How do some microorganisms manage to exist and even thrive in surroundings ranging from Antarctica to boiling hot springs? A team of scientists from the Weizmann Institute’s Plant Sciences Department, led by Prof. Avigdor Scherz, has found that a switch in just two amino acids can make a difference between functioning best at moderate temperatures and being adapted to living in extreme heat.
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A daily glass of orange juice can help prevent the recurrence of kidney stones better than other citrus fruit juices such as lemonade, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered.
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The eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean is out of range for U.S. hurricane-hunter aircraft, and forecasters have little skill predicting which systems brewing there will develop into hurricanes, atmospheric scientists say. So, to find out how some of the most dangerous hurricanes form, U.S. and French researchers are launching large, specialized balloons carrying nearly 300 instruments over wide swaths of Africa and the Atlantic Ocean.
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University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers have used gene therapy to either completely abolish or significantly inhibit tumor progression in a mouse model of ovarian cancer. The researchers, therefore, believe gene therapy may significantly improve the prognosis for ovarian cancer patients.
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Lead poisoning is a major factor limiting the success of efforts to rebuild populations of the endangered California condor. A study led by environmental toxicologists at UC Santa Cruz has now confirmed what wildlife biologists have long suspected: Bullet fragments and shotgun pellets in the carcasses of animals killed by hunters are the principal sources of lead poisoning in California condors that have been reintroduced to the wild.
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A Swedish HIV vaccine study conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital and the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control has produced surprisingly good results. Over 90 percent of the subjects in the phase 1 trials developed an immune response to HIV. “Never has such a good result been seen with a vaccine of this type,” says Professor Eric Sandström, chief physician at Karolinska University Hospital.
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Water is essential for life. Nevertheless, even small amounts of water in the wrong places — such as fuels, lubricants, or organic solvents — can cause motors to sputter, metal parts to rust, or chemical reactions to go awry. A new method for detection and measurement of small amounts of water, developed in the lab of Dr. van der Boom in the Weizmann Institute’s Organic Chemistry Department, might allow such tests to be performed accurately and quickly.
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Three years ago, scientists at the Weizmann Institute accidentally discovered a way to silence the expression of a key amoebic gene, one which codes for a toxic protein that kills human intestinal cells infected with this devastating illness. Now the scientists have developed a way to successfully silence the expression of two additional virulence genes in the same amoebae.
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The bane of all wedding videos — that picture of the bride in front of the window where her face is so dark that you can’t see the features — may soon be a thing of the past. By mimicking how insects see, a University of Adelaide researcher can now produce digital videos in which you can see every detail. The technique solves a critical problem for surveillance cameras, where the clarity of images is everything.
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Physical activity after a high-fat meal not only reverses the arterial dysfunction caused by fatty foods but improves the function of these same arteries compared to before the meal, according to new research from Indiana University.
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