Because atherosclerotic plaque typically builds up without symptoms and leads to more than 1 million deaths in America each year, the search is on to develop early detection devices that will enable physicians to offer treatment before the disease progresses to advanced stages.
Now, in a study involving laboratory rabbits, a device that stimulates, collects and measures light emissions from body tissues has been able to detect the presence of inflammatory cells that are associa
Results from the first long-term study of online videogame playing may be surprising. Contrary to popular opinion and most previous research, the new study found that players’ “robust exposure” to a highly violent online game did not cause any substantial real-world aggression.
After an average playtime of 56 hours over the course of a month with “Asheron’s Call 2,” a popular MMRPG, or “massively multi-layer online role-playing game,” researchers found “no strong effects
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have defined a key step in the production of beta-amyloid, a short protein that is thought to be responsible for the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Understanding this step may aid in the discovery of drugs that could help block the disease from developing.
In Alzheimer’s disease, too much beta-amyloid is produced by an enzyme that has many other essential roles. As a result, simply blocking the whole enzyme knocks out many
For the first time, new climate observations and computer models provide a consistent picture of recent warming of the tropical atmosphere.
Over the past decade, scientific evidence from a variety of sources has implicated human-caused increases in greenhouse gases as a major driver of recent climate change. A key argument used to rebut such findings relates to satellite records of temperature change in the troposphere – the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere.
Unt
This is all underground, and naked mole-rats prefer it that way: Momma naked mole-rat is the only one having babies, and she’s got several naked mole-rat boyfriends.
Were it human, the family would argue it out on a national talk show. As it is, the social behavior of these tiny rodents has scientists intrigued, right down to their naked mole-rat molecules.
“African mole-rats are very good models for studying social structure. I’m interested in the genetic markers as
When a volcano erupts, it does more than just create an ash cloud that darkens and cools a region for a few days. Instead, the most dramatic effect is actually high above us, where spewed volcanic material is not quickly washed out by rain.
If the volcanic eruption is strong enough it will inject material into the stratosphere, more than 10 miles above the Earth’s surface. Here, tiny particles called aerosols form when the volcano’s sulfur dioxide combines with water va
New technology developed at Northwestern University has the potential for broad application in the detection of terrorist activities such as missile attacks on U.S. troops. Scientists at the Center for Quantum Devices (CQD) have demonstrated, for the first time, uncooled infrared imaging using type-II superlattice technology. This significant development could lead to smaller, faster and less expensive hand-held infrared imaging devices.
High-speed infrared (IR) imagers are capable of se
RIT showcases landmark medical imaging project
Using revolutionary medical imaging technology, researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology are providing a better understanding of the human body and its many secrets.
Led by Richard Doolittle, RIT’s director of the department of medical sciences, and Paul Craig, professor of chemistry, a team of students has created never-before-seen virtual images of the pancreas, detailed pictures of the human skull and DNA-level image
Placing gadolinium in DNA-sized carbon tubes boosts performance, reduces toxicity
Researchers at Rice University, the Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Houston and the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland have created a new class of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents that are at least 40 times more effective than the best in clinical use.
The new agents — dubbed gadonanotubes — use the same highly toxic metal, gadolinium, th
Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have harnessed a mobile gene from the cabbage looper moth and modified it for routine use to determine the function of genes in mice and other vertebrates. If the new tool works as they expect, it will speed understanding of genes involved in human biology and disease and accelerate the search for effective new therapies.
The researchers report their study in the August 12, 2005, issue of the journal Cell.
Certain genes or
Men with early stage prostate cancer who make intensive changes in diet and lifestyle may stop or perhaps even reverse the progression of their illness, according to a new study.
The research is the first randomized, controlled trial showing that lifestyle changes may affect the progression of any type of cancer. Study findings are published in the September issue of the Journal of Urology.
The study was directed by Dean Ornish, MD, clinical professor, and Peter Carro
Researchers have uncovered how members of one family of antibiotics kill bacteria that make people sick.
This new knowledge may help drug developers make slight changes to these antibiotics to make them more effective against drug-resistant strains of bacteria, said Irina Artsimovitch, a study co-author and an assistant professor of microbiology at Ohio State University.
The antibiotics studied belong to the rifamycin family. Until now, researchers believed that these antibi
From chemical fingerprints preserved in primitive meteorites, scientists at UCSD have determined that the collapsing gas cloud that eventually became our sun was glowing brightly during the formation of the first material in the solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago.
Their discovery, detailed in a paper that appears in the August 12 issue of Science, provides the first conclusive evidence that this “protosun” played a major role in chemically shaping the solar system by em
A Duke University study has found that maturing stands of pines exposed to the higher levels of carbon dioxide expected by mid-century produce more needles than those absorbing today’s levels of the gas, even under drought conditions. However, the study also found that lack of soil nutrients may impose limitations in many forests.
Duke graduate student Heather McCarthy will describe results she obtained from a futuristic open-air experimental forest site at 8 a.m. Eastern Tim
Findings could lead to gene therapy cure
In findings that could lead to curing some forms of congenital blindness through gene therapy, researchers at UCLA have discovered that RPE65, a gene missing in infants born with the blinding disease Leber congenital amaurosis, is also a key enzyme in the visual cycle. The identity of this enzyme has long been a mystery to scientists.
The study, “Rpe65 is the Retinoid Isomerase in Bovine Retinal Pigment Epithelium,” is published in th
The effect of the sun’s heat on weather balloons largely accounts for a data discrepancy that has long contributed to a dispute over the existence of global warming, according to a report by scientists at Yale University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The report, to be published in the journal Science, says that direct heat of the sun on temperature probes of the weather balloon (radiosonde) probably explains the discrepancy between reports showing
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