Biologists Wake Dormant Viruses and Uncover Mechanism for Survival

Biologists Wake Dormant Viruses and Uncover Mechanism for Survival

  9:44:00 PM    Science Lover

---

It is known that viral "squatters" comprise nearly half of our genetic code. These genomic invaders inserted their DNA into our own millions of years ago when they infected our ancestors. But just how we keep them quiet and prevent them from attack was more of a mystery until EPFL researchers revived them.

This shows the functioning of Kap1 protein in mouse embrocation cells. (Credit: Pascal Coderay, pascal@salut.ch)

The reason we survive the presence of these endogenous retroviruses -- viruses that attack and are passed on through germ cells, the cells that give rise to eggs and sperm -- is because something keeps the killers silent. Now, publishing in the journal Nature, Didier Trono and his team from EPFL, in Switzerland, describe the mechanism. Their results provide insights into evolution and suggest potential new therapies in fighting another retrovirus -- HIV.

Read More

'Wet' Computing Systems to Boost Processing Power

'Wet' Computing Systems to Boost Processing Power

  2:18:00 AM    Science Lover

---

A new kind of information processing technology inspired by chemical processes in living systems is being developed by researchers at the University of Southampton.

Sketch of artificial wet neuronal networks. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Southampton)

Dr Maurits de Planque and Dr Klaus-Peter Zauner at the University's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) are working on a project which has just received €1.8 from the European Union's Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Proactive Initiatives, which recognises ground-breaking work which has already demonstrated important potential.

Read More

Rise in Certain Disorders can be Explain by Human Evolution

Rise in Certain Disorders can be Explain by Human Evolution

  12:09:00 AM    Science Lover

---

The subtle but ongoing pressures of human evolution could explain the seeming rise of disorders such as autism, autoimmune diseases, and reproductive cancers, researchers write in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Certain adaptations that once benefited humans may now be helping such ailments persist in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- advancements in modern culture and medicine.

New research suggests that certain adaptations that once benefited humans may now be helping such ailments persist in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- advancements in modern culture and medicine. (Credit: iStockphoto/Mads Abildgaard)

"This work points out linkages within the plethora of new information in human genetics and the implications for human biology and public health, and also illustrates how one could teach these perspectives in medical and premedical curricula," says author Peter Ellison, John Cowles Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University.

Read More

Evolutionary Surprise: Eight Percent of Human Genetic Material Comes from a Virus

Evolutionary Surprise: Eight Percent of Human Genetic Material Comes from a Virus

  10:15:00 PM    Science Lover

---

About eight percent of human genetic material comes from a virus and not from our ancestors, according to researchers in Japan and the U.S.

A new study shows that the genomes of humans and other mammals contain DNA derived from the insertion of bornaviruses, RNA viruses whose replication and transcription takes place in the nucleus. (Credit: iStockphoto)

The study, and an accompanying News & Views article by University of Texas at Arlington biology professor Cédric Feschotte, is published in the journal Nature.

The research showed that the genomes of humans and other mammals contain DNA derived from the insertion of bornaviruses, RNA viruses whose replication and transcription takes place in the nucleus. Feschotte wrote on recent research led by Professor Keizo Tomonaga at Osaka University in Japan. Feschotte said this virally transmitted DNA may be a cause of mutation and psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and mood disorders.

Read More

Evolution's Footprints in Human Genome Precisely Tracked Using New Approach

Evolution's Footprints in Human Genome Precisely Tracked Using New Approach

  10:08:00 AM    Science Lover

---

Fossils may provide tantalizing clues to human history but they also lack some vital information, such as revealing which pieces of human DNA have been favored by evolution because they confer beneficial traits -- resistance to infection or the ability to digest milk, for example. These signs can only be revealed through genetic studies of modern humans and other related species, though the task has proven difficult.

Researchers have developed a new method for pinpointing pieces of human DNA have been favored by evolution within the human genome. The technique offers greater precision and resolution than ever before. (Credit: iStockphoto)

Now, in a paper appearing in the January 7 edition of Science Express, researchers describe a method for pinpointing these preferred regions within the human genome that offers greater precision and resolution than ever before, and the possibility of deeply understanding both our genetic past and present.

