Mission controllers cross their fingers whenever the Sun is stormy and their spacecraft have to fly over the South Atlantic. There, even satellites in low orbits suffer many hits by atomic bullets from the Sun. Troublesome faults occur in electronic systems and astronauts see flashes in their eyes. The Earth’s magnetic field, which shields our planet against charged atomic particles coming from outer space, is curiously weak in that region.
The South Atlantic Anomaly, as the ex
A spin-out company from the University of Nottingham has been awarded around £250,000 of Government funding to develop innovative stem cell therapies that could one day provide new treatments for patients suffering from illnesses including Parkinson’s disease and stroke.
RegenTec, a company at the cutting-edge of regenerative medicine that specialises in the development of stem cell and tissue engineering technology, is a partner in two projects that have attracted a total of £3.7
The University of Deusto (Bilbao) is developing a system for the remote monitoring of vehicles.
The NEXT-CAR project consists in developing a system for the management of a number of sensors incorporated into a vehicle and the subsequent sending of data from these to a monitoring control centre.
The basis of the project is a small pocket computer (PDA) which receives all the information from the vehicle’s network of electronic sensors, thus enabling it to monitor the compl
The problem of the tribological behaviour of materials had focussed on either improving friction or prioritising less wear and tear. The target of FOREMOST project (“FOREMOST: fullerene-based opportunities for robust engineering: making optimised surfaces for tribology”) is to achieve both effects simultaneously and, tot his end, the project will be based on the use of inorganic fullerenes (molybdenum bisulphate and bisulphate of wolframite). These new alotropic states of these well-known soli
Social phobia or social anxiety disorder is a common and distressing problem that can cause sufferers immense difficulties in all areas of their lives, affecting their performance at work and personal relationships.
Now, a team of researchers at the University of Southampton is about to embark on a study which aims to develop a better understanding of how emotions such as social phobia affect sufferers’ thinking and attention. Their findings could help to develop strategies in th
Ultra-realistic surround sound is a step closer for everyone thanks to a new method that will cheaply and efficiently compute the way individuals hear things.
Currently, creating accurate ‘virtual sound fields’ through headphones is almost exclusively the domain of high-budget military technologies and involves lengthy and awkward acoustic measurements. The new approach eliminates the acoustic measurement step altogether and promises to produce the required results in mere min
The Tekniker Foundation, together with the company EuroOrtodoncia S.L., is designing a new range of orthodontic brackets which have minimum visual or aesthetic impact and which are manufactured by means of microinjection techniques. Dental brackets are small items employed in orthodontics for the correct alignment of the teeth.
The dental bracket market is in full swing worldwide for a number of reasons. In western societies this growth is due to the fact that criteria over buc
Widespread market support expected to grow in 2005 as coverage expands Clearstream announced on Monday that it has successfully launched its new Vestima+ Investment Funds service and that transactions in international markets were flowing as expected following an implementation project over the weekend. The Vestima+ service is targeting the differing needs of each of Europe’s main domestic distributors and provides a single solution for multiple fund markets. The main
Patients in highest-quality hospitals have 12-20% better survival rates for common procedures and diagnoses
A new study naming hospitals in the top five percent in the nation in clinical quality is being released today by HealthGrades, the independent healthcare quality organization. The hospitals – 229 out of nearly 5,000 – were ranked at the top of the list based on the death and complication rates of Medicare patients in 28 common procedures and diagnoses, from hip replacemen
The prevailing medical understanding of seizures in the weeks just after epilepsy surgery is that they are likely to be temporary, probably due to swelling or minor trauma suffered by the brain during the operation.
In fact, early seizures after the most common form of epilepsy surgery signal a greatly increased likelihood that the patient will continue to have seizures, according to a study published online January 24, 2005, in the Annals of Neurology (http://www.interscience
Researchers say obesity is associated with lower prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels in men, making the screening test likely to produce unreliable results in this population. The full study is published in the March 1, 2005 issue of CANCER (http://www.interscience.wiley.com/cancer-newsroom), a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
Since the use of early detection tests for prostate cancer became relatively common (about 1990), the prostate cancer death rate h
There is no association between two specific personality traits – neuroticism and extroversion – and cancer, according to a new study, one of the largest prospective twin studies to examine this issue. The study, published in the March 1, 2005 issue of CANCER (http://www.interscience.wiley.com/cancer-newsroom), a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, also finds no evidence that personality traits indirectly lead to cancer through behavioral factors, such as smoking.
A molecule specially modified by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine can reset the biological clock for cancer vaccines, potentially making them more potent.
In a report that appears online today in Nature Medicine, Dr. David Spencer and colleagues describe their method of delaying the time at which crucial dendritic cells are activated by the immune system. This prolongs the time during which the cancer vaccines can undertake their task, he said.
Dendritic cells a
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that sildenafil citrate (Viagra), a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction (ED) in millions of men, effectively treats enlarged hearts in mice, stopping further muscle growth from occurring and reversing existing growth, including the cellular and functional damage it created.
“A larger-than-normal heart is a serious medical condition, known as hypertrophy, and is a common feature of heart failure that can be fatal,” says study senior author
The common use of anti-inflammatory steroids for traumatic head injuries like those from car crashes may actually increase the risk of death, according to a new review of studies about the treatment.1
A previous review found there was not enough evidence to recommend that routine use of steroids be stopped. This newer analysis published by the British-based Cochrane Library draws heavily from a recent study of corticosteroid treatment for brain injury, including coma and conc
A review of recent studies concludes that surgeons should perform vaginal rather than abdominal hysterectomies whenever possible in order to cut down on complications and the length of hospital stays.1
According to the systematic evidence review by Dr. Neil Johnson of the University of Auckland in New Zealand and colleagues, women who had vaginal hysterectomies had fewer infections and high temperatures after surgery compared to those who had abdominal hysterectomies. Women
Feedback
