Frees seismologists from ’tyranny’ of waiting for earthquakes
Seismologists have long relied on earthquakes or expensive tools like explosives to help create images of Earth’s interior, but a new method created by University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder) researchers will produce quicker, cheaper and clearer images.
Rather than waiting for earthquakes, the researchers have recovered surface-wave information from normal seismic noise that is constantly produc
Foreign species, such as zebra mussels and carp, are invading the Great Lakes and changing the ecology of this vital ecosystem. A study from McMaster University published in the March issue of the Journal of Great Lakes Research suggests that for the round goby, a recently introduced fish species, their ability to wrest territory from native fish plays a key role in their dominance of the Great Lakes.
In the study, McMaster’s Sigal Balshine, an assistant professor of psychol
A worldwide health problem, tuberculosis kills more people than any other bacterial infection. The World Health Organization estimates that two billion people are infected with TB, and that two million people die each year from the disease.
However, due to multi-drug resistance and a protracted medication regimen, it is extremely difficult to treat. Hence, there is still a great deal of interest in developing new anti-tubercular drugs. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvani
Black holes have a reputation for voraciously eating everything in their immediate neighborhood, but these large gravity wells also affect electromagnetic radiation and may hinder our ability to ever locate the center of the universe, according to an international research team.
“Any attempt to discover what was happening a long time ago at the beginning of our universe must take into account what gravitationally assisted negative refraction does to the radiation being viewed,” say
Turkey hunters have higher rates of shooting-related injuries than hunters of other species in Pennsylvania, according to a Penn State College of Medicine study. In fact the study found that Pennsylvania hunters’ chances of being shot depend on both what they’re hunting and the hunters’ ages, with the highest injury rates reported in hunters under the age of 20.
“This study examined differences in characteristics and rates of past injuries with the goal of providing information to
A new tumor-suppressor gene has been discovered by a team of researchers at Penn State, which also has discovered how the gene works with another tumor suppressor to control tissue growth. The team’s genetic and biochemical studies will be published in the 11 March 2005 issue of the journal Cell. “This discovery extends our understanding of how tissue growth is controlled both during normal development and during the formation of tumors, and it raises the possibility that the function of t
A group of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute is reporting a discovery that sheds light on an area of research fundamental to everything from the normal processes that govern the everyday life of human cells to the aberrant mechanisms that underlie many diseases, including cancer and septic shock.
The discovery concerns tiny fragments of RNA known as microRNA and their relationship to the genetic transcripts known as messenger RNA (mRNA). All genes expressed in the
The chromosomes of mammals, including humans, contain regions that are particularly prone to breaking under conditions of stress and in cancer. Now, new research by geneticists at Duke University Medical Center finds that yeast cells also contain such weak links in DNA and begins to reveal the molecular characteristics of these links that might help to explain them.
The findings, published in the March 11, 2005, issue of Cell, suggest that yeast may offer a useful model system f
Seismologists have long relied on earthquakes or expensive tools like explosives to help create images of Earth’s interior, but a new method created by University of Colorado at Boulder researchers will produce quicker, cheaper and clearer images.
Rather than waiting for earthquakes, the researchers have now recovered surface wave information from ambient seismic noise that is constantly produced by fluctuations in the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. Measuring surface wa
Weight status of children ages 8 to 15 predicts obesity and high blood pressure in adulthood
New research shows that children between 8 and 15 years old who are in the upper half of the normal weight range are more likely than their leaner peers to become obese or overweight as young adults. This research was conducted over nearly a decade at the Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention and Children’s Hospital Bos
Researchers at Duke University Medical Center and Vanderbilt University Medical Center have pinpointed the first major gene that determines an individual’s risk for developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The chronic, progressive disease — which affects as many as 15 million people in the United States — is the leading cause of visual impairment and legal blindness in the elderly.
A common variant of the gene, called complement factor H (CFH), explains approxima
Mice who keep their brains and bodies busy in an “enriched” environment of chew toys, running wheels, and tunnels have lower levels of the peptides and brain plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease compared to mice raised in more sparse conditions, according to a new study in the 11 March issue of the journal Cell.
Levels of b-amyloid peptides, which clump together to form the brain “tangles” or plaques that are toxic to nerve cells in Alzheimer’s disease, were sig
After infecting a susceptible cell, the human immunodeficiency virus hijacks that cell’s normal machinery to produce carbon copies of itself. New HIV particles roll off the cellular assembly lines, burst like bubbles out of the cell, and float off to invade other cellular factories. Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators have now identified an early step in HIV particle assembly. The findings, published March 11 in Cell, could lead to new drugs that combat HIV infection by shutt
Numerous case reports and a few clinical studies have examined the association between tongue piercing and receding gums, and oral piercing, typically involving the tongue and/or the lip, has been associated with periodontal complications. However, there are no such studies on lip piercing.
A research group from the Ohio State University in Columbus recruited, from the community, 29 young adults with lip piercing (mean age, 21 years, 8 months; 15 females) and 29 without (mean a
Acquired from orbit 800 kilometres away, this Envisat image shows two volcanoes erupting simultaneously on Russia’s snowy Kamchatka Peninsula this week.
Located in the Russian Far East, the Kamchatka Peninsula is a landscape covered with volcanoes, part of the Pacific ’Ring of Fire’. Two stratovolcanoes, Kliuchevskoi and Shiveluch are currently erupting simultaneously.
The more southerly 4835-metre-high Kliuchevskoi volcano began its latest eruption on 17 January 2005.
The genetic cause of the devastating skin disease Harlequin Ichthyosis has been discovered by a team at Barts and the London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry.
In a paper to be published online in April in the American Journal of Human Genetics, Professor David Kelsell, of Queen Mary’s Centre for Cutaneous Research, outlines the recent breakthrough. Harlequin Ichthyosis (HI) is a rare, life threatening condition, where babies are born covered in a thick ‘coat of armo
Feedback
