Using massive clusters of galaxies as “cosmic telescopes,” a research team led by a Johns Hopkins University astronomer has found what may be infant galaxies born in the first billion years after the beginning of the universe.
If these findings are confirmed, the extra magnification provided by these gargantuan natural telescopes will have given astronomers their best-ever view of galaxies as they formed in the early universe, more than 12 billion years ago, said Holland Ford
New research indicates that the genetic quality of sperm worsens as men get older, increasing a man’s risk of being infertile, fathering unsuccessful pregnancies and passing along dwarfism and possibly other genetic diseases to his children.
A study led by scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the University of California, Berkeley, found a steady increase in sperm DNA fragmentation with increasing age of the study participants, along with increases
A new web-based calculator will better assess the risk of heart disease in British black and minority ethnic groups. These groups are often wrongly assessed.
ETHRISK is for everyday use in the doctor’s surgery and other primary care settings. It has been developed by researchers at the University of Bristol to improve prediction of the heart disease risks of seven British black and minority ethnic groups.
Ethnic groups within Britain have a different risk of coronary hear
New insights into the structure of space and time, climate modeling, and the design of novel drugs, are but a few of the many research areas that will be transformed by the installation of three supercomputers at the University of Bristol.
At peak performance the multi-million pound high performance computers (HPCs) will carry out over 13 trillion calculations per second. That is equivalent to the entire population of the world working simultaneously on hand-held calculators for
Our Sun has its explosive flares and spots and high speed wind, but it is a placid star compared to some. Stars that are much more massive live fast and die young, with blue-white, intensely hot surfaces that emit energy at a rate millions of times greater than that of the Sun. These stars are so bright that their light alone propels outflowing stellar winds – up to a billion times stronger than the solar wind – at speeds of up to 30,000 km/s, or one per cent of the speed of light.
Previous methods for uncovering cancer are old and inaccurate. Now, data analysts at Norut IT Research in Norway are moving cancer treatment forward.
For many years doctors have used “spot detection” of cell samples to uncover a patient’s type of cancer and the seriousness of the condition.
-This old method is complicated, time consuming and inaccurate, says Werner Van Belle, researcher at Norut IT in Tromsø, Norway.
Together with cancer researchers from Bergen, N
First discovered 150 years ago, Neanderthals have been studied more widely than any other form of human. Thanks to a new interactive inventory and online catalogue developed in Europe, scientists worldwide can now probe the secrets of this primitive relative from the comfort of their computer.
Neanderthal humans (Homo neanderthalensis) was once common throughout Europe, but died out some 30,000 years ago. Since the discovery of Neanderthal remains in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1856,
Neurological Diseases: Underestimated Problems – Promising new treatments
International scientists discuss the most recent research results, for example, of the treatment of multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease, in the field on sleep research, in the treatment of strokes or in the visualization of cerebral processes through the most modern MRI procedures at the European Neurological Society conference currently taking place in Lausanne (CH).
A look at the spread of
Finlands agricultural sector is facing a period of serious re-adjustment to the challenges of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform and the impending agreement in the World Trade Organization (WTO). The application of the single payment scheme introduced in the context of the CAP reform of 2003 starts in Finland in 2006. Coupled CAP support will continue to be applied for suckler cows, bulls and ewes and starch potato, but the CAP support for arable crops will be completely decoupled from
How much carbon dioxide is produced from the energy you use in a week and how does this contribute to the problems of global warming and climate change? How can physics help? How many students can you fit into a tent?
This month at the Cheltenham Science Festival, Camp Energy – Survival of the Physicists will answer these questions. Four physics students have been challenged by the Institute of Physics to camp out at the festival from 7 to 11 June and live as carbon neutrally as
The authors describe the discovery of a novel class of mutations that disrupt the function of a gene and thereby cause a specific phenotype. The mutation created the appearance of an “illegitimate” microRNA (miRNA) recognition site in a gene that did not have it in its normal form. In this study, the gene concerned is the myostatin. This gene is expressed in the skeletal muscle and the function of the derived protein is to inhibit muscular growth. The mutation discovered among sheep exposed a recogn
Findings have broad implications for design of clinical trials for advanced NSCLC
Researchers typically evaluate the effectiveness of a new cancer treatment by looking at how tumors respond to it. But in the case of advanced non-small cell lung cancer, there may be a better way to assess effectiveness.
A new Southwest Oncology Group study led by a team of UC Davis Cancer Center researchers suggests that an alternative measurement – “disease control rate” – may be a more
Pre-cooked mussels?
Based on current trends for both air and water temperatures, by 2100 the body temperatures of California mussels — found along thousands of miles of coast in the northeast Pacific Ocean and not just in California –- could increase between about 2 degrees F and 6.5 F depending on where they live.
For areas where mussels already are living close to the edge, chances are that increases of 6.5 F will kill them, researchers say.
Unlike humans,
Finding could offer clues to origins of Milky Way
Spiral galaxies are the glitter of the universe. These systems of stars, dust, gas and plasma are held together by gravity but seem to pinwheel across the darkness of space. They have fascinated nighthawks for hundreds of years and dazzled scientists who use increasingly sophisticated tools to study them.
Now, for the first time, astronomers from the University of Georgia have discovered a startling absence of hot gas
From the beginning, arteries and veins are different in the way they branch into vascular networks, say Dartmouth heart researchers. They have identified a new defect limited to arterial development.
The discovery, reported in the June issue of Developmental Cell, upends some theories about the origins of blood vessels and could change the nature of vascular biology research that seeks to harness the mechanisms of blood vessel growth for treatment.
“This is the first
Worries linger even after false-positive diagnoses are ruled out
Virtually all babies in the U.S. have their heels pricked soon after birth to get a blood sample for genetic testing. These “heel stick” tests identify rare metabolic disorders before they cause irreversible damage, but as more disorders are added to the screening – many states now test for 30 or more – false-positive results are on the rise. In the June issue of Pediatrics, researchers from Children’s Hospital Bo
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