Researchers in Japan, India and France have found that molecules move into and out of a specialized region of the cell membrane, called the 'raft domain', at unexpectedly fast rates. The discovery was made possible by developing ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 23, 2017
0
6
Biologists on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered a new mechanism that likely underlies how we feel force or touch. Their study suggests that "rafts" of fatty lipids on the cell surface ...
Biochemistry
Jan 5, 2017
0
373
An episode of major depression can be crippling, impairing the ability to sleep, work, or eat. In severe cases, the mood disorder can lead to suicide. But the drugs available to treat depression, which can affect one in six ...
Biochemistry
Jul 28, 2016
0
716
A team of scientists has found that a species of ant that clusters together to form rafts to survive floods exhibits memory and repeatedly occupies the same position during raft formation, according to a just published paper.
Plants & Animals
Apr 18, 2016
1
1150
Lipid molecules have split personalities—one part loves water, whereas the other avoids it at all costs. Lipids make up cell membranes, the frontline defense in preventing cellular access to bacterial and viral invaders.
Biochemistry
Mar 31, 2016
0
13
Cells of our immune system kill pathogens by enclosing them in a compartment called the phagosome. The phagosome undergoes programmed maturation, where the pathogen is degraded. Intimately linked to this degradation is active ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 4, 2016
0
4
Physicist Zvonimir Dogic and his lab are on a roll. Last week, Dogic's research was featured in two of science's most respected journals, Science and Nature.
General Physics
Sep 15, 2014
0
0
Three years ago, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers took a close look at how fire ants work together to build waterproof rafts to stay alive. By looking at the edges and tops of rafts, the team discovered that ants ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 11, 2014
2
0
When facing a flood, ants build rafts and use both the buoyancy of the brood and the recovery ability of workers to minimize injury or death, according to a study published in PLOS ONE on February 19, 2014 by Jessica Purcell ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 19, 2014
4
1
What do Jell-O, toothpaste, and floating fire-ant rafts have in common? All are so-called "viscoelastic" materials, meaning that they can both resist flow under stress, like honey, and they can bounce back to their original ...
General Physics
Nov 26, 2013
0
0
