In the past 50 years, human activity has changed the diversity of life on Earth – our biodiversity – more than any other time in history. These changes include biodiversity loss that harms the natural systems, known as ecosystems, which sustain all life on the planet.
The loss of biodiversity is more harmful to some people than others. The rural poor in developing countries are often hit hardest, because they are more directly dependent on the resources and services that ecosystem
Northern metropolitan Los Angeles is being squeezed at a rate of five millimeters [0.2 inches] a year, straining an area between two earthquake faults that serve as geologic bookends north and south of the affected region, according to NASA scientists.
The compression of the Los Angeles landscape is being monitored by a network of more than 250 precision global positioning system (GPS) receivers, known as the Southern California Integrated Global Positioning System Network
Hormone affects females, males differently
University of Minnesota researchers have demonstrated for the first time how estrogen affects learning and memory. They found that estrogen can activate particular glutamate receptors within the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for many aspects of learning and memory. Glutamate is the primary excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain, allowing for fast communication between neurons. By examining hippocampal neurons from rats, re
When radiologists are looking at contrast-enhanced chest CT examinations, they should take a look at the patient&srquo;s heart to rule out heart attack, regardless of why the chest CT examination is being performed, a new study shows.
The study included 59 patients who had undergone chest CT examinations; none of the examinations were ordered specifically to look at the heart, said Linda Haramati, MD, professor of clinical radiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and one of the au
A drug that is currently used to treat an enlarged prostate may improve the accuracy of prostate biopsies, a pilot study shows.
The drug, dutasteride, suppresses blood flow in benign tissue of the prostate, allowing radiologists to better target cancer tissue using Doppler ultrasound, said Elizabeth Ives, MD, a research fellow at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia and lead author of the study. The study included 11 patients who took dutasteride before their Do
Patients with suspected meniscal tears or other injuries to their knees may be able to avoid arthroscopic surgery by having a 3-Tesla MRI examination instead, two studies together indicate.
Researchers compared 3-Tesla MRI (a newer version of standard MRI) to arthroscopy and found that 3-Tesla MRI had an accuracy rate of 96% in detecting meniscal tears. The MRI examinations were able to identify 108 of the 112 meniscal tears that were found when arthroscopic surgery was perform
A computer-aided detection (CAD) system is helping radiologists to more quickly and accurately determine the sizes and locations of cancers found on breast MRI—information that could change patients’ treatment, a new study shows.
The study, undertaken at Clinica Girona in Girona, Spain, compared the CAD system to breast imaging software that comes standard with MRI machines, said Joan C. Vilanova, MD, director of the department of magnetic resonance and lead author of the study. T
A new type of light was detected from a recent gamma-ray burst, as discovered by Los Alamos National Laboratory and NASA scientists using both burst-detection satellites and a Los Alamos-based robotic telescope.
In a paper published in the May 12 issue of Nature, Los Alamos scientists and NASA announced the detection of a form of light generated by the same process that drives the gamma ray burst itself, yielding new insights about these enigmatic cosmic explosions — the most pow
The world’s most accurate “ruler” made with extreme ultraviolet light has been built and demonstrated with ultrafast laser pulses by scientists at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The new device, which consistently generates pulses of light lasting just femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second, or millionths of a billionth of a second) in the ultraviolet region of the electromagnet
Elderly persons with active root caries, a type of tooth decay, have an increased risk of having irregular heart beats. This study is published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
A total of 125 generally healthy individuals over the age of 80, living in urban, community-based populations were examined. Researchers discovered that persons with three or more active root caries had more than twice the odds of cardiac arrhythmias of those without. Researchers indicat
Updated Guidelines represent significant developments in terms of content, format and presentation of the latest advances in Chronic Heart Failure
Sophia Antipolis, France, 19 May 2005: Today the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) releases its new Guidelines on Chronic Heart Failure1, published in the latest edition of the European Heart Journal, official journal of the ESC and Europe’s leading cardiology journal.
The Guidelines offer up to date practical recommenda
In 2006, with the launch of Jules Verne, the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will become the new European powerful automatic re-supply spaceship able to bring an indispensable payload to the International Space Station and its permanent crew. This first ATV will carry a mix of supplies depending on the Station’s needs and its own payload capacity.
ESA, NASA and Russian counterparts are already defining the priorities to accommodate the most appropriate combination of different sup
Following 60 days of ’bedrest’ simulating the effects of weightlessness on the body, the first volunteers in the WISE (Women International Space Simulation for Exploration) study have been getting back on their feet.
They all speak of having had a wonderfully enriching experience both in scientific and human terms. A press conference attended by those in charge of the study and volunteers is to be held on 2 June.
The volunteers in question are twelve women, dr
Successful treatment of heroin abusers
The Kurage Program in Karlstad, Sweden, is a successful program for treating heroin abusers. This is shown in an assessment carried out by the Institute for Quality and Developmental Work, IKU, at Karlstad University.
The Kurage Program is a method of treatment in which heroin abusers receive help in gradually creating a new existence without drugs. The program includes the use of the drug Subutex in combination with well-developed s
Fossil Fish Challenge Gene Theory
New evidence from fossil fish, hundreds of millions of years old, casts doubt on current ideas about evolutionary theory.
The research, by palaeontologists Dr Philip Donoghue of the University of Bristol and Dr Mark Purnell of the University of Leicester, appears to have solved a scientific riddle by using the fossil record to explain evolutionary ‘leaps’ between species.
The scientists’ claim that these evolutionary ‘leaps
The crucial role that Antarctica plays in global climate change and its future contribution to sea-level rise was highlighted today by Professor Chris Rapley, Director of British Antarctic Survey (BAS). Speaking at an international convention on climate change in Bonn, Germany* he presented a summary of the latest scientific results from Antarctica.
Professor Rapley said, “The issue of sea-level rise is of great concern to all of us – the contribution from Antarctica is the gre
Feedback
