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Developing immunity to the common cold
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Summer is officially over, and fall has arrived. With this season comes runny noses and doctor visits. Save yourself the time and money, because it's either the common cold or the flu, both of which have no cure other than to rest and endure the discomfort. Luckily, you can be immunized for the flu, but not the cold. In fact, many people battle the cold several times a year, rather than developing a natural immunity towards it, why is that? The primary reason that immunity generally does not develop against the common cold is that there is not a single cause of the disease. Over 200 serotypes of viruses, including enteroviruses (previously called rhinoviruses), coronaviruses, and adenoviruses, can cause the symptoms of the common cold. Ther ...
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22552 |
bio_man |
4 years ago |
The glue of the future, today
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Before I begin telling you about this fascinating new glue (adhesive), there's a thing or two you need to know about the animal that inspired it all, the gecko. Geckos are small lizards that have the ability to run up walls and scurry across ceilings with the help of tiny rows of hairs on their feet known as setae. Setae generate a multitude of weak attractions (called Van der Waals forces) between molecules on the two surfaces that add up to a secure foothold. Unlike glue or tape, a gecko’s sticky feet attach and detach effortlessly, which made it a perfect case study for engineers to model. To create their artificial gecko adhesive, a Stanford team of scientists started by making silicone micro-wedges, which imitated gecko hair. They asse ...
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18574 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Balding? Try deliberately plucking your hair
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While it may sound counter-intuitive, new research suggests that selectively plucking hairs in very close proximity can stimulate some startlingly dense regrowth. The team behind the study, led by researchers at the University of Southern California, demonstrated that by carefully extracting 200 hairs, one-by-one, from the back of a mouse in a specific configuration and density, they could trigger the growth of around 1,200 new hairs in the area - a five-fold increase. The biological mechanism is shown below: While it's very early days, the researchers say their findings, which were reported in the journal Cell, could pave the way for new treatments for balding, or alopecia. ...
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17061 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
An essential bone lost
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Despite slang terms that imply otherwise, the human penis contains no bones. The same cannot be said for many of our closest evolutionary relatives: Chimpanzees and bonobos both have penis bones (a macaque one is pictured, left), also known as bacula. To find out why some primates have the feature whereas others don’t, researchers traced the bone’s evolutionary history through time. The baculum first evolved between 145 million and 95 million years ago, as reported in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. That means it was present in the most recent common ancestor of all primates and carnivores. Why some descendants, like humans, lost their bacula appears to be due to differences in mating practices: In primates, the presence of a penis ...
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16662 |
duddy |
7 years ago |
Speedy bacteria
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Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is a bacterium that attacks other bacteria. It can charge its prey at speeds of up to 100 micrometers per second, comparable to a human running 600 kilometers per hour. It then bores into its hapless victim by spinning at 100 revolutions per second. Most bacteria aren't quite that fast, but they can move by whipping flagella or by spiraling through their environment. ...
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14256 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
A classic parasitic-host relationship
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This lady beetle (Coccinellidae) is protecting its enemy. The cocoon between its legs holds a parasitoid wasp larva ( Dinocampus coccinellae), which fed on the beetle’s insides before bursting from its belly. Researchers have discovered what makes the beetles act as babysitters: They are infected with a brain-controlling virus. When the larva emerges and spins its cocoon, the virus makes the beetle freeze in place, protecting the baby wasp from predators. ...
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13680 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
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8756 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
It's no wonder this species was so hard to find
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Biologists from James Cook University have discovered a new species of leaf-tailed gecko in Australia. The lizard is highly camouflaged against the granite boulders it lives on and grows to around 12 cm. It's been named the Cape Melville leaf-tailed gecko ( Saltaurius eximius) after the region in northern Queensland where it was found.
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6440 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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6328 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
World's cleanest bacteria
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A bacterium previously unknown to science was found in two spacecraft clean rooms, one in Florida and the other in Guiana. Space agencies use these rooms to prepare spacecraft for launch and are considered two of the most sterile places on Earth.
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5740 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
What happens when all the oil (petroleum) is used up?
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Peter Diamandis makes a case for optimism -- that we'll invent, innovate and create ways to solve the challenges that loom over us. "I'm not saying we don't have our set of problems; we surely do. But ultimately, we knock them down."
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5660 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Why can't chimps walk upright?
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What can we learn from chimps swinging their hips? In this Nature Video, the walking style of our primate cousins are investigated, and we see what they can teach us about our ambling ancestors.
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5396 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
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5161 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
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