Nature utilizes energy from the sun for its production. Some algae produce hydrogen from water with the help of solar energy. So why not imitate nature to extract renewable energy without harming the environment? The EU is now giving European research a boost by allocating €1.8 million to a new network to be led by Uppsala University.
Plant photosynthesis has long been studied with an eye to understanding its underlying mechanisms and then applying this knowledge to the product
Observing the edge of the famous Horsehead Nebula with the IRAM interferometer located on the Plateau de Bures (France), a team of French and Spanish astronomers discovered a large quantity of small hydrocarbon molecules. This is a surprise because the intense UV radiation illuminating the Nebula should destroy the small hydrocarbons near the edge. The astronomers suggest that these molecules might result from the fragmentation of giant molecules, called “polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons” (PAH
Injections with dirty or contaminated needles are not contributing to the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa say researchers from Imperial College London and the Biomedical Research and Training Institute, Zimbabwe.
Recently, some scientists have suggested that medical injections with contaminated needles were an important, but ignored, factor in the spread of HIV across sub-Saharan Africa. However, research published today in Public Library of Science Medicine shows that injecti
A reconstruction of land movements and changes in sea levels for three massive historic earthquakes in Alaska gives clues that may help scientists forecast future earthquakes and earthquake-triggered tsunami. To be published in this week’s Journal of Quaternary Science¹ the findings should help reduce losses from future catastrophic events.
Investigators Sarah Hamilton and Ian Shennan from the University of Durham, England, studied three earthquakes that occurred around 1400-15
New findings by Swedish and German scientists on the regulation of cellular growth are published in the March issue of Nature Cell Biology.
A greatly increased synthesis of new proteins is one of the first and most important events that occur in both normal and tumour cells upon growth stimulation.
The new proteins are formed in the part of the cell known as the ribosome. Assembly of ribosomes requires coordinated activation of genes that is mainly performed by two enz
Don’t stop and smell the roses: “blinding” an insect’s sense of smell may be the best repellent, according to research by Rockefeller University scientists “Pest insects have a profound negative impact on agriculture and human health,” says Rockefeller University’s Leslie Vosshall, Ph.D. “They are responsible for global losses of crops and stored agricultural products as well as the spread of many diseases.”
In the heated battle between people and insect pests, Vosshall and collea
In the first comprehensive examination of strenuous physical activity and the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have found that men who exercised regularly and vigorously early in their adult life had a lower risk for developing Parkinson’s disease compared to men who did not. The findings appear in the February 22, 2005 issue of the journal Neurology. Parkinson’s disease is a progressive nervous disease occurring generally afte
Scientists at Jefferson Medical College and Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified a protein that plays a leading part in triggering kidney disease in diabetic patients, a condition known as diabetic nephropathy and the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide. The finding, which they report February 22 in the journal PLoS Medicine, could lead to the eventual development of compounds that might be used to treat diabetic kidney disease.
According to study co-author K
Also protects against bone loss from aging or lack of estrogen
Leaping tall buildings in a single bound may be out of the question, but the genetically engineered “supermice” in Ormond MacDougald’s laboratory at the University of Michigan Medical School are definitely stronger than average. With bone mass up to four times greater than ordinary mice, these research animals could hold the secret to new drugs for preventing or treating osteoporosis and other human diseases.
A technique for detecting prions in tissue, developed in recent years by UCSF scientists, is significantly more sensitive than the diagnostic procedures currently used to detect the lethal particles in samples of brain tissue from patients, according to a study performed by a UCSF team.
The finding indicates that the diagnostic technique, known as the conformation-dependent immunoassay (CDI), should be established as the standard approach for brain biopsies of patients suspected
Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) have found an explanation for why some lung cancers stop responding to the drugs erlotinib (TarcevaTM) and gefitinib (Iressa®). This discovery may lead to the development of new therapies to use when these agents stop working. The research is to be published online in the open-access international journal PLoS Medicine on February 22, 2005.*
Gefitinib and erlotinib are so-called targeted therapies, in that they halt t
The destruction of habitat by human activity and the extinction of species around the world is more than a looming environmental catastrophe, warns a Canadian zoologist. This ecological damage also endangers human health by turning parasites into “evolutionary land mines.”
Dr. Daniel (Dan) Brooks, a parasitologist at the University of Toronto, says the decline of global biodiversity is linked to the emergence of new human and wildlife diseases such as West Nile Virus and avian fl
How smart is your parakeet or that crow in the back yard? Ask Dr. Louis Lefebvre, inventor of the world’s only comprehensive avian IQ index. His intelligence index is not only separating the featherweights from the big bird brains, it’s also providing clues about why some birds make great immigrants, as well as insight into the parallel evolution of primate and bird brains.
The smarts pecking order is based not on a single bird-in-cage test, but on 2,000 reports of feeding innova
Differing forms of taste genes mean that we all live in our own unique taste world
Why do brussels sprouts taste bitterly repellent to one person and bland – or even delicious – to the next? A study published in the February 22 issue of Current Biology confirms the influential role of genetics in determining the wide range of human sensitivity to taste, ultimately impacting how we each perceive the world in a slightly different way.
“Each human carries their own distincti
In the battle against insect pests, new research indicates that it may all come down to the sense of smell. A group of Rockefeller University scientists who had previously identified a key gene essential for the sense of smell in fruit flies now shows that this gene’s function appears to be evolutionarily conserved across very different insect species.
Research by Leslie Vosshall’s laboratory had previously shown that of 62 odorant-receptor proteins expressed by fruit f
People who live with migraine headaches show a “riskier” profile for cardiovascular disease than those without migraines, according to a new study published in the February 22 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The large population-based study was conducted among 5,755 participants in the Netherlands. Researchers identified 620 people with migraine in the group from 5,135 people without migraine.
The study provided a cardiovascul
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