Life Sciences and Chemistry

Chemists at Ohio State University and their colleagues may have settled a 70-year-old scientific debate on the fundamental nature of ice.

A new statistical analysis mechanical theory has confirmed what some scientists only suspected before: that under the right conditions, molecules of water can freeze together in just the right way to form a perfect crystal. And once frozen, that ice can be manipulated by electric fields in the same way that magnets respond to magnetic fields.

Are longer sperm more successful than shorter sperm in the race for life? This is one of the questions Dr. Matthew Gage (University of East Anglia) will be addressing on Wednesday 31st March 2004 at the annual SEB meeting in Edinburgh (29th March – 2nd April 2004). Dr. Gage will present evidence that sperm speed, size and shape all matter when it comes to male success in sperm competition.

Sperm competition is a widespread phenomenon that occurs when sperm of more than one male compete to fe

A single strand of plant or animal DNA may contain tens of thousands of genes, each programmed to produce a specific protein essential for the growth or survival of the organism. The challenge for geneticists is to isolate individual genes and determine their function – a painstaking process often requiring years of laboratory trial and error.

Now an international research team has discovered a technique that dramatically streamlines this process for certain kinds of genes. Developed by sc

Biochemists have performed detailed structural studies that reveal for the first time how an enzyme key to DNA replication stalls when an error occurs, to allow it to be corrected. Without such instantaneous braking, such mistakes in DNA replication would wreak havoc on DNA replication, killing the cell.

To their surprise, the scientists observed how the enzyme, DNA polymerase, retains a “short-term memory” of mismatches, in some cases halting itself past the point of the mismatch, so that

First comprehensive proteomic analysis of how proteins change as an animal develops

Carnegie Mellon University scientists have performed the first comprehensive proteome analysis of protein changes that occur in a developing animal, making surprising findings that could require scientists to revise standard thinking about how proteins orchestrate critical steps in embryonic development.

Their findings could one day provide a sensitive way to measure how drugs or environmental

The findings could potentially lead to a better understanding of the role of stem cells in the development of colon cancer

Researchers at Jefferson Medical College have uncovered a novel pattern of gene expression in the stem cell-rich bottom of tiny “crypts” in the tissue lining the colon. By identifying these patterns, the scientists hope to be able to identify mechanisms through which stem cells contribute to the development of colon cancer.

“Having a genetic signature f