ATLANTA -- An enzyme viewed as an executioner, because it can push cells to commit suicide, may actually short circuit a second form of cell death, researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have discovered. The finding could shift drug discovery efforts, by leading scientists to rethink how proposed anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory drugs that target the enzyme, called caspase 8, are supposed to work. The results are described in this week's Nature. Caspase 8 has been described as "the killer you can't live without." This enzyme plays a key role in apoptosis, ...

Sea-ice algae – the important first rung of the food web each spring in places like the Arctic Ocean – can engineer ice to its advantage, according to the first published findings about this ability. The same gel-like mucus secreted by sea-ice algae as a kind of antifreeze against temperatures well below minus 10 C is also allowing algae to sculpt microscopic channels and pores in ice that are hospitable to itself and other microorganisms. Altering ice to their benefit should help sea-ice algae adapt to a warming world, which is good news for hungry fish and shellfish ...

Fraser Yachts is pleased to announce the following charters available for Mediterranean yacht charter and Caribbean yacht charter for 2011/12. M/Y Pamela V yacht is a luxurious 45.9m Hakvoort built yacht, available for yacht charter in the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands. During the high season, it will be available for $235,000 per week and in the low season will go down to $220,000. Currently located in the Caribbean, this luxury yacht is due to be completed later this year. With the ability to sleep 8 guests in 4 staterooms, and 10 crew members, you can expect ...

Researchers have synthesized the vast literature on cancer to produce a next-generation view of the features that are shared amongst all cancer cells. These hallmarks of the disease provide a comprehensive and cohesive foundation for the field that will influence biomedical researchers in their quest for new cancer treatments. The review article by Douglas Hanahan of École Polytechnique Fédérale in Switzerland and Robert Weinberg of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research appears in the March 4th issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication. The new article updates ...

Low physical activity increases kidney transplant patients' likelihood of dying early, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The results suggest that patients need to exercise to fend off an early death. Inactive people in general face increased risks of developing cardiovascular disease and of dying prematurely. Individuals with chronic kidney disease—particularly those on dialysis—tend to get little exercise, but most increase their activity levels modestly after receiving a kidney transplant. ...

Evidence for a diversified sea-based economy among North American inhabitants dating from 12,200 to 11,400 years ago is emerging from three sites on California's Channel Islands. Reporting in the March 4 issue of Science, a 15-member team led by University of Oregon and Smithsonian Institution scholars describes the discovery of scores of stemmed projectile points and crescents dating to that time period. The artifacts are associated with the remains of shellfish, seals, geese, cormorants and fish. Funded primarily by grants from the National Science Foundation, the ...

Old Westbury, New York (Mar. 3, 2011) – Fossil records verify a long-standing theory that horses evolved through natural selection, according to groundbreaking research by two anatomy professors at New York College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYCOM) of New York Institute of Technology. Working with colleagues from Massachusetts and Spain, Matthew Mihlbachler, Ph.D., and Nikos Solounias, Ph.D. arrived at the conclusion after examining the teeth of 6,500 fossil horses representing 222 different populations of more than 70 extinct horse species. The records, spanning the past ...

Optics researchers from the Universities of Glasgow and Bristol have developed an iPad application for accurate, easy and intuitive use of optical tweezers. Optical tweezers, used to manipulate tiny particles through the use of highly focused laser beams, are the tool at the heart of much molecular biology – helping us to experiment with and better understand the microscopic processes of organisms. Research published today, Friday 4 March 2011, in IOP Publishing's Journal of Optics, shows how a team of researchers has overcome the limitations of computer mouse and ...

Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that PARIS — the protein — facilitates the most common form of Parkinson's disease (PD), which affects about 1 million older Americans. The findings of their study, published March 4 in Cell, could lead to important new targets for treatment. Previous research has shown that a protein dubbed parkin protects brain cells by "tagging" certain toxic elements for natural destruction. Mutations in the parkin gene cause rare forms of PD that run in families, but its role remained unclear in sporadic late-onset PD, the prevalence of which ...

Star-shaped cells in our brains called astrocytes were once considered little more than structures to fill the gaps between all-important neurons. But more recent evidence has emerged to reveal that those astrocytes play more than a supporting role; they are involved in information processing and signal transmission and they help to regulate the shapes of our neurons and their connections to one another. Now, researchers reporting in the March 4th Cell, a Cell Press publication, have found that astrocytes are also essential for making long-term memories. When they don't ...

Scientists have performed a micro-probe analysis of the core and outer layers of a pea-sized piece of a meteorite some 4.57 billion years old to reconstruct the history of its formation, providing the first evidence that dust particles like this one experienced wildly varying environments during the planet-forming years of our solar system. The researchers interpret these findings as evidence that dust grains traveled over large distances as the swirling protoplanetary nebula condensed into planets. The single dust grain they studied appears to have formed in the hot ...

If you tend to have trouble picking up the latest dance moves or learning to play a new piano piece, there might be an explanation. A new study published online on March 3rd in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, shows that people who are fast to learn a simple sequence of finger motions are also those whose brains show large changes in a particular chemical messenger following electrical stimulation. That chemical messenger, known as GABA, is important for the plasticity of the motor cortex, a brain region involved in planning, control, and execution of voluntary ...

A new study finds that a brain rhythm considered the hallmark of wakefulness not only persists inconspicuously during sleep but also signifies an individual's vulnerability to disturbance by the outside world. In their report in the March 3 PLoS One, the team from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Division of Sleep Medicine uses computerized EEG signal processing to detect subtle fluctuations in the alpha rhythm during sleep and shows that greater alpha intensity is associated with increased sleep fragility. The findings could lead to more precise approaches to ...

