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Fruit fly gene study leads to new method for understanding brain function

23:37 10-09-2010; source: www.sciencedaily.com

A team of researchers studying neurobiology in fruit flies has developed a new method for understanding brain function with potential applications in studies of human neurological diseases.

Tracking triclosan's field footprint

23:37 10-09-2010; source: www.sciencedaily.com

A study by agricultural scientists and cooperators provides new details about how fertilizing soils with biosolids also introduces triclosan -- an antibacterial agent in soaps and other cleaning supplies -- into the environment.

Flying fish glide as well as birds, researchers find

22:37 10-09-2010; source: www.sciencedaily.com

How well do flying fish fly? This is the question that puzzled researchers in South Korea. Measuring aerodynamic forces on dried darkedged-wing flying fish in a wind tunnel, they discovered that flying fish glide better than insects and as well as birds. The fish also derive an aerodynamic advantage from gliding close to the water's surface to cover distances as great as 400 meters.

Graphene may hold key to speeding up DNA sequencing

21:37 10-09-2010; source: www.sciencedaily.com

Researchers have demonstrated that graphene can act as an artificial membrane separating two liquid reservoirs. By drilling a tiny pore just a few-nanometers in diameter, called a nanopore, in the graphene membrane, they were able to measure exchange of ions through the pore and demonstrated that a long DNA molecule can be pulled through the graphene nanopore just as a thread is pulled through the eye of a needle.

Discovery offers hope of saving sub-Saharan crops from devastating parasites

20:37 10-09-2010; source: www.sciencedaily.com

Each year, thousands of acres of crops are planted throughout Africa, Asia and Australia only to be laid to waste by a parasitic plant called Striga, also known as witchweed. It is one of the largest challenges to food security in Africa, and a team of scientists has discovered chemicals and genes that may break Striga's stranglehold.

CRISPR critters: Scientists identify key enzyme in microbial immune system

04:37 10-09-2010; source: www.sciencedaily.com

Using protein crystallography beamlines at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source, a team of researchers has resolved the atomic-scale crystal structure of an enzyme called "Csy4" that plays a key role in a microbial immune system. The research provides important new clues to the fundamental role of RNA in the evolution of life.