There may be a different fish to see for every day of the year at the London Aquarium at County Hall, but there’s a new variety that has never swum any of the world’s oceans. From 6 October the Aquarium’s unique robotic fish will be swimming in a specially-designed tank, open to the public for the first time ever.
Three stunningly beautiful robotic fish have been created with jewel-bright scales and sinuous, astonishingly life-like movements. They have been produced by Professor Hu
Air quality has improved in most European countries over the last few decades. Yet, even at current levels, air pollution may aggravate respiratory diseases, shorten life expectancy by up to several months, and possibly increase infant mortality in highly polluted areas.
In October 2005 the World Health Organization (WHO) will reconsider current air quality guidelines. Does the latest research warrant new standards to better protect our health? To answer this key question, WHO expe
Increasing the spread of broadband connectivity throughout Europe is central to the growth of the knowledge economy. Yet broadband technology is hardly new. So what is holding back wider implementation and investment? This is the issue at the core of the IST project NOBEL.
At the core of the Internet is a large network of optical fibres. The challenge for NOBEL is to make that network work much more efficiently, in connecting together all the growing millions of broadband use
Swiss study shows that hair follicles contain bonafide multipotent stem cells
Using an animal model, a research team led by Yann Barrandon at the EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) and the CHUV (Lausanne University Hospital) has discovered that certain cells inside the hair follicle are true multipotent stem cells, capable of developing into the many different cell types needed for hair growth and follicle replacement. In an article appearing in the Oct 3 advance o
New studies in mice have shown that immature stem cells that proliferate to form brain tissues can function for at least a year — most of the life span of a mouse — and give rise to multiple types of neural cells, not just neurons. The discovery may bode well for the use of these neural stem cells to regenerate brain tissue lost to injury or disease.
Alexandra L. Joyner, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at New York University School of Medicine, and her former post
Subtle differences in other genes — besides the defective gene known to cause the illness cystic fibrosis — can significantly modify the inherited disease’s severity, a large new multi-center national study has concluded.
The study, led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Case Western Reserve University researchers, for the first time shows that particular versions of the transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFb1) gene are largely responsible for how badly th
Flowering plants near ponds may owe their pollination not only to the winged creatures of the air, but also to the finned ones of the deep.
Scientists have discovered that fish indirectly help spread pollen among flowers near the water. That’s because they eat dragonfly larva, which live in freshwater ponds and other water bodies. Adult dragonflies are major predators of bees, butterflies and other insect pollinators. The result is a simple but unexpected cascade: The more fish
Which flu did you get? TIGR scientists survey five New York flu seasons
On the eve of the 2005-06 flu season, scientists at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) have captured influenza evolution in action. In a study published in this week’s journal Nature, the researchers report the first large-scale project to sequence the influenza virus. The study offers a unique snapshot of the rapidly evolving flu virus in a human population–and a new strategy for surveillance.
ESO’s telescopes see afterglows of elusive short bursts
An international team of astronomers led by Danish astronomer Jens Hjorth [1] has for the first time observed the visible light from a short gamma-ray burst (GRB). Using the 1.5m Danish telescope at La Silla (Chile), they showed that these short, intense bursts of gamma-ray emission most likely originate from the violent collision of two merging neutron stars. The same team has also used ESO’s Very Large Telescope t
Colliding compact stars likely cause of short but powerful gamma-ray bursts
An international team of scientists using three NASA satellites and a host of ground-based telescopes believes it has solved the greatest remaining mystery of the mysterious gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the most powerful explosions in the universe. The shorter of two versions of these bursts appear to be caused by the collision of closely orbiting neutron stars or one of those compact stars and a black hole,
Close your eyes and imagine you are in a darkened Carnegie Hall. Although it’s pitch black, you know you are getting closer to the stage as the music gets louder. If you have been there before, you have a sense of the location of the seats and aisles. You remain upright because you somehow know where your legs, arms and feet are. Your head remains upright.
A variety of neurons or nerve cells makes it possible for you to approach the stage and even find a seat without sight. S
Actuarial model puts risks of making nanotubes on par with making wine
Using a method for assessing the premiums that companies pay for insurance, a team of scientists and insurance experts have concluded that the manufacturing processes for five, near-market nanomaterials — including quantum dots, carbon nanotubes and buckyballs — present fewer risks to the environment than some common industrial processes like oil refining. For two of the nanomaterials – nanotubes and alumoxa
Radio frequency technology tracks mixer efficiency
Fishing for a way to assess mixing behavior in treatment tanks for radioactive waste, ecologists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory came up with an innovative use of radio frequency technology previously used to track migrating fish.
But rather than swimming out to sea implanted in young steelhead and salmon, thousands of passive integrated transponder, or PIT, tags were added to a clay simulant and then whipped ar
Computer software developed by astrophysicists to locate stars and galaxies in the night sky could help save the whale shark – whose spotted skin is like a starry sky – from extinction, according to new research published in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology.
Together with Australian marine biologist Brad Norman and JAVA programmer and software specialist Jason Holmberg, astrophysicist Dr Zaven Arzoumanian of the Universities Space Research Associatio
Erik T.J. Nibbering of the Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy (MBI) and colleagues report for the first time experimental evidence of the motions of hydrogen ions (protons, H+) from acids via water to bases. Until now this has only been estimated as a possible reaction mechanism with theoretical calculations. With this study, the international research team provides insight into fundamental processes in nature (acid-base neutralization, proton transmission thro
From this week, researchers worldwide can follow the flow of rivers and height of lakes across the African continent from the comfort of their desks. A new web-based demonstration launched to coincide with this week’s TIGER Workshop makes Envisat-derived altimetry data for African inland water freely available in near-real time.
Envisat’s Radar Altimeter-2 (RA-2) sensor fires around 1800 radar pulses a second down to the surface of the Earth, then measures very precisely ho
Feedback