There have been no shortages of horrific natural disasters splashing across headlines in the last year: the devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Chile; the Tsunami in the Philippines; and the volcano eruption in Indonesia--to name just a few. The poly tarps have come to the rescue over and over again in these situations, providing a cheap yet durable material with which to construct a roof or otherwise assist in the process of recovering and rebuilding from natural disaster born tragedy. In the event of a natural disaster, as people are forced out of their homes or lose ...

How do organs "know" when to stop growing? The answer could be useful in regenerative medicine, and also in cancer – where these "stop growing" signals either aren't issued or aren't heeded. Researchers in the Stem Cell Program at Children's Hospital Boston have now found a regulator of gene activity that tells epidermal stem cells when it's time to grow more skin, as well as a "crowd control" molecule that can sense cell crowding and turn the growth off. The work, in mice and in human cancer cells, provides clues to new therapeutic strategies for cancer, particularly ...

Not all racial and ethnic groups have equal access to kidney transplantation, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The results indicate that the reasons for these disparities are varied and that more focused efforts are needed to address them. For most individuals who develop kidney failure or end-stage renal disease, kidney transplantation is the best treatment option. Unfortunately, certain racial and ethnic groups are less likely to receive kidney transplants than others. Despite the increasing ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Neurons have been derived from the skin of a woman with a genetic form of Parkinson's disease and have been shown to replicate some key features of the condition in a dish, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The scientists hope to use the neurons to learn more about the disorder and to test possible treatments. Such a tool is critical because there are no good animal models for Parkinson's disease. It also validates the use of induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, to model various diseases. "Now that we can see that ...

STANFORD, Calif. — A short-term treatment with three immune-dampening drugs allowed human embryonic stem cells to survive and thrive in mice, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Without such treatment, the animals' immune systems quickly hunt down and destroy the transplanted cells. The finding is important because it may allow humans to accept transplanted stem cells intended to treat disease or injury without requiring the ongoing use of powerful immunosuppressant medications. Just as it does with transplanted organs, the human body ...

Plants are able to protect themselves from most bacteria, but some bacteria are able to breach their defences. In research to be published in Science on Friday, scientists have identified the genes used by some strains of the bacterium Pseudomonas to overwhelm defensive natural products produced by plants of the mustard family, or crucifers. "Microbes only become pathogens when they find a way to infect a host and overwhelm the host defences," said lead author Dr Jun Fan from the John Innes Centre on the Norwich Research Park. "Our findings answer some important questions ...

PULLMAN, Wash.—Scientific societies representing 40,000 researchers and clinicians are asking that federal regulators tap a broader range of expertise when evaluating the risks of chemicals to which Americans are being increasingly exposed. Writing in a letter in the journal Science, eight societies from the fields of genetics, reproductive medicine, endocrinology, developmental biology and others note that some 12,000 new substances are being registered with the American Chemical Society daily. Few make it into the environment, but the top federal regulators, the U.S. ...

Scientists working in the remotest part of Antarctica have discovered that liquid water locked deep under the continent's coat of ice regularly thaws and refreezes to the bottom, creating as much as half the thickness of the ice in places, and actively modifying its structure. The finding, which turns common perceptions of glacial formation upside down, could reshape scientists' understanding of how the ice sheet expands and moves, and how it might react to warming climate, they say. The study appears in this week's early online edition of the leading journal Science; ...

Irvine, Calif. — A UC Irvine research team led by Todd C. Holmes has discovered a second form of phototransduction light sensing in cells that is derived from vitamin B2. This discovery may reveal new information about cellular processes controlled by light. For more than 100 years, it had been believed that the phototransduction process was solely based on a chemical derived from vitamin A called retinal. Phototransduction is the conversion of light signals into electrical signals in photoreceptive neurons and underlies both image-forming and non-image-forming light ...

Fraser Yachts is delighted to announce the addition of five new vessels to their ever expanding list of luxury yachts for sale. Built in 1967 and refurbished in 2005, the largest of the new collection is M/Y Il Odyssey yacht. Hailing from the Benetti Yachts shipyard, the Il Odyssey luxury yacht is 37.8m in length and can sleep 9 guests and 6 crew members. She is currently on sale in Monaco for EUR1,950,000. One of the youngest luxury yachts for sale is M/Y Team VIP yacht. Built in 2010, and built by Guy Couach, this mega yacht is the newest of its siblings of four. ...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – When it comes to the federal budget, the public is on a different page than either the House of Representatives or the Obama Administration – with a different set of priorities and a greater willingness to cut spending and increase taxes – concludes a new analysis by the University of Maryland's Program for Public Consultation (PPC). This new analysis compares the House and administration budget proposals with those produced by a representative sample of U.S. adults. These public budgets were part of an innovative study released last month. While ...

Astronomy & Astrophysics publishes new high angular resolution observations of the giant planet orbiting the star beta Pictoris. Located at 63.4 light-years from the Sun, beta Pic is a very young star of about 12 million years old [1], which is 75% more massive than our Sun. beta Pic is well known for harboring an extended and structured circumstellar disk. It was actually the first star to have its disk directly imaged more than 25 years ago. In 2009, a giant planet was seen orbiting within the disk. With an orbital distance of 8 to 15 astronomical units (AU), beta Pictoris ...