Bite of Science Topics in the News

-  Stem cells organize themselves into pseudo-embryos   -  Blue roses could be coming soon to a garden near you   -  To save iconic American chestnut, researchers plan introduction of genetically engineered tree into the wild

-  Beyond pesticides: Engineered crops that fertilize themselves from air   -  Gene editing could turn this wild orphan fruit into your new favorite berry

-  New antibiotic resistance genes found   -  The world is running out of antibiotics, WHO report confirms   -  New antibiotic effective against drug-resistant bacteria

-  How we can stop antibiotic resistance   -  Superbug Fears 2017: Can Antibiotic Discovery Fight Drug-Resistant Bacteria?

-  Scientific and Commercial Aspects - Biomarkers Playing an Important Role in Personalized Medicine   -  Small genomic insertions form enhancers that misregulate oncogenes   -  Contaminants Affect Fish and Wildlife in the Chesapeake Bay

-  Using Big Data Certs As A Stepping Stone For A Career In Bioinformatics   -  Furthering data analysis of next-generation sequencing to facilitate research

-  Cleaner Living Through Smarter Microbiology   -  Irish teens win Google science fair with bacteria-enhanced plant growth

-  The Technology That Will Build Our Future May Be Found In Mushrooms   -  'Super bacteria' clean up after oil spills

-  NIH study demonstrates that a new cancer immunotherapy method could be effective against a wide range of cancers   -  NYT - Breaking Through Cancer’s Shield

-  New Cancer Immunotherapy Aims Powerful T Cells Against Tumors   -  Forbes - Is This How We'll Cure Cancer?

-  DDNEWS – Pharma, Biotech, & Life Science   -  Tiny 'Lego' Blocks Build Janus Nanotubes With Potential for New Drugs and Water Purification

-  Breaking Through Cancer’s Shield   -  Propping Open the Door to the Blood Brain Barrier   -  New Chemical Approach to Treat Alzheimer's

-  Scientists Notch a Win in War Against Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria   -  Continuous drug manufacturing offers speed, lower costs – MIT News

-  Potential to Revive Abandoned Cancer Drug by Nanoparticle Drug Delivery

-  MIT News: New technology may enable earlier cancer diagnosis   -  Probe to Detect Spread of Breast Cancer Gets Distribution Boost

-  New Test Could Help Detect Pancreatic Cancer Early   -  Researchers Attach Lyme Disease Antibodies to Nanotubes   -  Genome Testing Reduces Overtreatment

-  Systems analysis points to links between Toxoplasma infection and common brain diseases   -  Parasite makes quick exit when researchers remove the handbrake

-  A new twist on how parasites invade host cells   -  Potential drug target against large family of parasites is identified   -  Whole blood test for toxoplasmosis is sensitive, specific

-  There's a better way to decipher DNA's epigenetic code to identify disease   -  Molecular guardians monitor chromosomes during cell division

-  'Double agent' in the immune system may make us vulnerable to bacterial infections   -  Recording device for cell history

-  ‘Nanobot’ viruses tag and round up bacteria in food and water   -  A Man with a Life-Threatening Heart Infection Was Saved by a Virus Plucked from a Lake

-  Workbench for virus design   -  Does a sea of viruses inside our body help keep us healthy?   -  Fighting Bacterial Infection With… Viruses?

-  Epigenetics of Obesity   -  Epigenetic Computer Program ‘CancerLocator’ Detects and Pinpoints Cancer

-  Revealed: Researchers Gain Insight into Breast Cancer Drug Resistance   -  Air Pollution Found to Alter Important Epigenetic Mark

-  Exclusive: Dicerna CEO Explains RNA Interference And How It's Used To Treat Rare Genetic Diseases   -  More ancient viruses lurk in our DNA than we thought

-  Assessing the Epidemic Potential of RNA and DNA Viruses   -  Editorial: Molecular Diagnostics in the Detection of Neurodegenerative Disorders

-  Newly identified protein may hold key to preventing diabetes-induced blindness   -  Scientists identify main component of brain repair after stroke   -  Blood exerts a powerful influence on the brain

-  Curing multiple sclerosis: Stem cells are starting to prove their value as medical treatments   -  Engineered Tissue Generates Its Own Capillaries

-  Meet the "living dead": Forensic scientists' new weapon   -  Forensic Entomology is More than Just Blow Flies and Beetles

-  Finding Crime Clues In What Insects Had For Dinner   -  Lords of the flies: the insect detectives

-  Sulfilimine Cross-Links: A Key to Tissue Evolution   -  Bromine Found to be Essential to Human Life

