Life Sciences and Chemistry

Using atomic-force microscopy, vision researchers have taken pictures of some of the eye’s photon receptors in their natural state, and have analyzed their packing arrangement. Their findings, published in the Jan. 9 issue of Nature, offer insight on how light signaling might be controlled in the retina’s outer edge.

The retina receives light through rods and cones. Rods, which are most heavily concentrated on the retina’s outer edge, are sensitive to dim light and to movemen

Neural circuits that control eye movements play multiple roles in visual attention

With so many visual stimuli bombarding our eyes — cars whizzing by, leaves fluttering — how can we focus attention on a single spot — a word on a page or a fleeting facial expression? How do we filter so purely that the competing stimuli never even register in our awareness?

A pair of Princeton scientists have found that it has a lot to do with the brain circuits that control eye movements.

In an organic chemistry lab located in the Science II building on the campus of Binghamton University, Scott Handy is busy whipping up promising new substances modeled after natural compounds found in sea sponges and tobacco plants. Some of the synthetic compounds could help in the fight against cancer and AIDS. Others could provide a safer, more effective, and more affordable alternative to the traditional solvents organic chemists use to catalyze reactions and synthesize compounds, one molecule at

Findings point to complex social behaviour

The large tusks of an animal that roamed Earth before the dinosaurs may provide the earliest evidence yet of male-female distinctions in land animals that existed millions of years ago, say U of T scientists.

Robert Reisz, a biology professor at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, and his team have found convincing evidence of sexual dimorphism – different physical traits between the sexes of the same species – in their study

Recent research shows that insects and humans have something surprising in common: Some six-legged species take in oxygen using a similar means to the way we fill our lungs.

Scientists from the Field Museum and Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago and from Clemson University used a powerful x-ray imaging device to get the first comprehensive view of live insects breathing. Their observations and research results are reported in the Jan. 24 issue of Science, an internationally respected res

Opens new door to study of mood disorders in humans

Researchers report finding a gene that is essential for normal levels of anxiety and aggression. Calling it the Pet-1 gene, researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Department of Neurosciences say that when this gene is removed or “knocked out” in a mouse, aggression and anxiety in adults are greatly elevated compared to a control (also called wild type) mouse.

(Videos displaying aggressive beha