Life Sciences and Chemistry

Male bullfrogs communicate with other bullfrogs through calls made up of a series of croaks, some of which contain stutters, according to a new Brown University study which describes a pattern not previously identified in scientific literature.

Researchers recorded 2,536 calls from 32 male bullfrogs in natural chorus and analyzed the number of croaks in each call and the number of stutters in each croak. It is known that the male bullfrog’s call attracts females for mating, maintains territo

Brown University researchers have found that there are multiple independent ways to stop cell division, a phenomenon that prevents the spread of genetic mutation, which can make cells cancerous. Results of this research, along with an accompanying editorial, were published in the current issue of the journal Molecular Cell.

The findings will be of interest to scientists who are developing new-generation drugs that target cancer at the molecular level, according to John Sedivy, principal inve

Scientists will have a new view of how the AIDS virus (HIV) enters a target cell and begins its process of infection, thanks to a technique created by researchers at the Salk Institute.

The technique allows scientists to observe for the first time the steps taken by viruses like HIV after they enter a cell. The study was done with a chicken virus that was modified to contain the genes of HIV. Both the chicken virus and HIV are retroviruses, which means their genomes are made from RNA rather

Many flowering plants prevent inbreeding and increase genetic diversity by a process called self-incompatibility, in which pollination fails to set seed if the pollen is identified as its own by the pistil. A research team, led by Teh-hui Kao, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State, has announced, in a paper published in the May 20 issue of Nature, the discovery of a gene of petunias that controls pollen function in self-incompatibility. This discovery completes a critical miss

The progressing AIDS epidemic has prompted a revival of interest in pneumocytosis, a respiratory infection which appears only in immunodepressed humans and can be fatal if treatment is not given. The agent responsible is a microscopic fungus, albeit usually non-pathogenic, which lives in the pulmonary alveoli. Searching for possible sources of human contamination in animal reservoirs proved negative: only the species specific for humans, Pneumocystis jirovecii, can trigger pneumonia in humans. This w

Blocking a molecule that rids cells of potentially toxic molecules might make chemotherapy for leukemia more effective, but it could also leave healthy stem cells more vulnerable to toxic cancer treatment drugs

Inactivating a protective molecule in leukemic cells to make them more vulnerable to chemotherapy might also make healthy blood-forming cells more sensitive to the toxic effects of those same drugs. These findings have been published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry by in