Word: nosing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...neighbors -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates -- are the first Arab states after Egypt to agree to sit down and talk formally with Israel. That alone, says Baker, "will break at least one major taboo." A Saudi official in Washington agrees: "The camel's nose is in the tent...
...York Times has long had more in common with the Congressional Record than with its distant cousins, the tabloids. It has never had much of a nose, or a tolerance, for either gossip or nonpolitical scandal. So what on earth is going on at the Times these days? Why is the Gray Lady leaning over the back fence and acting like a garrulous matron? Why has she suddenly started kicking up her heels -- occasionally tripping over her own feet? Why are Times readers -- and staffers -- wondering whether the paper is abandoning its old standards, as well as loosening its style...
Until last week. In a discovery that promises to open up a whole new field of olfactory science, two researchers at Columbia University announced they have isolated what they believe are the first known odor receptors -- individual genes that are active in the nose and nowhere else in the body. What is more, the molecules they found seem to be part of an extended family of smell genes -- perhaps the largest single family in the long strand of mammalian DNA. "We have identified a few hundred genes," says Richard Axel, a professor at Columbia's Howard Hughes Medical Institute...
...nasal cavity, they seem to slip into certain odor receptors like keys into locks. The fact that there are such a large number of different kinds of odor receptors suggests that much of the work of discriminating among smells is being carried out at a chemical level within the nose itself. Signals from these receptors are then transmitted to the olfactory bulb, the small region of the brain that specializes in identifying fragrances. But since that information has been filtered through the odor receptors before it is passed along, the brain does not have to do very much...
...nose, therefore, may be a key to understanding how the brain works. "These molecules will serve as useful tools" for solving a variety of scientific problems, says Linda Buck, who co-authored the Cell article with Axel. This knowledge may even yield some practical benefits. Pesticide makers may be able to design improved insect repellents based on a better understanding of why certain pests are attracted to some people and not to others. And who knows, perfume manufacturers could someday offer custom-made scents that are designed to snare not just any man, but a particular, special someone...