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Category: Biochemistry

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ribosome
10 August 2000 | ScienceNOW

Ribosome Structure Mirrors RNA World

by Elizabeth Pennisi
RNA, not proteins, do the work in the cell's protein factory
worm
1 August 2000 | ScienceNOW

Worming a Secret Out of Nature

by R. John Davenport
A parasitic worm's protein may teach drugmakers some lessons
Def
1 March 2000 | ScienceNOW

NASA Biology Research Under Fire

by Andrew Lawler
NASA managers say their plans to grow protein crystals and cells in zero gravity are a big reason for building the $100 billion international space station. But a National Research...
Def
9 February 2000 | ScienceNOW

Andro Bumps Up Testosterone Levels

by Dana Mackenzie
In 1998, baseball player Mark McGwire made headlines by hitting 70 home runs in one season, shattering the long-standing record. At the time, he was regularly--and legally--taking androstenedione, a steroid...
Def
8 December 1999 | ScienceNOW

Untangling the Story of Tau

by Gretchen Vogel
Two unmistakable signs of Alzheimer's disease are the so-called plaques and tangles in a victim's brain. Scientists have a good handle on how plaques form. The tangles have been more...
Def
8 December 1999 | ScienceNOW

Unraveling Ribozymes

by Science News Staff
Today is the 52nd birthday of Thomas Cech, a biochemist who helped discover catalytic RNA. In the process, Cech and his colleagues overturned conventional wisdom about the interactions between DNA,...
Def
19 November 1999 | ScienceNOW

Anatomy of an Adrenaline Rush

by Science News Staff
How stress hormones unleash a surge of energy was explained by Earl Sutherland, a biochemist born 84 years ago today . Sutherland found that adrenaline accelerates the breakdown of sugar...
Def
23 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

All Eyes on the Ribosome

by Science News Staff
The ribosome--the cell's large and complex protein factory--has long resisted efforts to decipher its structure, but now four groups of researchers have it in their sights. The findings have sparked...
Def
17 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

A Fungus Stronger Than an Elephant

by Elizabeth Norton Lasley
The leading crop killer and a growing threat to people with weakened immune systems, fungi--particularly some of the more vicious species--can drill into another organism's tissue with astonishing force. In...
Def
16 September 1999 | ScienceNOW

The First Vitamins

by Science News Staff
Today is the 112th anniversary of the birth of Marguerite Davis, an American chemist who co-discovered vitamins A and B. Davis worked at the University of Wisconsin with Elmer Vernon...
Def
19 August 1999 | ScienceNOW

Macho Mouse No More

by Elizabeth Norton Lasley
What makes some males form lasting relationships, while others are promiscuous and irresponsible? The answer may lie, at least in part, in the way the brain responds to a hormone...
Def
12 July 1999 | ScienceNOW

Putting Medicine to the Test

by Science News Staff
Claude Bernard, a French researcher credited with founding the field of experimental medicine, was born on 12 July 1813. While conducting experiments on an animal fed a sugar-free diet, Bernard...
Def
12 July 1999 | ScienceNOW

Green Means Go for Protein Scientists

by Gretchen Vogel
Like an origami crane, a protein must undergo a series of delicate folding steps before settling into the correct shape. For researchers seeking to mass-produce a newly discovered protein, a...
Def
10 May 1999 | ScienceNOW

Getting Molecules to Shape Up

by Science News Staff
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, a British x-ray crystallographer who won the 1964 Nobel Prize in chemistry for her cutting-edge work determining the molecular structures of complex organic molecules, was born on...
Def
19 April 1999 | ScienceNOW

Emphysema Expert

by Science News Staff
Today is the birthday of Ines Mandl, a U.S. biochemist who conducted pioneering research on enzymes and elastic tissue that led to advances in the understanding of pulmonary emphysema. Mandl,...
Def
2 April 1999 | ScienceNOW

Laundry, Detergent, Mushrooms ...

by Kevin Boyd
That lone red sock soon may no longer be a threat to your white laundry thanks to a mushroom enzyme that neutralizes dyes. Aside from the payoff to launders, molecular...
Def
1 April 1999 | ScienceNOW

Clot-Buster Built From Scratch

by Menno Schilthuizen
After a heart attack or stroke, patients are often given a drug called heparin to prevent blood clots. Now scientists have assembled a synthetic abridged form of heparin that, in...
Def
30 March 1999 | ScienceNOW

Bioprospecting: Delayed ... or Dead?

by David Malakoff
A federal judge has ruled that the National Park Service must complete an environmental review before it can move ahead with a controversial bioprospecting contract. Government analysts say the ruling...
Def
16 March 1999 | ScienceNOW

The Path of Life

by Science News Staff
A watershed in biochemistry--Melvin Calvin's scientific paper detailing the complete biochemical pathway through which plants convert carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into carbohydrates--was published 37 years ago, in the 16...
Def
12 March 1999 | ScienceNOW

Firming Up a Protein Grip

by Dan Ferber
As molecular workers of the cell, proteins often do business with a handshake, temporarily grasping other molecules to pass on signals that order cells to grow or multiply. Now researchers...
Def
22 January 1999 | ScienceNOW

