All Stories by Patrick Barry
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Spying Vision Cells: Eye’s motion detectors are finally found
Primates, like other mammals, possess specialized retinal cells that detect motion.
- Health & Medicine
Shields Down: A cancer-fighting gene declines in old age
Decline of an important anti-cancer gene could contribute to increased cancer risk among the elderly.
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Double Trouble: Tumors have two-pronged defense
By depleting an essential amino acid and releasing a toxin, cancer cells can ward off attack by the immune system.
- Health & Medicine
Malaria’s sweet spot
The malaria parasite's reliance on a sugar in the gut of mosquitoes may offer a way to block the disease's transmission.
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Aiding and Abetting: A longevity gene also promotes cancer
A gene that normally helps cells overcome stress can also promote cancer, perhaps offering a new target for cancer treatment.
- Health & Medicine
Curry Power
A component of the spice turmeric, the color-giving ingredient in yellow curries, may help prevent and possibly treat Alzheimer's disease.
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Virus thrives by hiding
Some viruses create cocoonlike refuges in the cells they invade, shielding them from the cell's defense mechanisms.
- Health & Medicine
HIV is double trouble for brain
The virus that causes AIDS can also cause dementia, by both killing mature brain cells and blocking the creation of new ones.
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Genome 2.0
Detailed explorations of the human genome are showing that individual genes may have complex structures, and that much of what had been called junk DNA is not junk at all.
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Live Wires: Axons can influence nerve impulses
Axons are not simply passive carriers of electrical signals in the brain, but influence how neurons fire.
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Share Alike: Genes from bacteria found in animals
Bacteria swap genes all the time, but it now appears that they can give their DNA to some animals as well.