-  Bringing life into biology lessons: using the fruit fly Drosophila as a powerful modern teaching tool

-  Red Ropes May Help Whales Avoid Entanglements

-  Through the eyes of a tarpon (pdf)

-  First Detailed Microscopy Evidence of Bacteria at the Lower Size Limit of Life      -  Researchers use cryo-electron microscopy to learn how DNA wraps tightly around nucleosomes

-  How cells defend themselves against antibiotics and cytostatic agents     -  New Nano3 microscope will allow high-resolution look inside cells

-  Antibiotics in Groundwater Affect Natural Bacteria   -  Antibiotic Resistance From Unexpected Sources--Herbicides, Dust And Metals   -  Essential Oils Might Be the New Antibiotics

-  Promising antibiotic discovered in microbial ‘dark matter’   -  A New Antibiotic Found in Dirt Can Kill Drug-Resistant Bacteria

-  Nobel Prize winner reports new model for neurotransmitter release   -  New discovery gives hope that nerves could be repaired after spinal cord injury

-  Getting to the root of Parkinson's disease   -  Fly brain 'atlas' opens door to linking human neurons to actions

-  Study Suggests U.S. Children Born Outside The United States Have Lower Risk of Allergic Disease   -  The Immune System Benefits from Life in the Countryside

-  Mature T Cells Can Switch Function to Better Tackle Infection   -  Nanotechnology Against Pollen Allergy   -  Innate immune cells in asthma

-  Scientists Notch a Win in War Against Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria   -  Microbes use a channel protein as a syringe for toxins

-  How Bacteria Attack Their Host Cells With Sticky Lollipops

-  Neurodegenerative Diseases: New Findings On Protein Misfolding   -  Protein Knots Gain New Evolutionary Significance   -  MITnews: Sorting out the structure of a Parkinson’s protein

-  Unusual protein helps regulate key cell communication pathway   -  First-ever determination of protein structure with X-ray laser

-  Robotic device developed to help stroke survivors recover   -  Controlling a prosthesis with your brain    -  Neurons in human muscles emphasize the impact of the outside world

-  Synthetic nerve flexes a cockroach’s muscle   -  An artificial nerve system gives prosthetic devices and robots a sense of touch

-  Scientists Want to Align Your Internal Clock Because Timing Is Everything   -  Seizure Cycles May Follow Circadian Rhythms   -  Using the body clock to make drugs more effective

-  Timing is everything: How body-clock medicine tackles age-old diseases   -  Keene, NH Votes to Delay School Start Times

-  Carnivores in captivity give birth at the same time of year as those in the wild   -  Is it time yet? Climate change disturbs breeding and nesting season in birds

-  Scientists discover how animals measure time of year to reproduce   -  The Secret Lives of Cadavers   -  What Happens to Your Body When It's Donated to Science?

-  Our Microbiomes Are Making Scientists Question What it Means to Be Human   -  Environment, Not Genetics, Primarily Shapes Microbiome Composition

-  Study Connects Gut Microbiome Composition With Obesity   -  Cancer and the microbiome: What's old is new again   -  Manipulating Gut Microbiome May Protect Against Intestinal Parasites

-  Artemisinin Blocks Prostate Cancer Growth and Cell Cycle Progression by Inhibiting CDK4 Gene Expression   -  An Artemisinin-Derived Dimer Has Highly Potent Anti-Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Anti-Cancer Activities   -  Artemisinin our Ultimate Cancer Weapon a Gift from China

-  Artemisinin reduces cell proliferation and induces apoptosis in neuroblastoma   -  Researchers identify 'Achilles' heel' of PTEN that helps drive prostate cancer progression

-  Fish Oil for Muscle Pain   -  Fitness: Are Olympians born or bred?   -  Do Pain Pills Impair Muscle Growth?

-  Reversing Muscle Atrophy With Food: Eating Apples, Green Tomatoes May Increase Muscle Strength   -  Exercise and obesity-induced insulin resistance in skeletal muscle

-  Why The Southern U.S. is Also Known as ‘The Stroke Belt'   -  Dr. Nina: Take control of your blood pressure

-  Low Blood Pressure Linked to Death Risk, Study Finds   -  Ignoring doctor's orders: Not filling new prescription is common patient habit, study shows

-  Why Teens Are Impulsive, Addiction-Prone And Should Protect Their Brains   -  A thalamic input to the nucleus accumbens mediates opiate dependence

-  The teenage brain: There may be a silver lining to all that misbehavior   -  The Science of Decision Making and Peer Pressure

