A “stink fight” between ring-tailed lemurs might be dead serious to them. But to observers, the scented struggle ranks among the more odd, even comical sights at the Duke University Primate Center — already renowned for the biological eccentricities of its exotic denizens.
Preparations for battle begin when male combatants load their “weapons” — vigorously rubbing their tails against their shoulders and between their wrists, infusing the fur with scent from glands there.
The world’s fastest solar-powered car is being driven through Sweden and Norway. Nuna 2 begins its journey on 14 August in Oslo and completes it on 21 August in Kiruna. It will primarily be driven on the E4, and will stop in Gothenburg, Linköping, Stockholm, Uppsala, Luleå, Kiruna, Narvik, and Andenäs.
There is also the possibility of short stops in other locations. “Journalists and photographers will also be able to take a look at the car at other locations near the route. Just c
Just because a big company owns all the media outlets in town doesn’t necessarily mean newspapers and broadcast stations will look and sound alike, according to a review of the research in this area published in the summer issue of the journal Contexts.
While media consolidation does have adverse effects, as described in a literature review, the reduction in content diversity does not appear to be one of them. In fact, the research suggests that media content is no less diverse tha
Chicken liver may seem like an odd component of a medical procedure, but for thousands of patients over the past generation, the cuisine has been doctor’s orders to help diagnose gastrointestinal disorders.
Perhaps not for much longer, though, based on the results of a recent Medical College of Georgia School of Allied Health Sciences student project.
Micah Grant, Woldeab Medhin and Aaron Scott, juniors in the School of Allied Health Sciences’ nuclear medicine
Not only has life evolved, but life has evolved to evolve.
That’s the conclusion drawn by two Rice University scientists who have designed a computer simulation to test the idea that evolvability — the likelihood of genetic mutation — is a trait that can itself be favored or disfavored through the process of natural selection.
The results of the study appear in the Aug. 10 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers Michael Deem,
Fully integrated worldwide wireless communication has come a step closer with the help of a grant of almost €4 million from the Information Society Technology (IST) Programme of the European Union’s Framework Programme.
The OPIUM project carried out trials of 3G services in China, Portugal, Spain, Germany, the UK and Ireland, in support of the accelerated rollout of commercial services. These trials dealt with the protocol and application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow Inte
The difference in size between males and females of the same species is all down to the battle for a mate, according to a study of shorebirds published by British scientists today (August 9 2004).
The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are the first explanation for a rule identified over forty years ago by German scientist Bernhard Rensch.
Rensch’s rule, as it has become known, says that the ratio between the sizes of the sexes is
Forging wills and bank cheques could now be near impossible thanks to a team of physicists in Rome (Italy). Writing in the latest issue of the Institute of Physics journal, Journal of Optics A, the scientists announce a new technique that can detect forged handwriting better than ever before.
Professor Giuseppe Schirripa Spagnolo, Carla Simonetti and Lorenzo Cozzella from the Università degli Studi “Roma Tre” in Rome, Italy, have devised a forgery detection method that creates a
EarthScope Project Scientists Lead Modern-Day ’Journey to the Center of the Earth’ In a modern-day journey to the center of the Earth, geologists are exploring the structure and evolution of the North American continent at scales from hundreds of kilometers to less than a millimeter – from the structure of a continent, to individual faults, earthquakes and volcanoes. The project is called EarthScope. With approximately $200 million in funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), EarthScope wi
A newly designed endoscope, capable of providing sub-second polarized spectral images of tissue in vivo (in the body), allows physicians and surgeons to non-invasively survey and sample an entire area without actually removing tissue, and may offer hope as a new tool for detecting cancer early. Researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh describe the instrument’s capabilities and clinical applications in the July 2004 issue of Progres
Simply sending reminder letters to physicians caring for heart attack patients saved lives and cut costs by increasing use of a recommended but underused drug, according to a new study.
The drug, called a beta-blocker, should be prescribed for many patients who have suffered a heart attack, according to national evidence-based guidelines. Beta-blockers improve survival and lessen chances of second heart attacks.
The research appears in the American Journal of Managed Care.
People who live with HIV in rural areas are less likely to keep up with their treatment schedules if they are problem drinkers, say Tulane University researchers. Overall, about one in three HIV positive people surveyed by the researchers reported skipping at least one dose of their medications in the past week.
Tulane epidemiologists analyzed data from 273 patient interviews at eight rural clinics across Louisiana.
“Cities are generally thought to be the areas hit the ha
A surgical incision between the trachea and esophagus (tracheo-esophageal puncture) following removal of the tongue and voice box provides effective speech communication for select head and neck cancer patients who otherwise would not be able to speak.
Most treatments for tongue and voice box cancer allow patients to retain those organs and maintain speech communication. For those few patients whose cancers do not respond to organ-sparing techniques, surgical removal of the tong
Researchers have investigated the associations between ammonia, air pollution, socioeconomic status, and access to medical care with incidence and mortality rates of salivary cancer in the South Carolina population. The findings from this study revealed that an association was found between emissions of ammonia and mortality rates of salivary gland cancer in Caucasian men.
Nearly 2,900 new cases of salivary gland cancer will be diagnosed in the United States in 2004, an increasing
Researchers find that laryngeal cancer patients treated with chemo-radiation have a similar survival rate and better speech after treatment than those who had their voice box removed.
This finding could be important for the 10,000 patients who will be diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 2004. Many treatment options exist: surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, chemo-radiotherapy (chemo-radiation), or a combination thereof. Depending on the extent of disease, surgery may involve removal o
Lack of access to care and socioeconomic factors are linked to advanced head and neck cancer in Alabama’s Black Belt, so labeled because of its rich black soil and once thriving agricultural trade. The region is now a target of efforts to enhance early identification and treatment for head and neck cancer.
Now known for its massive poverty (nearly one in three residents live below the poverty level), lack of education (more than 40 percent of adults have not completed high school), a
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