Word: molecular
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...develop educational software. Knowledge Universe, a company the two started in 1996, will use computers to help kids (and their parents) learn faster and better. Together, Milken, Ellison and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs make up something of a billionaire boys' club, gathering to talk about Japanese gardening, molecular biology and their favorite flicks over sushi or macrobiotic soup...
...neurons that produce this molecular messenger are surprisingly rare. Clustered in loose knots buried deep in the brain, they number a few tens of thousands of nerve cells out of an estimated total of 100 billion. But through long, wire-like projections known as axons, these cells influence neurological activity in many regions, including the nucleus accumbens, the primitive structure that is one of the brain's key pleasure centers. At a purely chemical level, every experience humans find enjoyable--whether listening to music, embracing a lover or savoring chocolate--amounts to little more than an explosion of dopamine...
...years scientists have suspected that genes play a critical role in determining who will become addicted to drugs and who will not. But not until now have they had molecular tools powerful enough to go after the prime suspects. Caron's mice are just the most recent example. By knocking out a single gene--the so-called dopamine-transporter gene--Caron and his colleagues may have created a strain of mice so sated with dopamine that they are oblivious to the allure of cocaine, and possibly alcohol and heroin as well. "What's exciting about our mice," says Caron...
...full house gathered in Science Center D yesterday afternoon to hear Nobel prize-winner Robert Huber speak about his research in determining molecular structures...
...chain of pain reactions by preventing the spinal nerves from signaling the brain. But what they didn't know until the late 1980s is that these nerves are more than just glorified gatekeepers. They actually "remember" the body's past travails, causing permanent changes that are recorded in their molecular structure. "Think of the spinal cord as a voice-mail system," says neurobiologist Allan Basbaum of the University of California, San Francisco. "A message comes in and leaves something behind." The longer the injury persists, the more sensitive the spinal nerves become to painful stimuli--and the more intensely they...