Using probes originally designed to detect and image topographical features on surfaces, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have demonstrated the ability to initiate and spatially localize chemical reactions on the submicron scale. They have been able to reliably manipulate chemistry on a very, very small scale in contrast to normal beaker-type reactions carried out in bulk. Such “site-selective” chemistry, taken down to the molecule-by-molecule level,
Virginia Tech chemistry researchers have made a discovery about how ozone degrades organic surfaces such as biological surfactants and polymeric coatings.
The research will be presented at the 231st American Chemical Society (ACS) national meeting being held in Atlanta on March 26-30.
John Morris’ group is studying the reactions of small molecules found in pollution of surfaces. Morris, associate professor of chemistry in the College of Science, and his student
Results essential to optimize materials for diverse applications
Steadily increasing the length of a purified conducting polymer vastly improves its ability to conduct electricity, report researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, whose work appeared March 22 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Their study of regioregular polythiophenes (RRPs) establishes benchmark properties for these materials that suggest how to optimize their use for a new generation of diverse mat
The unchecked activity of a cell signaling pathway crucial in embryonic development and the liver’s response to injury leads to liver cancer, researchers from Duke University Medical Center and John Hopkins University School of Medicine have found.
Because the pathway, called Hedgehog, is present only in immature, stem-like liver cells, the discovery offers hope for targeted treatment of liver cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in the world. Laborat
New observations of propeller-shaped disturbances in Saturn’s A ring indicate the presence of four small, embedded moons — and most likely millions more, Cornell University astronomers report.
This is the first evidence of the existence of moonlets bridging the gap in size between the larger ring moons Pan and Daphnis (several miles each in diameter) and the much smaller ice particles that comprise the bulk of the rings. The discovery could lead to a better understan
Looking back 13.7 billion years, astronomers have collected data that tells us, with greater precision than ever before, what happened in the first two-trillionths of a second after the big bang. The data agrees very well with theoretical predictions and may tell us something about the way the universe is behaving today, particularly why it is expanding faster than it ought to be.
“Observation is helping us constrain the theories,” said Rachel Bean, Cornell assistant professo
Multi-site vaccinations could protect against all four dengue viruses
An innovative new study explains, for the first time, the failure of previous attempts to vaccinate against the four known Dengue viruses, and it suggests a very simple solution – injecting the four vaccines simultaneously at different locations on the body.
A mosquito-born disease, Dengue kills tens of thousands of people per year and sickens 100 million more. Known as “bone-break disease,” Dengue is ch
Much of what scientists learn about the evolution of Earth’s first animals will have to be gleaned from spherical embryos fossilized under very specific conditions, according to a new study by Indiana University Bloomington and University of Bristol researchers in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Purported animal embryo fossils have been reported continuously over the last 12 years, mainly by paleontologists working in China. Scientists di
Doses of DNA-gene-coated gold particles protect mice against a protein implicated in Alzheimer’s disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
By pressure-injecting the gene responsible for producing the specific protein – called amyloid-beta 42 – the researchers caused the mice to make antibodies and greatly reduce the protein’s build-up in the brain. Accumulation of amyloid-beta 42 in humans is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.
Eighty-three per cent of college girls surveyed diet to lose weight, regardless of their current body weight. A study published today in the open access journal Nutrition Journal (http://www.nutritionj.com/) also reveals that college girls practice unhealthy behaviours, such as smoking or skipping breakfast, to lose weight. By contrast, only 19% of them exercise enough to promote weight loss. The authors of the study conclude that all college girls, regardless of whether they are normal weight
Using bioinformatics, scientists at Boston Biomedical Research Institute elucidate the kinome of a key model organism
The journal PLoS Genetics has published the findings of a team of scientists at the nonprofit Boston Biomedical Research Institute that provides a whole genome analysis of the protein kinases from a scientifically valuable model organism known as Dictyostelium.
Led by Dr. Janet Smith, this study offers important insights into the evolution of kinases, which
In 1947-1949 a group of mental patients in Sweden were used as subjects in a full-scale experiment designed to bring about tooth decay. They were fed copious amounts of candy, and many of them had their teeth completely ruined. But, scientifically speaking, the experiment was a huge success.
The National Dental Service in Sweden was started in 1938. The dental health of Swedes at that time was atrocious, nearly everyone had cavities. It was suspected that diets rich in sugar caus
“GoPubMed is a sort of an intelligent Google for biomedical specialists,” explains Dr Michael Alvers, CEO and Co-founder of Transinsight. “The search engine saves time and so accelerates research significantly.”
Founded in November 2005, Transinsight is a software company focused on the life sciences that provides products and solutions for intelligent search technologies. Their main product, GoPubMed, was partly developed during the IST project, Biogrid, by Professor Michael Schroeder
Scientists in the UK have found that a type of amoeba acts as an incubator for MRSA bacteria. As amoebae are often found in healthcare environments this discovery has implications for the infection control strategies adopted by hospitals.
The single cell amoeba, Acanthamoeba polyphagam, commonly eats and digests environmental bacteria. It also engulfs pathogens such as MRSA. However, instead of being digested by the amoeba, MRSA survives and replicates whilst inside the amoeba.
Antioxidants are believed to have substantial health benefits and raspberries in particular are a good source. In fact, raspberries may have 10 times more antioxidants than tomatoes or broccoli. Further, raspberries contain some specific antioxidants that are found almost nowhere else.
In a study published in a recent issue of BioFactors, researchers from Plant Research International, Wageningen, The Netherlands, discuss specific compounds found in the berry, some appropriate methods for as
Five spacecraft from two ESA missions unexpectedly found themselves engulfed by waves of electrical and magnetic energy as they travelled through Earth’s night-time shadow on 5 August 2004.
The data collected by the spacecraft are giving scientists an important clue to the effects of ’space weather’ on Earth’s magnetic field.
Shortly after 15:34 CEST, something set the tail of Earth’s natural cloak of magnetism oscillating. “It was like the waves created by
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