Absent any climate policy, scientists have found a 70 percent chance of shutting down the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean over the next 200 years, with a 45 percent probability of this occurring in this century. The likelihood decreases with mitigation, but even the most rigorous immediate climate policy would still leave a 25 percent chance of a thermohaline collapse.
“This is a dangerous, human-induced climate change,” said Michael Schlesinger, a professo
Dermatologists seem to agree that something in milk and dairy products may be linked to teen-age acne.
But is it hormones and “bioactive molecules,” as a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology suggested, or is there something else?
University at Buffalo dermatologist Harvey Arbesman, M.D., says there could be something else: Iodine.
Arbesman, a UB clinical assistant professor of dermatology and social and preventive medicine, details his reas
Researchers have known for some time that nuts and seeds are rich sources of phytosterols, a class of plant chemicals that have been shown to reduce cholesterol levels and improve heart health. In what is believed to be the most comprehensive analysis to date of the phytosterol content of nuts and seeds, chemists at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va., analyzed some 27 nut and seed products and found that pistachios and sunflower kernels had the highest levels
Levels of ozone at extreme altitudes may add to the medical dangers faced by mountaineers
Not only is the air around the world’s highest mountains thin, but it’s thick with ozone, says a new study from University of Toronto researchers.
In fact, say the scientists, the ring of ozone that exists around the Tibetan plateau, which rises 4,000 metres above sea level and includes such famous peaks as Mount Everest and K2, is as concentrated as the ozone found in hea
A new study finds that a gene which plays an important role in immune function, known as toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), may also play a critical role in suppressing chronic lung inflammation and tumor development in mice.
“We know that chronic inflammation predisposes people to many types of cancer,” says NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, M.D. “By using this new information we may be able to suppress chronic inflammation and reduce our Nation’s cancer burden.”
In the Decem
A major mystery in epilepsy research has been why infants are more prone to seizures than adults and how those seizures progress to chronic epilepsy. Now, researchers have discovered that central to those seizures in the developing brain are neurons triggered by the neurotransmitter GABA. They say their findings could lead to new ways to treat seizures in newborns. Also, they say, their findings suggest that the use of drugs that enhance GABA action may be particularly harmful to the newborn brain.
Images show never-before-seen fault lines – plus cows, trees
Researchers have completed the most meticulous survey ever made of the San Andreas Fault, and they’ve found detailed features that nobody could have seen before.
Michael Bevis, Ohio Eminent Scholar in geodynamics and professor of civil and environmental engineering and geodetic science at Ohio State University, unveiled the first images from the ambitious new survey Wednesday at the American Geophysic
An inflamed injury may increase levels of a protein responsible for persistent pain, causing the brain to mimic pain long after source has disappeared, says U of T researchers. The findings could have serious implications for the millions of Canadians who suffer from chronic pain.
The study, published in the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, shows how inflammation in mice increases NR2B proteins – proteins that facilitate nerve cell communication – and imprint a pai
Strictly speaking, the ‘choked’, i.e., inactivated three viruses (A1, A2, B) in the new vaccine will be the same as before. They are included in the vaccine composition on the recommendation of the World Health Organisation. But the additional substances, however, proposed by the researchers, are what make it possible to make this vaccine in tablet form. What is more, believe the authors, this vaccine will be more efficient than all known equivalents. Not because an injection is replaced with a tabl
Higher standards of insulation and control of air leakage in buildings is called for in the forthcoming revised UK Building Regulations. In particular, Part L of the Building Regulations has been reviewed with a brief to make new buildings more energy efficient and to tackle climate change. The revised changes will be enforced from April 2006.
This will mean new buildings will need to be better insulated and use more efficient heating systems. And importantly, for the first time the rev
Pioneering research by a North East scientist could lead to a cure for some of the most deadly antibiotic-resistant diseases.
Toxic Shock, Septicemia and the flesh-eating disease necrotizing faciitis are just some of the potentially fatal invasive infections caused by the streptococcus bacterium, which has increased significantly over the past 10 years.
Until now, scientists have not understood what turns this ordinary bacterium – which is best known as the cause of so
A vegetated rooftop recycling system has been developed that allows water to be used twice before it is flushed into the communal waste water system.
The Green Roof Water Recycling System (GROW) uses semi-aquatic plants to treat waste washing water, which can then be reused for activities such as flushing the toilet.
GROW is the brainchild of Chris Shirley-Smith, whose company Water Works UK is collaborating with Imperial College London and Cranfield University. The res
Highly complex biochemical signaling systems tell body cells to divide, to stop growing or to specialize on specific tasks. Among the key cellular communication systems is the Wnt signaling pathway which controls embryonic development and also plays a role in the development of tumors. Scientists of the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszen¬trum, DKFZ) have now been able to close a critical gap in our knowledge of this well-explored sequence of biochemical signals.
Ab
We are on the brink of breaking through to the new world of digital cinema (D-Cinema). The key to unlocking this potential is data compression and researchers are set to have a starring role.
“There is not a complete and optimised 4K [high quality]-workflow for the world of digital cinema, particularly for the effective and seamless handling of film data from acquisition to post-production and transmission. Data compression is the key to achieving this,” says Dr Siegfried Foes
For the last time yesterday, the Russian high-altitude research aircraft Geophysica and the German Aerospace Centre’s (DLR) Falcon set off for tropical thunderclouds in Darwin (Australia). Over the last four weeks, the research aircraft undertook a total of nine joint measurement flights in the tropical atmosphere at the interface between the troposphere and stratosphere. Within the framework of the SCOUT-03 Project, they collected data which will be incorporated into the discussion on climate
Friedman School of Tufts: Nutrition notes
Two obese people follow the same low-calorie diet and do not exercise, but one loses much more weight than the other. Genetic factors may explain this phenomenon, according to José Ordovas, PhD, director of the Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University. In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Ordovas and colleagues identi
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