All Stories by John Travis
- Health & Medicine
Transplant Triumph: Cloned cow kidneys thrive for months
Cow kidneys and other tissue made by cloning ward off immune rejection after transplantation into cows.
- Health & Medicine
Dieting woes tied to hunger hormone
A rise in the appetite-enhancing hormone ghrelin after weight loss may explain why dieters regain pounds.
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Blood cues sex choice for parasites
Malaria parasites shift their female-biased production of offspring toward a more evenly balanced sex ratio as an infection proceeds.
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Mom’s eggs execute Dad’s mitochondria
Sperm may tag their own mitochondria for destruction inside the fertilized egg.
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Mussel Muzzled: Bacterial toxin may control pest
A toxin made by bacteria could help stop the spread of zebra mussels.
- Health & Medicine
Freeing up the mouse genome
Scientists have assembled the DNA sequences from a strain of the common lab mouse and made the draft genome available for free over the Internet.
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Anthrax genomes compared for terrorism clues
Investigators seeking clues to last fall's anthrax attack have analyzed the genome of the anthrax bacterium.
- Health & Medicine
D-fending the Colon: Bile component triggers vitamin D receptor
The protein that enables cells to respond to vitamin D also helps the gastrointestinal tract protect itself from an especially dangerous acid in bile.
- Health & Medicine
A Model Mouse
Mice with symptoms similar to rheumatoid arthritis may illuminate the puzzling disorder.
- Health & Medicine
Feel the Burn: Alcohol sets pain-sensing nerves aflame
Alcohol makes certain pain-generating nerves trigger more easily than normal.
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Small Wonder: Microbial hitchhiker has few genes
Scientists have identified a microbe with remarkably few genes living on another microbe on the ocean floor.
- Health & Medicine
Deadly Pickup: Enzyme permits plague germ to ride in fleas
Acquisition of a gene that enables the plague bacterium to live inside blood-sucking fleas may have set the stage for the Black Death.
