To World War II soldiers, "The White Cliffs of Dover" was a morale-boosting song that lifted spirits in dark times. To geographers, the white cliffs mark the point at which England is closest to continental Europe. To scientists, the white cliffs are towering structures made of the chalky, white shells that envelop the single-celled photosynthetic alga known as Emiliania huxleyi. "Ehux" is a coccolithophore, with an exoskeleton made of calcium carbonate.
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The deep biosphere—the realm of sediments far below the seafloor—harbors a vast ecosystem of bacteria, archaea, and fungi that are actively metabolizing, proliferating, and moving, according a new study by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of Delaware (UD).
"This is the first molecular evidence for active cell division in the deep biosphere," says Orsi. Previous studies and models had suggested cells were alive, but whether the cells were actually dividing or not had remained elusive.
Smaller than a speck of dust, Emiliania huxleyi plays an outsized role in the world's seas. Ranging from the polar oceans to the tropics, these free-floating photosynthetic algae remove carbon dioxide from the air, help supply the oxygen that we breathe, and form the base of marine food chains. When they proliferate, their massive turquoise blooms are visible from space.
Mammals possess the remarkable ability to regenerate a lost fingertip, including the nail, nerves and even bone. In humans, an amputated fingertip can sprout back in as little as two months, a phenomenon that has remained poorly understood until now. In a paper published today in the journal Nature, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center shed light on this rare regenerative power in mammals, using genetically engineered mice to document for the first time the biochemical chain of events that unfolds in the wake of a fingertip amputation.
LIVERMORE, Calif.-- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have broken the record for tracking the movement and concentration of carbon dioxide in a geologic formation using the world's deepest Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) system.
The research provides insight into the effects of geological sequestration to address the impact of greenhouse gases.
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- People who have obstructive sleep apnea -- when a person stops breathing for periods during sleep -- have a greater risk of sudden cardiac death, according to a study published online today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. An estimated 12 million American adults have obstructive sleep apnea, and many of them are undiagnosed, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI).
Pyrazinamide (PZA)—a frontline tuberculosis (TB) drug—kills dormant persister bacteria and plays a critical role in shortening TB therapy. PZA is used for treating both drug susceptible and multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) but resistance to PZA occurs frequently and can compromise treatment.
Philadelphia, Pa. (June 12, 2013) – How will full implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) affect the work and goals of state and local public health departments—and how can public health personnel contribute to the success of health care reform? The experience in Massachusetts has some important lessons, according to an article published online by the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice.
In World Oceans Month, there's mixed news for the Pacific Northwest oyster industry.
For the past several years, it has struggled with significant losses due to ocean acidification. Oyster larvae have had mortality rates high enough to render production no longer economically feasible.
Now a new study documents why oysters appear so sensitive to increasing acidity, but also offers some hope for the future.
Communities that stick together and do good for others cope better with crises and are happier for it, according to a new study by John Helliwell, from the University of British Columbia in Canada, and colleagues¹. Their work suggests that part of the reason for this greater resilience is the fact that humans are more than simply social beings, they are so-called 'pro-social' beings. In other words, they get happiness not just from doing things with others, but from doing things both with and for others. The paper² is published online in Springer's Journal of Happiness Studies.
U of T Breakthrough Allows Fast, Reliable Pathogen Identification
An inexpensive new material made of clay and papaya seeds removes harmful metals from water and could lower the cost of providing clean water to millions of people in the developing world, scientists are reporting. Their study on this "hybrid clay" appears in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.
A team of Spanish researchers, coordinated by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), has started to sequence the genome of the global deep ocean. They are using more than 2,000 samples of microorganisms collected in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans during the Malaspina Expedition. This collection of marine microbial genomic, the first in the world on a global scale, will provide new clues about a reservoir of biodiversity yet to explore, considering that it could imply the discovery of tens of millions of new genes in the coming years.
Spit. Drool. Dribble. Saliva is not normally a topic of polite conversation, but it may be the key to explaining the age and sex bias exhibited by influenza and other diseases, according to a new study. Published in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research, it provides new insights into why older people were better able to fight off the new strains of "bird" flu and "swine" flu than younger people.
A major ingredient in those green coffee bean dietary supplements — often touted as "miracle" weight-loss products — doesn't prevent weight gain in obese laboratory mice fed a high-fat diet when given at higher doses. That's the conclusion of a first-of-its-kind study published in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. It also linked the ingredient to an unhealthy build-up of fat in the liver.