News by Subject Biology

Coal and natural gas represent the majority of the US energy supply. Even with pollution controls, burning these fossil fuels for energy releases a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Research led by the University of Pittsburgh and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) uses microcapsule technology that may make post-combustion carbon capture cheaper, safer, and more efficient.

New research from the University of Pittsburgh's Swanson School of Engineering has introduced a method to effectively screen different catalysts that convert light alkanes to olefins. With light alkanes being abundant in the Marcellus and Utica shale reserves, this methodology may provide a more economical solution for olefins production.

Plant biologists at the UC Davis have discovered a way to make crop plants replicate through seeds as clones. The discovery, long sought by plant breeders and geneticists, could make it easier to propagate high-yielding, disease-resistant or climate-tolerant crops and make them available to the world's farmers.

Dr. Kazunobu Sawamoto (Professor, Nagoya City University and NIPS) and Dr. Naoko Kaneko (Associate professor, Nagoya City University) in collaboration with Dr. Atsushi Nambu (Professor, NIPS) and Dr. Yasuo Kawaguchi (Professor, NIPS) have revealed a novel mechanism for neuronal regeneration, using the mouse model for ischemic stroke.

According to some estimates, up to one in three people around the world may experience severe anxiety in their lifetime. In a study described today in Cell Reports, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have revealed a previously unknown mechanism underlying anxiety. Targeting this biochemical pathway may help develop new therapies for alleviating the symptoms of anxiety disorders.

In a new study published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, chemistry professor Victor Batista and his colleagues used the Google algorithm PageRank to identify key amino acids in the regulation of a bacterial enzyme essential for most microorganisms.