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News Tip

 


August 22, 1997

For more information on these science news and feature story tips, please contact the public information officer at the end of each item at (703) 292-8070. Editor: Bill Noxon

PSYCHOLOGIST GOES FISHING, NETS BREAKTHROUGH

Huddled over a twenty-gallon tank, counting thousands of tiny swimmers, National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded psychologist Karen Hollis of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts got more than she bargained for.

Working to prove a principle that psychologists had suspected for decades but hadn't confirmed experimentally, Hollis proved that classical conditioning helps animals survive and reproduce. In the image of the well-known dog experiments of Ivan Pavlov, who taught canines to associate one specific tone with the arrival of food, Hollis demonstrated that conditioned animals can increase their reproductive success, as measured by the number of offspring they produce. Her choice of animal to work with? Blue gourami fish.

Hollis set up fish tanks and conditioned male blue gourami to expect the arrival of a female after a specific signal. She videotaped the fish to see if they mated, and whether they produced offspring, called fry. As Hollis expected, the fish who could anticipate a female's arrival mated more often and produced more fry than unconditioned fish, experimentally proving concepts first set forth by Pavlov.

Hollis' research results are published in the September issue of the Journal of Comparative Psychology. [Cheryl Dybas]

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GENES WORK TOGETHER TO CONTROL NERVE CELLS

Scientists have discovered how three genes work together to regulate the development of nerve cells--fundamental new knowledge that could boost efforts in related areas, including cancer research.

In a recent issue of the journal Cell, researchers report on studies funded by the National Science Foundation that allowed them to figure out which genes regulate the development of photoreceptor neurons in fruit flies. Photoreceptor neurons convert light signals into chemical signals that the brain can understand.

According to biologists Zhi-Chun Lai of Penn State and Richard Carthew of the University of Pittsburgh, fruit fly genes are very similar to their corresponding human genes; at the cellular level, there is virtually no difference between human cells and fruit fly cells.

External signals tell developing cells what kind of cell to become by initiating a cascade of internal molecular reactions called the "signal transduction pathway." Cancer can result if errors occur in this pathway, giving a cell the signal to divide instead of the signal to become, in this case, a neuron. Up until a few years ago, the scientists explain, it was thought that developing cells always received positive signals, but now evidence is building that the message sometimes carried by the signal transduction pathway is a negative one. [Cheryl Dybas]

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COLDEST JULY EVER RECORDED AT SOUTH POLE

While some parts of the United States have been sweltering under the summer sun, the South Pole just recorded the coldest July ever. The average monthly temperature for July at the U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was -66 degrees Celsius (-86.8 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking the record of -64.3 C (-83.7 F) set in July, 1965. The lowest temperature recorded during this past July was -77.9 C (-108.2 F). Temperature records have been kept continuously since January, 1957.

"These very cold days provide the best conditions for astronomical observations--clear skies and low wind. On the down side, power usage is at a maximum and vehicle operation is almost impossible." South Pole meteorologist Matt Wolf, one of 28 people spending the winter at the research station, noted.

The year-round research station, run by the National Science Foundation, supports on-going studies in astronomy, astrophysics, atmospheric sciences, and other disciplines. [Lynn Simarski]

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