Lizard tails detach at a biological 'dotted line'

Like sheets of paper marked with perforated lines, gecko tails have unique structural marks that help them sever their tails to make a quick getaway. Though voluntarily shedding a body part in this manner is a well-known ...

Six degrees of inclination

(Phys.org)—Stay in a tilted bed for weeks with your head at the lower end and your body starts to change as if it were ageing prematurely or living in space. Twelve volunteers in ESA's bedrest study are enduring the testing ...

Searching for the origin of muscles

Ulrich Technau from the University of Vienna has addressed the origin of musculature. His analysis reveals for the first time that some central components of muscles of higher animals are much older than previously assumed. ...

Biophysics: Order in chaos

The process of skeletal muscle contraction is based around protein filaments sliding inside sarcomeres — the structural units of muscle fiber. Inside each sarcomere is a set of filament motors, which appear in different ...

Unusual protein helps regulate key cell communication pathway

Charged atoms, or ions, move through tiny pores, or channels, embedded in cell membranes, generating the electrical signals that allow cells to communicate with one another. In new research, scientists have shown how an unusual ...

Let's stretch... Scientists study myomesin protein

The proteins actin, myosin and titin are big players in the business of muscle contraction. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Hamburg, Germany, have now examined another muscle protein – ...

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