For the first time, astronomers have been able to combine the deepest optical images of the universe, obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope, with equally sharp images in the near-infrared part of the spectrum using a sophisticated new laser guide star system for adaptive optics at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. The new observations, presented at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in San Diego this week, reveal unprecedented details of colliding galaxies with massive black hol
Steady five-year prevalence points to need for more rigorous evaluation
In a comparison of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use by adults in 1997 and 2002, researchers from Harvard Medical School found more than one in three U.S. adults (36.5 and 35.0 percent, respectively) used at least one form of CAM.
The continued widespread use of individual and multiple CAM therapies underscores the need to rigorously evaluate the safety, efficacy, and cost-effectivenes
The African continent is slowly being pulled apart and new data collected by University of Leeds and Royal Holloway, University of London researchers suggests that molten rock from deep within the Earth is helping the rifting. Their findings, which help explain how continents split apart, are published in Nature this week.
Ethiopia sits on a boundary where a tectonic plate is being split into two and over several million years a new ocean basin is forming. The movement of plates o
Ancient woodlands in Europe may have been remarkably similar to the dense, dark forests of ancient folklore according to a paper published today in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Ecology.
The paper by Dr Fraser Mitchell of Trinity College Dublin provides important new evidence about the nature of ancient woodlands in temperate Europe, which has been the source of much controversy among forest ecologists. In 2000, the Dutch ecologist Frans Vera challenged the prev
Delegation, open responsive management and managers with greater assertiveness, emotional intelligence and self-confidence are the keys for businesses wanting to keep and develop good staff.
These are the findings of research by Robert Myatt of Kaisen Consulting to be reported at the British Psychological Society’s Division of Occupational Psychology Annual Conference. The conference, sponsored by Pearn Kandola, is being held at the Chesford Grange Hotel, just outside the town of W
School-children will soon be able to transform and re-invent their playground environments thanks to NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) – the organization that champions UK innovation and creativity. NESTA has invested £200,000 in the development of the Experimental Playground Kit, brainchild of artist organisation, ‘Snug and Outdoor’.
NESTA’s support will enable Snug and Outdoor to develop their kit – a set of flexible building materials – that wi
By studying mitochondrial DNA, which is passed from mother to child, researchers have found that most of the actual European inhabitants seem to have come from re-expansion of hunter-gatherers populations, which have migrated from Iberia, Europe after the end of the last Ice Age reports an article in the January issue of Genome Research.
In the study of human evolution through history and pre-history there are now two indispensable sets of genes to follow: Y-chromosome and mitoch
The bacterium that causes the severe disease known as rabbit fever, Fancisella tularensis, is a potential biological weapon of devastating force. Now scientists at Umeå, in collaboration with several international associates, have mapped the entire genome of the bacterium.
Researchers at the Swedish Defense Research Agency FOI NBC Defense and Umeå University are part of an international consortium that is now publishing its results in the prestigious journal Nature Genetics. The
Fighting landslides is dangerous work, but help from space is on its way. Recent testing in Italy has shown that the four-tonne Roboclimber can secure slopes without endangering human lives, thanks to innovations from Europe’s space programmes.
“It was amazing to see how easily this huge robot managed to operate on a very steep slope to secure a rocky mountain wall,” said Guglielmo Berlasso, Director of the Civil Protection Office in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region in Italy, whe
American preschoolers get about 14 to 17 teaspoons of added sugar a day, on average, mostly from fruit-flavored drinks, high-fat desserts and cola-type soft drinks which displace the grain, vegetable, fruit and dairy food groups and lower the quality of their diet, a Penn State study has shown.
Dr. Sibylle Kranz, assistant professor of nutritional sciences who led the study, says, “In contrast to other researchers, we found that although the most dramatic decrease in vitamin and
Research in Florida and Kansas
Driving in rural areas can be hazardous to your health. Many factors contribute to the severity of automobile accidents. Sunanda Dissanayake, assistant professor of civil engineering at Kansas State University, said some factors continually and significantly contribute to the severity of accidents.
In her most recent research, Dissanayake studied rural highway crashes in Kansas. A previous study looked at factors contributing to the severity
When people think of jobs that use temporary workers, doctors are probably not one of the first careers to come to mind.
But the use of temporary staff doctors appears to be a growing trend, and a new study suggests many doctors are choosing short-term assignments because they don’t want to work full-time or because they are seeking a more flexible schedule. “The most striking finding was this emphasis on a more controllable work schedule and flexibility, especially among women p
Car battery failing? Hazardous material leaching? Oil level dropping?
There you are, tapping your fingers on the cold steering wheel as your windows cloud over from your breath. How could you have known your car battery was that low? Sending weak beams of light through inexpensive glass tubes that resemble soda straws, Sandia National Laboratories researcher Jonathan Weiss – dubbed by some the “light wizard” – can inexpensively solve problems ranging from the migration of waste th
In the largest galaxy survey ever, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) confirmed the role of gravity in growing structures in the universe, using the result to precisely measure the geometry of the universe.
The SDSS researchers from the University of Arizona, New York University, the University of Portsmouth (UK), the University of Pittsburgh and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, detected ripples in the galaxy distribution made by sound waves generated soon after the Bi
The percentage of Earth’s land area stricken by serious drought more than doubled from the 1970s to the early 2000s, according to a new analysis by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. Widespread drying occurred over much of Europe and Asia, Canada, western and southern Africa, and eastern Australia. Rising global temperatures appear to be a major factor, says NCAR scientist Aiguo Dai.
Dai will present the new findings on Weds.
A genetically unusual population of ants is changing some of the fundamental ways researchers think about insect colonies.
Social insects, like ants and bees, thrive on the caste system – a precise division of duties among colony members. In most of these societies, environment is thought to influence whether larvae develop into queens or sterile female workers, said Steve Rissing, a professor of evolution, ecology and organismal biology at Ohio State University.
But in
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