Yet another proven benefit of tight glucose control for those with type 1 diabetes
New study results confirm, for the first time, that intensive treatment of diabetic patients results in a significantly lower risk of heart disease. In fact, it can cut the risk of cardiovascular disease nearly in half. Researchers say this is yet another proven benefit of the long-term effects of tight glucose control in patients with type 1 diabetes.
The new finding was announced on Sunda
Computers just respond to commands, never “thinking” about the consequences. A new software language, however, promises to enable computers to reason much more precisely and thus better reflect subtleties intended by commands of human operators. Developed by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers and colleagues in France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, the process specification language software, known as ISO 18629, should make computers much more useful in manufa
A pilot study at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in support of the National Cancer Institute’s Early Detection Research Network (EDRN), has validated the measurement accuracy of new techniques that use mitochondrial DNA as an early indicator for certain types of cancer. Additional results suggest that a relatively simple diagnostic test using a DNA microarray “chip” could enable early detection of some solid tumors, including lung cancer.
Mitochondrial D
Scientists in Belgium have discovered how to clone human embryos from eggs that have been matured in the laboratory. Their discovery should make it easier for scientists to create embryonic stem cell lines from cloned embryos and develop them to provide eggs and sperm for infertile couples, the 21st annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology heard today (Monday 20 June).
Until now, scientists investigating human cloning for therapeutic purp
The general elections of 2001 and 2005 had the second and third worst turnouts since 1900, falling from 71% in 1997 to under 60% in 2001 and only just above 61% this May. In ESRC’s new report Seven Deadly Sins, published to launch Social Science Week 2005, Professor Charlie Jeffery uses the British Election Study and other surveys of political participation to understand this growing voter apathy.
He argues that the real problem lies not in the voters’ sloth but in the failure
What part does envy play in the apparently spiralling stock of personal debt in the UK, which last year passed the £1 trillion mark? New research by Stephen McKay, published in ESRC’s new report Seven Deadly Sins, indicates that people who are envious of what others have, and dissatisfied with their own incomes, do tend to have higher levels of credit and greater difficulties making repayments. But the size of this effect is small compared with the effects of age, income and changes i
The air pollution in Central London and the London borough of Croydon is being forecast daily as part of a pioneering ESA-backed project.
Around a thousand asthma sufferers and other vulnerable individuals in Croydon should soon receive text message warnings to their mobile phones before elevated air pollution days, with additional patients in other London boroughs receiving the service later on.
The YourAir service predicts levels of the pollutants nitrogen dioxide, o
Scientists in the UK have proved that human embryonic stem cells can develop in the laboratory into the early forms of cells that eventually become eggs or sperm. Their work opens up the possibility that eggs and sperm could be grown from stem cells and used for assisted reproduction, therapeutic cloning and the creation of more stem cells for further research and for the improved treatments for patients suffering from a range of diseases.
Behrouz Aflatoonian will tell the 21st
An innovative idea from a Northumbria University student could stop the deadly MRSA superbug in its tracks.
Final year Design for Industry student Sarah Clark has invented a home screening kit to test for the bug before admission to hospital.
Sarah hit on the idea after discovering that one third of the British population carries the MRSA bug in their noses.
The device is a simple two-pronged plastic instrument that is simply inserted into the nose to allow a sw
Scientists have re-created one of nature’s most sensitive sound detectors – the tiny hairs found on body parts of crickets, which allow them to hear predators and make an escape before they get close enough to catch them. Published today (20th June 2005) in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, an Institute of Physics journal, this research will help scientists understand the complex physics that crickets use to perceive their surroundings and could lead to a new generation of
Living organisms need to sense the amount of energy that is available to them and regulate the activity of their genes accordingly. Scientists have made the unexpected finding that a histone protein, which wraps DNA into tight bundles and regulates gene activity, can bind a small molecule produced in our cells. This novel finding in itself was a breakthrough for researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), but what made it more interesting was which specific molecule it bind
A new ESRC report, published to launch Social Science Week 2005, uses the seven deadly sins – pride, anger, lust, avarice, gluttony, envy and sloth – as a way of looking at some pressing issues of modern life: religious conflict, rage in kids and adults, sexual behaviour, corporate greed, binge drinking, rising personal debt and political apathy.
Exploring these issues afresh – and often questioning conventional wisdom – demands a look at the evidence, drawing on the wealth of in
The second 20-metre antenna boom of the MARSIS instrument on board Mars Express was successfully – and smoothly – deployed, confirmed today by the ground team at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre.
The command to deploy the second MARSIS boom was given to the spacecraft at 13:30 CEST on 14 June 2005. Shortly before the deployment started, Mars Express was set into a slow rotation to last 30 minutes during and after the boom extension. This rotation allowed all the boom’s hing
Measurements of the intensity of light at different wavelengths can be made more accurately now, thanks to a new, simple method for correcting common instrument errors. The new method, developed by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will benefit fields such as color measurement, lighting development, remote sensing, biotechnology and astronomy.
The NIST method improves the measurement accuracy of spectrometers, devices that measure optical
Straight edges, good. Wavy edges, bad. This simple description holds true whether you are painting the living room or manufacturing nanoscale circuit features.
In a technical paper* published in June, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and SEMATECH describe an improved method for determining nanoscale “linewidth roughness,” an important quality control factor in semiconductor fabrication. Their research shows that current industry measurement
Continued Freshening of the North Atlantic Could Slow the Conveyor in the 21st Century
Large regions of the North Atlantic Ocean have been growing fresher since the late 1960s as melting glaciers and increased precipitation, both associated with greenhouse warming, have enhanced continental runoff into the Arctic and sub-Arctic seas. Over the same time period, salinity records show that large pulses of extra sea ice and fresh water from the Arctic have flowed into the North Atl
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