New technique provides insight into how DNA conforms to microarray surfaces
A team of researchers from Boston University has developed a new application to enable more precise measurement of the location of a fluorescent label in a DNA layer. According to their study, published in a recent issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the new technique provides insight into the shape of DNA molecules attached to a surface, such as microarrays used in genomics research
New study compares handedness of medieval English villagers to modern-day sample
A study from the April issue of Current Anthropology explores the evolution of handedness, one of few firm behavioral boundaries separating humans from other animals. As researchers find new cultural behaviors among chimpanzees and other primates, language is the only other characteristic accepted to be unique to humans, and both language and handedness appear to relate to the separation of functions
A Purdue University researcher and his team have used improved satellite imaging and powerful computer modeling to more accurately forecast the likelihood and intensity of storms and tornados.
The key to the new weather prediction model is its more precise simulation of the amount of moisture surface vegetation is releasing into the upper atmosphere to affect the weather conditions, said Dev Niyogi (pronounced Dave Knee-yoo-gee), an assistant professor of agronomy and earth and at
Mechanical engineers at Purdue University have developed software that promises to increase the efficiency of creating parts for everything from cars to computer hardware by making it possible to quickly evaluate and optimize complex designs.
The new approach integrates the design and analysis processes, which are now carried out separately. Currently, the geometry of a part is first created using computer-aided design, or CAD, software. This geometry is then converted into a me
Scientists from NASA and Columbia University, New York, have used computer modeling to successfully reproduce an abrupt climate change that took place 8,200 years ago. At that time, the beginning of the current warm period, climate changes were caused by a massive flood of freshwater into the North Atlantic Ocean.
This work is the first to consistently recreate the event by computer modeling, and the first time that the model results have been confirmed by comparison to the climate rec
In addition to triggering a depression-like social withdrawal syndrome, repeated defeat by dominant animals leaves a mouse with an enduring “molecular scar” in its brain that could help to explain why depression is so difficult to cure, suggest researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
In mice exposed to this animal model of depression, silencer molecules turned off a gene for a key protein in the brain’s hipp
Procedure to remove small tumors near inner ear shows promise at preserving hearing
Even when they’re extremely small, tumors on the nerves that connect the brain to the ear can wreak havoc on a person’s hearing and balance. But removing them is a delicate process that can, in some cases, cause further harm.
That’s why a new study from the University of Michigan Medical School is encouraging. Researchers found high rates of success at preserving patients
In the first study of native African honeybees and honey-making stingless bees in the same habitat, humans and chimpanzees are the primary bee nest predators. Robert Kajobe of the Dutch Tropical Bee Research Unit and David Roubik from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute report this finding in the March, 2006 issue of Biotropica.
Batwa Pygmies, who have traditionally harvested honey for food, located 228 bee nests (both honeybees and stingless bees) for the study. Roubik i
Researchers to question whether treatment is necessary for mild thyroid problems, based on study findings
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that leaving a mildly underactive thyroid gland (subclinical hypothyroidism) untreated does not lead to increased cardiovascular risk. The study results, to be published in the March 1st issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, may lead to changes in the clinical treatment of this c
Certain breast lesions diagnosed as benign on core needle biopsy have cancer at surgical excision and thus should be removed, according to a study appearing in the March issue of Radiology.
“Our study shows that all papillary lesions of the breast should be surgically excised to avoid missing a cancer,” said the study’s lead author, Cecilia L. Mercado, M.D., assistant professor of radiology at New York University Medical Center in New York City.
Papillary lesions
As parents in Wales teach their children about the symbolism of daffodils and dragons on St David’s day, how many of them will do it speaking in Welsh? A recent study shows that the future of Welsh language is threatened by the fact that many parents are not speaking in their own language to their children. “We found that many Welsh-speaking parents were not transmitting the language to their children,” says Dr Delyth Morris, who led the study on behalf of the University of Wales, Bangor. “Thi
Scientists at Northwestern University and the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have reprogrammed malignant melanoma cells to become normal melanocytes, or pigment cells, a development that may hold promise in treating of one of the deadliest forms of cancer.
A report describing the group’s research was published in the Feb. 27 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that will appear in the March 7 issue of the journal.
The experiments were
Making tubes useful often means joining them to other tubes and linking them together in networks. Easy enough to do with standard water pipes — but on the nanoscale, joining nanotubes is hard to do.
Efforts to link nanotubes have usually begun with the most familiar kind, cylinders whose structure is equivalent to one or more rolled-up sheets of a layered crystal like graphite. Now researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s National Center for Electron Mi
Biochemistry Professor Frank Sauer and colleagues uncover new information about how embryonic fruit fly cells differentiate, a process that may advance cancer and stem-cell research.
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have discovered a molecular mechanism that directs the fate and function of cells during animal development. The findings could hold promise for the advancement of cancer and stem-cell research.
The research is published in the Feb. 24
A cut can be life-threatening for people with hemophilia, whose bodies don’t produce enough of a protein that prevents prolonged bleeding.
Now University of Florida researchers may be one step closer to finding a safe way to spur production of this missing protein in patients with the most common form of the hereditary bleeding disorder. Using a dormant strand of DNA that has quietly existed in fish for millions of years, the researchers replaced the faulty gene responsible
Scientists at The University of Manchester and the Manchester Metropolitan University have carried out the first comparative scientific study of ancient spiders trapped in amber more than 30 millions years ago.
The study of fossilised spiders from the Baltic (Poland) and the Dominican (Caribbean) regions has revealed new insights into the ecologies of spiders dating back to the Cenozoic period.
It is the first time ancient spiders from different parts of the world have b
Feedback
