Opening the door to a new world of education and entertainment the development of a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and simulator allows users to go where few others have gone before, taking telepresence to a new level.
Developed by nine partners from four EU countries under the IST project TELEDRIVE, the system allows users to go underwater in an aquarium or in the sea without getting their feet wet or to visit an archaeological site where human presence could be damaging.
Colorectal Cancer : The Notch Gene Plays a Key Role in Intestinal Development, Promising Therapeutic Perspectives and new Insights into Carcinogenesis
Through a long-standing collaboration, Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas and his group in Boston and Daniel Louvard’s CNRS team at the Institut Curie have discovered that the Notch gene plays a key role in intestinal development. Notch maintains the balance between stem cells and differentiated cells in the intestinal epithelium, thereby pl
An extraordinary amount of media attention focuses on alcohol consumption and its impact on public order and health. But as Professor Dick Hobbs shows in ESRC’s new report Seven Deadly Sins, while ‘binge drinking’ youths dominate the headlines, it is older drinkers that are most likely to succumb to alcohol-related death.
What’s more, Professor Hobbs argues, it is the logic of the market and not the logic derived from careful data analysis that informs government policy on alc
Twelve women recently completed 60 days of voluntary bedrest in order to simulate the physiological effects of weightlessness on the human body. The research team in Toulouse, France, is now actively seeking twelve new volunteers to enable them to continue and enhance the research.
At the beginning of June, the twelve volunteers from the first phase of the WISE study (Women International Simulation Experiment), were progressively ’released’ as they were gradually returne
Drilling holes on other planets and inventing novel textiles to secure large structures in space are just two of the 27 challenges that expert teams have been working on in the first year of ESA’s Innovation Triangle Initiative.
“By combining the creativity of the inventor, the needs of end users and the production experience of industry we have created strong drive and a very successful synergy to identify, demonstrate and verify novel ideas for future space technologies,” says Mar
A North American business specialising in pioneering skin cancer and sun-damaged skin testing is to establish a base in the UK to continue its world-leading research.
Canada-based Genesis Genomics (GGUK), a cutting-edge biotech research corporation, is currently developing a new early warning system to aid the effective treatment of skin cancer and skin damaged by sunburn. It plans to use its new base at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne to push the commercial development o
A study of how the body expels parasitic worms has led to a surprising new discovery about the immune system that could help in the treatment of bowel cancer.
Scientists investigating whipworms, parasites that infect one-fifth of the world’s population as well as livestock and domestic animals, have discovered a new way that the body effectively eliminates the parasites.
The University of Manchester research, published in the US journal Science, found the reason why som
Just as placebos have been shown to bring relief from pain, researchers have now found that they can affect emotion, alleviating the impact of unpleasant experiences. In an article in the June 16, 2005, issue of Neuron, researchers led by Predrag Petrovic of the Karolinska Institutet show that, in relieving anxiety, placebo treatment affects the same basic modulatory circuitry in the brain as it does for relieving pain.
In their experiments, the researchers tested the effect of pla
Biopolymers obtained by Russian researchers with the help of hydrogen bacteria, are compatible with tissues of the organism and are autodestractive after a while. That makes such biopolymers indispensable for medical articles.
Polymers of microbe origin, or biopolymers, have recently drawn increasing attention of a great variety of specialists. These polymers have two important advantages. Firstly, they get destroyed in the environment and thus solve the contamination problem.
Physicians have won the victory over the natural variola virus: it does not exist in nature any longer. Now, it is also necessary to destroy the viruses kept in the laboratory, however, their genetic material should be preserved. Resolution of this task in Russia is funded by the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC).
Specialists of the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology “Vector” (Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation) supported by the Internati
Outstanding antiviral action of multiple antibiotics remains unclaimed due to high drug toxicity. Russian physicians are trying to get nontoxic drug dosage form and have achieved success as regards to anit-AIDS antibiotic – Heliomycinum. Their effort has been funded by the International Science and Technology Center.
Specialists of the Lomonosov Moscow State Academy of Fine Applied Chemistry and Ivanovsky Scientific Research Institute of Virology (Russian Academy of Medical Scienc
Gene for lung and diaphragm development in mice and humans
To breathe normally, people need more than just healthy lungs. A diaphragm—the large muscle that creates a vacuum to draw air into their lungs—is also crucial. Birth defects in the diaphragm, such as congenital diaphragmatic hernia (which are about as common as cystic fibrosis), are often fatal. “A lot of people haven’t heard of this [disorder] because so many of the kids die early,” said Kate Ackerman, Harvard Medical
New calculations support an alternative to “superfluidity” of a solid as the explanation for the behavior of an isotope of helium, 4He, at temperatures approaching Absolute Zero, according to a report in Physical Review Letters.
Among the most provocative recent reports in condensed materials science were studies interpreting the behavior of solid 4He in an oscillating chamber as a “supersolid.” In this current paper, John S. Wettlaufer, professor of geophysics andphysics at Y
Diabetes patients may benefit most from minor surgery plus antibiotics
A small sore on a toe may not seem like a major medical threat. But for the millions of people who have diabetes and other conditions, it can be the first step on a road that leads to the amputation of a foot — or even a leg. Now, a new study from the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center may help more people save their limbs. Published in the June issue of the Annals of Surgery, it’s the first-e
By pairing a sleek new air sampler designed at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) with a diode laser from SpectraSensors, Inc., researchers have hit on a technology that can capture highly accurate atmospheric water vapor data during routine commercial flights. The data will benefit researchers and forecasters, who need more frequent, accurate measurements at various altitudes worldwide to improve weather forecasts and monitor climate change.
Currently wate
Quantum dots, tiny crystals consisting of a few hundred to a few thousand atoms, sparkle with promise for uses ranging from tagging proteins in living cells to foiling counterfeiters to enabling quantum computers. The optics and electronics of these semiconductor nanocrystals are dramatically different from the same materials in bulk. But it turns out that one of the most important electronic properties of quantum dots has been misunderstood for over a decade.
Theorists
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