Cardiff experts’ key role in space telescope mission
Experts at Cardiff University, UK, are designing and building highly sophisticated equipment, which will travel deep into space to enable scientists to look back in time to observe the formation of galaxies and stars. A team in the School of Physics and Astronomy is heading an international consortium, led by Cardiff’s Professor Matt Griffin, to produce SPIRE. This is a three-colour camera and spectrometer, which will b
[Temporal factors in motor vehicle crash deaths Injury Prevention 2005; 11: 18-23] / [Heat related deaths in young children in parked cars: an analysis of 171 fatalities in the United States, 1995-2002 Injury Prevention 2005; 11: 33-37]
More than 100 people die on US roads every day, but there is definitely a seasonal trend, with the highest average death toll on July 4, Independence Day, reveals research in Injury Prevention. Researchers from the Insurance Institute for Highway
Found: 7 percent of the mass of the universe. Missing since: 10 billion years ago.
Consider one more astronomical mystery solved. Scientists have located a sizeable chunk of the universe that seemed to be missing since back when the stars first formed. It’s floating in super-hot rivers of gas, invisible to the naked eye, surrounding galaxies like our own. And a completely different kind of mystery matter — dark matter — may have put it there. The results appear in the curren
NASATMs Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered two huge intergalactic clouds of diffuse hot gas. These clouds are the best evidence yet that a vast cosmic web of hot gas contains the long-sought missing matter – about half of the atoms and ions in the Universe.
Various measurements give a good estimate of the mass-density of the baryons – the neutrons and protons that make up the nuclei of atoms and ions – in the Universe 10 billion years ago. However, sometime during the las
Attracting a mate can be a costly endeavor, according to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientist, but new experiments he helped lead show that some male animals economize on courting when the chance of success seems low.
Dr. Keith W. Sockman, assistant professor of biology in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, studies mating behavior in songbirds and the songs that play such a central role in their reproduction. “From people to praying mantises, individuals invest ev
Like the gaudy peacock or majestic buck, the bachelor fruit fly is in a race against time to mate and pass along its genes. And just as flashy plumage or imposing antlers work to an animal’s reproductive advantage, so, too, do the colored spots that decorate the wings of a particular male fruit fly.
To the ladies, the spots – waved frenetically by suitors in the fruit fly courtship ritual – connote sex appeal.
To a team of Wisconsin scientists, however, the origin of
Errant neuro-developmental gene responsive to a potent vitamin A derivative
A gene that’s normally silenced after contributing to brain development was found to be expressed in cells from medulloblastoma, the most common form of pediatric brain malignancy in children, scientists report in an article published in the February 1 issue of the journal Cancer Research.
In their study, the scientists discovered that multiple extra copies of the gene, called OTX2, had be
95 percent of patients respond to radioactive antibody treatment
A new form of treatment for lymphoma that takes a fraction of the time of traditional chemotherapy with fewer side effects caused tumors to shrink in 95 percent of patients, a new study by researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center found.
Patients with advanced-stage follicular lymphoma – a cancer generally considered incurable – who had not been previously treated with any other
The star-nosed mole gives a whole new meaning to the term “fast food.”
A study published this week in the journal Nature reveals that this mysterious mole has moves that can put the best magician to shame: The energetic burrower can detect small prey animals and gulp them down with a speed that is literally too fast for the human eye to follow.
It takes a car driver about 650 milliseconds to hit the brake after seeing the traffic light ahead turn red. The star-nosed mol
Among the principal obstacles to regenerating spinal cord and brain cells after injury is the “braking” machinery in neurons that prevents regeneration. While peripheral nerves have no such machinery and can readily regenerate, central nervous system (CNS) neurons have their brakes firmly in place and locked.
Now, two groups of scientists have independently found a new component of that braking machinery, adding to understanding of the regulation of neuronal regeneration and of
Researchers have discovered an important chemical in the brain’s neuronal machinery that triggers some of the withdrawal symptoms of opioid drugs like morphine and heroin.
They believe that drugs to inhibit the chemical–called a transporter–could relieve some of the early physical symptoms of withdrawal, such as teeth-chattering, uncontrolled shaking, and jumpiness. Such drugs could become part of the arsenal of medicines and behavioral techniques aimed at helping add
Physicists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered a neural circuit in rats that could provide a powerful model for understanding a neurological condition known as blepharospasm—uncontrolled eye blinking that affects 50,000 people in the U.S. and leaves some patients functionally blind.
In the February 3 issue of the journal Neuron, the researchers, Quoc-Thang Nguyen and David Kleinfeld, describe the brain circuit, which coordinates sensory inputs and muscle acti
A type of vegetation that can often be found washed ashore on beaches may soon emerge as a new player in the field of cancer-fighting foods. A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has found that a diet containing kelp seaweed lowered levels of the potent sex hormone estradiol in rats, and raised hopes that it might decrease the risk of estrogen-dependent diseases such as breast cancer in humans.
“This study opens up a new avenue for research lead
Scientists fear rise in deaths from untreated depression
Challenging recent claims linking antidepressant use to suicidal behavior, a new UCLA study shows that American suicide rates have dropped steadily since the introduction of Prozac and other serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drugs. Published in the February edition of the journal Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, the authors caution that regulatory actions to limit SSRI prescriptions may actually increase death rates from untrea
American Stroke Association meeting report
Stroke survivors who stopped taking their prescribed daily aspirin tripled their risk of having another stroke within the month, according to research presented today at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2005. “This is the first controlled retrospective study to investigate the potential risk of suffering ischemic stroke shortly after discontinuing aspirin,” said Patrik Michel, M.D., co-author of the st
In the first field trial of plants genetically tweaked to absorb more contaminants, researchers found that the transgenic plants handily beat out their wild-type counterparts. The results raised hopes that the plants might become a viable alternative for cleaning up polluted soil.
The new research findings, published today (Tuesday, Feb. 1) in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, show that three transgenic lines of the Indian mustard plant, Brassica juncea, absorbed
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