In the inner ear, there are two different types of sensory cells that are responsible for hearing. An MHH research team has now identified the molecular switch for the formation of these inner and outer hair cells and thus ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 30, 2023
0
11
Imagine if a t-shirt could analyze sweat, potentially alerting the wearer to any health abnormalities. Well, this is now closer to reality thanks to a research group's recent innovation.
Biochemistry
Jan 19, 2023
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36
Orangutans, mice, and horses are covered with it, but humans aren't. Why we have significantly less body hair than most other mammals has long remained a mystery. But a first-of-its-kind comparison of genetic codes from 62 ...
Evolution
Jan 4, 2023
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306
A Japanese research group has become the first to reveal that the checkerboard-like arrangement of cells in the inner ear's organ of Corti is vital for hearing. The discovery gives new insight into how hearing works from ...
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 27, 2022
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225
Protein detection based on antigen–antibody reactions is vital in early diagnosis of a wide range of diseases. How to effectively detect proteins, however, has frequently bedeviled researchers. Osaka Metropolitan University ...
Biotechnology
Dec 22, 2022
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63
Using the word predation may seem surprising when we talk about the first organisms that set out to eat other organisms, for they were not deadly predators with sharp teeth and claws, but small single-celled life forms that ...
Evolution
Dec 20, 2022
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231
Sometimes a name is just a name. Take bears, for example. In Yellowstone National Park, black bears outnumber their brownish-colored grizzly bear cousins, and in coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest, if someone says "brown ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 16, 2022
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929
Researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Berlin Institute of Health at Berlin's Charité Hospital have developed a novel method for determining the number of subunits within protein complexes. The method is a further ...
Biotechnology
Nov 16, 2022
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8
They are only very simple structures, but without them we could not survive: Countless tiny hairs (cilia) are found on the outer wall of some cells, for example in our lungs or in our brain. When these micrometer-sized hairs ...
General Physics
Nov 9, 2022
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44
Piran Kidambi, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, recently had two papers appear in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces and ACS Nano that respectively focus on a new approach to filter nanoparticles ...
Bio & Medicine
Nov 9, 2022
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54
Hair is a protein filament that grows through the epidermis from follicles deep within the dermis. The fine, soft hair found on many nonhuman mammals is typically called fur; wool is the characteristically curly hair found on sheep and goats. Found exclusively in mammals, hair is one of the defining characteristics of the mammalian class. Although other non-mammals, especially insects, show filamentous outgrowths, these are not considered "hair" in the scientific sense. So-called "hairs" (trichomes) are also found on plants. The projections on arthropods such as insects and spiders are actually insect bristles, composed of a polysaccharide called chitin. There are varieties of cats, dogs, and mice bred to have little or no visible fur. In some species, hair is absent at certain stages of life. The main component of hair fiber is keratin.
The hair can be divided into three parts length-wise, (1) the bulb, a swelling at the base which originates from the dermis, (2) the root, which is the hair lying beneath the skin surface, and (3) the shaft, which is the hair above the skin surface. In cross-section, there are also three parts, (1) the medulla, an area in the core which contains loose cells and airspaces (2) the cortex, which contains densely packed keratin and (3) the cuticle, which is a single layer of cells arranged like roof shingles.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
