The nation needs to establish a formal, “risk-informed” approach to decide what types and amounts of radioactive waste at U.S. Department of Energy sites should be buried or left in place rather than shipped to a geological repository, such as the one proposed for Yucca Mountain, Nev., says a new report from the National Academies’ National Research Council.
“Given the controversy surrounding this issue and the reality that not all of the waste will or can be recovered and disp
In a new and novel study, scientists are looking to nature — specifically, to ants, bees and viruses — for ways to improve human collaboration during disaster relief efforts.
At the center of the scientists’ sights are a sub-group of their own species — specifically, civil engineers, who historically have had a limited role in such efforts, especially those involving critical physical infrastructures.
Supported by a five-year $2.37 million grant from the Nationa
The first synthesis of QS-21A, a medicinally important molecule that helps the body battle disease, has been achieved by chemists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In clinical trials, QS-21A has been shown to significantly improve the body’s immune response in vaccine therapies against aggressive diseases such as melanoma, breast cancer, small-cell lung cancer, prostate cancer, HIV-1 and malaria. An extract from the bark of the South American tree Quillaja
Cornell University-led team operating the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS), the largest of the three main instruments on NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, has discovered a mysterious population of distant and enormously powerful galaxies radiating in the infrared spectrum with many hundreds of times more power than our Milky Way galaxy. Their distance from Earth is about 11 billion light years, or 80 percent of the way back to the Big Bang.
Virtually everything about this new clas
Identifying protein biomarkers predicts success for cervical stitching
Doctors treating pregnant women with threatened preterm birth sometimes sew the cervix closed, a procedure known as cerclage. Despite this traditional intervention, many women still lose the pregnancy. While the causes of preterm labor are not well understood, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Yale University report that they can now predict who will benefit from cerclage by ra
Studying how computer viruses spread through the internet is helping ecologists to prevent invasions of non-native species. New research published today in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology, describes the use of network theory to predict how the spiny water flea – a native of Russia – will spread through the Canadian lake system.
Ecologists Jim Muirhead and Professor Hugh MacIsaac of the University of Windsor, Ontario have been studying the spread
Protein found in cells may be the answer
Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found alpha-defensin-1, a protein found in immune cells, can control HIV infection by at least two mechanisms. Earlier studies have primarily looked at the role of defensins in bacterial diseases. A study published the March 1 print edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI) examines their role as natural antiviral substances.
Theresa Chang and colleagues at Mount Sinai
Columbia University Medical Center researchers publish JAMA study showing that clearing fatty deposits in angioplasty procedures during heart attack fails to improve patient outcomes
Interventional cardiologists from Columbia University Medical Center have shown that a commonly used procedure to remove fatty debris from blocked arteries during a heart attack does not improve patient outcomes.
The procedure, called distal microcirculatory protection, is commonly and suc
A family of proteins that help build the cytoskeleton, or the bones of the cell, also play an important role in learning and memory, according to a study published this month in The Journal of Neuroscience.
Marina Picciotto, associate professor of psychiatry, pharmacology and neurobiology at Yale School of Medicine, and the senior author of the study, studied mice missing one of these proteins–â-adducin–and found the cytoskeleton developed normally. However, the mice were impai
Researchers at Purdue University have attached magnetic “nanoparticles” to DNA and then cut these “DNA wires” into pieces, offering the promise of creating low-cost, self-assembling devices for future computers.
Findings are detailed in a paper published online in February in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The paper was written by Purdue graduate student Joseph M. Kinsella and Albena Ivanisevic, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and chemistry at Purd
More than 600,000 hysterectomies are performed every year in the United States at a cost of $5 billion, which doesn’t take into account the 144 million work hours lost to the average six-week recovery time. Billie Williams of Grapevine had been considering having one for years, but major surgery and a long convalescence didn’t fit with her plans.
She eventually opted, however, for a new procedure offered at UT Southwestern Medical Center called a laparoscopic supracervi
Strategic mix includes marmoset, skate and the vector of Chagas’ disease
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced today that the Large-Scale Sequencing Research Network will begin sequencing 12 more strategically selected organisms, including the marmoset, a skate and several important insects, as part of its ongoing effort to expand understanding of the human genome.
The National Advisory Counci
Monarch butterflies in eastern North America have one of the longest migrations of any species, with a survival-of-the-fittest trek that can take them thousands of miles from Canada to Central Mexico. A new Emory University study has found that these journeys may be the key to maintaining healthy monarch populations at a time when habitat loss and other environmental issues could curb the ability of the butterflies to make the trip.
Emory researchers discovered that monarch butte
As the microbial world comes to light through DNA sequencing, the new Integrated Microbial Genomes (IMG) data management system of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) will deliver valuable information for the benefit of the global research community.
“The IMG system is an essential enhancement to the computational toolkit supported by DOE,” said Dr. Aristides A. Patrinos, Associate Director for Environmental and Biological Research of the DOE Office of
Physicians who specialize in screening mammography and who have at least 25 years of experience are more accurate at interpreting the images and subject fewer women to the anxiety of false positives for cancer, when compared to physicians with less experience or those who don’t have the same focus, according to a new study. The research was led by a UCSF team and is published in the March 2 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Screening mammograms are the type
Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill may have identified the genetic basis underlying essential tremor disease, the most common human movement disorder.
The discovery comes from studies involving a strain of genetically altered mice that show the same types of tremor and similar lack of coordination as people affected by essential tremor. This animal model of the disease might prove useful for screening potential treatments, said Dr. A. Leslie Morrow, asso
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