May 25, 2004 |
| Developing
tools for reliable 'gene chip' measurements: Microarrays, sometimes
called 'gene chip' devices, enable researchers to monitor the activities
of thousands of genes from a single tissue sample simultaneously, identifying
patterns that may be novel indicators of disease status. |
| Evidence
of nanobacterial-like structures found in human calcified arteries and cardiac
valves: Researchers at the Mayo Clinic found they could isolate
and culture nanoparticles from filtered homogenates of diseased calcified
human cardiovascular tissue. |
| Carbon
monoxide from smoking helps keep arteries open following angioplasty:
In an unusual paradox, smoking cigarettes-a deadly habit that contributes
to the development of peripheral artery disease-actually helps arteries
stay open following a procedure to repair clogged blood vessels in the legs. |
| Scaling
friction down to the nano/micro realm: An improved method for
correcting nano- and micro-scale friction measurements has been developed
by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). |
| Air
pollution especially harmful to lungs of obese children: Obese
children are more susceptible than normal-weight children to the harmful
effects of air pollution, according to a study to be presented at the American
Thoracic Society International Conference on May 24. |
| Antibiotic
resistance risk from triclosan questioned: New research suggests
that the risk of bacteria developing antibiotic resistance after exposure
to the biocide triclosan may not be as great as previously believed. |
May 24, 2004
|
| Students
fashion space suits for Mars: As if getting to Mars wasn't
hard enough, astronauts also have to worry about what to wear when they
arrive. Their concerns are not fashion pundits but exposure to micrometeor
sandstorms, radiation, and a hyper-cold climate. |
| Envisat
catches the eye of Typhoon Nida: The 150-kilometre-per-hour
winds of Typhoon Nida brought destruction and death to the Philippines this
week. At least 31 people were killed and hundreds more were made homeless
as the storm passed across the eastern part of the country on Wednesday. |
| New
highways drive accelerating deforestation in Amazonia: In the
21 May 2004 issue of Science, a team of U.S. and Brazilian scientists show
that the rate of forest destruction has accelerated significantly in Brazilian
Amazonia since 1990. |
| Discovery
in parasite movement may offer insights into malaria: University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientists have discovered a protein in
the cell wall of parasites that's crucial to the molecular mechanism allowing
them to move between cells, survive and cause disease. |
| Using
'smart fluids' to retrain muscles: Physical rehabilitation
has traditionally consisted of arduously retraining the body on weight machines
and other resistance devices, but with the growing interest in "smart
fluids," Northeastern University engineering professor Constantinos
Mavroidis envisions a simple brace that can increase the resistance on a
healing joint with the turn of a dial. |
| New
technology shows axons are extremely sensitive to directional cues:
Researchers at Georgetown University have developed a novel technology to
precisely measure the sensitivity of nerve fibers that wire up the brain
during development. |
May 21, 2004 |
| Theory
proposes new view of sun and Earth's creation: Like most creation
stories, this one is dramatic: we began, not as a mere glimmer buried in
an obscure cloud, but instead amidst the glare and turmoil of restless giants. |
| Magnetic
forces may turn some nanotubes into metals: A new study, published
in today's issue of the journal Science, finds that the basic electrical
properties of semiconducting carbon nanotubes change when they are placed
inside a magnetic field. |
| Could
global warming mean less sunshine and less rainfall?: Over
the last four decades, scientists have observed a 1.3% per decade decline
in the amount of sun reaching the Earth's surface. |
| Study
of Cape Cod Seashore finds off-road vehicles harmful to beach fauna:
When off-road vehicles drive on beaches, they can reduce the number of creatures
living on the beach by as much as 50 percent, according to a recently completed
three-year study by a University of Rhode Island graduate student. |
| Researchers
find combining two types of radiation therapy is better for treating brain
cancer: Adding stereotactic radiosurgery - which entails delivering
radiation to specific points in the brain while sparing normal tissue -
after whole brain radiation therapy helps certain patients with cancer that
has spread to the brain live longer, says a new study by researchers at
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. |
| Zinc
therapy accelerates recovery from pneumonia: Treating young
children with zinc in addition to standard antibiotics greatly reduces the
duration of severe pneumonia, according to a study by researchers from the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the International Centre
for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Centre for Health and Population
Research (ICDDR, B). |
May 19, 2004 |
| NASA
and USGS magnetic database 'rocks' the world: NASA and the
United States Geological Survey (USGS) are teaming up to create one of the
most complete databases of magnetic properties of Earth's rocks ever assembled. |
