A leading neuroscientist at MIT and one from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) report in the Nov. 4 special issue of Science dedicated to the brain that the controversy is over: The “protomap” and “protocortex” theories of brain development are dead.
The cerebral cortex is a sheet of around 10 billion neurons divided into distinctly separate areas that process particular aspects of sensation, movement and cognition. To what extent are these areas predetermin
A new computer model indicates Jupiter’s massive winds are generated from deep within the giant planet’s interior, a UCLA scientist and international colleagues report today in the journal Nature.
Jupiter’s powerful winds are very different from those on Earth. They continually circle the planet, and have changed very little in the 300 years that scientists have studied them. Massive east-west winds in Jupiter’s equatorial region reach approximately 340 miles p
Palmettos in Pennsylvania? Magnolias in Minnesota? The migration of subtropical plants to northern climates may not be too far-fetched if future global warming patterns mirror a monumental shift that took place in the past, new research by an international team of scientists suggests.
The findings, which appear in this week’s issue of the journal Science, provide the first evidence that land plants changed drastically during a period of sudden global warming 55 million years
Record database at the German Climate Computing Centre’s World Data Centre for Climate
The World Data Centre for Climate (WDCC) and the German Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ) in Hamburg run the largest database in the world under the free Linux operating system. This is confirmed in the international ranking list of the world’s largest databases published by the Winter Corporation in September. The WDCC database at the DKRZ has an inconceivable volume of almost 220 te
High-tech in Earth System Science at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
Record-breaking high-tech has been successfully employed in Earth System Science at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) in Hamburg, Germany.
– The largest database in the world under the free Linux operating system has been installed in Hamburg by the Wold Data Centre for Climate (WDCC) and the German Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ) . This is confirmed in the inter
Meditation is known to alter resting brain patterns, suggesting long lasting brain changes, but a new study by researchers from Yale, Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows meditation also is associated with increased cortical thickness.
The structural changes were found in areas of the brain that are important for sensory, cognitive and emotional processing, the researchers report in the November issue of NeuroReport.
Fossil leaves buried 55 million years ago show, for the first time, that rapid warming not only changed animal communities, but plant communities as well; and that the ancient warm spell may be representative of global warming’s effects in Earth’s future, according to an international team of researchers.
“There has been an absence of fossil leaf sites dating to the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM),” says Dr. Francesca A. Smith, postdoctoral researcher in geosci
Speed of PSA increase matters more than PSA level
In the largest study of its kind to date, Mayo Clinic researchers report that prostate specific antigen (PSA) kinetics, both velocity and doubling time, can be used to predict disease progression and likelihood of death after radical prostatectomy surgery, suggesting that this could be used to guide treatment decisions. Study results are published in the December issue of The Journal of Urology.
“The level of PSA in t
A total of 882 Baltic Sea research projects were carried out in 2004 in the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. A majority (71 %) of the projects were national, 25 % were multinational EU projects and 3 % Nordic cooperation projects. This was reported in the BONUS Publication Nr. 3 Baltic Sea Research and R&D Funding in 2004, published at the beginning of November.
Baltic Sea research is carried out in all countries surrounding the Sea in several research programmes, in dozens of
This week ESA has joined around a thousand participants from 146 countries at the main policy making forum of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in Kampala, Uganda. Today sees the presentation of results from an Agency-led initiative to develop a global wetland information service using satellites.
National delegates along with representatives from international organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have met in Uganda’s capital for the eight-day Ninth Meeting
Southampton-based company iQur has scooped the 2005 Medical Futures Department of Health Award for Best National Healthcare Innovation for its Hepatitis C diagnostic service, that can revolutionise the cost-effectiveness of treatment for Hepatitis C. iQur, formerly named HepCgen Limited, spun out from the University of Southampton in 2003.
The Medical Futures Innovations Awards are often referred to as the ‘Oscars of Healthcare’. iQur was presented with the Award for its research
Faster reaction rates, a substantially higher yield and a cleaner production process than is currently possible in the chemical industry. That is the result of a new sustainable chemical process that researchers from Universiteit van Amsterdam and Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen have developed with support from NWO ACTS (Advanced Chemical Technologies for Sustainability). A patent has recently been requested for this discovery.
Faster reaction rates, a substantially higher yield an
Nematodes, such as the stem nematode, and fungi, such as white rot, are particularly harmful for onion crops in the Netherlands: they cause rot. Soil samples are investigated to detect this; a labour-intensive and expensive operation. Together with the Laboratory for Nematology (University of Wageningen) the company Blgg has developed a molecular technique to detect the stem nematode and white rot in soil samples.
Agricultural laboratory Blgg will start using the new system in N
The Dutch dune area has dried out at a number of locations as a result of water extraction and drainage of adjacent polder areas. Wildlife managers are searching for favourable locations to restore the natural environment to the original wet dune valleys. Chris Bakker has compiled a number of characteristics that a dune valley must satisfy for a successful restoration project to be carried out.
Chris Bakker investigated dune valleys in Zuid Kenemerland National Park. He discov
A prototype service utilising satellites for mapping forests to aid compliance with the Kyoto Protocol has been endorsed by end users from European countries – one environmental ministry representative called the baseline carbon stock information provided a “goldmine”.
ESA’s Kyoto-Inventory service has been designed to produce information products on changing land use associated with carbon ’sinks’ or ’sources’ that can support national governments’ reporting requirements to the Kyo
A gigantic ape, measuring about 10 feet tall and weighing up to 1,200 pounds, co-existed alongside humans, a geochronologist at McMaster University has discovered.
Using a high-precision absolute-dating method (techniques involving electron spin resonance and uranium series), Jack Rink, associate professor of geography and earth sciences at McMaster, has determined that Gigantopithecus blackii, the largest primate that ever lived, roamed southeast Asia for nearly a million years b
Feedback
