A team of Williams College faculty and students is preparing to scientifically observe the total eclipse of the Sun that will sweep across the far side of Earth on March 29. Six undergraduates are joining Jay Pasachoff, Bryce Babcock, and Steven Souza of the astronomy and physics departments, who have worked together on a series of expeditions, most recently to study Pluto and its moon Charon.
The expedition is to Kastellorizo, a small island east of Rhodes in the Greek Dodecanes
If the near-starving grasshopper from the childhood fable, the Ant and the Grasshopper, had been given a piece of corn by one of the well-prepared ants, the grasshopper probably would have developed a preference for corn that would have persisted even when he was well-fed.
Based on a joint study between Dr. Spencer Behmer, a Texas A&M University assistant professor of entomology, and researchers at the University of Oxford, the United Kingdom, the grasshopper would likely have dev
The first 3D maps of the UK underworld are to be created in a new £2.2m project which will save the UK millions of pounds by reducing the amount we dig up our roads.
There are enough pipes and cables buried under our streets to stretch to the moon and back ten times, but we don’t know where many of them are. Researchers from the Universities of Leeds and Nottingham will help to locate them, by finding a way to integrate existing digital and paper-based records and link these with
Regular exercise can reduce severe symptoms in menopausal women and improve their quality of life, according to a study in the latest Journal of Advanced Nursing.
Researchers from the University of Granada in Spain found that the number of women suffering severe symptoms fell by a quarter after they took part in a 12-month supervised exercise programme, while problems increased among women who didn’t exercise.
Fifty per cent of the 24-strong exercise group had severe symp
The first measuring period for external users at the new X-ray radiation source VUV-FEL at DESY in Hamburg has been successfully concluded. Since its official startup in August 2005, a total of 14 research teams from ten countries have carried out first experiments using the facility’s intense laser beam. “Both the external researchers and the DESY team gained most valuable experience with the new machine,” DESY research director Professor Jochen Schneider comments. “As a worldwide unique pioneer
New findings of research into Tourette’s syndrome could help to pinpoint the cause of the condition.
University of Nottingham researchers have found evidence for an unexpected conclusion — that people with Tourette’s syndrome actually have more control over some brain processes than people unaffected by the condition.
It has been a widely held view that Tourette’s — a condition that affects thousands of Britons and can seriously inhibit social interaction — is the result
Experts, lead by the University of Dundee, have discovered the gene which causes genetic skin conditions affecting millions of people.
Experts on genetic skin disorders at the University of Dundee, with collaborators in Dublin, Glasgow, Seattle and Copenhagen, have discovered the gene that causes dry, scaly skin and predisposes individuals to atopic dermatitis (eczema). Some of these individuals also develop a form of asthma that occurs in association with eczema. This work h
Scottish scientists are to form part of a European-wide “Network of Excellence” in research into a key area of genetic regulation, which links to an ever-growing list of diseases including certain types of cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.
Research teams led by Professor Angus Lamond in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee, Professor John Brown at the Scottish Crop Research Institute, Professor Jean Beggs at the University of Edinburgh and Dr Javier Cacer
On 21 and 22 March 2006, the Strategic Implementation Team (SIT) of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) will be holding its 18th meeting at ESA’s ESRIN in Frascati.
Members of CEOS-SIT include the some of the most important space agencies in the world – NASA, NOAA, ESA, JAXA of Japan, ISRO of India and CONAE of Argentina. CEOS was set up in 1984 under the auspices of the G-7 group to coordinate space agency programmes in the field of Earth Observation. ESA chairs
Paper labels in supermarkets could become a thing of the past, thanks to a revolutionary digital display system that could also give mobile phones a much longer life.
The new type of electronic display could save retailers millions by allowing product information on the supermarket shelves to be changed globally, at the touch of a button. Labour costs linked to price changes in stores could plummet and supermarkets will be doing their bit for the environment by scrapping the paper
Multimedia providers and distributors are being sought by Leeds researchers, to test some of the latest technology for handling digital media such as music, games and TV.
In today’s digital world, multimedia entertainment reaches us in a huge variety of ways, whether it’s films watched on a laptop, interactive games on our mobile phones or music downloaded through the internet. As technology advances, these outlets proliferate, raising problems of compatibility and copyright prote
The introduction of a smokefree law in bars and restaurants in New Zealand has had positive health and economic impacts. A study published recently in the open access journal BMC Public Health reveals that the proportion of smokers who reported smoking more when going out to public social venues halved following the implementation of the 2003 New Zealand Smokefree Environments Act. Support from smokers for smokefree bars doubled over the six months following the implementation of the Act. The s
The revolutionary model plane has been developed as part of a £6.2m programme, involving engineers from the University of Leicester, funded jointly by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and BAE Systems.
The five-year programme is called FLAVIIR – flapless air vehicle integrated industrial research – and involves teams from Leicester, Liverpool, Nottingham, Southampton, Swansea, Warwick, York and London. Manchester University’s Goldstein Aeronautical Resea
A revolutionary manner of distributing TV programmes via the Internet, the new peer-to-peer Tribler system, based on open-source software, has been launched.
Various public broadcasting corporations, commercial TV stations and cable and telecommunications companies are all showing keen interest in the distribution of television programmes via the Internet. While the current method makes use of centrally located computer systems, research is now being conducted at Delft Un
Angina, a common form of heart disease, is more dangerous for women than was previously thought, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The collaborative study, led by UCL (University College London) and funded by the British Heart Foundation, found that angina in women is as common as it is in men, in contrast to heart attacks (myocardial infarction) which have a higher rate in men. The findings suggest that the medical profession shoul
Rutgers researchers have identified a gene – and the molecular function of its protein product – that provides an important clue to further understanding obesity and may point the way to new drugs to control fat metabolism.
The scientists found that the human protein known as lipin is a key fat-regulating enzyme. “Lipin activity may be an important pharmaceutical target for the control of body fat in humans, treating conditions that range from obesity to the loss of fat beneath
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