| Chandra
opens new line of investigation on dark energy: Astronomers
have detected and probed dark energy by applying a powerful, new method
that uses images of galaxy clusters made by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. |
| Fortification
of food supply with folic acid: Only about 25 per cent of women
in many countries voluntarily take folic acid tablets before conception,
says a University of Toronto researcher. |
| Distant
mountains influence river levels 50 years later: Rainfall in
the mountains has a major influence on nearby river levels, and its effects
can be seen as much as 50 years after the rain has fallen, according to
hydrologists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). |
| Stem
cells more vulnerable to toxic chemotherapy when protective molecule is
disabled: Blocking a molecule that rids cells of potentially
toxic molecules might make chemotherapy for leukemia more effective, but
it could also leave healthy stem cells more vulnerable to toxic cancer treatment
drugs. |
| Researchers
find a goldmine of seismic information: Seismic detectors placed
in deep gold mines to monitor safety are shedding light on the small earthquakes
not usually picked up by surface based seismic arrays, according to Penn
State and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers. |
May 18, 2004 |
| Titan
analog aerosols aid Cassini science, astrobiology: While the
Cassini spacecraft has been flying toward Saturn, chemists on Earth have
been making plastic pollution like that raining through the atmosphere of
Saturn's moon, Titan. |
| Study:
Low-Carb Diet More Effective Than Low-Fat Diet: People who
followed a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet lost more weight than people
on a low-fat, low-cholesterol, low-calorie diet during a six-month comparison
study at Duke University Medical Center. |
| Mars
Rover inspects stone ejected from crater: NASA's Mars Exploration
Rover Opportunity has begun sampling rocks blasted out from a stadium-sized
impact crater the rover is circling, and the very first one may extend our
understanding about the region's wet past. |
| Diabetes
linked to increased risk of Alzheimer's in long-term study:
Diabetes mellitus was linked to a 65 percent increased risk of developing
Alzheimer's disease (AD), appearing to affect some aspects of cognitive
function differently than others in a new study supported by the National
Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health. |
| Imaging
study shows brain maturing: The brain's center of reasoning
and problem solving is among the last to mature, a new study graphically
reveals. |
| Bison
reintroduction to Central Russia: Russian scientists are investigating
the opportunity to bring wisents (Bison bonasus) back to the forests of
Central Russia. |
May 17, 2004 |
| New
screening method turns up potential compound for treating anthrax:
University of Chicago scientists have identified a compound that halts the
activity of a deadly toxin called anthrax lethal factor in laboratory tests. |
| Scientists
discover secret of dolphin speed: Physicists in Japan have
discovered how the surface of a dolphin's skin reduces drag and helps them
glide smoothly and quickly through water. |
| Asphalt
flows from deep-sea volcanoes: Underwater volcanoes that spew
asphalt instead of lava: they were discovered in the Gulf of Mexico during
an expedition of the research vessel SONNE, led by Prof. Gerhard Bohrmann
of the DFG Research Center Ocean Margins. |
| International
Space Station Status Report: The crew of the International
Space Station (ISS) is working through its regular schedule of operations
in orbit. Expedition 9 Commander Gennady Padalka and NASA ISS Science Officer
and Flight Engineer Mike Fincke spent the week preparing spacesuits for
their upcoming spacewalk and loading trash aboard a Progress logistics vehicle. |
| Gene
discovered for Cornelia de Lange syndrome, a disabling genetic disease:
An international team of researchers has discovered the gene for Cornelia
de Lange syndrome, a disabling, multisystem genetic disease that affects
an estimated one in 10,000 children. |
| Research
targets biologic profile of obesity: Obesity has reached epidemic
proportions in America due to a number of factors including increased technology
and the rise in consumption of prepared and preserved foods. |
May 14, 2004 |
| Impact
at Bedout - 'Smoking gun' of giant collision that nearly ended life on earth
is identified: Evidence is mounting that 251 million years
ago, long before the dinosaurs dominated the Earth, a meteor the size of
Mount Everest smashed into what is now northern Australia, heaving rock
halfway around the globe, triggering mass volcanic eruptions, and wiping
out all but about ten percent of the species on the planet. |
| Surprising
new water property discovered: At a microscopic level, water
molecules behave rather like the needle of a compass. Just as the needle
moves when surrounded by a magnetic field (such as that of the Earth), water
molecules move slightly in one direction when there is an electric field. |
| Satellites
see shadows of ancient glaciers: People in the central and
eastern United States and Canada are used to the idea that the land they
live on - its variety of hills, lakes and rivers - are left over from the
great mile-thick ice sheets that covered the area 18,000 years ago. |
