Global warming may proceed faster and be more severe than previously predicted according to research about to be published in the scientific journal “Nature”. Reductions in airborne particle pollution, or aerosols, as air quality is improved, will amplify climate change by reducing the cooling effect due to aerosols and also by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide that remains in the atmosphere. Uncertainty about the magnitude of past and present cooling, however, means that we cannot be cert
Size doesn’t matter, at least not the size of the eyespots on a male butterfly’s wings when female butterflies consider potential mates.
Instead, females are attracted to the “sparkle” created by the ultraviolet reflectivity of the pupils, the white circles at the center of eyespots, according to new research from University at Buffalo biologists.
The research, to be published online June 29 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, overturns
Astronomers at Australia’s national radio and optical observatories will watch as a probe released from a spacecraft slams into a comet about 133 million km away at a speed of nearly 37,000 km/h (10.2 km per second).
The cosmic demolition derby takes place about 4pm AEST on 4 July when the comet, Tempel 1, will be most easily seen from the mid-Pacific. The 370 kg probe, carried by NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft, has been travelling toward the comet for 173 days and has
New Florida homes withstood last year’s four hurricanes better than their older counterparts — thanks in large measure to continued improvements in the state’s hurricane building code, say University of Florida engineers.
UF engineering researchers have completed one of the most extensive studies of how homes built before and after Florida’s latest building code held up against Charley, Frances, Jeanne and Ivan.
Their conclusion: Homes built under the Flor
The dry, dusty, treeless expanse of Chile’s Atacama Desert is the most lifeless spot on the face of the Earth, and that’s why Alison Skelley and Richard Mathies joined a team of NASA scientists there earlier this month.
The University of California, Berkeley, scientists knew that if the Mars Organic Analyzer (MOA) they’d built could detect life in that crusty, arid land, then it would have a good chance some day of detecting life on the planet Mars.
In a place that ha
Scientists are fascinated by a dark, lake-like feature recently observed on Saturn’s moon Titan. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured a series of images showing a marking, darker than anything else around it. It is remarkably lake-like, with smooth, shore-like boundaries unlike any seen previously on Titan.
“I’d say this is definitely the best candidate we’ve seen so far for a liquid hydrocarbon lake on Titan,” said Dr. Alfred McEwen, Cassini imaging team member and
A new method for manipulating macromolecules has been developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The technique uses double-stranded DNA to direct the behavior of other molecules. In previous DNA nanotechnology efforts, duplex DNA has been used as a static lattice to construct geometrical objects in three dimensions. Instead of manipulating DNA alone into such shapes, the researchers are using DNA to control the folding and resulting structure of RNA. Eventually,
Research being published in July issue of Diabetes zeros in on who is potentially more susceptible to developing the disease
A University of Alberta team of researchers has discovered an additional 2 million Canadians who have a high fat diet or are overweight may be at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes if they carry a particular type of common specific genetic trait known as a polymorphism.
In work published today in the journal, Diabetes, pharmacology profe
A good night’s sleep triggers changes in the brain that help to improve memory, according to a new study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).
These findings, reported in the June 30, 2005, issue of the journal Neuroscience and currently published on-line, might help to explain why children – infants, in particular – require much more sleep than adults, and also suggest a role for sleep in the rehabilitation of stroke patients and other individua
Expectant mothers at risk of premature birth may want to consider drinking pomegranate juice to help their babies resist brain injuries from low oxygen and reduced blood flow, a new mouse study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests.
In humans, decreased blood flow and oxygen to the infant brain is linked to premature birth and other irregularities during pregnancy, birth and early development. The phenomenon, which is called hypoxia ischemia, causes
Findings may lead to new methods to control beetles, which have decimated Lake Tahoe and Western forests
University of Nevada, Reno scientists have ended a decade-long controversy over the process by which bark beetles make pheromones: they manufacture their own monoterpenes – the fragrant substances plants produce and which are often used in perfumes. It had been thought that insects and other animals were incapable of making these substances.
“The goal of our research is ult
The more seniors watch television, the greater their negative images of aging may be, but maintaining a diary of viewing impressions increased their awareness of the negative stereotyping on television, researchers at Yale report in the Journal of Social Issues.
“These findings suggest that the promotion of awareness could provide a means of helping elders confront ageism,” said lead author Becca Levy, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale Scho
Historical precedents show aid programs could backfire unless local rationing plans are made
Johns Hopkins infectious disease specialists who have spent more than two decades leading efforts to combat HIV and AIDS worldwide are warning that limited international relief supplies of antiretroviral therapies currently being distributed in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean will not get to those who can least afford to pay for them.
In an article appearing in the American Jou
Child Survival is Affordable at only $1.23 per capita in 42 Countries
Six million children could be saved if $5.1 billion in new resources for preventive and therapeutic interventions were provided each year, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions. Approximately 90 percent of all child deaths occur in 42 countries around the world. In those countries, the average cost per child saved would be $887 or $1.23 per cap
Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are at increased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) compared with individuals who suffer from CAD but not RA. The findings of research published today in Arthritis Research & Therapy show that CAD is accelerated in RA patients, and patients with both RA and CAD are at an increased risk of death from heart disease. The authors of the study suggest that the high numbers of inflammatory T cells found in RA arthritis patients may cause the increased risk of
A new national initiative set to widen and increase participation in engineering higher education (HE) is to be launched by The Royal Academy of Engineering with funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) as part of HEFCE’s forward programme of support for strategically important and vulnerable subjects.
Working with some 85,000 school and university students in seven regions of England, the National Engineering Programme will, over a period of six and
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