wings – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Protein Strongest Just Before Death

By Guest PostDecember 13, 2012Health, Sciencecell death, cell growth, david arnosti, degradation, destruction, drosophila, fruit fly, genetic similarity, grave, humans, liang zhang, lifecycle, mechanism, michigan state university, molecular details, nontraditional lifestyle, one foot, protein, proteins, retinoblastoma, retinoblastoma proteins, treat cancer, tumor suppressor, wings

Researchers at Michigan State University have discovered a protein that does its best work with one foot in the grave.

The study, which appears in the current issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, focuses on the nontraditional lifestyle of Retinoblastoma tumor suppressor proteins, which could lead to new ways to treat cancer.

“Retinoblastoma proteins are unique in that they use controlled destruction to do their jobs in a timely but restrained fashion,” said Liang Zhang, a lead author and MSU cell and molecular biology graduate student. “This is an unusual way for proteins to act.” (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…)

On the Sizeable Wings of Albatrosses

By Guest PostMarch 25, 2011Nature, Scienceabove ocean wind shear, air sea friction, airborne sailboat, albatross, albatross flight, albatrosses, colin pennycuick, dynamic soaring, kinetic energy, large bird, lord rayleigh, model, nobel laureate, oceanographer, oceans, philip richardson, physicist, radio controlled gliders, scientist, south atlantic ocean, sustained soaring, wave trough, wings

An oceanographer may be offering the best explanation yet of one of the great mysteries of flight—how albatrosses fly such vast distances, even around the world, almost without flapping their wings. The answer, says Philip L. Richardson of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), lies in a concept called dynamic soaring, in which the large bird utilizes the power of above-ocean wind shear while tacking like an airborne sailboat.

“I have a simple model that explains the basic physics of what albatrosses do,” says Richardson, a scientist emeritus at WHOI, who, in addition to his primary career in studying ocean currents, has also piloted gliders. The key, he says, is the bird’s ability to balance the kinetic energy gained in soaring with the energy lost from drag. (more…)

Tag Archives: wings

Protein Strongest Just Before Death

How Butterfly Wings Can Inspire New High-Tech Surfaces

On the Sizeable Wings of Albatrosses