Life Sciences and Chemistry

Stem cells have enormous potential for repairing damage to the body caused by disease, injury, or aging. When introduced into an injured area of a patient, a stem cell could survive and repopulate the region with different types of cells, forming normal tissue.

Stem cells also offer the prospect of treating many inherited diseases caused by a single, defective gene. Though other treatments are available, such as gene therapy, the longevity of benefits from stem cell treatment provides a tant

A substance produced by tomatoes repels mosquitoes and other insects more effectively and is safer than DEET, the chemical most commonly used in insect repellents, a North Carolina State University scientist has discovered.

Indeed, work by Dr. Michael Roe, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Entomology at NC State, showed that the natural compound found in tomatoes is so effective at repelling insects that the university patented the substance. The patent describes how the subs

Finding has implications for future of biodiversity

A significant number of organisms that survived the five greatest mass extinctions in Earth’s history subsequently failed to achieve evolutionary success, according to a new study funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and conducted by University of Chicago scientist David Jablonski.

“It’s clear that there is a lot of evolutionary action in the aftermath of mass extinctions,” said Jablonski. “During the re

Along with Canadian colleagues, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientist has discovered fossils of plants dating back some 420 million years.

The discovery, made on Bathurst Island in the Northwest Territories about 800 miles from the North Pole, shows vascular plants were more complex at that time than paleontologists previously believed and is significant for that reason, the UNC researcher said.

“These are not the earliest vascular plants ever found, but they are

Consider the plight of the lonely nene goose: Fated to occupy just one island in all the world; reduced in numbers to fewer than 30 individuals by the middle of the last century; each bird as closely related to the others as human siblings.

What caused the narrowing of the nenes’ circumstances to the point of near-extinction? Was the isolation of island living to blame for draining their gene pool to a puddle, or was it caused by the 20th century population decline? How did they surviv

In the Arctic and Antarctic seas the water gets cold to minus 1.9 C in winter, but somehow some fish live there. These cold-blooded creatures survive in the icy water because the blood in their veins contains antifreeze proteins and glycoproteins. High levels of the antifreeze proteins are found in the blood serum, they are present in cell cytoplasm and all body fluids except urine. Due to their structure, molecules of antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGP) prevent growth of ice crystals. Natural antifreeze