'Charitable Donations' from Bacteria?
In studying antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, researchers from Boston University and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard have discovered that charitable behavior exists in one of the most microscopic forms of life.
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Frog Skin Could Reveal Many Useful Antibiotics
In a report at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, the team of stalwart frog-fanciers described enlisting colleagues worldwide to ship secretions from hundreds of promising frog skins to their laboratory in the United Arab Emirates. Using that amphibious treasure trove, they identified more than 100 antibiotic substances in the skins of different frog species from around the world. One even fights “Iraqibacter,” the bacterium responsible for drug-resistant infections in wounded soldiers returning from Iraq.
Michael Conlon, Ph.D., who reported on the research, noted that the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria, which have the ability to shrug off conventional antibiotics, is a growing problem worldwide. As a result, patients need new types of antibiotics to replace drugs that no longer work.
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New Treatment Technique for Eye Cancer May Save Vision
Choroidal melanoma of the eye, or uveal cancer, is the most common and dangerous form of a disease that inflicts over 2,000 people each year. The cancer can occur in people of any age, and can quickly spread to the liver and lungs - often proving fatal.
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'You can see a lot just by looking' - Yogi Berra
Researchers from Loyola University have identified six (6) individual amino acids, located in a little-studied region of the TRIM5a protein, that appear to give the protein the ability to destroy HIV in rhesus monkeys.
The finding could lead to new TRIM5a-based treatments that would knock out HIV in humans, said senior researcher Edward M. Campbell, PhD, of Loyola University Health System.
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How Does Altitude Control in Fruit Flies Work?
Flies follow horizontal edges to regulate altitude, says a team of researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). This finding contradicts a previous model, which posited that insects adjust their height by visually measuring the motion beneath them as they fly.
Video Abstract
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Most Populated Solar System Discovered
Using the ESO's (European Southern Observatory) HARPS instrument, a team of astronomers have discovered a group of at least five planets orbiting a "Sun-like" star known as HD 10180. With strong evidence that two other planets may be present (one of which would have the lowest mass ever found) - this becomes the largest planetary system, outside of our own, ever discovered.
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Smithsonian Scientists Help Create First Frozen Repository for Hawaiian Coral
Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution and the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have created the first frozen bank for Hawaiian corals in an attempt to protect them from extinction and to preserve their diversity in Hawaii. Mary Hagedorn, an adjunct faculty member at HIMB and a research scientist with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, leads the laboratory at the HIMB research facilities on Coconut Island in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, that is banking the frozen coral cells.
"Because frozen banked cells are viable, the frozen material can be thawed one, 50 or, in theory, even 1,000 years from now to restore a species or population," said Hagedorn. "In fact, some of the frozen sperm samples have already been thawed and used to fertilize coral eggs to produce developing coral larvae."
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This Spider is a Mosquito Hunter
On the pest chart not many insects out rank the mosquito. Throw in that they carry and spread disease throughout the globe and you have a pretty solid case for making them a public enemy. Enter Evarcha culicvora, a small spider that has specialized on dining on those flying phlebotomist's. Interestingly the spider is dining on the blood the mosquito holds, and does it for mate attraction as much as nutrition according the paper "Mosquito-specialist spiders".
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Magnetricity Can We Find a Use For It?
The magnetic equivalent of electricity referred to as "Magnetricity" is "an interesting curiosity" as Professor Steve Bramwell states in this video. In September of 2009, physicists directed neutrons at spin ices made of titanium-containing compounds chilled close to absolute zero. The behavior of the neutrons suggested that monopoles, like those shown here were present, in the material.
The next step was to measure the amount of magnetic "charge" on the monopoles and to measure magnetic analogues to electric current for the first time. The motion and interaction of monopoles is what creates "magnetricity".
Professor Bramwell explains in the video "It's a bit like having individual north and south poles about the size of an atom that can sort of flow around within the material, and when you put a magnetic field on, they all set off and migrate to one end of the sample."
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Wind Energy Posts Big Numbers in 2009 But Slows in 2010
A report from the U.S. Department of Energy that was prepared by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory titled "2009 Wind Technologies Market Report." highlights the latest statistics in U.S. wind power. The report gives in depth analysis of both gains and loses in the wind power industry from 2008 to 2010 and beyond.
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