Advance marks progress toward quantum computer made with ’artificial atoms’
Two superconducting devices have been coaxed into a special, interdependent state that mimics the unusual interactions sometimes seen in pairs of atoms, according to a team of physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). The experiments, performed at the NIST laboratory in Boulder, Colo., are an important step toward
Giving up smoking after a heart attack has been clearly associated with improvements in long-term patient survival, but how soon after myocardial infarction does smoking cessation begin to have positive effects? A study published in the current issue of The American Journal of Medicine indicates in-hospital cessation counseling following heart attacks is associated with better short-term survival. Counseling smokers to quit reduced their chances of dying in the first 30 days, 60 days and up to
In experiments with mice, a team of scientists from the United States, Sweden and Japan has discovered that having a double dose of one protein is sufficient to change the normal balance of cells within the lining of the colon, thereby doubling the risk that a cancer-causing genetic mutation will trigger a tumor there. Roughly 10 percent of people have this double protein dose as well.
In the Feb. 24 online version of Science, the researchers report that mice engineered to have a d
VLT NACO Performs Outstanding Observations of Titan’s Atmosphere and Surface
On January 14, 2005, the ESA Huygens probe arrived at Saturn’s largest satellite, Titan. After a faultless descent through the dense atmosphere, it touched down on the icy surface of this strange world from where it continued to transmit precious data back to the Earth.
Several of the world’s large ground-based telescopes were also active during this exciting event, observing Titan before and nea
Researchers at the University of York are trying to discover why so many heart attack victims in the UK fail to take part in potentially life-saving cardiac rehabilitation.
A rehabilitation regime, principally involving lifestyle change, reduces mortality from coronary heart disease but, each year, only about a third of the UK’s 350,000 cardiac patients take advantage of it. The NHS National Service Framework for coronary heart disease says that, by 2002, 80 per cent of people, wh
The future belongs to those who work within high tech areas. The Technical University of Denmark (DTU) expects far more than 1000 youngsters from all over Denmark, when the University shows itself to the coming generation of engineers on 3. March 2005. The events include robots, futuristic cars and dangerous germs.
The next Bill Gates or Thomas Edison could be among those who visit the Open University event at Denmark’s leading Polytechnic University on Thursday. DTU in Lyngby
A new system that provides real-time, intelligent, end-to-end tracking and tracing for goods being transported around the world has been developed with the help of 2.5 million euros from the EUs Framework Programme.
ParcelCall brought together a consortium of leading European industrial and academic partners to create a system that operates across all borders and carriers whatever mode of transport is being used. The system utilises RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technolo
The application of a new technique for injuries of the cruciate ligament in the knee, involving the use of bipolar radio-frequency plus heat, has proved to be 90% effective in cases and shortens the recovery time of the patient. This technique, carried out by specialists at the Navarre University Hospital Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, has received the National Prize for Research into Sports Medicine, awarded annually by the University of Oviedo. The awarded work, “Retraction of anterior c
One in twenty people who are paralysed by Parkinson’s disease could soon be able to walk thanks to the PARREHA project, funded with the help of 1.68 million euros from the Information Society Technologies (IST) area of the EU’s Framework Programme.
With two in every 1000 people suffering with Parkinson’s disease, a disorder of the central nervous system, there are currently 700,000 people affected in the European Union alone – and this number is forecast to increase as the p
The age of the ‘disappearing computer’ is upon us. Slowly but surely, traditional IT systems are moving from visible desktop computers to invisible embedded computers in intelligent devices, thanks in part to cutting-edge Java technology.
This is where the IST project HIDOORS set out to make its mark. HIDOORS blazed a trail in its target market by demonstrating that the programming language Java was sufficiently robust and flexible to deal with the full requirements of embedded, real-
The JLMD system® has received the backing of the Luxembourg shipping register. Anxious to maintain the quality of the fleet flying its flag, the country is officially supporting JLMD Ecologic Group by backing shipowners wishing to equip their ships with its oil recovery system. Moreover, JLMD Ecologic Group has just been awarded the “Florilège d’Or” (golden award) by the French Académie Nationale d’Encouragement à la Créativité Industrielle (National Academy for the Encouragement of Industrial Crea
University of California researchers have created a mathematical model describing the electrical storm that rages during a brain seizure. They say the model, to be published in the March 22 print issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of London Interface, but available now to subscribers online, may eventually help neurologists better understand and treat epilepsy.
“We’re trying to get to the underlying state of the brain that leads to these seizures,” said Mark Kramer,
Continued studies may result in newer, more effective breast cancer detection methods
Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University’s Advanced Imaging Research Center (AIRC) are developing a new imaging method that may provide a clearer diagnosis of breast cancer. The research is published in the latest issue of the journal Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. AIRC Director Charles Springer, Ph.D., is senior author, and AIRC Manager, Xin Li, Ph.D., is first author of the new
Two separate new studies presented at a major medical meeting provide objective scientific evidence that the two most commonly performed cartilage repair techniques are effective at restoring patient mobility and reducing pain.
Patients in both studies, those that had a cartilage and bone grafts and those that had a procedure that encouraged new tissue growth, recovered more knee function and experienced less pain after the procedure. Prior to these results, surgeons had no evide
A team of geologists from Duke University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has discovered a grinding, coordinated ballet of crustal “microplates” unfolding below the equatorial east Pacific Ocean within a construction zone for new seafloor.
The scientists deduced that relatively small sections of the ocean floor there, and perhaps in other similar places, may be slowly rotating like imperfectly meshing cogs in a machine. The unexpected findings provide new insights
New hope for sufferers of glaucoma and spinal cord injuries
For the first time, scientists have regenerated a damaged optic nerve — from the eye to the brain. This achievement, which occurred in laboratory mice and is described in the March 1, 2005 issue of the Journal of Cell Science, holds great promise for victims of diseases that destroy the optic nerve, and for sufferers of central nervous system injuries. “For us, this is a dream becoming reality,” says Dr. Dong Feng Chen,
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