Researchers from around the world teamed up to make discovery; Only specimen part of Field Museum collections
For the first time in 83 years, scientists have identified a new genus of a living primate from Africa, according to research to be published by Science May 11 in the online Science Express.
“This is exciting news because it shows that the ’age of discovery’ is by no means over,” says William Stanley, a co-author of the study and mammal Collection M
Individual variation in social behavior is one of the most striking features of cooperative animal societies. In a new study from the June issue of American Naturalist, Michael A. Cant (University of Cambridge), Justine B. Llop (University of Cambridge), and Jeremy Field (University College London) investigate the extent to which differences in aggressive behavior within a cooperative society can be explained by “inheritance rank”–the likelihood that an individual will get to mate successfully in th
Researchers from the Floral Genome Project at Penn State University, with an international team of collaborators, have proposed an answer to Charles Darwin’s “abominable mystery:” the inexplicably rapid evolution of flowering plants immediately after their first appearance some 140 million years ago. By developing new statistical methods to analyze incomplete DNA sequences from thirteen strategically selected plant species, the researchers uncovered a previously hidden “paleopolyploidy” event
Grain orientation and thermal conductivity in tape cast β-Si3N4
â-Si3N4 ceramics with highly oriented grains, show high thermal conductivity along the tape-casting direction. In order to clearly understand the relationship between microstructure and thermal conductivity in ceramics, it is important to understand degrees of orientation for each grain and the grain boundary.
In this study Japanese researchers, Hiromi Nakano, Hiroshi Nakano and Koji Watari, from Ryuk
Now all they need is a really, really small corkscrew.
Like Lilliputian chemists, scientists have found a way to “cork” infinitesimally small nano test tubes. The goal is a better way to deliver drugs, for example, for cancer treatment. Scientists want to fill the teeny tubes with drugs and inject them into the body, where they will seek diseased or cancerous cells, uncork and spill their therapeutic contents in the right place.
“After making the nano test tubes, we saw the
The blood of patients with head and neck cancer appears to have unique patterns of protein expression that one day could serve as a screening test for the highly aggressive cancer that is often diagnosed too late, researchers say.
Studies comparing protein expression in 78 patients with head and neck cancer to 68 healthy controls revealed numerous differences in protein expression, Medical College of Georgia researchers say.
“We found scores and scores of proteins that w
During a ceremony held in Toulouse on 11 May 2006, ESA officially awarded EADS Astrium the contract to develop and build the Gaia satellite. The goal of this space mission, currently planned for launch in 2011, is to make the largest, most precise map of our own Galaxy to date.
The contract, worth 317 million Euros, has been jointly signed by ESA’s Director of Science, Professor David Southwood, and Antoine Bouvier, Chief Executive Officer for EADS Astrium. The Toulouse branch w
On 8-9 June 2006, the European Science Foundation (ESF) will launch an ESF Research Networking Programme to help member countries adapt their public policies and services to the changing political and cultural realities of the European Union.
Enlargement, harmonisation of tax policy, and growing labour mobility all bring public policy challenges that require improved understanding of the underlying dynamics in order to develop solutions.
The ‘Public Goods, Public Proj
European researchers aim to create the first ever integrated Europe-wide database on globalisation, for the period 1850-2000.
In an effort to further develop the European research area the new ESF Research Networking Programme, ‘Globalising Europe Economic History Network’ (GLOBALEURONET), will address key gaps in previous globalisation studies by focusing on a more holistic, long-run view of the role played by Europe in the globalisation waves of the last 150 years. The project
CNRS researchers at the Institut Curie have shown in embryos that a cell-surface protein called ß1 integrin is essential for the formation of the enteric nervous system, which controls the passage of food through the gut. If the cells destined to form the future enteric nervous system lack ß1 integrin, their capacity to migrate is impaired and they fail to colonize the whole intestine. This anomaly resembles Hirschsprung’s disease, a rare human congenital malformation. These findings also shed ne
ESO’s Very Large Telescope, equipped with the multi-mode FORS instrument, took an image of NGC 3190, a galaxy so distorted that astronomers gave it two names. And as if to prove them right, in 2002 it fired off, almost simultaneously, two stellar explosions, a very rare event.
This beautiful edge-on spiral galaxy with tightly wound arms and a warped shape that makes it resemble a gigantic potato crisp lies in the constellation Leo (‘the Lion’) [1] and is approximately 70 million
c-myc, a gene commonly involved in cancer onset, has been found to have a role in the immune system’s normal function according to a study published in the journal, Blood. The surprising finding, by a Swiss research team led by investigators from the Lausanne Branch of the international Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR), showed that c-myc functions in the immune system’s ‘memory’ of previous infections.
In order to rapidly and efficiently respond to new infections, the immune sy
In the subsidy programme ’Investment Subsidy NWO Medium’ from the Division for the Chemical Sciences (CW) four applications have been honoured. A total of 1 million euros has been awarded. The projects cover an EPR machine for novel materials and catalytic processes, vibrational spectroscopy for molecular structures, equipment for gasoline production analyses and a new facility for unravelling molecular aggregation.
The programme for medium-sized investments within the Divisio
Female fish prefer brightly coloured males because they are easier to see and are in better shape concludes Dutch researcher Martine Maan following her study of fish speciation in the East African Lakes. Environmental variation subsequently leads to differences in preference and eventually to speciation.
Evolutionary theory predicts that species can diverge if different females choose different characteristics in males. Yet females often pay attention to traits that reveal something about
A DTU research team report in the May 11 2006 issue of the scientific journal Nature on strained silicon as a new electro-optic material.
DTU reseachers report that a significant linear electro-optic effect can be induced in silicon by breaking the crystal symmetry. The symmetry is broken by depositing a straining layer on top of a silicon waveguide that induces a non-linear coefficient. This makes it possible to change the phase of light by applying an electric field across the
Dutch researcher Joost Beuving concludes that the gambling behaviour of car traders has played an important role in the rapid growth of the West African second-hand car trade. This uneconomic behaviour emerges from the belief that they will one day make a fortune.
European second-hand cars flooded onto the West African car market in the 1990s. The port-town of Cotonou in Benin became an important operating base for this Euro-African car trade. At its peak in about 2000, se
Feedback
