Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers are proposing that the first battle for survival-of-the-fittest might have played out as a simple physical duel between fatty bubbles stuffed with genetic material. The scientists suggest that genetic material that replicated quickly may have been all the bubbles needed to edge out their competitors and begin evolving into more sophisticated cells.
This possibility, revealed by laboratory experiments with artificial fatty acid sacs, is in
Stem cells that researchers have isolated from the skin of mice have the power to self-renew when cultured in the laboratory, as well as to differentiate into skin and functioning hair follicles when grafted onto mice. The findings mean that the human equivalent of these stem cells, which scientists are also trying to isolate, could ultimately be used to regenerate skin and hair, the researchers said.
Stem cells — isolated from embryos or from adult tissue — are immature proge
In the Friday 3 September 2004 issue of Science Express, two physicists from Penn State University will announce new experimental evidence for the existence of a new phase of matter, a “supersolid” form of helium-4 with the extraordinary frictionless-flow properties of a superfluid.
“Solid helium-4 appears to behave like a superfluid when it is so cold that the laws of quantum mechanics govern its behavior,” says Moses H. W. Chan, Evan Pugh Professor of Physics at Penn State. “One of
“These tiny relics, a millionth of a meter small, could point us to the first steps of dust formation in both old and young stars,” stated Dr. Larry Nittler of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Nittler is co-author of a study published in the September 3, 2004, issue of Science,* about the origin of two presolar grains from the Tieschitz meteorite and the implications they have for resolving observational and theoretical challenges of dusty outflows surrounding
Pioneering fiber production methods similar to those of Kevlar(R), Zylon(R)
Rice University scientists are refining pioneering chemical production methods used to make pure carbon nanotube fibers. Research appearing in tomorrow’s issue of the journal Science describes the scalable production techniques, which yield highly aligned, continuous macroscopic fibers composed solely of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), the type of carbon nanotubes with the best mechanical and trans
Another important step towards realizing the promise of lightning fast photonic technology has been taken by scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley. Researchers have demonstrated that semiconductor nanoribbons, single crystals measuring tens of hundreds of microns in length, but only a few hundred or less nanometers in width and thickness (about one ten-millionth of an inch), can serve as “wa
Veterinarians from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have confirmed the first-known case of canine distemper in a wild Siberian tiger in the Russian Far East, further threatening populations of this highly endangered big cat.
Kathy Quigley, veterinarian for the WCS Siberian Tiger Project, confirmed that an adult female tigress that wandered into a Russian town exhibiting abnormal behavior had the disease, which is fatal in cats. It is suspected that the tiger
An antioxidant, a type of compound that prevents certain types of damage to living cells, appears to allow some kinds of plants to thrive on metal-enriched soils that typically kill other plants, says a Purdue University scientist.
This finding, published in the current issue of The Plant Cell, provides an important new insight for the development of plants that could be used to help clean polluted sites. The work also answers a fundamental question for researchers studying how
An international team of researchers has identified a family of proteins that are involved in HIV-1 budding from host cells, and are therefore likely to be essential for the spread of the virus. Targeting these proteins and the proteins they interact with could lead to potential new therapies for HIV-1 as well as other viruses that use the same budding mechanism .
The research appears as the “Paper of the Week” in the August 20 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, an America
The risk of thyroid cancer rises with increasing radiation dose, according to the most thorough risk analysis for thyroid cancer to date among people who grew up in the shadow of the 1986 Chernobyl power-plant disaster.
The incidence of thyroid cancer was 45 times greater among those who received the highest radiation dose as compared to those in the lowest-dose group, according to a team of American and Russian researchers led by Scott Davis, Ph.D., and colleagues at Fred Hutchinso
A tiny capsule containing tissue that secretes a cocktail of brain-nourishing neurotrophic factors may one day help reduce the damage and disability of stroke, according to research published in the September issue of Stroke.
Choroid plexus tissue has innate roles in developing and protecting the brain and when additional tissue is transplanted into an animal model of stroke, it reduces stroke size by about 65 percent, Medical College of Georgia researchers report. “What we have see
Though picking up a Salmonella infection abroad could ruin your holiday, reporting it to your doctor could help detect emerging infections in tourist destinations, according to an article published today in BMC Medicine. A comprehensive database containing details of the infections that travellers pick up could help inform countries that have limited surveillance systems about possible disease outbreaks.
In Sweden, all reported cases of Salmonella infection must be entered into th
Dental experts have developed a new sedation procedure which could relieve pressure on hospitals and allow patients to avoid potentially risky general anaesthetics. Clinical trials on more than 600 children with extreme dental problems who would usually attend hospital for a general anaesthetic (GA) for dental treatment, found the new procedure was completely successful in 93 per cent of cases.
Researchers at the UK’s University of Newcastle upon Tyne carried out the Government-fun
If not for humans, the number of woodland caribou in northern Alberta would be seven times greater than it is now, a new study from the University of Alberta shows. Since 1987, woodland caribou in Alberta have been classified as threatened under the Alberta Wildlife Act.
“Caribou feed mostly on lichens that are typical for old-growth forest stands,” said Piotr Weclaw a PhD student at the U of A. “They need a pristine ecological environment with large areas of old-growth forests in or
Using brain imaging, neuroscientists at the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have pinpointed the site of a defect in a brain circuit associated with a specific thinking deficit. Their study demonstrates how a rare genetic disorder, Williams Syndrome, can offer clues as to how genetic flaws may translate into cognitive symptoms in more common and complex major mental disorders. Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, M.D., Karen Berman, M.D., and colleagues, traced the thinking deficit to a circ
The first green accounts for a public sector body are published today.
A pioneering set of Environmental Cost Accounts are contained in the latest annual report from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). They focus on the environmental impacts and costs of its staff, facilities and operations. Using the latest scientific information available, Forum for the Future, a leading sustainable development charity, put an estimated price of £2.1 million on avoiding or restoring N
Feedback