-  Is there any science behind the lack of women in science?   -  What happens in your brain when you make a memory?   -  Cache Cab: Taxi Drivers' Brains Grow to Navigate London's Streets

-  Remembering to the future: Researchers shed new light on how our memories guide attention   -  Meet the Two Scientists Who Implanted a False Memory Into a Mouse

-  Bubbling up: listening to photosynthesis may help reef conservation   -  Marine animals can hear us swim, kayak and scuba dive   -  Humpback whales stop singing when ships are near

-  Growing noise in the ocean can cause dolphins to simplify their calls   -  Whale songs evolve, but calls persist for generations

-  The Social Life of Fish and How It Affects the Health of Coral Reefs   -  Marine scientists discover kleptopredation, a new way of catching prey

-  A smart skin for marine biology research   -  'Eating with the eyes' is hard-wired in the brain   -  Fish study IDs genes that regulate social behaviors

-  Where Plastic Goes, Coral Disease Follows   -  New Coral Nursery Installed in Bonaire   -  Reefs are dying. Scientists hope lab-bred 'super corals' can help revive them

-  How climate change weakens coral ‘immune systems’   -  A successful coral transplant gives scientists hope for the Great Barrier Reef

-  Soil Sequencing Uncovers 500 Common, Abundant Bacterial Species   -  11 Billion Pieces of Plastic Are Riddling Corals With Disease   -  Rethinking role of viruses in coral reef ecosystems

-  A Grand Unified Theory of Unhealthy Microbiomes   -  Bacterial DNA sequencing could help design 'friendlier' nanoparticles

-  Warm water discharge creating trouble for manatees?   -  Economy: County joins initiative for sustainable development   -  The flood: For scientists, a rare opportunity for study

-  Cal Poly Study Reveals Resilience of Coastal Ecosystems   -  Iconic Antarctic geology lab gets the Boot

-  Cumberland Marsh beckons birds and birders alike   -  Drones hunt down rare plants in Hawaii by going where people can't

-  Biologists and Computer Scientists Team up to Map a Global ‘Safety Net’ for the Planet   -  Mapping Software Tracks Threats to Endangered Species

-  Pythons are invading Florida. Meet the scientists fighting back   -  Newly Discovered Hybrid Pythons Could Threaten Florida's Everglades   -  These Mice Spy on Their Predators—By Sniffing Their Tears

-  Fighting snake falls three storeys, gets female, relocated   -  Researchers Look to Sex Pheromones to Trap an Invasive Snake

-  Research duo finds way to predict shifts in watersheds as climate changes   -  Alligators on the beach? Killer whales in rivers? Get used to it

-  Study aims to protect water at the source   -  The Catawba River: A vital artery under mounting pressure   -  A River’s Chemical Fingerprints Of Land Use And Ecology

-  Government sets target to make New Zealand 'predator-free' by 2050   -  Predator-Free New Zealand   -  Some like it hot, but not tuatara

-  Climate change impacts tuatara population   -  North Brother Island little more than a rock, but an important rock   -  The Unlikely Comeback of New Zealand’s Weirdest ‘Living Fossil’

-  First Bumblebee Declared Endangered in U.S.   -  Being There for Bees   -  The Benefits of Integrating Wearable Technology in Education

-  Bumblebees’ Electric Sense   -  Pheasants Forever pollinator initiative pivots on shared need for habitat

-  Mercury Contamination and Trophic Position in Turtles   -  'Shell' it out: Council Bluffs native makes scientific strides in sea turtle physiology

-  Plastics chemical BPA can make male turtles act like females  -  Turtle embryos genetically wired for hotter summers  -  19,000 Sea Turtle Eggs Seized in Anti-Smuggling Operation

-  Research shows importance of remote cameras as biodiversity tools   -  Carnivore diversity at a montane rainforest site in Ecuador's Gran Sumaco Biosphere Reserve

-  Dawn Chorus: Ecuadorian Hummingbirds   -  A new species of spiny-backed tree frog from Central Amazonian Brazil   -  Birding in Ecuador: Part 7 - Wildsumaco Lodge

-  Caulobacter crescentus

-  Climate change study reveals unappreciated impacts on biodiversity   -  Inhabit(ants) of New York City: High Diversity Underfoot in Urban Environments

-  Who will come to your bird feeder in 2075?   -  When less is more: Death in moderation boosts population density in nature

-  EPA survey: More than half of nation’s river and stream miles in poor condition   -  Plants: Surprising Predictor of Ecosystem Chemistry

-  Decreased Water Flow May be Trade-off for More Productive Forest