A lifelong habit of trimming just a few calories from the daily diet can do more than slim the waistline – a new study shows it may help lessen the effects of aging.
Scientists from the University of Florida’s Institute on Aging have found that eating a little less food and exercising a little more over a lifespan can reduce or even reverse aging-related cell and organ damage in rats.
The discovery, described this month in the journal Antioxidants and Redox Signaling, builds o
Texas scientists have added one more trick to the amazing repertoire of carbon nanotubes — the ability to carry electrical signals to nerve cells.
Nanotubes, tiny hollow carbon filaments about one ten-thousandth the diameter of a human hair, are already famed as one of the most versatile materials ever discovered. A hundred times as strong as steel and one-sixth as dense, able to conduct electricity better than copper or to substitute for silicon in semiconductor chips, carbon
Ecologists are getting ready to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the world’s oldest ecological experiment. The Park Grass Experiment was set up at Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire in 1856 – three years before Darwin published Origin of Species – to answer crucial agricultural questions of the day but has since proved an invaluable resource for studying natural selection and biodiversity.
To mark the occasion, a major review of Park Grass is published today in the British Eco
Innovations for society
Imaging techniques are increasingly at the forefront of progress in science and technology. The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) is among the leaders in this development. Imaging techniques turn objects visually inside out, allowing ever greater precision– for instance in medical diagnosis. They also contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms of certain diseases, like Alzheimer’s or osteoporosis. Further applications occur in materials resea
The Internet – millions of people rely on it for everyday tasks. But when is the line crossed between average use and addiction? An article published in Perspectives in Psychiatric Care states, “The Internet has properties that for some individuals promote addictive behaviors and pseudo-intimate interpersonal relationships.” Nurse practitioners will soon find themselves faced with the issues of “internet addicts” and their inability to get offline.
While not yet defined as a true ad
Less than one month after insertion into orbit, and after sixteen loops around the planet Venus, ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft has reached its final operational orbit on 7 May 2006.
Already at 21:49 CEST on 6th May, when the spacecraft communicated to Earth through ESA’s ground station at New Norcia (Australia), the Venus Express ground control team at ESA’s European Spacecraft Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt (Germany) received advanced confirmation that final orbit was
A group of researchers at the University of Kent has been awarded £156,000 by the Government’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to investigate the range of identity choices potentially available to mixed-race young people in Britain.
Conducted by Peter Aspinall (Centre for Health Services Studies), Miri Song (School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research) and Ferhana Hashem (Centre for Health Services Studies), this two year study will be the largest and mos
Imperial College London and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich are to take the lead in a Euro 11 million (GBP 8 million) study to examine how genetics and environment influence the development of asthma in Europe.
The GABRIEL project, funded through an EC Framework 6 grant, involves over 150 scientists from 14 European countries and Russia, using the latest research across a variety of disciplines, including genetics, epidemiology and immunology, to identify key factors in the
Sri Lanka’s coastal drinking water supply continues to suffer the effects of the December 2004 tsunami, which caused major death and destruction in the region. Much of the island nation’s coastal area relies on wells, usually hand dug and relatively shallow. Some 40,000 such wells, each typically serving several families, were destroyed or contaminated by the tsunami. The continued sustainability of the aquifers that supply such wells is in doubt, due to continued saltwater contaminat
Novel lab technique expands researchers’ toolbox
A technical advance in laboratory techniques may provide biology researchers broader access to RNA interference, a process of blocking the activity of targeted genes. RNA interference has recently emerged as an important tool in studying how genes function in normal biological processes and in disease.
Writing in the Journal of Immunological Methods, published online on March 24, a research team from The Children’
Beautiful young models are used to sell everything from computer processors to motor oil. But is it really effective to use a pretty face to market something that has nothing to do with physical attractiveness? New research from the June issue of the Journal of Consumer Research argues that an attractive model can actually negatively influence product perception if the model is irrelevant to the quality of the product and the consumer had a very high interest in the product to being with.
Researchers have a new understanding of the process cells use to ensure that sperm and eggs begin life with exactly one copy of each chromosome – a process that must be exquisitely regulated to prevent problems such as miscarriages and mental retardation. The new work reveals how gluelike protein complexes release pairs of chromosomes at precisely the moment of meiosis – the specialized cell division process that produces sperm and eggs – enabling them to separate properly.
The researchers
Two new studies from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center show that computerizing ordering of chemotherapy and other types of intravenous drug infusions for children greatly reduces the risk of potentially dangerous medical errors.
An online infusion calculator and a computerized drug ordering system, developed under the leadership of Christoph Lehmann, M.D., director of clinical information technology at the Children’s Center, have been in use there for about three years
White blood cells from a strain of cancer-resistant mice cured advanced cancers in ordinary laboratory mice, researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine reported today.
“Even highly aggressive forms of malignancy with extremely large tumors were eradicated,” Zheng Cui, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues reported in this week’s on-line edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The transplanted white blood cells not only killed existing can
For men under the age 55 with localized prostate cancer, external beam radiation may be an effective alternative to both conservative and more invasive treatments, according to a new study. Published in the June 15, 2006 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study reveals that external beam radiation therapy is as effective in younger prostate cancer patients as it is in older patients with same stage, localized disease. The study is the first to investigate
The research team, directed by Joseph Gleeson, M.D., Director of the Neurogenetics Laboratory at the UCSD School of Medicine and associate professor in the Department of Neurosciences, have identified a new gene that, when mutated, leads to JSRD. Their findings will be published on-line May 7 in advance of publication in the journal Nature Genetics.
JSRD is a group of neurodevelopmental syndromes marked by absence of the middle part of the cerebellum called the vermis, along with features
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