Body

Cellular survival relies crucially on the ability to receive and communicate signals from and to the outside world. A major part of this regulation and communication is performed by proteins within the membrane of a cell. How these proteins work is an important topic in biology, and one which these scientists have excellently clarified by computational techniques.

Yet some exercise is still better than none.

The old adage "use it or lose it" is truer than ever. People who maintain a vigorously active lifestyle as they age gain less weight than people who exercise at more moderate levels, according to a first-of-its-kind study that tracked a large group of runners who kept the same exercise regimen as they grew older.

The study also found that maintaining exercise with age is particularly effective in preventing extreme weight gain, which is associated with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and other diseases.

IBM today announced the first-ever application of a breakthrough self-assembling nanotechnology to conventional chip manufacturing, borrowing a process from nature to build the next generation computer chips.

The natural pattern-creating process that forms seashells, snowflakes, and enamel on teeth has been harnessed by IBM to form trillions of holes to create insulating vacuums around the miles of nano-scale wires packed next to each other inside each computer chip.

When a cell divides, normally the result is two identical daughter cells. In some cases however, cell division leads to two cells with different properties. This is called asymmetric cell division and plays an important role in embryonic development and the self-renewal of stem cells. Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) have now worked out the mechanism underlying asymmetric cell division in nematode worms.

There is renewed hope for treatment of a rare genetic condition, Progeria, that causes rapidly accelerated aging and leads to an average life expectancy of 13 years.

Scientists studying the genes of two infants who died of mysterious illnesses found the infants had mutations in LMNA, the same gene altered in patients with the premature aging condition. But the infants' unusual mutations caused them to make many more bad copies of the gene's primary protein, lamin A, than progeria patients.

When it comes to studying energy transfer in photosynthesis, it's good to think "outside the bun."

That's what Robert Blankenship, Ph.D., professor of biology and chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, did when he contributed a protein to a study performed by his collaborators at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley. The protein's moniker? The taco shell protein.

Taco shell protein

Scientists have found that sperm from diabetic men have greater levels of DNA damage than sperm from men who do not have the disease. They warn that such DNA damage might affect a man’s fertility.

Tens of thousands of Americans die each year from secondhand tobacco smoke, according to a 2006 report by the U.S. Surgeon General. While the health risks associated with indoor secondhand smoke are well documented, little research has been done on exposure to toxic tobacco fumes outdoors.

In studies going back to the 1930’s, mice and many other species subsisting on a severely calorie-restricted diet have consistently outlived their well-fed peers by as much as 40 percent. But just how a diet verging on the brink of starvation extends lifespan has remained elusive.

Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have cracked open the black box of how persistent hunger promotes long life and identified a critical gene that specifically links calorie restriction (CR) to longevity.

Breastfeeding and the good fats in Omega-3 fatty acids help new moms fight depression, according to new review.

By monitoring changes in vibrations of bridges it is possible to identify hidden cracks and fractures, according to a Queensland University of Technology researcher.

QUT engineering researcher Henry Shih said variations in bridge vibrations of a bridge could be a telling sign of its structural "health".

"It's not always possible to see damage to a bridge, but using vibrations it is possible to 'see' what can't be seen," he said.

Fairness of kidney allocation is essential for public trust.

While the field of transplantation is quite young, substantial advancements and success have led to the current imbalance between the supply of organs and the demand for them. The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) coordinates the nation's transplant system through a point system based primarily on wait time, sensitization and HLA matching.

Eating low-calorie soup before a meal can help cut back on how much food and calories you eat at the meal, a new Penn State study shows. Results show that when participants in the study ate a first course of soup before a lunch entree, they reduced their total calorie intake at lunch (soup + entrée) by 20 percent, compared to when they did not eat soup.

Physical alterations of DNA in chromosomes can cause serious diseases such as Down syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, or cancer. Likewise, changes to the physiological environment of cells—with drugs or toxins, for example—can alter their metabolic output. To track these processes, scientists need ways to mark genes and their protein products.

Increasing the testosterone levels of female cancer survivors using testosterone cream did not improve their libido more than a placebo, according to a randomized controlled clinical trial in the May 2 Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Female cancer patients often experience decreased sexual desire, and previous studies have shown an association between testosterone therapy, also called androgen therapy, and increased libido in women with adequate estrogen levels.