Calcium
hideCalcium (pronounced /ˈkælsiəm/) is the chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. It has an atomic mass of 40.078 amu. Calcium is a soft grey alkaline earth metal, and is the fifth most abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust. Calcium is also the fifth most abundant dissolved ion in seawater by both molarity and mass, after sodium, chloride, magnesium, and sulfate.
Calcium is essential for living organisms, particularly in cell physiology, where movement of the calcium ion Ca2+ into and out of the cytoplasm functions as a signal for many cellular processes. As a major material used in mineralization of bones and shells, calcium is the most abundant metal by mass in many animals.
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News tagged with calcium ions
A new understanding of why seizures occur with alcohol withdrawal
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 17, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (3) |
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Epileptic seizures are the most dramatic and prominent aspect of the "alcohol withdrawal syndrome" that occurs when a person abruptly stops a long-term or chronic drinking habit. Researchers have shown that the flow of calcium ...
Scientists shed new light on cause of inherited movement disorder
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Jul 22, 2009 |
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University of Utah School of Medicine researchers and their colleagues at University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center have found strong evidence that abnormal calcium signaling in neurons may play an important role ...
Study could help target new pancreatitis treatments
Jun 29, 2009 |
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Pancreatitis is often a fatal condition, in which the pancreas digests itself and surrounding tissue. Scientists have previously found that alcohol can trigger the condition by combining with fatty acids in the pancreas, ...
Researchers discover that gene switches on during development of epilepsy
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Apr 23, 2009 |
4 / 5 (2) |
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A discovery made by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine while studying mice may help explain how some people without a genetic predisposition to epilepsy can develop the disorder.
Alzheimer’s Findings Resolve Dispute Over How Disease Kills Brain Cells
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Apr 15, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (6) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- For a decade, Alzheimer's disease researchers have been entrenched in debate about one of the mechanisms believed to be responsible for brain cell death and memory loss in the illness.
Membrane fusion at the synapse: Janus faced synaptotagmin-1 helps to keep the fast pace
Biology /
Oct 29, 2008 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Imagine a bathtub with two soap bubbles colliding but never fusing. Then you add detergent, and the surface of the water goes flat as the walls of the bubbles collapse and merge.
