Prions link cholesterol to neurodegeneration

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Prion infection of neurons increases the free cholesterol content in cell membranes. A new study published in the online open access journal BMC Biology suggests that disturbances in membrane cholesterol may be the mechanism by which prions cause neurodegeneration and could point to a role for cholesterol in other neurodegenerative diseases.


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All News summaries for February 12, 2008

Fossil feathers preserve evidence of color

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The traces of organic material found in fossil feathers are remnants of pigments that once gave birds their color, according to Yale scientists whose paper in Biology Letters opens up the potential ...

Do we think that machines can think?

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When our PC goes on strike again we tend to curse it as if it was a human. The question of why and under what circumstances we attribute human-like properties to machines and how such processes manifest on a cortical level ...

Superfast muscles in songbirds

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Certain songbirds can contract their vocal muscles 100 times faster than humans can blink an eye – placing the birds with a handful of animals that have evolved superfast muscles, University of Utah researchers ...

Art of deception: Crystal skulls in British, US museums were fakes

5 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
How about this for the next instalment of the Indy franchise: "Indiana Jones and the Dodgy Antiques Dealer"?

Milwaukee museum unveils woolly mammoth skeleton

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(AP) -- A 14,500-year-old woolly mammoth skeleton dug up in 1994 has been unveiled at the Milwaukee Public Museum, giving locals a glimpse of perhaps the most intact specimen discovered in North America.
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