)

Crystals for Efficient Refrigeration

By Guest PostNovember 10, 2012Sciencecrystals, electrical polarization, electrocaloric effect, ferroelectric crystals, material changes, paraelectric state, temperature

Washington, D.C.-– Researchers at the Carnegie Institution have discovered a new efficient way to pump heat using crystals. The crystals can pump or extract heat, even on the nanoscale, so they could be used on computer chips to prevent overheating or even meltdown, which is currently a major limit to higher computer speeds. The research is published in the Physical Review Letters. (more…)

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