The EDGE: ScienceDaily Environment Headlines -- for Saturday, October 1, 2011

ScienceDaily Environment Headlines

for Saturday, October 1, 2011

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Humans and sharks share immune system feature (September 30, 2011) -- A central element of the immune system has remained constant through more than 400 million years of evolution, according to new research. T-cell receptors from mice continue to function even when pieces of shark, frog and trout receptors are substituted in. The function of the chimeric receptors depends on a few crucial amino acids, found also in humans, that help the T-cell receptor bind to MHC molecules presenting antigens. ... > full story

Female promiscuity can rescue populations from harmful effects of inbreeding, beetle study finds (September 30, 2011) -- Females in inbred populations become more promiscuous in order to screen out sperm from genetically incompatible males, according to new study by the University of East Anglia (UEA). ... > full story

Autistic mice act a lot like human patients: Geneticists develop promising mouse model for testing new autism therapies (September 30, 2011) -- Scientists have created a mouse model for autism that opens a window into the biological mechanisms that underlie the disease and offers a promising way to test new treatment approaches. The research found that autistic mice display remarkably similar symptoms and behavior as children and adults on the autism spectrum. ... > full story

Small fish recover faster than large fish (September 30, 2011) -- In football, linebackers are usually the largest players and have the endurance required to get through a game plus overtime. But when it comes to fish, larger doesn't always mean stronger. A new study showed smaller fish recover from exertion faster than larger fish. ... > full story

Changes in attention and visual perception are correlated with aging: Older people find it harder to see the wood for the trees (September 30, 2011) -- When looking at a picture of many trees, young people will tend to say: "This is a forest." However, the older we get, the more likely we are to notice a single tree before seeing the forest. Researchers have found that these age-related changes are correlated with a specific aspect of visual perception, known as Gestalt perception. ... > full story

Complicated gene networks involved in fly aggression (September 30, 2011) -- Put up your dukes. A study of aggression in fruit flies aims to provide a framework for how complex gene interactions affect behavior. And these clues in flies could translate to a better understanding of human genes and behavior. ... > full story

Unprecedented insight into fighting viral infections (September 30, 2011) -- Researchers have determined the structure of a protein that is the first line of defense in fighting viral infections including influenza, hepatitis C, West Nile, rabies and measles. ... > full story

New flavors emerge from Peruvian cacao collection trip (September 30, 2011) -- New cacao types with unique flavors that are distinctly Peruvian have been identified. These new flavors could one day be marketed like wine, by geographical provenance. ... > full story

'Superfast' muscles responsible for bat echolocation (September 30, 2011) -- As nocturnal animals, bats rely echolocation to navigate and hunt prey. By bouncing sound waves off objects, including the bugs that are their main diet, bats can produce an accurate representation of their environment in total darkness. Now, researchers at the University of Southern Denmark and the University of Pennsylvania have shown that this amazing ability is enabled by a physical trait never before seen in mammals: so-called "superfast" muscles. ... > full story

Researchers produce cheap sugars for sustainable biofuel production (September 30, 2011) -- Researchers have developed technologies to efficiently produce, recover and separate sugars from the fast pyrolysis of biomass. That's a big deal because those sugars can be further processed into biofuels. ... > full story

Sharks are in trouble, new analysis confirms (September 30, 2011) -- Sharks are in big trouble on the Great Barrier Reef and worldwide, according to an Australian-based team who have developed a world-first way to measure rates of decline in shark populations. ... > full story

All-access genome: New study explores packaging of DNA (September 29, 2011) -- A team of biophysicists has been preoccupied with tiny, spool-like entities known as nucleosomes. Their latest insights help explain how these structures wrap and unwrap, permitting regulatory proteins to access, bind with and act on regions of DNA. ... > full story