| Carnegie
Mellon student develops origami folding robot: Devin Balkcom,
a student in Carnegie Mellon University's doctoral program in robotics,
was looking for a challenge when he decided to develop the world's first
origami-folding robot as the subject of his thesis. |
| Plant-like
enzyme acts as key life cycle switch in malaria parasite: An
essential switch in the life cycle of the malaria parasite has been uncovered
by researchers in England, Germany and Holland. |
| Bird's
eye views earth's magnetic lines: Migratory birds, as well
as many other animals, are able to sense the magnetic field of the earth,
but how do they do it? |
May 13, 2004 |
| Yale
scientist says clues to string theory may be visible in Big Bang aftermath:
Scientists studying the Big Bang say that it is possible that string theory
may one day be tested experimentally via measurements of the Big Bang’s
afterglow. |
| Tufts
University groundbreaking research on caterpillar locomotion:
Tufts University neurobiologist Barry Trimmer is inching his way to unlocking
the secrets behind the way caterpillars maneuver and climb, and is using
that knowledge to one day build flexible robots that could explore internal
organs, blood vessels and the insides of pipelines. |
| Scientists
show hippocampus's role in long term memory: NYU neuroscientists
provide direct evidence that the hippocampus is involved in the representation
and retrieval of long-term memories. |
| Model
shows long-held constant in ocean nutrient ratio may vary as ecological
conditions change: New research shows that what was once considered
a universal constant in oceanography could actually vary in the future -
depending on the ecological scenarios that affect competition for resources
among microscopic marine plants, which play a role in global climate. |
| Human
settlements already existed in the Amazon Basin (Ecuador) 4000 years ago:
July 2003 saw a significant discovery in Ecuador by IRD archaeologists:
4000-year-old structures indicating the presence of one of the first great
Andean civilizations in the upper Amazon Basin, where their presence had
not been suspected. |
| Dramatic
decline of native Sierra Nevada frog linked to introduced trout:
Data gathered over seven years by a University of California, Berkeley,
researcher have played a key role in convincing the National Park Service
and the California Department of Fish and Game to remove trout from some
high-altitude lakes in California's Sierra Nevada to save the disappearing
mountain yellow-legged frog. |
May 11, 2004 |
| Giant
galaxies violent past comes into focus: Long-exposure images
of the giant elliptical galaxy M87 by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory,
together with radio observations, have provided spectacular evidence of
repetitive outbursts from the vicinity of the galaxy's supermassive black
hole. |
| Lewis
and Clark data show a different Missouri River: The oldest
data available on the Missouri River - from the logs of Lewis and Clark
- show that water flow on the river today is far more variable than it was
200 years ago. |
| Chemist's
technique enables creation of novel carbon nanoparticles: Using
a technique pioneered by Washington University in St. Louis chemist Karen
Wooley, Ph.D., scientists have developed a novel way to make discrete carbon
nanoparticles for electrical components used in industry and research. |
| Magnetic
treatment may help people with spinal cord injuries: A preliminary
study has shown for the first time that it may be possible to help people
who have suffered partial damage to their spinal cord by applying a magnetic
therapy to their brain. |
| Regeneration
of injured muscle from adult stem cells: Skeletal muscle has
a remarkable capacity to regenerate following exercise or injury and harbors
two different types of adult stem cells to accomplish the job: satellite
cells and adult stem cells that can be isolated as side population (SP)
cells. |
| Penguins
ingest mollusk shells to obtain calcium for thicker eggshells:
It is virtually impossible for a prospective Magellanic penguin mother to
find or build a soft spot to lay her eggs. |
May 10, 2004 |
| Obesity
reversed in mice by destroying blood vessels that service fat cells:
Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have
designed a strategy to treat obesity through molecular liposuction. |
| First
time in the U.S.: Saint Louis University tests third-generation vaccine
against smallpox: Not everybody can safely be vaccinated against
smallpox using the current FDA-approved vaccine. |
| Software
corrects chip errors early: Microchip miniaturization is making
quality control-related measurement of features during the production process
increasingly difficult. |
| Fire
ant killing protozoa found in 120 Texas counties: If imported
fire ants dreamed - and who knows if they do or don't - then a tiny protozoa
could be their worst nightmare. |
| Superconducting
R&D wire achieves major milestone: Using improved processing
equipment developed with support from the National Institute of Standards
and Technology's Advanced Technology Program, American Superconductor Corporation
(AMSC) has produced lengths of record-breaking high-temperature superconductor
(HTS) wire. |
| International
Space Station Status Report: The new crew of the International
