GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A University of Floridastudy demonstrates extinction’s ripple effect through the animal kingdom, including how the demise of large mammals 20,000 years ago led to the disappearance of one species of cowbird.
The study shows the trickle-down effect the loss of large mammals has on other species, and researchers say it is a lesson from the past that should be remembered when making conservation, game and land-use decisions today. (more…)
Laminin, long thought to be only a structural support protein in the microenvironment of breast and other epithelial tissue, is “famous” for its cross-like shape. However, laminin is far more than just a support player with a “pretty face.” Two studies led by one of the world’s foremost breast cancer scientists have shown how laminin plays a central role in the development of breast cancer, the second most leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States. In one study it was shown how laminin influences the genetic information inside a cell’s nucleus. In the other study it was shown how destruction of laminin can play a detrimental role in the early stages of tumor development. (more…)
Sara Rockwell is a leader in her field. A professor of therapeutic radiology and pharmacology at the School of Medicine, Rockwell was among the first researchers to study the effects of oxygen deficiency on the response of malignant cells to radiation and anticancer drugs, and was among the first to consider the implications of this deficiency in microscopic tumors for the development of solid malignancies.
Rockwell, who is also associate dean for scientific affairs, joined the faculty of Yale School of Medicine in 1974, and teaches radiation biology, pharmacology, cancer biology, ethics and career development skills. She earned her bachelor’s degree in physics from Penn State University in 1965. She went on to earn her doctorate degree in biophysics from Stanford University in 1971. (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— In the mating game, some female mites are mightier than their mates, new research at the University of Michigan and the Russian Academy of Sciences suggests. The evidence comes, in part, from 40 million-year-old mating mites preserved in Baltic amber.
In a paper published March 1 in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, researchers Pavel Klimov and Ekaterina Sidorchuk describe an extinct mite species in which the traditional sex roles were reversed. (more…)
Technique suggests an avenue for creating new kinds of superconductivity
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Physicists at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a collaboration of the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), have for the first time caused a gas of atoms to exhibit an important quantum phenomenon known as spin-orbit coupling. Their technique opens new possibilities for studying and better understanding fundamental physics and has potential applications to quantum computing, next-generation “spintronics” devices and even “atomtronic” devices built from ultracold atoms. (more…)
The various spiral arm segments of the Sunflower galaxy, also known as Messier 63, show up vividly in this image taken in infrared light by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Infrared light is sensitive to the dust lanes in spiral galaxies, which appear dark in visible-light images. Spitzer’s view reveals complex structures that trace the galaxy’s spiral arm pattern.
Messier 63 lies 37 million-light years away — not far from the well-known Whirlpool galaxy and the associated Messier 51 group of galaxies. (more…)
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Maps are great for showing where things are. They’re also good for showing where things aren’t.
Two Michigan State University professors have developed interactive maps that offer a visual perspective of urban food deserts. By using GIS (geographic information systems) technology, they are showing, rather than simply telling, how urban residents are losing access to fresh produce and balanced nutrition. (more…)
*Steep decline of many animal species warns that Earth is on the brink*
With the steep decline in populations of many animal species, scientists have warned that Earth is on the brink of a mass extinction like those that have occurred just five times during the past 540 million years.
Each of these “Big Five” saw three-quarters or more of all animal species go extinct.
In results of a study published in this week’s issue of journal Nature, researchers report on an assessment of where mammals and other species stand today in terms of possible extinction compared with the past 540 million years.
