Hoping to prevent blindness in premature babies, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a protein that responds to oxygen levels in cells and tissues and also affects the developing eye.
Premature birth carries the risk of multiple disabilities, including retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP. ROP affects the retina, the part of the eye that detects light before it is transformed in the brain to an image. ROP babies have poor vision, and in many cases, go blin
A group of scientists from The Scripps Research Institute and several other institutions has solved the structure of a rare human antibody that broadly neutralizes human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
Neutralizing antibodies are soluble proteins that are secreted by adaptive immune cells into the bloodstream, following exposure to a virus. In the bloodstream, antibodies bind to viral particles in circulation, prevent them fr
A new UCLA study shows that people drink less alcohol as they age–but drinking among those who were born in earlier years showed a faster decline than among people born more recently.
For instance, people born in 1925 decreased their drinking an average of 11 percent for each decade of aging while those born in 1935 reduced their drinking about 9 percent each decade. The study, “Longitudinal Patterns and Predictors of Alcohol Consumption in the United States,” is published in the
Dramatic changes in working patterns have taken place in the UK, particularly in the rise of women in employment. Three quarters of households now have dual incomes, but women still take responsibility for most of the housework, according to research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
Despite institutional and legislative changes intended to reduce inequality and improve work-life balance, women are still finding themselves working long hours at home and at work an
In a society increasingly fixated with body image, we are bombarded with so-called scientific evidence promoting the use of a myriad of diets. An article published today in the Open Access journal BMC Medical Research Methodology suggests that we shouldn’t take everything we read at face value, as most research articles reporting weight loss studies fail to indicate crucial patient characteristics that may bias the results.
Cheryl Gibson, from the University of Kansas School of M
A groundbreaking new treatment to combat the hospital killer bug MRSA, which is estimated to cause up to 5,000 deaths a year in Britain, is being developed by a University of Sussex scientist.
Philip Parsons, a professor of organic chemistry, has devised a simple “one-pot” method to make a synthetic version of a natural antibiotic, lactonamycin, which could be used to treat infected patients. He has now received a £280,000 grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
An Agricultural Mechanisation team from the Department of Rural Projects and Engineering at the Public University of Navarre have designed a new anti-rollover structure for pre-1980 registered tractors. It involves a double arch protection system located at both the front and behind the driver’s seat and anchored to the chassis of a Massey Ferguson 178 Ebro tractor, the model for which the basic safety structure was designed and that can also be fitted, with adaptations, to the other makes an
Extremophiles are microbes that live in conditions that other creatures can’t. Most archaea, some bacteria and a few protists are able to survive in the harshest environments; colder than ice and hotter than steam; environments without light or without water and environments of great physical or osmotic pressure. This issue looks at how Extremophiles are able survive and what we can learn from them.
The February issue also contains the Biochemical Society’s Graduate Emp
The fight against liver cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide, is being helped by 2.5 million euros from the EU’s Framework Programme.
PONT (Parallel Optimisation of New Technologies for Post-Genomics Drug Discovery) is a three-year specific targeted research project involving four biotechnology companies and two academic partners from the UK, Austria and Germany. It aims to bridge the gap in the drug development pipeline using a new approach in post-genomics
AN embarrassing medical problem that costs UK health services £50m each year is to be investigated in the biggest-ever study of the condition in the world.
Until now, constipation has largely been overlooked for major health studies but the new £650,000 project, which is funded by the British Government, led by a research team from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and aims to involve nearly 2,000 patients, changes that.
In Britain, nearly half a million GP consu
Stomach ulcer not only aches, it also fluoresce. Russian researchers believe that the brighter the fluorescence is, the less chances the patient has to do without the operation.
Specialists of the Moscow Regional Scientific-Research Clinical Institute “MONIKI” named after M.F. Vladimirsky and the Chair of Biophysics, Russian State Medical University, have developed a fiber-optic spectrum analyzer that allows to measure intensity of fluorescence from the surface of the gastroint
How can workers be protected from detrimental production factors? Russian researchers have come to the conclusion that this can be done by a large number of actively working ribosomal genes.
Specialists of the Chair of Genetics, Kemerovo State University, have discovered that people with a large number of actively working ribosomal genes are found more frequently among workers of the by-product coke plant than among ordinary townsmen (ribosomal genes are responsible for the ribosom
Researchers at the University of Warwick’s Department of Physics have gained insight into the mysterious giant dark “tadpoles” that appear to swim towards the surface of the Sun during solar flares – enormous energy releases happening in the atmosphere of the Sun.
The tadpoles – colossal physical structures with dark heads and attendant wiggly tails that seem to swim sunwards against tides of hot matter being thrown away from the Sun during flares – have puzzled astrophys
It will be possible to forecast any natural or social cataclysm by attentively observing the speed of the Earth’s rotation and shift of its poles.
The Earth rotates non-uniformly, its poles move, and the rotation axis fluctuates in space. According to the opinion of N.S. Sidorenkov, Doctor of Science (Physics&Mathematics), knowledge of reasons and regularities of our planet’s movement gives the opportunity to forecast with high precision the weather, earthquakes, convulsion of
On February 1, 2005, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has merged its two observatories, La Silla and Paranal, into one. This move will help Europe’s prime organisation for astronomy to better manage its many and diverse projects by deploying available resources more efficiently where and when they are needed. The merged observatory will be known as the La Silla Paranal Observatory.
Catherine Cesarsky, ESO’s Director General, comments the new development: “The me
Soon we may be able to fill the bath, turn the lights on and play our favourite CD without moving from our chair or pressing a button. Technology, developed by ESA for European spacecraft, is now being used to create small sensors that can make any flat surface – walls, windows or tables – interactive.
“The idea is to use an accelerometer to determine the exact position of touch on an object,” says Nicolas Delorme from Nodal Consultants, part of ESA’s Technology Transfer Prog
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