For the first time, researchers have the tools and expertise to understand the rate at which sea level is changing and the mechanisms that drive that change.
Sea levels rise and fall as oceans warm and cool and as ice on land grows and shrinks. Other factors that contribute to sea level change are the amount of water stored in lakes and reservoirs and the rising and falling of land in coastal regions.
“From the Mississippi Delta to the Maldives Islands off the coast of Indi
Doctors “talking” to computer screens instead of patients during a physical exam is a problem easily cured, say researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute, Inc.
Their comprehensive study of the effect of exam room computer placement and the doctor-patient relationship appears in the August issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
The researchers found that doctors with poor communications skills tended to get lost
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago are unraveling the biochemical mechanism by which functional foods combat cancer.
“Compounds like sulforaphane in broccoli and resveratrol in wine have been shown to prevent cancer,” said Andrew Mesecar, associate professor of pharmaceutical biotechnology in the UIC College of Pharmacy. “They do that by signaling our bodies to ramp up the production of proteins capable of preventing damage to our DNA.
“We now have
For the first time, NASA has the tools and expertise to understand the rate at which sea level is changing, some of the mechanisms that drive those changes and the effects that sea level change may have worldwide.
“It’s estimated that more than 100 million lives are potentially impacted by a one-meter increase in sea level,” said Dr. Waleed Abdalati, head of the Cryospheric Sciences Branch at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. “When you consider this information,
Seeing how rain falls from top to bottom and how heavy the rain falls throughout parts of a tropical cyclone is very important to hurricane forecasters. NASA has sped up the process of getting this data within three hours, and making it appear in 3-D. The new process now gives information quickly enough for forecasters to use.
Scientists at NASA have developed a way to process radar data from NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mi
For asthmatics and for anyone with respiratory problems, air pollution can significantly impair simple everyday activities. NASA is trying to tie together satellites and stations on the ground to develop a “sensor web” to track this pollution and improve air quality forecasts.
Understanding how tropospheric or near-surface-level ozone is produced, distributed and transported from city to city, region to region and continent to continent is an important step toward improving the
History classes would have had added flavour had we been told that our great explorers of the past travelled with their pigs. Originally descended from the Eurasian wild boar, present day pig populations in South America and Africa can pride themselves with adventurous ancestors. At the SEB meeting at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Oscar Ramírez from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, will be presenting his work on the formation of European pig breeds and their subsequent dispersion i
Is your cup of coffee suffering from fertility problems? If you’re drinking the instant variety it may very well be! The Robusta crop (Coffea canephora), which is the main variety for producing instant coffee, suffers from ‘self-incompatibility’ so can’t pollinate itself. This presents a dilemma for coffee farmers who have to grow it in mixed plantings so that cross-pollination takes place – but which varieties to cross with which?
Sylvester Tumusiime (University of Nottingham, UK) wil
Do you enjoy eating oysters on a hot sunny afternoon? Make the most of it – it may not last forever. Research has shown that global warming increases the sensitivity of oysters to metal pollution, causing a deadly threat to populations in polluted areas.
Dr. Gisela Lannig from the University of North Carolina, USA, will present her work on cadmium poisoning in eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) on Monday 11th July at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Main Meeting in Barcel
Do you have a rare blood group or are you concerned about contracting a disease such as HIV from a blood transfusion? The first ever European Blood Substitutes project (‘EuroBloodSubstitutes’) is designing molecules which will be able to replace the need for blood during transfusions in the future. Researchers are modifying the genes of the oxygen-carrying part of the blood (haemoglobin) and using cell factories to mass produce artificial molecules which will be able to oxygenate the body’s cells
The Swiss economy is undergoing a change from a production economy to an economy of knowledge. In the future, Switzerland’s added value will be acquired primarily through the formulation and exploitation of product knowledge, and its wealth will be sustained mostly through the realization of these knowledge-based products. Further development of innovation in Switzerland is having a correspondingly significant role. It was for this reason that ETH Zurich set up the International Competence Cent
Álvaro Corral, a physicist at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, has discovered that the structure of the recurrence time of earthquakes, which is the time interval between successive earthquakes, is similar to the spatial structure of physics systems when they change phase in the “critical points”. The research has been published in Physical Review Letters and shows that the time interval between successive earthquakes depends on the time that elapsed between previous earthquakes. Although
Why does it seem like some people can eat all the ice cream they want without increasing their cholesterol or gaining much weight, while others with high cholesterol have to watch their diets like a hawk? Because no matter what their lifestyle, people’s genes play an overriding role in their cholesterol response.
So says a new study by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Ins
Study shows significant benefit
Early screening of prostate cancer in asymptomatic men may reduce their risk of death from metastatic prostate cancer by as much as 35 per cent, researchers from the University of Toronto have found.
“Early screening with the prostate specific antigen (PSA) is quite controversial. There are many arguments both for and against the efficacy of this form of early screening,” says Vivek Goel, professor of public health sciences and health pol
As successful fishermen know, if you want to catch fish, you have to use the right bait or lure. This is true even in the deep sea, where scientists recently discovered a new species of jelly that attracts fish by wiggling hundreds of glowing red lures. This is the first time any marine invertebrate has been found to use a bioluminescent lure or to display red bioluminescence. This discovery is described in an article written by Steven Haddock of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MB
Age may work in reverse when it comes to raising grandchildren, suggests a University of Florida study that finds younger grandmothers in this role are depressed more often than their older counterparts.
“Unlike older grandparents who are frequently retired, middle-aged grandparents face problems trying to balance their newfound parenting roles with other responsibilities, including the demands of careers and personal interests,” said Terry Mills, a UF sociologist who did the study,
Feedback