A Pioneer of Drug Development

by Science News Staff
Tomorrow is the 81st birthday of Gertrude Belle Elion, a biochemist who discovered several new drugs that saved thousands of lives and whose research revolutionized drug discovery. Despite sex discrimination...
Def
19 November 1998 | ScienceNOW

Anatomy of an Adrenaline Rush

by Science News Staff
How stress hormones unleash a surge of energy was explained by Earl Sutherland, a biochemist born 83 years ago today. Sutherland found that adrenaline accelerates the breakdown of sugar in...
Def
23 September 1998 | ScienceNOW

Ingredient for Life Bubbled From Ocean

by Robert F. Service
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents give rise to some of the most bizarre forms of life on the planet, such as blind albino crabs. Now a study in tomorrow's issue of Nature...
Def
16 September 1998 | ScienceNOW

The First Vitamins

by Science News Staff
Today is the 111th anniversary of the birth of Marguerite Davis, an American chemist who co-discovered vitamins A and B. Davis worked at the University of Wisconsin with Elmer Vernon...
Def
4 September 1998 | ScienceNOW

Supplements Contain Suspect Compound

by Kate O'Rourke
People who pop certain amino acid supplements to treat insomnia, obesity, and headaches better beware. A report in this month's Nature Medicine warns that common supplements containing 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan (5HTP) also...
Def
31 August 1998 | ScienceNOW

What to Blame for Your Wrinkles

by Meher Antia
A molecule in the skin that converts some of the sun's energy to damaging free radicals could be a major contributor to wrinkles and skin cancer. In tomorrow's issue of...
Def
7 August 1998 | ScienceNOW

Buddy System Makes Complex Carbs Simple

by Science News Staff
Teamwork beats going it alone when it comes to making from scratch at least one complex carbohydrate that could be the basis for new drugs. Two bacterial enzymes tethered to...
Def
17 July 1998 | ScienceNOW

Cell Biologists Blast NASA

by Science News Staff
WASHINGTON, D.C.--NASA's program to study protein crystallography has made "no serious contributions" to scientific knowledge and should be canceled--along with most other life science research in space. That's the thrust...
Def
10 July 1998 | ScienceNOW

Putting Medicine to the Test

by Science News Staff
Claude Bernard, a French researcher credited with founding the field of experimental medicine, was born on 12 July 1813. While conducting experiments on an animal fed a sugar-free diet, Bernard...
Def
17 June 1998 | ScienceNOW

Picturing HIV's Passkey to Infection

by Science News Staff
After almost a decade of effort, crystallographers have achieved a major goal in AIDS research: They have determined the detailed structure of the protein HIV uses to infect immune cells...
Def
21 May 1998 | ScienceNOW

Superaspirin Easy on Stomach

by Science News Staff
Researchers have made a new aspirin-like compound that promises to provide the same pain relief as aspirin, but without upset stomachs or the risk of kidney damage. The compound, described...
Def
22 April 1998 | ScienceNOW

Faster Clotting From Factor VII

by Science News Staff
Scientists have tweaked the structure of a protein so that it gets blood to clot 50 times faster than it normally does. The advance, described in the current issue of...
Def
20 March 1998 | ScienceNOW

The Bare Bones of Catalysis

by Science News Staff
Researchers have used test-tube evolution to create a new, smaller enzyme that still performs the function of its natural counterpart. This strategy of stripping an enzyme or other protein to...
Def
17 March 1998 | ScienceNOW

The Path of Life

by Science News Staff
A watershed in biochemistry--Melvin Calvin's scientific paper detailing the complete biochemical pathway through which plants convert carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into carbohydrates--was published 36 years ago, in the 16...
Def
2 February 1998 | ScienceNOW

Chimeric Yeast Pumps Out Steroids

by Science News Staff
By mixing and matching a menagerie of genes, scientists have reprogrammed yeast to churn out a human steroid. This new approach, unveiled in this month's Nature Biotechnology, might be used...
Def
22 January 1998 | ScienceNOW

Chemists Create Enzyme Mimic

by Science News Staff
Scientists have created a molecule that mimics the look and behavior of a natural enzyme, a workhorse protein that speeds up chemical reactions in living things. The achievement, described in...
Def
16 January 1998 | ScienceNOW

Paparazzi of the DNA World

by Science News Staff
An x-ray snapshot of crystallized DNA polymerase, an enzyme that copies our genetic blueprint, has revealed a remarkable ability to function while in crystal form, according to a report in...
Def
13 January 1998 | ScienceNOW

A Fractal Physician

by Science News Staff
Fractals--objects whose parts resemble the whole--have been used to describe everything from the twists and turns of coastlines to the distribution of distant galaxies. Now there may be a very...
Def
23 December 1997 | ScienceNOW

Detailed Look at Molecular Railway Ties

by Science News Staff
WASHINGTON, D.C.--Biophysicists have solved the structure of a protein that makes up the cell's internal rail system, transporting everything from proteins to DNA. The new structure, unveiled here last week...
Def
4 December 1997 | ScienceNOW

Inflammatory Enzyme's Bare Bones

by Science News Staff
Enzymes called lipoxygenases stoke the fires of inflammatory diseases such as asthma, atherosclerosis, psoriasis, and inflammatory bowel disease. In today's issue of Nature Structural Biology, researchers describe the first clear...
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