Vaccine attacks breast cancer in mice
Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Arizona (http://www.mayoclinic.org/arizona/) and the University of Georgia (UGA) have developed a vaccine that dramatically reduces [...]
Tag Archives: proceedings of the national academy of sciences 
Small step for lungfish, a big step for evolution of walking
The eel-like body and scrawny “limbs” of the African lungfish would appear to make it an unlikely innovator for locomotion. But its improbable walking behavior, newly described by University of Chicago scientists, redraws the evolutionary route of life…
Why humans see clearly
A transparent cornea is essential for vision, which is why the eye has evolved to nourish the cornea without blood vessels. But for millions of people around the world, diseases of the eye or trauma spur the growth of blood vessels and can …
New model fosters drug development for pain, epilepsy
Drawing on X-ray crystallography and experimental data, as well as a software suite for predicting and designing protein structures, a UC Davis School of Medicine researcher has developed an algorithm that predicts what has been…
Researchers discover new shapes of microcompartments
In nature and engineering, microcompartments — molecular shells made of proteins that can encapsulate cellular components — provide a tiny home for important reactions. In bacterial organelles, for example, microcompartments known as carboxyso…
Rising CO2 is causing plants to release less water to the atmosphere, researchers say
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — As carbon dioxide levels have risen during the last 150 years, the density of pores that allow plants to breathe has dwindled by 34 percent, restricting the amount of water vapor the plants release to the atmosphere, report sc…
Language may play important role in learning the meanings of numbers
New research conducted with deaf people in Nicaragua shows that language may play an important role in learning the meanings of numbers.
Field studies by University of Chicago psychologist Susan Goldin-Meadow and a team of researchers found de…
Words help people form mathematical concepts
Language may play an important role in learning the meanings of numbers, scholars at the University of Chicago report.
A study based on research on deaf people in Nicaragua who never learned formal sign language showed that people who communicate …
Evolution by mistake
Charles Darwin based his groundbreaking theory of natural selection on the realization that genetic variation among organisms is the key to evolution.
Some individuals are better adapted to a given environment than others, making them more l…
For robust robots, let them be babies first
Want to build a really tough robot? Forget about Terminator. Instead, watch a tadpole turn into a frog.
Or at least that’s not too far off from what University of Vermont roboticist Josh Bongard has discovered, as he reports in the January 10 on…
Researchers show how 1 gene becomes 2 (with different functions)
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Researchers report that they are the first to show in molecular detail how one gene evolved two competing functions that eventually split up — via gene duplication — to pursue their separate destinies.
The study, in th…
Research shows that environmental factors limit species diversity
It’s long been accepted by biologists that environmental factors cause the diversity — or number — of species to increase before eventually leveling off. Some recent work, however, has suggested that species diversity continues instead of entering…
New study upends thinking about how liver disease develops
In the latest of a series of related papers, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues in Austria and elsewhere, present a new and more definitive explanation of how fibrotic cells form, multiply …
How plants counteract against the shade of larger neighbors
Plants that “lose the battle” during competitiveness for light because they are shaded by larger neighbours, counteract. They adapt by rapid shoot elongation and stretch their leaves towards the sun. The molecular basis of this so-called shade avoid…
A positive step in the face of uncertainty
TEMPE, Ariz. — Enormous uncertainty. These two words describe the condition of Phoenix’s climate and water supply in the 21st century. Reservoirs have dipped to their lowest levels, continuous drought has plagued the state and forecasts for even w…
Heat helped hasten life’s beginnings
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — There has been controversy about whether life originated in a hot or cold environment, and about whether enough time has elapsed for life to have evolved to its present complexity.
But new research at the University of North C…
Sour research, sweet results
This Thanksgiving, when you bite into the cranberry sauce and the tartness smacks your tongue as hard as that snide comment from your sister, consider the power of sour.
Neurobiology researchers at the University of Southern California have made a …
Female fish — and humans? — lose interest when their male loses a slugfest
You may think of your love for your mate as the noble emotion of a pure heart, but some primitive parts of your brain are taking a decidedly more pragmatic approach to the subject, according to Stanford biologists.
In experiments with African ci…
