Purdue University chemists have developed a fast, efficient means of analyzing chemical samples found on surfaces, resulting in a device that could impact everything from airport security to astrobiology to forensic science.
A team, including R. Graham Cooks, has improved the mass spectrometer, a device well known to chemists for its ability to provide information on the composition of unknown substances. Mass spectrometers, essential tools in any modern chemistry lab, are often
Building on their earlier work, Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that an apparently nontoxic cellular “energy blocker” can eradicate large liver tumors grown in rats. Six months to more than a year after treatment was stopped, the rats are still cancer free.
While the results are dramatic, clinical trials with the chemical, 3-bromopyruvate, are likely some years away, says the study’s leader, Young Ko, Ph.D., assistant professor of radiology and biological chemistry.
Moscow scientists have come forward with a new methodology of fighting fire, as fire can be stopped if deprived of airflow. It is possible that soon fire-wardens will extinguish fire not with water or foam, but with liquid nitrogen.
A bright-red fire-engine has been demonstrated at the exhibition ‘High tech-2004’, held at Krasnaya Presnya exhibition complex in Moscow. The engine was so huge, that inside its body it could accommodate a tank the size of a well-fed elephant. The
An amazingly sensitive method for selective analysis of amino acids, sugars, fatty acids, and other vital compounds has been developed by Russian scientists. This method allows determining even their trace quantities (fractions of nanograms). It is applicable in identifying cancerous cells and diagnostics of cancer at the earliest stage, when traditional diagnostics fail to catch sight of the disease.
Dr. Igor Revel’sky and his colleagues from the Moscow State University have dev
Alpine cranberries have significant biological activity that can help to combat herpes virus type II (HSV-2) infection, one of the most common viral infections in humans, writes Emma Dorey in Chemistry & Industry.
Researchers at the Kaohsiung Medical University in Taiwan isolated a compound called proanthocyanidin A-1 from the evergreen shrub, also known as Vaccinium vitis-idaea, lingonberry or partridgeberry. Chun-Ching Lin and his team found that the compound significantly suppre
Russian scientists give an explanation for the wonder of beaver survival throughout the 19th century, when these animals were badly endangered and lived in conditions that would be fatal for another mammalian species.
A population of beavers can survive, if it includes only three animals living together. Such a small size of viable population is explained by the genetic adaptation of beavers to inbreeding. Beaver genome and behaviour account for an outstanding viability of this s
On Wednesday 6 October 2004 a team of UK astronomers from Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Hertfordshire used the world’s largest robotic optical telescope, the Liverpool Telescope, to detect the optical light, or afterglow, from a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB).
“Gamma ray bursts are the most energetic explosions in the Universe and it is very exciting to have detected a Gamma Ray Burst afterglow for the first time with the Liverpool Telescope and then to watch i
On Jan. 14, 2005, the Huygens probe will plow into the orange atmosphere of Saturn’s moon, Titan, becoming the first spacecraft to attempt to land on a moon in our solar system since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 touched down on Earth’s moon in 1976.
Though scientists hope that Huygens will survive the plunge, it will be flying blind through hydrocarbon haze and methane clouds to a surface that could consist of seven-kilometer-high ice mountains and liquid methan
Doing a little now to mitigate long-term climate change would cost much less than doing nothing and making an adjustment in the future, say scientists whose paper appears in the Oct. 15 issue of the journal Science.
Implementing a carbon tax of five cents per gallon of gasoline and gradually increasing the tax over the next 30 years is the optimal solution, the researchers report. “You can think of the tax as a low-cost insurance policy that protects against climate change,” sa
Certain genes are expressed differently in people with depression
Researchers have found altered gene activity in people who suffer from major depression, a discovery that may one day help doctors better diagnose and treat the condition. The research, conducted by a consortium of four universities, appears this week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS). Scientists found that the fibroblast growth factor system, which is a family o
Parisa Ariya’s accidental discovery of the power of bioaerosols to generate rapid and dramatic chemical reactions may change – at the very least alter – the course of climate science.
Ariya, a professor at McGill University’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, in Montreal (Canada), first made her observation in August 2001, after one of her postdoctoral fellows forgot to close the valve sealing the reaction chamber where an organic compound (containing carbon
What do trees and statistics have in common? Pierre Dutilleul, a statistician and professor in McGill’s Department of Plant Science (Montreal, Canada), will tell you that many natural systems can be better understood using equations and models, provided appropriate data are collected.
Dutilleul is one of the first scientists who have used a computed tomography (CT) scanner to study how tree branching affects light interception. “We collect CT scan data, which basically me
Hans Larsson, a McGill University palaeontologist (located in Montreal, Canada), has found physical proof that Canada’s Arctic regions once had a Jurassic era. Scientists have suspected that dinosaurs lived in Canada’s great north eons ago, yet it remained an unproven theory, since no bones had ever been uncovered.
Not anymore. Larsson has discovered tyrannosaurus dinosaur bones, which until now, had only been located in Canada’s Prairie Provinces, as well as in
A 500-member forum of industry, government and academic technical experts, led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has released a new draft set of cyber security requirements for industrial control systems.* These security requirements, developed by the Process Control Security Requirements Forum (PCSRF), are intended to be used in procurement documents for new industrial control systems or components. The implementation of these requirements will help protect the nation&
Light is so fast that it takes less than 2 seconds to travel from the Earth to the moon. This blazing fast speed is what makes the Internet and other complex communications systems possible. But sometimes light needs to be slowed down so that signals can be routed in the right direction and order, converted from one form to another or synchronized properly.
Now, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have proposed a new way to slow light down to
Review of agents used for the eye finds multiple adverse reactions
An estimated 42 percent of Americans use herbal medicines or nutritional supplements. Many people taking these products and their physicians are unaware of the adverse reactions they can cause. An Oregon Health & Science University researcher reviewed reported cases of ocular side effects associated with these products. His findings are published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology this month.
The
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