Electrically powered planes and ships which are lighter, can travel further, cause less pollution and have oil-free engines are a step closer to becoming a reality, as a new centre for research at The University of Manchester opens today (Friday, November 12).
The Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre in Electrical Systems for Extreme Environments will be officially opened by Rolls-Royce Chief Operating Officer John Cheffins, just one mile from where Charles Rolls and Henry R
Act on the Surgeon General’s bone health report
It’s one of the first demonstrations on how to take care of your bones since the Surgeon General warned that half the population is likely to be at risk for osteoporosis unless they take action. Experts are putting prevention on display today at a fitness center in midtown Manhattan. Leaders in fitness and nutrition are demonstrating exactly how participants in the BEST Study, a four-year investigation conducted at the Univ
“Swift,” a new NASA satellite, will head for the heavens Nov. 17, designed to detect gamma-ray bursts and whip around to catch them in the act. And the trigger software that makes the flying observatory smart enough to do this comes from the Space Science team at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Gamma-ray bursts, first discovered by Los Alamos in the course of nuclear nonproliferation data analysis, occur randomly throughout the universe. They are the most powerful explos
Findings point way to identifying therapeutics to stem muscle atrophy
In research that could benefit astronauts posted to the International Space Station as well as individuals whose universe is defined by their sick bed, Boston University Sargent College researchers Susan Kandarian and R. Bridge Hunter have found that disrupting either one of two genes, nfêb1 and bcl3, can block the biological process of muscle wasting known as atrophy.
Their findings will inform ef
Less livestock wealth, means less chance of access to arable land, grain production and friends. Kenyan and Dutch researchers Adano Roba and Karen Witsenburg have discovered that this is the hard truth faced by poor households in North Kenya. They therefore argue that poverty alleviation measures should also focus on guaranteeing better prices for livestock and a broader approach to developing drylands.
Between 1997 and 2000, Adano Roba and Karen Witsenburg studied the life and
Dutch research has shown that marine plankton have the greatest effect on the climate in the southern hemisphere, even though the majority of plankton are found in oceans in the northern hemisphere.
Mtinkheni Gondwe used satellite observations to follow the distribution of phytoplankton in the oceans. Although the majority of plankton are found between the middle and high latitudes in the northern hemisphere, the effect of these on the climate is greatest in the southern hemispher
Dutch researcher Jacqueline Vink has discovered that the number of cigarettes smoked per day and the level of nicotine dependence is largely down to a person’s genes. She investigated the smoking behaviour of more than 16,000 twins and their relatives.
Whether or not a young person starts smoking largely depends on his or her environment. Smoking friends and family members increase the chance that someone will take up smoking. Jacqueline Vink discovered that the variation b
In 1875 the remains of a prehistoric crocodile were found in the brown coal mine at Messel near Darmstadt; since then a large number of well preserved fossils have also been discovered. Palaeontologists have long puzzled over what could have been the reason for this annihilation of so many creatures. In the latest issue of the Paläontologische Zeitschrift (‘Journal of Palaeontology’) researchers from the University of Bonn have put forward a new theory: the cause of the deaths of these animals m
Inspired by cell biology, European researchers have created the world’s first shape-shifting robot made of many modules, which could lead to new applications in fields ranging from medicine and space exploration to education and entertainment.
On display at IST 2004 in The Hague and being showcased on 17 November in Tokyo, the HYDRA project’s robots have broken new ground in robotics and artificial intelligence through a simple but highly effective design that allows the device
A gene hunt being carried out at the University of Leicester for a skin disorder that affects over one million people in the UK alone has made a new breakthrough which could lead to the design of new and more targeted drugs.
The research team in the University of Leicester Division of Medical Genetics, led by Professor Richard Trembath, has been investigating Psoriasis – an inflammatory skin condition – for a number of years. Now Professor Trembath believes the research has made
Medical scientists at the University of Leicester have announced they have narrowed the search for the ’death clock’ gene in humans. Their study relates to a hunt for a gene that has important implications for aging and cancer as well as other age-related diseases.
The gene controls the length of human telomeres – repeat DNA sequences that cap a chromosome. Each time a human cell divides, the cap shortens. When it gets too short, cells die. Telomere length therefore acts
At least 15 species have gone extinct in the past 20 years
The world’s biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, according to the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and a companion study of the data, the Global Species Assessment (GSA). The GSA is the most comprehensive evaluation ever undertaken of the status of the world’s biodiversity. Its findings include the following: At least 15 species have gone extinct in the past 20 years, and an addit
The Minimally Invasive Surgical Therapies (MIST) Consortium for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) has launched a new study to compare long-term benefits and risks of transurethral needle ablation (TUNA) and transurethral microwave thermotherapy (TUMT) to a regimen of the alpha-1 inhibitor alfuzosin and the 5-alpha reductase inhibitor finasteride. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at NIH, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is investing more tha
While stock prices of firms almost always go up immediately after an announcement of a takeover bid by another company, a new study shows that there’s a lot of variation in just how far the stock prices may change.
In fact, the study showed that about one-quarter of stock prices actually go higher than the initial bid price announced by the acquiring firm. Overall, investors seem to be savvy about pricing stocks of target firms, said Ralph Walkling, co-author of the study
The spectacular rift valleys of the Tibetan plateau don’t all run north-south as previously thought, according to new research.
The rift valleys actually curve away — some to the east, some to the west — from the point where India is punching into the gut of Tibet. “Everyone looked at the rifts and said they went north-south,” said Paul Kapp, assistant professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “I looked and said — they’re not.” His work contrad
A prehistoric fish that until 1938 was thought to be extinct has caught the eye of geneticists at the Stanford University School of Medicine who hope to sequence the ancient genome to learn how animals evolved to live on land.
The 5-foot, 130-pound fish in question, called the coelacanth, ekes out an existence in cool, deep-water caves off the Comoro Islands in the Indian Ocean and northern Indonesia. Its lobed fins, skeleton structure and large, round scales are practically un
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