Method tracks water molecules in blood
The holiday season is notorious for the emotional stress it evokes. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have come up with a non-invasive way to see the effects of psychological stress in an area of the brain linked to anxiety and depression. This research has important implications for how practitioners treat the numerous long-term health consequences of chronic stress.
In the study, which is repo
A highly dexterous, bio-inspired artificial hand and sensory system that could provide patients with active feeling, is being developed by a European project.
Funded by the Future and Emerging Technologies initiative of the IST programme, the CYBERHAND project aims to hard wire this hand into the nervous system, allowing sensory feedback from the hand to reach the brain, and instructions to come from the brain to control the hand, at least in part.
Coordinated by Profe
The fourth European Patent Office epoline Annual Conference took place in Athens on 23 and 24 November 2005. The conference was organised in cooperation with the Greek Patent Office (OBI). The Greek Minister of Development Mr. Dimitris Sioufas delivered a welcome address, and the opening speech was given by Prof. Alain Pompidou, President of the European Patent Office. Keynote presentation “Europe in a world of innovation and growth” was delivered by Mr. Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Swed
A UK e-Science project is revealing new scientific insights into earthquakes. Technologies developed under the Discovery Net project are enabling geophysicists to combine two different methods of studying earthquakes and so discover new knowledge that would not have been revealed using one method alone.
A previously unsuspected secondary fault associated with an earthquake in the Kunlun Mountains in South-West China has already come to light. Discovery Net was one of six final
The Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden) partakes in one of the world’s largest projects on the development of innovative organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Scientists at the Institute of Applied Photophysics have been developing highly efficient white organic light-emitting diodes which could perhaps serve as the light sources of the future.
More than 20 of Europe’s leading companies and research institutes have joined together in a research project entitled OLLA in order to a
What caused the end of a warm climate phase and an expansion of the Antarctic ice sheet 14 million years ago? This is the question addressed by Kiel and Bremen palaeoclimatologists in an article for the latest issue of Nature (24/11/05). Their research uncovered a temporal link between a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO²) levels on earth, ice sheet formation and global cooling. The “global cooling” that took place 14 million years ago is attributed by Dr. Ann Holbourn, Professor Wolfgang Kuhnt, Pr
A rare volcanic eruption is expanding the size of an island in British Overseas Territory. Spectacular new satellite images show that Montagu Island, an erupting volcano in the South Sandwich Islands, South Atlantic has grown by 50 acres (0.2 km2), equivalent to 40 football pitches in the last month.
Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) were alerted to satellite data showing a large and fast flowing lava flow th
The genius of Albert Einstein, who added a “cosmological constant” to his equation for the expansion of the universe but later retracted it, may be vindicated by new research published today in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
The enigmatic “dark energy” that drives the acceleration of the Universe behaves just like Einstein’s famed cosmological constant, according to the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS), an international team of researchers in France and Toronto
The first results obtained from the SNLS (Supernova Legacy Survey) international collaboration – in which CEA-Dapnia and CNRS (IN2P3 and INSU) are participants – are showing that the mysterious “dark energy” assumed to be responsible for the acceleration in the Universe’s expansion could be Einstein’s cosmological constant. The results were published on Monday 21 November in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
A few years ago, astrophysicists thought that the Universe’s expansion, discov
Families gathered around the Thanksgiving dinner table might consider giving thanks for the bacteria-busting ability of cranberry juice, say dental researchers who have discovered that the beverage holds important clues for preventing cavities.
A team led by oral biologist Hyun (Michel) Koo, D.D.S., Ph.D., at the University of Rochester Medical Center has discovered that the same traits that make cranberry juice a powerful weapon against bladder infections also hold promise for p
Melatonin in cancer
The role of melatonin for the treatment of cancer is looking compelling, according to a new study published in the Journal of Pineal Research. Researchers say that the results are so compelling that cancer funding agencies should be eager to support clinical trials to evaluate its therapeutic role in a variety of cancers.
Melatonin is a hormone naturally found in humans. Its association with cancer has been shown in many studies assessing links between
The most comprehensive analysis ever performed of the genetic relationships among all the major groups of snakes, lizards, and other scaly reptiles has resulted in a radical reorganization of the family tree of these animals, requiring new names for many of the tree’s new branches. The research, reported in the current issue of the journal C. R. Biologies, was performed by two biologists working at Penn State University: S. Blair Hedges, professor of biology, and Nicolas Vidal, a postdoctoral f
Researchers at Binghamton University have a first-ever opportunity to determine if Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer can be spread to humans who ingest “infected” meat.
Ralph M. Garruto, professor of biomedical anthropology at Binghamton University, State University of New York, is heading up a study to monitor the health implications of a group of people who are known to have consumed venison infected with CWD. Recently discovered in both wild and captive deer herds in New Yo
Two proteins involved in the process that controls plant growth may help explain why human cells reject chemotherapy drugs, according to an international team of scientists.
Researchers from Purdue University and Kyoto University in Japan have shown for the first time that proteins similar to multi-drug resistant proteins in humans move a plant growth hormone into cells, said Purdue plant cell biologist Angus Murphy. Because plant proteins called P-glycoproteins (PGPs) are closel
Sweating during physical activity or in hot weather is healthy. But when individuals begin perspiring while experiencing discomfort in their chest, arm, neck or jaw — with little or no exertion — it could be the onset of a heart attack, according to a new study at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
“We can stop a heart attack during the process, but you have to get to the hospital first,” said Catherine Ryan, research assistant professor of medical surgical nursing. “T
Stem cells may cause some forms of bone cancer, University of Florida scientists report.
The researchers are the first to identify a population of cells with characteristics of adult and embryonic stem cells in cultures derived from biopsies of patients’ bone tumors. They describe their findings in this month’s issue of the medical journal Neoplasia.
“We’re saying the cell of origin of these tumors may be very, very primitive,” said C. Parker Gibbs, M.D., an
Feedback
