What stops people with cancer from joining research trials, and ways to increase participation are the subjects of the latest publication from CRD.
Clinical trials are an essential tool for the evaluation of medical technologies. It is crucial that enough participants are recruited to a trial to ensure that the trial can proceed and for the results to be valid. Without sufficient numbers of people taking part, the introduction of new treatments or detailed evaluation of existing ones
Cosmic space is filled with continuous, diffuse high-energy radiation. To find out how this energy is produced, the scientists behind ESA’s Integral gamma-ray observatory have tried an unusual method: observing Earth from space.
During a four-phase observation campaign started on 24 January this year, continued until 9 February, Integral has been looking at Earth. Needing complex control operations from the ground, the satellite has been kept in a fixed orientation in space, whil
On Thursday 15 March, at the headquarters of the European Space Agency, a co-operation agreement was signed between ESA and the Centre National d’Études Spatiales for the development of Alphabus, Europe’s next generation of telecommunication satellites.
The signature of this co-operation agreement follows the signature of a contract in June 2005 between the European Space Agency (ESA), the Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), EADS Astrium and Alcatel Space (which
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire even in outer space. A new infrared image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope shows a burning hot galaxy whose fiery stars appear to be blowing out giant billows of smoky dust.
The galaxy, called Messier 82 or the “Cigar” galaxy, was previously known to host a hotbed of young, massive stars. The new Spitzer image reveals, for the first time, the “smoke” surrounding those stellar fires.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” said Dr
If you’re a scientist studying the surface of Mars, few discoveries could be more exciting than seeing recent gullies apparently formed by running water. And that’s what scientists believed they saw in Mars Orbital Camera (MOC) images five years ago. They published a paper in Science on MOC images that show small, geologically young ravines. They concluded that the gullies are evidence that liquid water flowed on Mars’ surface sometime within the last million years.
For years, neural activity in the brain’s visual cortex was thought to have only one job: to create visual perceptions. A new study by researchers at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory shows that visual cortical activity can serve another purpose–connecting visual experience with non-visual events.
The study, slated to appear in the March 17 issue of Science, implies that sensory parts of the brain may be able to accomplish more complex tasks than previously
A review of the findings from more than 100 peer-reviewed studies shows that although many aspects of the global water cycle have intensified, including precipitation and evaporation, this trend has not consistently resulted in an increase in the frequency or intensity of tropical storms or floods over the past century. The USGS findings, which have implications on the effect of global climate change, are published today in the Journal of Hydrology.
“A key question in the global climate
Grocers, florists and even pharmacists may soon have a better way to monitor the quality of the products they get from suppliers: a sensor that will tell how long before a product spoils or passes its expiration date.
A team of University of Florida engineering students has designed and built a prototype of the new smart sensor, which can also record and wirelessly transmit information to retailers about when and where glitches occur as a product is being shipped.
“We t
Found with genes that control human immune response, discovery could lead to safer and more effective psoriasis treatments
University of Michigan scientists have found a common genetic variation in an immune system gene that makes people much more likely to develop psoriasis – a disfiguring inflammatory skin disease.
Named PSORS1 (SORE-ESS-1), for psoriasis susceptibility 1, the gene is the first genetic determinant of psoriasis to be definitively identified in a large c
A NASA-funded expedition to the Arctic to map the thickness of snow has a legion of unexpected furry fans hailing from one of the world’s coldest regions: polar bears.
From mid-March to mid-April, researchers embark on an Arctic field experiment using a new airborne radar to determine the accuracy of satellite measurements of snow’s thickness atop polar sea ice. Snow thickness is just one of several cutting-edge measurements taken by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiom
A man-made chemical compound called ARC causes tumor cells to die but leaves normal cells unharmed, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago report in a study highlighted in the March 15 issue of Cancer Research. ARC also proved to have strong anti-angiogenic properties, showing promise as an inhibitor of new blood vessel formation in tumors.
ARC, an acronym for its long chemical name, resembles one of the bases that are the building blocks of DNA. Researchers found
First ’movie’ of gene expression in live cells shows proteins being made in small bursts
Chemists at Harvard University have developed the first technique providing a real-time, molecule-by-molecule “movie” of protein production in live cells. Their direct observation of fluorescently tagged molecules in single cells — providing striking real-time footage of the birth of individual new protein molecules inside — greatly increases scientists’ precision in probing
Brown dwarfs — failed stars that fall somewhere between the smallest stars and the largest planets on the spectrum of heavenly objects — have always been viewed by astronomers as a critical link in the understanding of how both stars and planets form.
The trouble with brown dwarfs, however, is that they are hard to find and, so far, they have defied nearly all attempts to accurately assess their size.
But now astronomers, including a University of Wisconsin-Madison astronomer, rep
First came word that a rare frog (Amolops tormotus) in China sings like a bird, then that the species produces very high-pitch ultrasonic sounds. Now scientists say that these concave-eared torrent frogs also hear and respond to the sounds.
The findings, to appear in the March 16 issue of Nature, represent the first documented case of an amphibian being able to communicate like bats, whales and dolphins, said corresponding author Albert S. Feng, a professor of molecular and inte
Capsaicin, the stuff that turns up the heat in jalapeños, not only causes the tongue to burn, it also drives prostate cancer cells to kill themselves, according to studies published in the March 15 issue of Cancer Research.
According to a team of researchers from the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in collaboration with colleagues from UCLA, the pepper component caused human prostate cancer cells to undergo programmed cell death or ap
In a group of high-risk patients, a test that examined DNA from cells expelled in sputum for evidence of “silenced” genes correctly identified the majority of patients who were later diagnosed with lung cancer, say researchers in a study published in the March 15 issue of Cancer Research.
As such, the sputum test potentially represents a unique, non-invasive, and cost-effective screening method that could lead to earlier treatment of lung cancer.
“Short of repeatedly
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