An electricity meter that sometimes runs backwards is just one of the cool aspects of Department of Energy near-zero-energy homes.
While low or no electric bills are an obvious benefit, high energy efficiency homes and businesses also reduce the amount of electricity that needs to be generated, thus reducing pollution, said Jeff Christian of DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
In Tennessee, air pollution is of special concern as the state ranked third behind Cal
Farm-raised salmon contain much higher levels of flame retardants than most wild salmon, and some wild Chinook have the highest levels of all, according to new research. Building on an earlier study of chemicals in the two types of fish, the findings suggest that consumers should choose their salmon carefully.
The report appeared online Aug. 10 in Environmental Science & Technology, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
Children who have severe allergic reactions when stung by bees, wasps and other insects should receive venom immunotherapy, or allergy shots, to reduce the chance of future life-threatening reactions if a repeat sting should occur, said an allergist at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
In an editorial published in today’s issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Rebecca Gruchalla, chief of the allergy division of internal medicine and associate professor of pedi
Recovery, purification of therapeutic proteins an economic and scientific challenge
The economics of producing biopharmaceuticals from transgenic plants such as tobacco is still a roadblock to producing large quantities of urgently needed medicines, especially for people in underdeveloped nations. Chenming (Mike) Zhang is testing a variety of ways to economically recover recombinant proteins from transgenic tobacco using different protein separation techniques.
Zhang, an a
’Selective approval’ would require follow up studies to identify most appropriate patients
One of the most promising new strategies for cancer treatment is the development of drugs that directly target molecular abnormalities that lead to the growth of tumors. Several such drugs have received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in recent years, but some have been controversial because the data on which they were approved did not clearly define which patients will most bene
Brush, then squash. Remember those three words and that technique the next time you catch a mosquito dining on your arm or leg, and you’ll go a long way to protecting yourself from a potentially lethal parasitic micro-organism that may be in the mosquito, and is especially dangerous to those with weakened immune systems.
A study by Rutgers-Newark biology professor Ann Cali and others published in the New England Journal of Medicine in July indicates that microsporidia, a group of op
European scientific organisations speak with common voice on ERC. 52
‘Science magazine’ today published a letter co-signed by over 50 European scientific organisations calling for urgent action on the establishment of a European Research Council (ERC) – a pan-European funding organisation for basic research at a European level. A mass petition of this kind on science policy is almost unheard of in Europe and indicates the importance these organisations attach to the ERC debate.
How do men and women in the UK work and live together in the 21st Century? How do they compare as children and how do parents shape their upbringing? What choices do we make academically, what are male and female attitudes towards family and relationships? How do men and women share childcare, and what career paths do they choose, or have forced upon them? And how do the two genders compare in retirement?
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has just awarded some of the co
As British scientists are given the go-ahead to clone human embryos, two Kingston University researchers have linked up with NASA in the first ever collaboration on space medicine between the United Kingdom and the United States. The $US1 million project aims to explore ways to protect astronauts from space radiation in preparation for a manned mission to Mars in 2020. Dr Colin McGuckin and Dr Nico Forraz, from the University’s School of Life Sciences, will fly out to NASA’s Johnson Space Centr
Peginterferon and ribavirin treatment produce significantly better viral control
Since the introduction of highly active combination drug therapy for HIV, liver failure attributable to infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) has become a leading cause of death among those infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Now a multi-center study has found that the newest treatment for patients infected with HCV alone also helps those infected with both pathogens by significantly impro
University of Nevada, Reno researchers have for the first time recorded a cluster of nearly 1,600 small earthquakes 20 miles beneath Lake Tahoe — the world’s second-largest alpine lake. Based on observations from the university’s Nevada Seismic Network and an ultra-sensitive Global Positioning System (GPS) station at Slide Mountain, the researchers believe the quake cluster coincided with an unprecedented 8-millimeter uplifting of the ski resort mountain in the Sierra Nevada.
Investigators from an international consortium of research institutes, including the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, have identified compounds that mimic the effects of a low calorie diet without changing the amount of essential nutrients. The researchers believe it may be possible to design drugs that imitate many of the beneficial effects of calorie restriction resulting in the prevention of diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, which are more common in people w
Suspected large lakebeds that once were scattered on the planet Mars have not yet been found, say the research team that operated the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Their work appears in the current issue of Science magazine.
Members of the team have written several articles in the magazine, among them “The Spirit Rover’s Athena Science Investigation at Gusev Crater” that deals with the search for water on the red planet, and “Pancam Multispectral Imaging Results from the
Using a new molecular genetic technique, scientists have turned procrastinating primates into workaholics by temporarily suppressing a gene in a brain circuit involved in reward learning. Without the gene, the monkeys lost their sense of balance between reward and the work required to get it, say researchers at the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
“The gene makes a receptor for a key brain messenger chemical, dopamine,” explained Barry Richmond, M.D., NIMH Labo
A student has invented a revolutionary evacuation wheelchair that could save lives in emergencies because it has the capability to go down stairs without someone else pushing it.
Health and safety legislation and the Fire Brigade recommend that people do not use lifts to exit buildings during emergencies. However, for people with mobility problems this raises a serious issue as they become dependent on their friends and colleagues to assist their safe escape.
Simon Kingston
The expression pattern of certain genes may someday help doctors to diagnose and predict whether or not an individual has an aggressive form of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), Jefferson cancer researchers have found.
Scientists, led by Carlo Croce, M.D., director of Jefferson’s Kimmel Cancer Center and professor and chair of microbiology and immunology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, looked at the expression of genes that
Feedback
