New gene plays central role in plant architecture and crop domestication
In 1909, while harvesting a typical corn crop (Zea mays) in Illinois, a field worker noticed a plant so unusual that it was initially believed to be a new species. Its “peculiarly shaped ear” was “laid aside as a curiosity” and the specimen was designated Zea ramosa (from the Latin ramosus, “having many branches”). Due to the alteration of a single gene, later named ramosa1, both the ear and the tassel of th
Workers in salt factories, who inhale large amounts of salt particles, are at risk of high blood pressure due to the increased salt intake. A study published today in the Open Access journal Environmental Health shows for the first time that breathing in large quantities of salt particles has just the same effect on blood pressure as eating a salty diet. Wearing face masks and plastic eyeglasses is enough to protect workers who are highly exposed to salt from salt-related high blood pressure.
Patients hospitalised because of pneumonia are at less risk of dying from the disease if they have been taking the widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs ’statins’ before hospital admission. These results, published today in the Open Access journal Respiratory Research, suggest another beneficial use of statins, which are prescribed to an increasing number of patients to prevent and treat high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and vascular disease.
Pneumonia is the seventh
East Africa now has some new NASA technology to monitor the tiny particles in the air known as aerosols.
Dr. Michael King, Senior Project Scientist of NASA’s Earth Observing System at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, Md., led a group of NASA scientists that traveled through Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Eritrea from February 26 to March 18, 2005, to find locations to place a number of NASA’s AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) sunphotometer.
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Gender May Play Role in Disease
Researchers from the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center found that plaques and tangles in the brain, the changes seen in people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), are more likely to be expressed as dementia in women than in men.
In the June 2005 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, “Sex Differences in the Clinical Manifestations of Alzheimer Disease Pathology,” principal investigator Lisa L. Barnes, PhD, sought to determine whether
High expression of TRAIL-R2, a cell surface receptor that triggers cell death, has been shown to be associated with a decrease the survival rates of breast cancer patients according to a study published by Yale Cancer Center researchers in Clinical Cancer Research.
Analyzing 20-year follow-up data from breast cancer patients, using an automated quantitative analysis system (AQUATM) to review tissue microarray specimens, the researchers identified increased intensity of TRAIL recep
Paper appears in July 22 edition of Science, says government protections inadequate
The North Atlantic right whale’s future looks grim if the current mortality rates continue, according to Florida State University assistant professor of oceanography Douglas Nowacek and a group of fellow scientists from across the nation. They have co-authored a paper titled “North Atlantic Right Whales in Crisis” that appears in the July 22 edition of the journal Science.
In it, Nowa
Your breakfast this morning came at a cost not only to your wallet. Your bowl of Cheerios and cup of coffee and all the other meals for the other 6 billion people in our world cost the Earth a bit of its water, a bit of its ecological diversity, contributed to its pollution and may one day cost us our livelihood.
In the July 22, 2005 issue of the journal Science, co-author Terry Chapin, professor of ecology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Institute of Arctic Biology
University of Cincinnati (UC) environmental health researchers have found that 17 percent of infants living near “stop and go” traffic suffer from wheezing.
The study is the first of its kind to analyze the effects of “stop and go” bus and truck diesel traffic versus highway traffic on infant respiratory health.
Published in the August issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, results of the four-year study suggest that the type of traffic and distance from
Student’s Testing Identifies Metal Mix with Superior Mechanical Properties
Using a high-tech but low-cost technique, a Johns Hopkins undergraduate has tested tiny samples of four metal alloys to find the best blend for use in platinum jewelry. After evaluating four metal mixtures, student researcher Christopher Kovalchick determined that platinum combined with a small amount of chromium in a cold-rolled and heat treatment process displayed the greatest strength.
Th
Cholesterol-lowering statin therapy may improve survival in patients with diastolic heart failure (DHF) according to a paper published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association by cardiologists at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
Currently, there are no treatments shown to improve survival in these patients, who make up about 40 percent of all heart failure cases. Systolic heart failure patients have hearts that don’t pump out enough blood. I
Variations in transforming growth factor beta receptor Type II can damage main artery
Scientists have identified the first genetic mutations that cause the aorta – the body’s main artery – to widen, tear and rupture.
Published online by Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, the findings of a team led by University of Texas Medical School at Houston researchers shed new light on the molecular causes of thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections. T
A team of scientists has discovered three molecules –– from a search of 58,000 compounds –– that appear to inhibit a key perpetrator of Alzheimer’s disease.
Each of the three molecules protects the protein called “tau,” which becomes hopelessly tangled in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s. The finding is promising news for the development of drugs for the disease.
Ken Kosik, co-director of the Neuroscience Research Institute at the University of California, Sa
The Arctic and Antarctic evoke images of virgin territories playing host to a rich variety of flora, fauna and indigenous populations, but also a hardy group of intrepid researchers and explorers. A special issue of RTD info, produced with the International Polar Foundation, joins the exploration of the poles’ vast scientific wonders.
The European Commission’s flagship research publication RTD info takes readers on a journey to the ends of the Earth in its exploration of polar r
The Leica M844 F40, premium surgical microscope for ophthalmology,
welcomes a new member to the family
Leica Microsystems is continuing the market launch of the Leica M844 F40 with another highlight. Just like its older sister, which made its international debut in April, the Leica M844 F19 impresses the user thanks to the same first-class optics (M844). The new F19 stand is equipped with high-precision mechanical brakes which ensure homogeneous movements and stable positioning
The SSETI Express educational space mission received vital assistance with spacecraft integration and testing at ESA ESTEC. The student project to design, build and launch a satellite would not have been possible without the use of the ESTEC facilities and the technical assistance provided by personnel from ESA’s Directorate of Technical and Quality Management.
In its ESTEC Test Centre, ESA maintains facilities for the testing of space vehicles and their subsystems and components. The centr
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