An enormous iceberg, C-16, rammed into the well-known Drygalski Ice Tongue, a large sheet of glacial ice and snow in the Central Ross Sea in Antarctica, on 30 March 2006, breaking off the tongue’s easternmost tip and forming a new iceberg.
This animation, comprised of images acquired by Envisat’s Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR), shows the iceberg and the ice tongue before and after the collision. On 26 March, C-16 was pinned at the southern edge of the ice tongue but had s
The Grand National spurs over a third of the adult population of the United Kingdom into having a flutter making it the country’s single biggest gambling event. However, even with the recent boom in internet gambling, problems with gambling are often overlooked.
Problem gambling is the subject of a new research venture funded by Economic and Social Research Council in partnership with the Responsibility in Gambling Trust (RIGT). Funding worth around £920,000 over a three year peri
With World Health Day being celebrated today (7th April), significant opportunities to help bring lasting peace to countries previously torn by civil war – through re-building and improving their local health systems – are largely being missed by the world’s major aid donors, according to important new research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Health is increasingly an international matter, with foreign policy and security implications. But issues are
MIT chemical engineers have devised an elegant new method for creating complex polymeric microparticles that could have applications in a variety of fields, from drug delivery in medicine to the creation of building blocks for the photonic materials that carry light. The particles can also add texture to skin creams and color to inks.
The new synthesis method gives researchers an extraordinary degree of control over the shape and chemical properties of the microparticles, which range in
Provides new perspectives on disease associated with HIV/AIDS
Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have identified a critical human cell surface molecule involved in infection by Kaposi’s sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV), the virus that causes Kaposi’s sarcoma and certain forms of lymphoma. Kaposi’s sarcoma is a major cancer associated with HIV/AIDS, and it typically manif
Fecal matter of red colobus monkeys collected in western Uganda has yielded a wealth of knowledge about human land-use change and wildlife health and conservation. The main lesson, researchers say, is that the intensity of tree removal translates directly to parasite populations and the risk of infection of their hosts.
In an effort to glean predictive power out of years of research on the effects of forest fragmentation on various species and ecological processes, researchers looked
MIT scientists have harnessed the construction talents of tiny viruses to build ultra-small “nanowire” structures for use in very thin lithium-ion batteries. By manipulating a few genes inside these viruses, the team was able to coax the organisms to grow and self-assemble into a functional electronic device.
The goal of the work, led by MIT Professors Angela Belcher, Paula Hammond and Yet-Ming Chiang, is to create batteries that cram as much electrical energy into as small or
Ring in Mab’s oribit intriguingly similar to Saturn’s blue ring in Enceladus’ orbit
The outermost ring of Uranus, discovered just last year, is bright blue, making it only the second known blue ring in the solar system, according to a report this week in the journal Science.
Perhaps not coincidentally, both blue rings are associated with small moons.
“The outer ring of Saturn is blue and has Enceledus right smack at its brightest spot, and Uranus i
Nearly one-third of American adults have high blood pressure, a major cause of heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure. But a new technique tested at the University of Florida could prove to be a long-term way to treat the disorder in humans, researchers say.
UF researchers kept blood pressure from worsening and nearly eliminated kidney damage in rats exposed to cold weather, which can constrict blood vessels and overload the kidneys with hormones, according to findings publ
A 37-year-old-mother, who gave birth to a low-weight preemie at 24 weeks, exhibited the first-found link in a human between bacteria found in the mouth and the amniotic fluid of a woman in preterm labor.
Using new DNA finger-printing techniques to find bacteria that cannot be cultured and grown in the lab, researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland made the
An international team of scientists are working at a rapid pace to study environmental conditions behind the fast-acting and widespread coral bleaching currently plaguing Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. NASA’s satellite data supply scientists with near-real-time sea surface temperature and ocean color data to give them faster than ever insight into the impact coral bleaching can have on global ecology.
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is a massive marine habitat system made up of 2,90
It was on 9 November last year that ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft lifted off from the desert of Kazakhstan onboard a Soyuz-Fregat rocket. Now, after having travelled 400 million kilometres in only about five months, the spacecraft is about to reach its final destination. The rendezvous is due to take place on 11 April.
First step: catching Venus
To begin to explore our Earth’s hot and hazy sister planet, Venus Express must complete a critical first step, the most challengin
Today a new hearing aid in the form of a pair of glasses was unveiled. These hearing-glasses are called ’Varibel’ and offer older people the chance to stay active longer – free from the aesthetically unpleasing and technologically limited traditional hearing aids. Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands originally developed the hearing-glasses. Varibel developed these glasses into a consumer product in partnership with Philips, Frame Holland, the design agencies MMID and Verhoe
ESA has taken a further step in preparing for participation in Mars Sample Return (MSR), the landmark mission to return samples from the Red Planet, with the announcement of the next phase of industrial activity.
The Phase A2 activity will address many critical issues and identify key areas in which Europe can participate in this flagship of the Aurora Programme.
The search for evidence of life outside the Earth is one of the fundamental goals of space exploration, and has been
Some 60 million older Europeans suffering from chronic diseases and/or needing care say they would welcome online help delivered to their homes. A new tested video-telephony system underlines the ‘e-care’ benefits for users and over-stretched social-service and healthcare providers.
Video telephony allows immediate contact with people at home, enables them to continue living at home and relieves pressure on care-providers by reducing physical journeys. It was first tested in Eur
The InterAcademy Medical Panel (IAMP), a global network of medical academies and medical divisions of academies of science and engineering, has officially endorsed the goals of the Disease Control Priorities Project (DCPP). The endorsement took place at the conclusion of IAMP’s General Assembly in Beijing, China.
“The DCPP roadmap for improved global health,” says Guy de Thé, honorary professor at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, and co-chair of the IAMP executive board, “charts
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