PCC STEM's Posts

A new record of past temperature change in the tropical Atlantic Ocean's subsurface provides clues as to why the Earth's climate is so sensitive to ocean circulation patterns.
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Researchers have published the first annotated atlas of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genome, providing the best look yet at how EBV interacts with human genes and proteins. EBV, which is thought to be responsible for one percent of all human cancers -- including B cell lymphomas, gastric carcinomas, and nasopharyngeal carcinomas -- establishes a latent infection in nearly 100 percent of infected adult humans.
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Abnormalities in mitochondrial length promote the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.
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The discovery of a 'switch' that modifies a gene known to be essential for normal heart development could explain variations in the severity of birth defects in children with DiGeorge syndrome.
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A study of Drosophila embryos found that parental methylated histones are not transferred to daughter DNA. Rather, after DNA replication, new nucleosomes are assembled from newly synthesized unmodified histones.
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Human lungs brush out intruders

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A new study helps to explain how human airways clear mucus out of the lungs. The findings may give researchers a better understanding of what goes wrong in many human lung diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma.
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Scientists have discovered a molecular mechanism by which body temperature rhythms influence the expression of 'clock genes' and synchronize local oscillators. This study also demonstrates how the production of DBP, a protein involved in detoxification and drug metabolism, is modulated by daily variations of temperature.
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Rather than trying to kill bacteria outright with drugs, researchers have discovered a way to disarm bacteria that may allow the body's own defense mechanisms to destroy them. "To understand this strategy one could imagine harmful bacteria being like Darth Vader, and the anti-virulence drug would take away his armor and lightsaber," explained the study's lead author.
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Ninety-six percent of a chimpanzee's genome is the same as a human's. It's the other 4 percent, and the vast differences, that has intrigued researchers. For instance, why do humans have a high risk of cancer, even though chimps rarely develop the disease? In a new study, scientists have looked at brain samples of each species. They found that differences in certain DNA modifications, called methylation, may contribute to phenotypic changes. The results also hint that DNA methylation plays an important role for some disease-related phenotypes in humans, including cancer and autism.
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(Phys.org)—Scientists at the University of Cambridge have produced hydrogen, H2, a renewable energy source, from water using an inexpensive catalyst under industrially relevant conditions (using pH neutral water, surrounded by atmospheric oxygen, O2, and at room temperature).
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Scientists have pinpointed a gene that enables rice plants to produce around 20 percent more grain by increasing uptake of phosphorus, an important, but limited, plant nutrient.
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Sodium chloride, better known as salt, is vital for the organism, and the kidneys play a crucial role in the regulation of sodium balance. However, the underlying mechanisms of sodium balance are not yet completely understood. Researchers in Germany have now deciphered the function of a gene in the kidney and have thus gained new insights into this complex regulation process.
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