Gene that makes people 'early to bed and early to rise' demystified The recent discovery that a mutant "clock" gene made some people "early to bed and early to rise," a condition known as familial advanced sleep phase syndrome (FASPS), offered one of the first glimpses into the genetic basis of sleep in humans. view more (2007-01-12)
ANALYTICA 2004: Infrared Sensor is Kind to Costs and Environment The IMM Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz GmbH has developed an infrared sensor for the quality control of lubricants in machines. With this sensor, oil and its ageing can be monitored directly at the operating machine. Future fields of application are for example real-time monitoring of large motors, particularly in shipping or compressors.... view more... (2004-05-10)
A bizarre hovering spy plane takes to the skies WHAT looks like a flying saucer, takes off like a helicopter and flies like a plane? The next remote-controlled surveillance aircraft on the hunt for terrorist fugitives like Osama bin Laden, apparently. Pilotless aircraft came into their own in the Afghan conflict, greatly reducing casualties in US Air Force and ground troops on both... view more... (2002-01-30)
Actigraphy is a useful way to assess and manage sleep disorders Actigraphy, the use of a portable device that records movement over extended periods of time, and has been used extensively in the study of sleep and circadian rhythms, provides an acceptably accurate estimate of sleep patterns in normal, healthy adult populations and in-patients suspected of certain sleep disorders. view more (2007-04-02)
New Hypothesis Of The Tunguska Explosion The event which occurred almost a hundred years ago in Podkamennaya Tunguska has drawn scientists` attention again. What actually exploded at that time in the remote taiga, the power of explosion being equal to the 50-megaton H-bomb? The hypothesis that it was a meteorite or any other extraterrestrial object has not quite satisfied inquisitive... view more... (2002-08-23)
More evidence mammals, fruit flies share make-up on function of biological clocks A study by researchers at New York University and the University of London offers additional evidence that mammals and fruit flies share a common genetic makeup that determines the function of their internal biological clocks. The study appears in the latest issue of Current Biology. view more (2006-03-07)
Skid Marks in the Galaxy - Astronomers localise galactic particle accelerator Radio galaxies are amongst the most luminous celestial objects - however, they mainly emit radio waves, not light. These occur when electrically charged particles travelling at almost the speed of light are slowed down, thereby losing energy. Until recently it was not known exactly where the particles reach such high speeds. A group of scientists... view more... (2002-10-16)
'Naked-eye' gamma-ray burst was aimed squarely at Earth Data from satellites and observatories around the globe show a jet from a powerful stellar explosion witnessed March 19 was aimed almost directly at Earth. view more (2008-09-12)
Erratic Black Hole Regulates Itself New results from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have made a major advance in explaining how a special class of black holes may shut off the high-speed jets they produce. These results suggest that these black holes have a mechanism for regulating the rate at which they grow. view more (2009-03-26)
Fighting sound with sound, new modeling technique could quiet aircraft Newly published research by a Princeton engineer suggests that understanding how air travels across the sunroof of a car may one day make jet engines less noisy. view more (2006-02-27)
Physicists describe strange new fluid-like state of matter University of Chicago physicists have created a novel state of matter using nothing more than a container of loosely packed sand and a falling marble. They have found that the impacting marble produces a jet of sand grains that briefly behaves like a special type of dense fluid. view more (2005-12-06)
First Laboratory Experiment to Accurately Model Stellar Jets Explains Mysterious 'Knots' Some of the most breathtaking objects in the cosmos are the jets of matter streaming out of stars, but astrophysicists have long been at a loss to explain how these jets achieve their varied shapes. Now, laboratory research detailed in the current issue of Astrophysical Review Letters shows how magnetic forces shape these stellar jets. view more (2009-02-10)
Health In A 24-Hour Society (p 999) The increasing demand of many societies for people to work outside office hours could have negative influences on health, legal, and economic outcomes, suggest authors of a review article in this week's issue of THE LANCET. 20% of workers in urban societies work outside regular office hours. Shantha Rajaratnam and Josephine Arendt from the Centre... view more... (2001-09-19)
Researchers design pulsed mircrojet system to deliver protein drugs without pain or bruising A team of UCSB researchers, in collaboration with colleagues from UC Berkeley and StrataGent Life Sciences, of Los Gatos, California, has designed a novel pulsed microjet system engineered to deliver protein drugs into the skin without the pain or bruising that deeper penetration injection systems cause. view more (2007-03-07)
Scientists unveil mysteries of plasma jets on the Sun Scientists at the University of Sheffield and Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab have solved a 127-year-old problem about the origin of supersonic plasma jets (spicules) which continuously shoot up from the Sun. Their findings are published in today's edition of Nature. Spicules, are jets of gas or plasma that are propelled upwards from... view more... (2004-07-29)
Photocell Provides Both Heat And Electricity In 1969, scientists at the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, St. Petersburg made heterostructured photoelectric cells based on the elements of the third and the fifth group of the periodic table (for example, gallium arsenide). Now the photocells can find application not only in space, but also on Earth. To make them working the sunlight is not... view more... (2001-11-27)
Fusion to play part in UK energy strategy Fusion is one of the research areas picked out for energy investment from the UK government by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee in its Report on Energy Research published yesterday. The report "Towards a non-carbon fuel economy: research, development and demonstration" looks at the state of development of different... view more... (2003-04-04)
Melatonin Most Effective For Sleep When Taken For Off-Hour Sleeping Researchers from the Divisions of Sleep Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School have found in a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical study, that melatonin, taken orally during non-typical sleep times, significantly improves an individual's ability to sleep. view more (2006-05-01)
Productivity Gap of East German Firms only partly explicable Even ten years after economic and monetary union, the productivity of East German manufacturing firms is only about two-thirds of that of Western firms. This is revealed by recent analyses of the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Karlsruhe. They investigated about 1,300 enterprises of the German investment goods sector,... view more... (2001-05-03)
Faster than the speed of sound: New control system has what it takes to guide experimental aircraft When a jet is flying faster than the speed of sound, one small mistake can tear it apart. And when the jet is so experimental that it must fly unmanned, only a computer control system can pilot it. Ohio State University engineers have designed control system software that can do just that -- by adapting to changing conditions during a flight. view more (2009-04-30)
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