Read More

The Large Hadron Collider : Physicists Beginning to See Data

The Large Hadron Collider : Physicists Beginning to See Data

  9:41:00 PM    Science Lover

---

Three Iowa State University physicists who took winter trips to the Large Hadron Collider for meetings and experimental work are starting to see real data from the planet's biggest science experiment.

Last month the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider began recording proton-proton collisions at a record energy of 2.36 trillion electron volts. Image courtesy of the ATLAS experiment. (Credit: Image courtesy of Iowa State University)

Finally.

The multibillion-dollar collider made international news on Sept. 10, 2008, when it sent its first beam of protons around 17 miles of underground tunnel near Geneva, Switzerland. But breakdowns in the machine's high-current electrical connections forced a complete shutdown for more than a year of repairs and tests.

Read More

Obesity Now Poses as Great a Threat to Quality of Life as Smoking

Obesity Now Poses as Great a Threat to Quality of Life as Smoking

  1:13:00 AM    Science Lover

---

As the US population becomes increasingly obese while smoking rates continue to decline, obesity has become an equal, if not greater, contributor to the burden of disease and shortening of healthy life in comparison to smoking.

In a new study, researchers calculate that the Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) lost due to obesity is now equal to, if not greater than, those lost due to smoking -- both modifiable risk factors. (Credit: iStockphoto)

In an article published in the February 2010 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers from Columbia University and The City College of New York calculate that the Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) lost due to obesity is now equal to, if not greater than, those lost due to smoking -- both modifiable risk factors.

Read More

Elusive Protein Points to Mechanism Behind Hearing Loss

Elusive Protein Points to Mechanism Behind Hearing Loss

  12:37:00 AM    Science Lover

---

A serendipitous discovery of deaf zebra fish larvae has helped narrow down the function of an elusive protein necessary for hearing and balance. The work, led by Rockefeller University's A. James Hudspeth, suggests that hearing loss may arise from a faulty pathway that translates sound waves into electrical impulses the brain can understand.

All ears. Electron micrographs of two hair cell bundles in the zebra fish ear show the difference between those born with (left) and without (right) the protein Tmie. (Credit: Image courtesy of Rockefeller University)

"These zebrafish larvae were originally pegged for another study, but then we saw that one-fourth of them failed to respond to acoustic stimuli and made erratic spiraling movements,

and that suggested that they were born deaf," says first author Michelle R. Gleason, who spearheaded the project. "So we took this opportunity to examine what could be responsible for this extreme hearing loss."

Read More

Scientists to Control Quantum Mechanical Force

Scientists to Control Quantum Mechanical Force

  1:39:00 AM    Science Lover

---

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory are developing a way to control the Casimir force, a quantum mechanical force that attracts objects when they are only hundred nanometers apart.

These are MEMS used to detect the presence of the Casimir Force. (Credit: Image courtesy of DOE/Argonne National Laboratory)

"The Casimir force is so small that most experimentation has dealt simply with its characteristics," said Derrick Mancini, interim director of the Center for Nanoscale Materials. "If we can control this force or make it repulsive, it can have dramatic effects on the development of nanoelectromechanical systems."

Read More

Lithium-Air Batteries might Displace Gasoline in Future Cars

Lithium-Air Batteries might Displace Gasoline in Future Cars

  8:03:00 PM    Science Lover

---

Inside surplus of seven million barrels of gasoline are consumed by vehicles in the United States each time. Equally scientists rush to discover environmentally sound solutions to fuel the world's ever-growing moving needs, battery researchers are exploring the look good of lithium-air battery equipment.

Argonne researcher Lynn Trahey tons a coin-sized cell on a trying thing used to evaluate electrochemical cycling performance in batteries. (Credit: Photo by Wes Agresta / Courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory)

Li-air batteries aid a catalytic air cathode with the intention of equipment oxygen, an electrolyte and a lithium anode. The equipment has the the makings to pile almost as much energy as a tank of gasoline, and will be inflicted with a room pro energy storage space with the intention of is five to 10 era greater than with the intention of of Li-ion batteries, a join equipment. That the makings, however, will not be realized until vital methodical challenges be inflicted with been solved.

Read More