For the sensitive work of detecting explosives and drugs in airports and other high-risk areas, humans have long relied on a marvel of evolutionary biology: the sniffer dog. The canine nose can detect a seemingly infinite range of odors, alone and in combination, at concentrations down to the parts per trillion level.
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Scientists compared the recent avian strain known in the scientific community as H5N1, with genetic ressortants of the 1918 virus — source of the most severe influenza pandemic in recorded history. H5N1 was found to replicate profusely within the first 24 hours, causing severe damage to respiratory tissues while sending the host’s innate immune response [...]
Continue reading about Shades Of 1918? Comparing Avian Flu With A Notorious Killer From The Past
Inuit trails are more than merely means to get from A to B. In reality, they represent a complex social network spanning the Canadian Arctic and are a distinctive aspect of the Inuit cultural identity. And what is remarkable is that the Inuit’s vast geographic knowledge has been passed through many generations by oral means, [...]
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“Aldehyde tags” are used to label proteins in bacterial recombinant-DNA systems — and now in proteins that can only be expressed by mammalian systems. While some recombinant drugs like insulin are made in bacterial systems, most have to be produced by mammalian cells. Aldehyde tags direct chemical modifications to specific sites on proteins, including monoclonal [...]
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The immense Olympus Mons volcano on Mars (about 23 km tall and 600 km wide) exhibits a somewhat lopsided structure: elongated to the northwest, shortened to the southeast, with corresponding types of faulting (extensional and compressional, respectively) prevalent in each sector.
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Scientists are studying how human adults and infants, lemurs, and monkeys think about numbers without using language. One researcher is looking for the brain systems that support number sense and trying to figure out how this cognitive skill develops.
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Without decisive action, global warming is likely to accelerate at a much faster pace and cause more environmental damage than predicted, says Stanford scientist Chris Field, a leading member of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Field warns that higher temperatures could ignite tropical forests and melt the Arctic tundra, releasing billions of [...]
New research suggests that mobile repetitive elements — also known as transposons or “jumping genes” — do indeed affect the evolution of gene regulatory networks.
Researchers have discovered how a deadly microbe evades the human immune system and causes disease. The study may help scientists develop new therapies or vaccines against infections caused by Cryptococcus neoformans. These fungal infections occur most commonly in those with compromised immune systems ý especially AIDS patients and transplant patients who must take lifelong immunosuppressive [...]
Ringing, whining, whistling, hissing or whooshing. Any of those sounds in one or both ears when there is no external noise present could be a sign of tinnitus.
Continue reading about Ways To Minimize Tinnitus — Troublesome Noises In The Ears