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Archive for the ‘Biology / Biochemistry’ Category

BIO-key(R) Reports First Quarter 2008 Results

Friday, May 16th, 2008

Continued Growth in Biometrics Business in First QuarterWALL, N.J., May 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BIO-key International,Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: BKYI), a leader in wireless public safety andfinger-based biometric identification solutions, today announced itsfinancial results for the first quarter ended March 31, ...

MIT solves gravity-defying bird beak mystery

Friday, May 16th, 2008

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--As Charles Darwin showed nearly 150 years ago, bird beaks are exquisitely adapted to the birds' feeding strategy. A team of MIT mathematicians and engineers has now explained exactly how some shorebirds use their long, thin beaks to defy gravity and transport food into their mouths.The phalarope, commonly found ...

Long lost sisters

Friday, May 16th, 2008

The human race was divided into two separate groups within Africa for as much as half of its existence, says a Tel Aviv University mathematician. Climate change, reduction in populations and harsh conditions may have caused and maintained the separation. Dr. Saharon Rosset, from the School of Mathematical Sciences at ...

Atmosphere threatened by pollutants entering ocean, prof says

Friday, May 16th, 2008

COLLEGE STATION A large quantity of nitrogen compounds emitted into the atmosphere by humans through the burning of fossil fuels and the use of nitrogen fertilizers enters the oceans and may lead to the removal of some carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, concluded a team of international scientists led ...

MIT creates new material for fuel cells

Friday, May 16th, 2008

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--MIT engineers have improved the power output of one type of fuel cell by more than 50 percent through technology that could help these environmentally friendly energy storage devices find a much broader market, particularly in portable electronics.The new material key to the work is also considerably less expensive ...

Argonne-SRNL agreement supports critical DOE, national priorities

Friday, May 16th, 2008

Argonne, Ill. (May 15, 2008) Argonne National Laboratory has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) to collaborate on nuclear energy and environmental management research projects in support of critical U.S. Energy Department (DOE) needs and other important national priorities."The MOU allows Argonne to ...

Plant biologists discover unexpected proteins affecting small RNAs

Friday, May 16th, 2008

LA JOLLA, CA - Now that high school biology students can recite that genes are made of DNA, which is transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA), which is then translated into protein, along comes a new class of molecules, sending studentsand many scientistsscrambling for updated textbooks.A study by Salk Institute for ...

Crystal (eye) ball: Study says visual system equipped with ‘future seeing powers’

Friday, May 16th, 2008

Troy, N.Y. Catching a football. Maneuvering through a room full of people. Jumping out of the way when a golfer yells fore. Most would agree these seemingly simple actions require us to perceive and quickly respond to a situation. Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Mark ...

Stowers Institute researchers identify gene linked to vertebral defects in patient populations

Friday, May 16th, 2008

Stowers Institute researchers Karen Staehling-Hampton, Ph.D., Managing Director of Molecular Biology, and Olivier Pourqui, Ph.D., Investigator, collaborated with colleagues from around the world to show that genes known to cause spinal mutations in chick and mouse model systems also play an important role in human patients with congenital vertebral abnormalities.The ...

Key molecule discovered in Venus’s atmosphere

Friday, May 16th, 2008

Venus Express has detected the molecule hydroxyl on another planet for the first time. This detection gives scientists an important new tool to unlock the workings of Venuss dense atmosphere.Hydroxyl, an important but difficult-to-detect molecule, is made up of a hydrogen and oxygen atom each. It has been found in ...

Does fishing on drifting fish aggregation devices endanger the survival of tropical tuna?

Friday, May 16th, 2008

Fishermen hold empirical knowledge that tuna aggregate under floating objects, such as lengths of old rope, pieces of wood, or even large marine mammals. There is still no full explanation for this aggregation behaviour, but the past 20 years have seen purse-seine fishery operators take advantage of the associated concentrations ...

Adding up business and energy

Friday, May 16th, 2008

Could a business practice usually reserved for boosting profits be used to help turn companies green by reducing their energy use? Writing in the International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage (IJSSCA), researchers in India provide an answer.According to mechanical engineer Prabhakar Kaushik of NC College of Engineering in ...

AADH Induces Substrate Conformation Crucial For Promoting Vibration That Reduces The Effective Potential Energy Barrier To Proton Transfer

Friday, May 16th, 2008

The role of promoting vibrations in enzymic reactions involving hydrogen tunnelling is contentious. Whilemodels incorporating such promoting vibrations have successfully reproduced and explained experimental observations, it has also been argued that such vibrations are not part of the catalytic effect. In this study,we have employed combined quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical methods ...

New Silex SX-560 Enables Enterprise 802.11 Wireless Connectivity for Battery Operated Devices

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

Intelligent Wireless Module Combines Linux, Security, and Low Power ConsumptionTUSTIN, Calif., May 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Silex Technology today announcedthe ...

Warming climate is changing life on global scale, says new study

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

A vast array of physical and biological systems across the earth are being affected by warming temperatures caused by humans, says a new analysis of information not previously assembled all in one spot. The effects on living things include earlier leafing of trees and plants over many regions; movements of ...