Body | Page 1635 | Science Codex

High-protein weight loss diets can work

Scientists have shown that instead of counting calories for weight loss, we would do better to boost the protein content of our diet.

Nutritional values of foods are typically given in kilojoules or kilocalories, standard units of energy. However, new research on apes and monkeys suggests that this is too simplistic as different macronutrients – carbohydrates, fats and proteins- interact to regulate appetite and energy intake. In these animals, overall energy intake seems to be less important than achieving the correct nutritional balance.

The power of the power nap!

For hibernating mammals, the pre-winter months are a race against time to accumulate enough energy reserves to last until spring. Offspring born late in the year have much less time to achieve this. Austrian scientists have discovered that power-napping can help late-born dormice overcome these unfavourable odds.

New discovery in living cell signaling

A breakthrough discovery into how living cells process and respond to chemical information could help advance the development of treatments for a large number of cancers and other cellular disorders that have been resistant to therapy. An international collaboration of researchers, led by scientists with the U.S.

Biochemical cascade causes bone marrow inflammation, leading to serious blood disorders

When Dr. Carlesso's team blocked the activity of one of the molecules in this biochemical cascade, the myeloproliferative disorder in the mice was reversed. In addition, elevated levels of the blocked molecule were found in samples from human patients with myeloproliferative disease. These findings suggest that developing drugs that target this inflammatory reaction at different key points could be a promising strategy to limit the development of myeloproliferative disease in humans.

How knots can swap positions on a DNA strand

Physicists of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the Graduate School of Excellence "Materials Science in Mainz" (MAINZ) have been able with the aid of computer simulations to confirm and explain a mechanism by which two knots on a DNA strand can interchange their positions. For this, one of the knots grows in size while the other diffuses along the contour of the former.

Sweet genes

Edmonton, July 3, 2014 – A research team at the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta have discovered a new way by which metabolism is linked to the regulation of DNA, the basis of our genetic code. The findings may have important implications for the understanding of many common diseases, including cancer.

Host genetics can contribute to lung damage in severe tuberculosis

A third of the global population is infected with the bacterial pathogen, a mycobacterium, that causes tuberculosis (TB). Most carriers control the infection and are asymptomatic, but severe forms of the disease (more common in children and immune-compromised adults, and often caused by particularly aggressive—or hypervirulent—mycobacterial strains) kill over a million people every year. An article published on July 3rd in PLOS Pathogens now identifies a factor made by the host that exacerbates lung damage in severe TB.

Hollow-fiber membranes could cut separation costs, energy use

Researchers have developed a microfluidic technique for fabricating a new class of metal-organic framework (MOF) membranes inside hollow polymer fibers that are just a few hundred microns in diameter. The new fabrication process, believed to be the first to grow MOF membranes inside hollow fibers, could potentially change the way large-scale energy-intensive chemical separations are done.

Doing something is better than doing nothing for most people, study shows

Most people are just not comfortable in their own heads, according to a new psychological investigation led by the University of Virginia.

The investigation found that most would rather be doing something – possibly even hurting themselves – than doing nothing or sitting alone with their thoughts, said the researchers, whose findings will be published July 4 in the journal Science.

Smithsonian scientist and collaborators revise timeline of human origins

Many traits unique to humans were long thought to have originated in the genus Homo between 2.4 and 1.8 million years ago in Africa. Although scientists have recognized these characteristics for decades, they are reconsidering the true evolutionary factors that drove them.

Gene discovered that activates stem cells for organ regeneration in Planarians

Researchers announced the discovery of a gene zic-1 that enables stem cells to regrow a head after decapitation in flatworm planarians. Professor Christian Petersen and Ph.D. student Constanza Vásquez-Doorman of Northwestern University discovered zic-1 by investigating planarians, an animal that uses pluripotent stem cells to regrow any missing tissue lost from injury. The study, entitled "zic-1 Expression in Planarian Neoblasts after Injury Controls Anterior Pole Regeneration," was reported in PLOS Genetics.

Rethinking the reef

A new study by biologists at San Diego State University and Scripps Institution of Oceanography shows that inhabited coral islands that engage in commercial fishing dramatically alter their nearby reef ecosystems, disturbing the microbes, corals, algae and fish that call the reef home.

The study's lead author, Linda Wegley Kelly, is a postdoctoral scholar in the lab of SDSU virologist Forest Rohwer.

Drug shows promise for effectively treating metabolic syndrome

(SALT LAKE CITY)—University of Utah researchers have discovered that an enzyme involved in intracellular signaling plays a crucial role in developing metabolic syndrome, a finding that has a U of U spinoff company developing a drug to potentially treat the condition.

The researchers, led by Jared Rutter, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry, hope to begin human clinical trials of a drug in the next couple of years.

Safer, cheaper building blocks for future anti-HIV and cancer drugs

A team of researchers from KU Leuven, in Belgium, has developed an economical, reliable and heavy metal-free chemical reaction that yields fully functional 1,2,3-triazoles. Triazoles are chemical compounds that can be used as building blocks for more complex chemical compounds, including pharmaceutical drugs.

Cellular defence against fatal associations between proteins and DNA

This news release is available in German.