The popular saying goes that 70 is the new 60 and 60 is the new 50, unfortunately for much of New Zealand’s ageing population declining muscle function means it simply isn’t true.
New research however from The University of Auckland’s Faculty of Science aims to develop a non-pharmaceutical means to maintain muscle function and quality of life in older individuals. The good news is the answer could be as simple as taking a stroll followed by a glass of chocolate mi
When Anita Louise Smith enrolled in an experimental drug trial in 2002 in Colorado, she had a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis but no symptoms and was looking to reduce the chances of being ravaged by the disease. Last year, she died at the age of 46 from an infection linked to the drug.
This tragedy – recounted in an article in the March 4 issue of The Lancet by two Stanford University School of Medicine neurologists – serves as a telling case study of what can go wrong in clini
Investigators retrieve textbook-quality coral fossil sampling to document history of paleoclimatic change
An international team of scientists, supported by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, reunited at the University of Bremen to analyze a trove of coral fossil samples retrieved from Tahitian waters during October and November 2005. Two weeks ago, led by chief scientists from France and Japan, the science party started their year-long analysis of 632 meters of fossil materi
University of Colorado at Boulder researchers have used data from a pair of NASA satellites orbiting Earth in tandem to determine that the Antarctic ice sheet, which harbors 90 percent of Earth’s ice, has lost significant mass in recent years.
The team used measurements taken with the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE, to conclude the Antarctic ice sheet is losing up to 36 cubic miles of ice, or 152 cubic kilometers, annually. By comparison, the city of Los Ange
The fastest ever observations of protons moving within a molecule open a new window on fundamental processes in chemistry and biology, researchers report today in the journal Science.
Their capturing of the movements of the lightest and therefore speediest components of a molecule will allow scientists to study molecular behaviour previously too fast to be detected. It gives a new in-depth understanding of how molecules behave in chemical processes, providing opportunities for
A global evolutionary map reveals new insights into our last common ancestor
In 1870 the German scientist Ernst Haeckel mapped the evolutionary relationships of plants and animals in the first ’tree of life’. Since then scientists have continuously redrawn and expanded the tree adding microorganisms and using modern molecular data, yet, many parts of the tree have remained unclear. Now a group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg has developed a c
Some newborns may be 26 to 50 times more susceptible to exposure to certain organophosphate pesticides than other newborns, and 65 to 130 times more sensitive than some adults, according to a new study by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Washington.
The study, to be published Thursday, March 2, in the journal Pharmacogenetics and Genomics, reveals far greater variability in susceptibility to pesticides than previously predicted.
Counseling focused on level of motivation to quit leads to best outcomes
Providence, RI – A new study suggests that incorporating smoking cessation counseling into home-based medical care is an effective and feasible way to help people break the habit. Furthermore, counseling that focuses on a patient’s motivation to quit is more successful than following standard cessation guidelines. The study is published in a recent issue of Preventive Medicine by researchers at The
Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered the underlying cause of a type of ataxia, hereditary disorders characterized by poor balance, loss of posture and difficulty performing rapid coordinated movement. Their work also led to a drug that significantly improved the motor coordination in mice with ataxia–a finding that could lead to better therapies for the disease. The study appears in the March issue of Nature Neuroscience and was featured in
Duke University theoretical chemists are investigating a new computer method that could help scientists identify the best molecules for drugs, electronic devices or an array of other uses. Their method would address the “daunting” fact that “that there aren’t enough atoms in the universe to make all the reasonable-sized molecules that could be made,” said Duke chemistry professor David Beratan.
In an article published in the Friday. Feb. 17, 2006 online issue of the Journal of the Am
Another research project of the professor’s could virtually eliminate need for heart/lung machines
Virtual reality simulation tools are already revolutionizing the way dentists are taught at Case Western Reserve University—and if M. Cenk Cavusoglu has his way, simulation technology at Case will also train the world’s brain and heart surgeons.
“Simulation is a popular training tool because it reduces the learning time and allows students to learn independently,”
Astronomers using the 76-m Lovell radio telescope at the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory have discovered a very strange pulsar that helps explain how pulsars act as ‘cosmic clocks’ and confirms theories put forward 37 years ago to explain the way in which pulsars emit their regular beams of radio waves – considered to be one of the hardest problems in astrophysics. Their research, now published in Science Express, reveals a pulsar that is only ‘on’ for part of the time. The st
The IST project SENSATION is an ambitious project of 46 partners from 20 different countries, addressing sensing of physiological parameters, core computation, medical and industrial research. The aim is to take sleep research to a whole new level by developing a multipurpose sensing platform consisting of 17 micro sensors and two nano sensors, connected through a local area network.
“The sensors will allow you to sleep at home on, for instance, a mattress with sensors instead of going to
Enormous benefit for humans and without harming the environment can be extracted from domestic waste, old car wheel casings, industrial wastes and even silt, that remain after cleaning sewage outflows. It transpires that all this can successfully be turned into light and heat when incinerated, under methodology, developed by scientists from Chernogolovka in the Moscow Region, staff from the Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics RAS. The scientists were aided by the International Science and Tec
You no longer need to sit in front of a computer to get news from ESA. With ESApod, you can now watch and listen to selected audio and video content anytime, anywhere.
ESApod delivers digital audio and video files directly to you, downloading the information on your personal computer or portable digital device. You can choose to listen or view the content the traditional way, sitting at your desk, or download the information on your portable digital device, such as your ipod, and listen/view
This animation, made from images taken by the Advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) on board ESA’s SMART-1 spacecraft, illustrates a special pointing mode, the so-called ’target-tracking’ mode.
The images show crater Lichtenberg in the Oceanus Procellarum region on the Moon, centred on an area located at 66.8° West, 32.6° North.
The AMIE camera obtained the images from a distance of between 2064 and 2162 kilometres with a ground resolution of between approxi
Feedback
