Life Sciences and Chemistry

A University of Alberta researcher has discovered two new species of shrimp–adding to an unusual family that already includes varieties who can shoot bubbles that create sound waves, stunning their prey.

Dr. Arthur Anker, a post-doctoral fellow in the University of Alberta’s Department of Biological Sciences, focuses his research on a family of shrimp known as snapping shrimp–scientifically known as alpheidae–and has recently discovered two new species.

Shrimp from

Infinitesimal particles of gold have enabled neurobiologists to track down key molecules in the machinery of “entry points” in neurons — offering clues to the organization of a region that has thus far remained largely unknown neuronal territory.

The researchers — from Duke University Medical Center and the University of North Carolina — used electron microscopy to locate molecules tagged with targeted antibodies attached to gold particles — rendering the molecules’ precise

Dynamic ice

A technique borrowed from the surface physics community is helping chemists and atmospheric scientists understand the complex chemical reactions that occur on low-temperature ice.

Known as electron-stimulated desorption (ESD), the technique uses low-energy electrons to locally probe surfaces, differentiating their characteristics from those of the bulk material below them. Using ESD, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have demonstrated that hyd

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have discovered a new component of the machinery immune cells use to generate a remarkably diverse array of antibodies from a relatively small number of genes.

The discovery reveals important links in the molecular pathway by which complex genetic alterations arm the immune system to target myriad potential bacterial and viral invaders with swiftness and precision. The discovery may also provide welcome new information about lymphoma, a fo

Given the number of human pharmaceuticals and hormones that make their way into wastewater, some people are concerned about how well treatment plants that turn sewage into reusable water remove these chemicals.

New research shows that wastewater treatment plants that employ a combination of purifying techniques followed by reverse osmosis – a process by which water is forced through a barrier that only water can pass – do a good job of removing chemicals that may elicit health effe

Scientists at the University of Sheffield are part of an international team that has become the first to successfully discover how the component parts of photosynthesis fit together within the cell membrane. In a paper, The native architecture of a photosynthetic membrane, published in Nature on 26 August 2004, they describe how the configuration of the three structures that allow photosynthesis to occur fit together, and find that Mother Nature has developed a much more complex and effective