News tagged with chemical signal

Scientists investigate how chemicals evolved into communication signals

(PhysOrg.com) -- Living things possess many diverse ways of communicating, but perhaps the oldest and most widespread form of communication involves the use of chemicals. From animals and plants to bacteria ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jan 11, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 3 | with audio podcast feature

Researchers present a shiny new tool for imaging biomolecules

At the heart of the immune system that protects our bodies from disease and foreign invaders is a vast and complex communications network involving millions of cells, sending and receiving chemical signals ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Mar 23, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Simple genetic circuit forms stripes: Synthetic biology helps scientists sort out pattern formation

Many living things have stripes, but the developmental processes that create these and other patterns are complex and difficult to untangle. Now a team of scientists has designed a simple genetic circuit that creates a striped ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Oct 13, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists discover a chemical signal in human tears

Emotional crying is a universal, uniquely human behavior. When we cry, we clearly send all sorts of emotional signals. In a paper published online today in Science Express, scientists at the Weizmann Instit ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Jan 06, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Team develops 'logic gates' to program bacteria as computers

A team of UCSF researchers has engineered E. coli with the key molecular circuitry that will enable genetic engineers to program cells to communicate and perform computations.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 08, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Scientists solve a mystery of bacterial growth and resistance

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have unraveled a complex chemical pathway that enables bacteria to form clusters called biofilms. Such improved understanding might eventually aid the development ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Apr 26, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Plant perfumes woo beneficial bugs

Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have discovered that maize crops emit chemical signals which attract growth-promoting microbes to live amongst their roots. This is the ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Apr 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

'Worm speak' uses chemicals to communicate

(PhysOrg.com) -- A species of small, transparent roundworms have a highly evolved language in which they combine chemical fragments to create precise molecular messages that control social behavior, reports ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jan 26, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (13) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Twist-and-glow molecules aid rapid gas detection

In an emergency such as a factory fire, ascertaining which gases are present in the air is critical to preventing or minimizing poisoning (Fig. 1). This requires gas sensors that react quickly and provide ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Jan 13, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Light now in sight: Control of a 'blind' neuroreceptor with an optical switch

When nerve cells communicate with one another, specialized receptor molecules on their surfaces play a central role in relaying signals between them. A collaborative venture involving teams of chemists based at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jan 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists elevate little-studied cellular mechanism to potential drug target

For years, science has generally considered the phosphorylation of proteins -- the insertion of a phosphorous group into a protein that turns it on or off -- as perhaps the factor regulating a range of cellular processes ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 11, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New strategy could lead to dose reduction in X-ray imaging

For more than a century, the use of X-rays has been a prime diagnostic tool when it comes to human health. As it turns out, X-rays also are a crucial component for studying and understanding molecules, and a new approach ...

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 22, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Living cells say: Can you hear me now?

It has long been known that cells release chemical signals in response to outside conditions, triggering reactions inside the cell.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 17, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Research involving thyroid hormone lays foundation for more targeted drug development

Research led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists advances a strategy for taming the side effects and enhancing the therapeutic benefits of steroids and other medications that work by disrupting the activity ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Oct 21, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Bacterial communication could affect Earth's climate

(PhysOrg.com) -- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists have discovered that bacterial communication could have a significant impact on the planet's climate.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 12, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 1 | with audio podcast