For the fifth consecutive year, the number of international students applying to U.S. graduate…
Continue reading about U.S. Grad Schools Recover From Dip in Foreign Applications
Physicists have developed a new kind of laser that shatters the boundaries of possibility: it is by far the smallest electrically pumped laser in the world and one day could revolutionize chip technology.
Continue reading about World’s smallest microlaser could revolutionize chip technology
The hormonally active substance bisphenol A is contained in many synthetic and packaging materials. As a result, the substance can find its way into the food chain and the human organism. Just who is exposed and to what extent is shown in a new study: babies who are fed with polycarbonate bottles are especially at [...]
Continue reading about Endocrine disruptors: Babies absorb the most bisphenol A
Bile secretions in the small intestine send signals to disease-causing gut bacteria allowing them to change their behavior to maximize their chances of surviving, according to new research. The findings could allow us to better protect food from contamination by these harmful bacteria, as well as understand how they manage to cause disease.
An interventional radiology treatment — the use of intra-arterial yttrium-90 microspheres for liver cancer (also known as hepatocellular carcinoma) — shows promise in prolonging life for many patients with this devastating condition, according to researchers.
A new study of food-choice behavior in honey bees has identified a gene involved in bees’ decisions to bring protein or nectar back to the colony. By taking control of the insulin receptor substrate gene, an insulin partner gene in the bees’ fat cells, researchers made the insects forego carbohydrates (sugar-containing nectar) and favor protein [...]
Continue reading about Bees with an impaired insulin partner gene prefer proteins over carbs
Highly dangerous Cryptococcus fungi love sugar and will consume it anywhere because it helps them reproduce. To borrow inositol from a person’s brain, the fungi have an expanded set of genes that encode for sugar transporter molecules. While a typical fungus has just two such genes, Cryptococcus have almost a dozen, according to new research.
Continue reading about This is your brain on Cryptococcus: Pathogenic fungus loves your brain sugar
Biologists long have known that both the appearance of organisms and their inner workings are shaped by evolution. But do the same genetic mechanisms underlie changes in form and function? A new study suggests not.
Continue reading about Form or function? Evolution takes different paths, genetic study shows
Researchers have discovered a fifth genetic mutation associated with typical motor neuron disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), that has a similar pathological effect to certain genetic mutations revealed in earlier studies. Ultimately, the researchers hope that understanding what is causing motor neuron disease (MND), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, will lead to new [...]
Continue reading about Clue to cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis revealed in new genetic study
Viruses can wreak havoc on bacteria as well as humans and, just like us, bacteria have their own defense system in place. Uncovering the workings of the bacterial “immune system” could be used to keep industrial microbes at peak performance.