Automakers bet on alternative-fuel cars for future
Judging by the slew of electric and hybrid vehicles being rolled out at the Frankfurt Auto Show, it might seem carmakers are tapping a large and eager market.
View ArticleGlobal warming could change strength of El Nino
Global warming could impact the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), altering the cycles of El Niño and La Niña events that bring extreme drought and flooding to Australia and many other Pacific-rim...
View ArticleScientists explore how mercury could interfere with vision
(Phys.org) —People have long heard that carrots are good for their eyesight, and strong evidence exists that eating fish also provides health benefits.
View ArticleHorsetail spores found able to 'walk' and 'jump' (w/ Video)
(Phys.org) —A trio of researches working at University Grenoble in France has discovered that spores produced by horsetail plants are able to move around using "legs" known as elaters. In their paper...
View ArticleAirbrushing could facilitate large-scale manufacture of carbon nanofibers
Researchers from North Carolina State University used airbrushing techniques to grow vertically aligned carbon nanofibers on several different metal substrates, opening the door for incorporating these...
View Article'Merlin' is a matchmaker, not a magician: The protein 'arranges' other...
Johns Hopkins researchers have figured out the specific job of a protein long implicated in tumors of the nervous system. Reporting on a new study described in the Sept. 12 issue of the journal Cell,...
View ArticleBiologists uncover mechanisms for cholera toxin's deadly effects
Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have identified an underlying biochemical mechanism that helps make cholera toxin so deadly, often resulting in life-threating diarrhea that causes...
View ArticleHottest days in some parts of Europe have warmed four times more than the...
Some of the hottest days and coldest nights in parts of Europe have warmed more than four times the global average change since 1950, according to a new paper by researchers from the Grantham Research...
View ArticlePumping draws arsenic toward a big-city aquifer
Naturally occurring arsenic pollutes wells across the world, especially in south and southeast Asia, where an estimated 100 million people are exposed to levels that can cause heart, liver and kidney...
View ArticleCentury-old chemistry problem solved
Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a way to apply a "foundational reaction" of organic chemistry to a stubborn class of chemicals, in a transformation that has been thought...
View ArticleUnusual mechanism of DNA synthesis could explain genetic mutations
Researchers have discovered the details of how cells repair breaks in both strands of DNA, a potentially devastating kind of DNA damage.
View ArticleIn odd-looking mutant, clues about how maize plants control stem cell number
In plants, the growth of organs such as roots, leaves and flowers depends upon the activity of meristems. These reservoir-like compartments hold stem cells, which have the ability to develop into...
View ArticleEmbryonic stem cells produced in living adult organisms
A team from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) has become the first to make adult cells from a living organism retreat in their evolutionary development to recover the characteristics...
View ArticleAstronomers explain why disk galaxies eventually look alike
(Phys.org) —It happens to all kinds of flat, disk galaxies – whether they're big, little, isolated or crowded in a cluster. They all grow out of their irregular, clumped appearance and their older...
View ArticleDiscovery of cell division 'master controller' may improve understanding and...
In a study to be published in the journal Nature, two Dartmouth researchers have found that the protein cyclin A plays an important but previously unknown role in the cell division process, acting as a...
View ArticleOrangutans plan their future route and communicate it to others, researchers...
Male orangutans plan their travel route up to one day in advance and communicate it to other members of their species. In order to attract females and repel male rivals, they call in the direction in...
View ArticleCalculating the true cost of a ton of mountaintop coal
To meet current U.S. coal demand through surface mining, an area of the Central Appalachians the size of Washington, D.C., would need to be mined every 81 days.
View ArticleThe final nail in the Jurassic Park coffin: Next generation sequencing...
It is hardly possible to talk about fossil insects in amber without the 1993 movie Jurassic Park entering the debate. The idea of recreating dinosaurs by extracting DNA from insects in amber has held...
View ArticleAustralian tarantula venom contains novel insecticide against agricultural pests
Spider venoms are usually toxic when injected into prey, but a new protein discovered in the venom of Australian tarantulas can also kill prey insects that consume the venom orally. The protein is...
View ArticleThe peanut at the heart of our galaxy
Two groups of astronomers have used data from ESO telescopes to make the best three-dimensional map yet of the central parts of the Milky Way. They have found that the inner regions take on a...
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