Body

Cell division is a fundamental process of life, producing two cells from one single cell at each cell division. During animal development, a fertilized egg divides many times, increasing the number of cells, which are precisely organized within the animal's body. How many times a cell undergoes cell division and how the two daughter cells are positioned after the division can be critical for shaping the animal.

Black children and young adults are about half as likely as their white counterparts to get mental health care despite having similar rates of mental health problems, according to a study published today [Friday, Aug. 12] in the International Journal of Health Services. Hispanic youth also get only half as much mental health care as whites.

University of Utah chemists have found that the Zika virus contains genetic structures similar to other viruses in the Flaviviridae family, and that these structures may serve as potential antiviral drug targets.

Some of the world's most important discoveries - penicillin, vulcanized rubber and Velcro, to name a few - were made by accident. In fact, it's been said that upward of half of all scientific discoveries are by chance.

Add vortex ring freezing to that long list of "accidents."

Plants produce volatiles, air-borne organic chemical compounds, to attract pollinators and seed dispersers, and to repulse plant-eating animals and microbes. Humans have used them for thousands of years as perfumes and spices. A study published on August 11th in PLOS Pathogens reports that virus infection can change a plant's volatile profile to increase reproductive success of the infected--virus-susceptible--host, and might so counteract the selective pressure that favors evolution of plant resistance.

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Highlights

DALLAS, Aug. 11, 2016 - Proactive strategies for promoting good heart health should begin at birth, yet most American children do not meet the American Heart Association's definition of ideal childhood cardiovascular health, according to a new scientific statement published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

Coronary artery disease, the number one killer world-wide, restricts and ultimately blocks blood vessels, and cuts off oxygen supply to the heart. A study published on August 11 in the open access journal PLOS Biology reports that treatment with AGGF1, a protein which promotes angiogenesis (the growth of new blood vessels), can successfully treat acute heart attacks in mice. The therapeutic benefits depend on autophagy, a normal breakdown process that removes cellular structures that are damaged or no longer needed and recycles their molecular components.

LA JOLLA--The best natural chemists out there are not scientists--they're plants. Plants have continued to evolve a rich palette of small natural chemicals and receptors since they began to inhabit land roughly 450 million years ago.

Greenland sharks live at least as long as 400 years, and they reach sexual maturity at the age of about 150, a new study reports. The results place Greenland sharks as the longest-lived vertebrates on Earth. The Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) is widely distributed across the North Atlantic, with adults reaching lengths of 400 to 500 centimeters (13 to 16 feet). The biology of the Greenland shark is poorly understood, yet their extremely slow growth rates, at about 1 cm per year, hint that these fish benefit from exceptional longevity.

Fatty acids found on the surface of water droplets react with sunlight to form organic molecules, a new study reports, essentially uncovering a previously unknown form of photolysis. The results could affect models that account for aerosol particles, including models related to climate. Conventional wisdom holds that carboxylic acids and saturated fatty acids, which are abundant throughout the environment, only react with hydroxyl radicals and are not affected by sunlight.

BOSTON (August 11) - Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University scientists have found exciting, new functions of the protein angiogenin (ANG) that play a significant role in the regulation of blood cell formation, important in bone marrow transplantation and recovery from radiation-induced bone marrow failure. Since current bone marrow transplantations have significant limitations, these discoveries may lead to important therapeutic interventions to help improve the effectiveness of these treatments.

Female domestic cats adjust their response to kitten calls depending on how urgent they sound, according to a study published in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. Independent of their own experience of raising kittens, female cats distinguish between kitten calls that convey different levels of urgency and react accordingly, researchers at Hannover Medical School and the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany have found. Male cats do not adjust their response in similar ways.

Plant scientists at the University of Cambridge have found that the cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) alters gene expression in the tomato plants it infects, causing changes to air-borne chemicals - the scent - emitted by the plants. Bees can smell these subtle changes, and glasshouse experiments have shown that bumblebees prefer infected plants over healthy ones.