Category Archives: Biology

DAHLONEGA - In what will be the first study abroad opportunity for biology students at University of North Georgia (UNG), two groups will head separately to Belize and Costa Rica next summer to study the native flora and fauna. The program in Costa Rica will also be open to trustees of the UNG Foundation Inc. and UNG alumni. They will experience the same course as students but will also have access to other activities. "Trustees and alumni going to Costa Rica will have the opportunity to see firsthand the impact the trip has on our students, plus $500 of their total trip expense will be used to cover a portion of the students' expenses," said Dr. Mike Bodri, dean of UNG's College of Science & Mathematics. "The entire group will be staying at the University of Georgia field station, which is not far off the beaten path and also has great access to a cloud forest reserve." The ecology of cloud forests, which are highland forests with 100 percent humidity along with frequent mist and cloud cover, will be the subject of the course in Costa Rica. The course will be taught by Dr. Janice Crook-Hill, assistant professor of biology … Continue reading →

Victor de Lorenzos lab: Synthetic Biology meets Environmental Biotechnology for a better world How do bacteria sense their environment? How can we describe the genetic mechanisms behind this process? How can we use this knowledge to develop useful applications? Halfway between ... By: Scienseed … Continue reading →

NYU Langone yeast geneticists report they have developed a novel tool -- dubbed "the telomerator" -- that could redefine the limits of synthetic biology and advance how successfully living things can be engineered or constructed in the laboratory based on an organism's genetic, chemical base-pair structure. Synthetic biologists aim to use such "designer" microorganisms to produce novel medicines, nutrients, and biofuels. In a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online Nov. 3, NYU Langone scientists say the telomerator should also improve study of yeast genetics, the model microorganism for human genetics, and help researchers determine how genes, as well as the chromosomes housing them, interact with each other. The research team, led by Jef Boeke, PhD, a professor and director of NYU Langone's Institute for Systems Genetics, built the telomerator to convert circular chromosomes into linear ones. Boeke says this better resembles the natural structure of more complex organisms, including humans. Comprising about 1,500 chemical base pairs linked together, the human-made piece of telomerator code can be inserted as a single unit at any position on circular DNA and almost anywhere among a chromosome's other genes, whose base pairs can number into the hundreds of thousands. … Continue reading →

Common Threads: Forging Parts from Wholes in Mathematical Biology For the Disciplines Series and the Embodiments of Science lecture series, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender and the Heyman Center for the Humani... By: Heyman Center for the Humanities … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 3-Nov-2014 Contact: Cody Mooneyhan cmooneyhan@faseb.org 301-634-7104 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology @fasebopa Almost everyone knows that improving your eating habits will most likely improve your health. What most people may not know, however, is that the effects of poor eating habits persist long after dietary habits are improved. In a new report appearing in the November 2014 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, scientists use mice to show that even after successful treatment of atherosclerosis (including lowering of blood cholesterol and a change in dietary habits) the effects of an unhealthy lifestyle still affect the way the immune system functions. This change in function occurs largely because poor eating habits alter the way genes express themselves, including genes related to immunity. This change in gene expression (epigenetics) ultimately keeps the risk of cardiovascular disorders higher than it would be had there been no exposure to unhealthy foods in the first place. "I hope that this study demonstrates the importance of diet-induced changes in the epigenome and encourages further research into the interaction between dietary patterns, DNA methylation and disease," said Erik van Kampen, a researcher involved in the work from the Division of Biopharmaceutics … Continue reading →

PHOENIX - A Phoenix suburb's school district may revise a high school honors biology textbook to add or remove content because of a 2-year-old state law on abortion-related instructional material. The Gilbert Unified School District board voted 3-2 Tuesday night to have district officials consider how to change the textbook and report back to the board, the Arizona Republic reported. At issue is a chapter in the textbook, "Campbell Biology: Concepts & Connections," that discusses abstinence, birth-control methods, tubal ligations and vasectomies, and drugs that can induce abortion. The 2012 Arizona law says the state has a strong interest in "promoting childbirth and adoption over elective abortion." It prohibits instructional programs and material that don't give preference to childbirth and adoption over elective abortion. No organization tracks Arizona school districts' selection or usage of textbooks, but Staci Burk, the president of the Gilbert board, said the district is likely the first to enforce the relatively new law. Chris Kotterman, a state Department of Education official, told the board in an email that the textbook didn't appear to violate the law. "In general, the mere mention of a means of medically inducing abortion does not automatically signal a lack of preference … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 3-Nov-2014 Contact: Rachel Steigerwald media@gastro.org 301-272-1603 American Gastroenterological Association @AmerGastroAssn Bethesda, MD (Nov. 3, 2014) The American Gastroenterological Association is pleased to welcome a new member to its family of journals: Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CMGH). CMGH will showcase cutting-edge digestive biology research in a digital open-access format. "There is a pressing need for a premier, laboratory science-focused journal in the area of gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary and pancreatology research," said Jerrold R. Turner, MD, PhD, AGAF, editor-in-chief, Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology. "CMGH will be that journal. We will showcase the most novel and cutting-edge research in the field, which is currently taking place at a rapid pace." CMGH will publish original digestive biology research that covers a broad spectrum of themes related to digestive diseases, as well as integrative research that falls between traditional disciplinary boundaries. The research will be rigorous, hypothesis-driven and mechanistically novel. Featured topics include biology, immunology, physiology, microbiology, genetics and neurobiology of gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary, and pancreatic health and disease. In addition to full-length original articles, CMGH will also publish brief reports, commentaries, editorials and focused reviews. In this way, CMGH will become a forum for discussions of major breakthroughs and … Continue reading →

Biology Media Project:Protein Structure http://elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/567tertprotein.html http://alevelnotes.com/Protein-Structure/61 http://biology.tutorvista.com/biomolecules/proteins.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysPt1lI... By: Lydia Kuchmak … Continue reading →

Biology Class 3 - Bully: Scholarship Edition Bully: Scholarship Edition Guide (HD) Biology Class 3 Console: PC Controls: PC. By: BullyGuides … Continue reading →

Think your political beliefs arise from logic and reason? Think again. A team of scientists who studied the brains of liberal, moderate and conservative people found that they could tell who leaned left and who leaned right based on how their brains responded to disgusting pictures. The findings, published in Current Biology, show that the brains of liberals and conservatives may indeed be wired differently and shed light on the biological factors at play in political beliefs. Biology and politics have long been seen by many researchers as two very separate realms. Some argue that biology is irrelevant to political questions, or that the links between the two are murky or oversimplified. Despite growing evidence from various fields, including genetics, cognitive neuroscience and psychology, many political scientists remain skeptical of research connecting biological factors with political ideology, the study authors wrote. But many of the same subjects at issue in certain political ideologies attitudes toward sex, family, education and personal autonomy, for example have an emotional component as much as a logic-based one. And some research has indicated that political leanings can be inherited (much in the same way that height can inherited but modified, affected by a number of … Continue reading →