A hanging basket style device is at the heart of a plan by researchers at the University of Warwick to harness the sex drive of a major pest of fruit orchards as a weapon to spread a virus to kill that very same pest. The device allows growers to selectively target the pest with a virus that kills its larvae without killing other beneficial insects.
The researchers at Warwick HRI, the horticultural research arm of the University of Warwick, have devised a hanging basket style di
Sound can be used to control the flow of air over an aircraft’s wing greatly boosting its lift, according to Ian Salmon, a Sydney aerospace engineer who is working on applying this idea to a new generation of light aircraft.
Ian has developed a technique whereby a wing is covered with flexible plastic panels which vibrate when an electric current is passed through them, and produce sound. At a carefully selected frequency, the air passing over the wing can be made to remain more c
Researchers in Adelaide, Australia have found that a commercially available dietary supplement can improve the attention and behaviour of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
“The parents of children who spent 15 weeks on a course of capsules containing a combination of fish oil and primrose oil reported increased attention and reduced hyperactivity, restlessness and impulsivity,” says Natalie Sinn from the University of South Australia and CSIRO Nutri
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have identified the source of a mysterious blue light surrounding a supermassive black hole in our neighbouring Andromeda Galaxy (M31). Though the light has puzzled astronomers for more than a decade, the new discovery makes the story even more mysterious.
The blue light is coming from a disk of hot, young stars. These stars are whipping around the black hole in much the same way as planets in our solar system are revolving
Univ. of Southern CA-led study shows significant death risk linked to airborne particles
Experts may be significantly underestimating air pollution’s role in causing early death, according to a team of American and Canadian researchers, who studied two decades’ worth of data on residents of the Los Angeles metro area.
When the epidemiologists examined links between particle pollution and mortality within more than 260 Los Angeles neighborhoods, they found
Univ. of Southern CA investigators show proximity to freeways poses respiratory risk
Living near a freeway may mean more than the annoying rumble of cars and trucks: For children, it brings an increased risk of asthma, according to researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.
Scientists studying air pollution levels in 10 Southern California cities found that the closer children live to a freeway, the greater their chance of having
A drug used for the treatment of sickle cell anemia in adults has now been shown to cause significant improvements in very young children with the disorder. The finding is an important one as these young patients are especially vulnerable to serious organ failure and even death at an early age. The study results will be published in the October 1, 2005, issue of Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology.
Sickle cell anemia is a genetic blood disorder that
A fender-bender may have saved Douglas Collins’ life. A CT scan following the accident discovered Collins, 64, had a brain aneurysm, a weakness in the arterial wall that if ruptured could cause a stroke or death. It was not caused by the accident, but likely could have been a ticking time bomb present for years. The aneurysm was large and previously thought to require open surgery and a lengthy recovery.
A second opinion brought Collins to Rush University Medical Center and Chic
Results advance quest for viral-based therapies for cancer
Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center continue to make strides in their work to develop the next generation of effective viral-based therapies for cancer. Two papers about promising research with genetically engineered viruses studied in mice, published today in the journals Cancer Research and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), bring us significantly closer to this objective and the s
Laboratory model missing one copy of Prox1 gene exhibits abnormal increase in fat accumulation around sites of lymph leakage from defective lymphatic vessels, according to St. Jude
Leaky lymphatic vessels are the leading cause of the adult onset obesity observed in a laboratory model developed by investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The findings suggest that the abnormal leakage of lymph fluid from the ruptured lymphatic vessels stimulates the accumulat
Digital mammography that uses computers to detect breast cancer found significantly (up to 28%) more cancers than screen film mammography in women 50 and younger, premenopausal and perimenopausal women, and women with dense breasts, according to results from one of the largest breast cancer screening studies ever performed.
However, the study showed no difference between digital and standard x-ray mammography in detecting breast cancer for the general population of women. More tha
Broken sewers, flooded industrial plants and dead bodies are all likely to blame for poisoning the waters being drained from New Orleans.
But the water – and the muck it is leaving behind — also owes its contamination to a source as mundane as it is unexpected: Toxins common in most urban environments that made their way en masse into the water as it stagnated atop the city.
So says a University of Florida professor who has spent years studying the harmful contaminants
New cocoa-based snacks first to deliver real heart-health benefits, premium chocolate taste
With heart disease remaining the nation’s number one killer, Americans increasingly are looking for options to improve their heart health. Now there’s a new product hitting store shelves that will allow them to satisfy their passion for chocolate while being good to their heart.
CocoaViaTM is a revolutionary new line of heart-healthy snacks that combines real chocolate pleasure wit
Children may be born with some ability to perform basic arithmetic, Harvard research suggests
Psychologists at Harvard University have found that five-year-olds are able to grasp numeric abstractions and arithmetic concepts even without the formal education or language to express this knowledge in words. The discovery of these inborn skills among preschoolers could point the way to new teaching techniques, making arithmetic easier and more pleasant for elementary school children.
Because clinical depression is so disabling and affects more than 16 percent of adults in the United States at some time in their lives, researchers have worked hard to develop more effective treatments. But how much better are the newer pharmaceuticals?
Many second-generation antidepressants, despite differences in drug classification and cost, offer patients essentially the same benefits with little variation in risks, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have
Cornell University researchers have discovered the 3-D crystal structure of a protein, human CD38, which may lead to important discoveries about how cells release calcium — a mineral used in almost every cellular process. The findings also may offer insights into mechanisms involved in certain diseases, ranging from leukemia to diabetes and HIV-AIDS.
Levels of the protein climb, for reasons unknown, when people fall ill, making human CD38 a marker for these diseases.
A
Feedback