Space Station spent its first full week alone concentrating on life science
research, spacewalk preparations, and becoming comfortable with their new
home in orbit. |
May 6, 2004 |
| Archaeologists
announce discoveries at the ancient Maya site of Waka' in northern Guatemala:
An international archaeological project, sponsored by Southern Methodist
University, headed by Dr. David Freidel of SMU, and Guatemalan archaeologist
Héctor Escobedo of Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, is attempting
to combine scientific research of the ancient Maya past of Guatemala with
conservation and development in an effort to save a vital section of tropical
rainforest in the Department of Petén. |
| Sand
dunes tell tale of volcanic devastation: University of Leicester
scientists have made a unique discovery at an Atlantic island popular with
British holidaymakers. |
| New
machine record for Heavy Ion Luminosity at RHIC: The Relativistic
Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven
National Laboratory has established a new machine record for heavy ion luminosity,
well above its previous performance. Luminosity is an extremely important
measure of a colliding-beam accelerator's performance. |
| Newly-described
route to cancer solves a mystery in lung cancer: Researchers
at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center are describing an
entirely new way by which cells can become cancerous. |
| Scripps
scientists look deep inside sharks and their high-performance swimming system:
Looks can be deceiving, the saying goes, and the same can be said of animals
in the marine environment. To the casual observer, it would appear that
the mighty great white shark and the common tuna don't have a lot in common. |
| Plankton
may influence climate change says UCSB scientist: Plankton
appear to play a major role in regulating the global climate system, according
to new research. |
May 5, 2004 |
| Researchers
identify novel method of distinguishing AlzheimerÍs disease from other types
of dementia: Nearly a century after Alzheimer's disease was
first identified, there has been no foolproof way to diagnose the illness
in a living patient. |
| Dark
Matter experiment narrows search for WIMPS: Since November,
a physics experiment called the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II) has
been looking for components of dark matter, the primary 'stuff' of which
the universe is made. |
| Researchers
define mechanism that enables stem cells to track migrating brain tumor
cells: Because they target and track deadly brain tumor cells
- even those that migrate within the brain - neural stem cells appear to
be effective 'delivery systems' to transport cancer-killing gene and immune
products. |
| ESA's
miniature Earth observer put to many uses: Think of ESA's Proba
as the little satellite that does a lot. It is only the size of a washing
machine but its main instrument - the smallest hyperspectral imager ever
flown in space - has an expanding portfolio of uses encompassing agricultural
mapping, water quality monitoring, charting forest fire damage and disaster
management. |
| Human
brain works heavy statistics learning language: A team at the
University of Rochester has found that the human brain makes much more extensive
use of highly complex statistics when learning a language than scientists
ever realized. |
| Physics
professor called to testify on ultradeep water exploration:
Arthur B. Weglein, UH professor in the physics and geosciences departments,
testified to legislators last week about the challenges in exploration and
production of energy sources in ultradeep water. |
May 3, 2004 |
| NIST
quantum keys system sets speed record for 'unbreakable' encryption:
The fastest known cryptographic system based on transmission of single photons---the
smallest pulses of light---has been demonstrated by a team at the Commerce
Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). |
| Malaria:
Plasmodium togetherness a strategy for breeding success: Malaria
is a pernicious public health problem in many areas of the world. Sub-Saharan
Africa, where cases recorded represent over 90% of the world total, is particularly
badly hit. |
| Study
detects protein in human milk linked to reduced risk of obesity:
Researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have conducted
the first study to detect the presence of a protein in human milk that may
explain the association between breastfeeding and reduced risk of obesity
later in life. |
| Research
links magnetism, gamma-ray burst phenomenon: In the early years
of the Space Age, astronomers made the startling discovery that short, transient
flashes of gamma rays occurred randomly in the sky every night. |
| Populations
of Peruvian seabirds plummeted due to increased fishing activity:
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the tens of millions of marine
birds living in the 'Bird Islands of Peru' became famous around the world. |
| International
Space Station Status Report: Completing more than six months
in space, the International Space Station Expedition 8 crew, Commander Mike
Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri, returned to Earth, bringing
with them European Space Agency Astronaut Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands,
who had spent nine days aboard the complex conducting research. |
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