Whether dealing with high-power particle accelerators, astronomical observatories or Earth-watching spacecraft, modern science involves vast volumes of information, and researchers require powerful Grid computing techniques to manage this data deluge.
And at a time when the research teams working on the biggest scientific problems of our time – from climate modelling to molecular biology or high energy physics – are larger and more diffuse than ever before, Grid computing offe
A research team at the Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University in Sweden has developed a point system for calculating risk that will help physicians determine prognoses, survival rates, and the best methods of treatment for patients suffering from GIST tumors. The findings are being published in the prestigious medical journal Cancer.
GIST is a soft tissue tumor that occurs in the abdomen but differs from gastro-intestinal cancer. Nearly two hundred Swedes are affected ever
Making New Labour’s multi-agency teamwork approach to modernising government effective is a complex challenge, and training to make it work must be planned and funded, warns important new ESRC-sponsored research into delivering children’s services.
Joined-up delivery, involving both public and voluntary organisations, is a central tenet of the Government’s aim to make services more efficient and effective. But, says the study led by Professor Angela Anning, of Leeds University
In recent years, studies of the euro area business cycle have flourished. However, national statistics have only recently been harmonized and aggregate statistics have only been available for a short period of time. Clearly, there is a need to establish stylized facts for the euro area economies and European Monetary Union gives an opportunity to analyse questions such as whether the loss of independence in the conduct of monetary policy has affected national business cycles. A new Volume publis
In order to carry out research on complex flow processes, the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) has developed a special sensor that can be used to measure turbulent jet flows.
Turbulence is one of the last phenomena in the field of physics which has is still not understood. However, the rapid development of computer simulations and experimental technology has led to a better understanding turbulence. Phenomena like reducing the turbulence of ships by using micro-bubbles, or increasing th
The brewing of tea formed a crucial component of a project which successfully took traditional paper laboratory books and moved them to digital formats. Now that knowledge and experience is being put to use in a subsequent project by University of Southampton computing researchers who are aiming to apply similar techniques to Bioinformatics.
The eScience project, which could revolutionize the way in which scientists share information, is appropriately called myTea. It has received f
The British Geological Survey (BGS) announced today that they will start sending scientists to the affected regions next Monday. The scientists will help with the rebuilding process and address immediate problems such as contaminated freshwater supplies.
Following a symposium in Thailand (31 January –1 February), David Ovadia, head of the BGS international team, said, ‘What we got out of the conference was a consolidated, agreed list of scientific activities that the affected countr
A pioneering new way of creating computer programs could be used in the future to design and build robots with minds that function like that of a human being, according to a leading researcher at The University of Reading.
Dr James Anderson, of the University’s Department of Computer Science, has developed for the first time the ‘perspective simplex’, or Perspex, which is a way of writing a computer program as a geometrical structure, rather than as a series of instructions.
The results of the world’s first phase 3 HIV vaccine efficacy trial are reported in the March 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online. Although the vaccine was ineffective in preventing HIV infection, the trial represents a landmark in the fight against HIV and offers the scientific community a foundation on which to build future trials.
The multi-centered trial, conducted in the United States and the Netherlands and completed in 2003, is described
Researchers have identified a promising new target in their fight against a dangerous bacterium that sickens people in hospitals, especially people who receive medical implants such as catheters, artificial joints and heart valves.
A substance found on the surface of Staphylococcus epidermidis has, for the first time, been shown to protect the harmful pathogen from natural human defense mechanisms that would otherwise kill the bacteria, according to scientists at the Rocky Moun
Injecting synthetic “super” greenhouse gases into the Martian atmosphere could raise the planet’s temperature enough to melt its polar ice caps and create conditions suitable for sustaining biological life. In fact, a team of researchers suggests that introducing global warming on the Red Planet may be the best approach for warming the planet’s frozen landscape and turning it into a habitable world in the future.
Margarita Marinova, then at the NASA Ames Research Center, a
Discovery could be used in design of robotic explorers
A study led by Princeton biologists has revealed a remarkably simple mechanism that allows flocking birds, schooling fish or running herds to travel in unison without any recognized leaders or signaling system.
The finding, published in the Feb. 3 issue of Nature, helps settle age-old questions about how animals coordinate their actions. Previously, scientists had looked for subtle signals or other explicit systems that
While Siberia may be one of the last expanses on Earth where human presence is relatively scarce, scientists are finding some surprising connections between humans and fires in these frigid, northern forests. Until now, most researchers assumed that lightning caused most of the fires that burned in Siberia. But a new study by NASA scientists and others used a NASA satellite to map where and when fires lit up over a three year period. The satellite showed that Siberian fires burned mostly ne
Procedure offers promise for diabetics
A University of Alberta and Capital Health surgeon, well known for his pioneering work in developing the Edmonton Protocol treatment for diabetes, has taken another important step in the fight against diabetes.
On January 19, at Kyoto University Hospital, Dr. Koichi Tanaka and Dr. James Shapiro, along with a team of Japanese surgeons, removed part of a 56-year-old woman’s pancreas. Dr. Shinichi Masumoto then isolated the livin
Genomics, the study of all the genetic sequences in living organisms, has leaned heavily on the blueprint metaphor. A large part of the blueprint, unfortunately, has been unintelligible, with no good way to distinguish a bathroom from a boardroom, to link genomic features to cell function.
A national consortium of scientists led by BIATECH, a Seattle-area non-profit research center, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a Department of Energy research institution in Richland,
The presence of a protein known as Stat5 prevents laboratory-grown breast cancer cells from becoming invasive and aggressive, according to new research from Georgetown University. The research, which appears in the January 27 issue of Oncogene, could one day lead to advanced therapies for breast cancer patients.
“This new insight is significant because it is the invasive behavior of breast cancer cells that leads to the formation of metastatic cancer, the most advanced and seriou
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