Our understanding of how messenger RNAs are translated into proteins is challenged by new research published today in the Open Access journal Journal of Biology. The study suggests that EF-G, the GTPase that facilitates tRNA translocation in bacteria, enters the ribosome bound to a different guanine nucleotide than previously thought – GDP, not GTP. The ribosome itself then seems to act as the guanine-nucleotide exchange factor, not some as-yet-unidentified factor as previously assumed. This findi
British astronomers today (June 24th) saw the first images from an ambitious new programme of discovery, the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS). The survey will scour the sky with the world’s most powerful infrared survey camera ( WFCAM) to find some of the dimmest and most distant objects in the Universe. UKIDSS will reach at least twenty times deeper than the largest current survey conducted at this wavelength. Infrared light can be used to study objects that are not hot enough to sh
On 9 June, a powerful new 35-metre antenna, presently undergoing acceptance testing at Cebreros, Spain, successfully picked up signals and tracked Rosetta and SMART-1. It is ESA’s second deep-space ground station in its class and adds Ka-band reception capability and high pointing precision to the ESTRACK network.
Construction of the new ground station, located in the Spanish province of Avila, has proceeded in record time. Procurement activities started in February 2003, and
In patients with vaginal cancer, PET scans detected twice as many primary tumors and cancerous lymph nodes as did CT scans, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. At this time, however, Medicaid, Medicare and many private insurers specify CT (computed tomography) for diagnosing and monitoring this cancer.
The researchers hoping to encourage a change in that standard report their comparison of the two methods in the July 1 issue of the In
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have discovered a tiny biological structure that is highly electrically conductive. This breakthrough helps describe how microorganisms can clean up groundwater and produce electricity from renewable resources. It may also have applications in the emerging field of nanotechnology, which develops advanced materials and devices in extremely small dimensions.
The findings of microbiologist Derek R. Lovley’s research team are pu
El Niño and La Niña play with the populations of microscopic ocean plants called phytoplankton. That’s what scientists have found using NASA satellite data and a computer model.
Phytoplankton are the base of the marine food chain, providing food for little sea animals called zooplankton, which in turn feed fish and other creatures. Any change in phytoplankton numbers alters the ocean food chain.
The computer model showed that during El Niño periods, warm waters fr
NASA hurricane researchers are deploying to Costa Rica next month to investigate the birthplace of eastern Pacific tropical cyclones. They will be searching for clues that could lead to a greater understanding and better predictability of one of the world’s most significant weather events – the hurricane.
As scientists and coastal residents brace for another potentially challenging hurricane season, NASA is launching the Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes (TCSP) mission. T
How can the U.S. health-care system and more specifically, primary care doctors – the physicians from whom older adults receive most of their care – prepare for the huge wave of dementia patients expected to engulf us in 2010, the year the baby boomers begin to reach 65?
Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine, the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. and the Indiana University Center for Aging Research begin to answer this difficult question in a study published in the
Qualities of granular materials provide insight into both nature and industry
In separate papers appearing in this week’s Nature, researchers announce findings regarding the little-understood world of granular materials, systems of particles that can dictate the flow of avalanches, the quality of concrete and even the mixing of pharmaceuticals.
In both studies, the researchers developed new analytical tools that combine laboratory simulators with advanced computer simu
For scientists who want to discern the complex chemistry at work in Earth’s atmosphere, detecting a particular gas molecule can be as hard as finding a proverbial needle in a haystack.
Frank De Lucia, professor of physics at Ohio State University , and his colleagues recently used their FAST Scan Submillimeter Spectroscopy Technique (FASSST) to make the job easier.
The technique offers a way for scientists to examine the spectrum of light given off by a molecule. E
For the first time, scientists have discovered how C-reactive protein, or CRP, is able to access endothelial cells. The UC Davis researchers’ findings will be published in the July issue of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, one of the American Heart Association’s leading journals.
CRP is a known risk marker for heart disease and, in a study published earlier this year, UC Davis researchers Ishwarlal Jialal and Sridevi Devaraj found that endothelia
There’s more than meets the human ear when the black-capped chickadee lets its flock mates know a predator is lurking about by giving out its familiar “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” call.
The small songbirds, which are common throughout much of North America, use that signature call in a wide variety of social interactions including warning of predators. And it turns out that those alarms are far more subtle and information-packed than scientists previously imagined.
Writing in th
During the most recent period in Earth’s past with a climate warmer than today, the tropical Pacific was in a stable state of El Niño-like conditions, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Whether this represents a likely scenario for the future, given the current rise in global temperatures, is uncertain. Nevertheless, the study has important implications for scientists trying to understand the global climate system and how it mi
A team of chemists at Penn State has developed a new type of ultrathin film, which has unusual properties that could improve the fabrication of increasingly smaller and more intricate electronic and sensing devices. The material, a single layer made from spherical cages of carbon atoms, could enable more precise patterning of such devices with a wider range of molecular components than now is possible with conventional self-assembled monolayers. The research is published in the current issue of
Physicists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created the first example of a high-temperature superfluid: a new state of matter in which the atoms in a gas can move with no friction or slowing down whatsoever.
Reported in the June 23 issue of journal Nature, the work is closely related to the superconductivity of electrons in metals. According to Wolfgang Ketterle, the Nobel laureate who heads the MIT group, observations of superfluids may help solve lingering questio
Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have successfully isolated stem cells from human skin, expanded them in the laboratory and coaxed them into becoming fat, muscle and bone cells. The study, one of the first studies to show the ability of a single adult stem cell to become multiple tissue types, is reported today in Stem Cells and Development.
“These cells should provide a valuable resource for tissue repair and for organs as well,” said Anthony Atala, M.D.,
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