Is there – or has there ever been – life on Mars? A UK project could help provide the answer to this fascinating question.
The team are working to improve the equipment on space probes which is used to try and identify evidence of life on other planets.
The work is focusing on the development of more effective and robust systems for detecting ’biomarkers’. (’Biomarkers’ are molecules that indicate the existence of current or extinct life.)
Researchers
A new type of liquid crystal – recently discovered by a research team that includes a Kent State University professor – holds the promise of faster liquid crystal displays at a lower price.
A new liquid crystal phase – the biaxial nematic liquid crystal – which is likely to revolutionize the liquid crystal display technology, has been discovered by three researchers, Dr. Satyendra Kumar, professor of physics at Kent State; Dr. Bharat R. Acharya, of Platytus Technologies, Madison, WI; and Dr
Just being unhappy with their bodies is not enough to lead most women into eating disorders – it takes additional factors, according to a new study.
Women are more likely to have eating disorders when their body dissatisfaction is accompanied by other issues – most importantly, a tendency to obsessively examine their bodies and think about how they appear to others.
The results of the study help clarify a long-running issue that has complicated the problem of identifying women at ri
Old fish bones can tell scientists about more than what people used to eat. They can also provide clues to the climate in which those people lived. In the scientific journal Quaternary Research, a team led by three University of Maine scientists reports using fish bones from an archaeological site in Peru to describe the timing of Pacific Ocean climate cycles linked to El Nino.
The report provides new evidence for a theory stating that biological cycles in the world’s oceans reflect su
After receiving the brunt of powerful hurricanes in 1996 and 1999, the Neuse River and Estuary and western Pamlico Sound in eastern North Carolina appear to have suffered few long-term ill effects from the storms, and have actually benefited ecologically in some ways from the storms’ scouring effects.
Those are the findings of a team of North Carolina State University scientists and collaborators from various North Carolina universities and government agencies.
Dr. JoAnn Burkholder,
Mounting evidence suggests that ecological and climatic conditions influence the emergence, spread, and recurrence of infectious diseases. Global climate change is likely to aggravate climate-sensitive diseases in unpredictable ways.
Increasingly, public health programs aimed at preventing and controlling disease outbreaks are considering aspects of the ecology of infectious diseases–how hosts, vectors, and parasites interact with each other and their environment. The hope is that by under
Nearly 150 years after Darwin published On the Origin of Species, biologists are still debating how new species emerge from old–and even the definition of species itself. Darwin demurred from offering a hard and fast definition, suggesting that such a thing was “undiscoverable.”
In this issue of PLoS Biology, Daniel Barbash and colleagues identify a true speciation gene in the fruitfly Drosophila.
One of the more enduring definitions characterizes organisms as distinct reproducti
A team led by University of California San Diego neurobiologists has developed a new approach to interpreting brain electroencephalograms, or EEGs, that provides an unprecedented view of thought in action and has the potential to advance our understanding of disorders like epilepsy and autism.
The new information processing and visualization methods that make it possible to follow activation in different areas of the brain dynamically are detailed in a paper featured on the cover of the June
This amazing high-resolution image of Phoebe’s pitted surface was taken very near the closest approach by the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens spacecraft.
It shows a crater with a diameter of 13 kilometres and a debris-covered floor. Part of another crater of similar size is visible at left, as is part of a larger crater at the top and many scattered smaller craters.
The radial streaks in the crater are due to downslope movements of loose fragments from impact ejecta (material thrown
Under drought conditions, tropical forests can be as efficient at using water as desert ecosystems, researchers report When push comes to shove, all ecosystems have the same maximum rain-use efficiency, a measure of total plant growth per unit of precipitation. The finding indicates there’s an upper limit to ecosystems’ productivity, said Travis E. Huxman, a plant physiological ecologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He and a team of researchers calculated
If all the highways, streets, buildings, parking lots and other solid structures in the 48 contiguous United States were pieced together like a giant jigsaw puzzle, they would almost cover the state of Ohio. That is the result of a study by Christopher Elvidge of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Geophysical Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, who along with colleagues from several universities and agencies produced the first national map and inventory of impervious su
In a report recently published in the Lancet, physicians at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) have described a new way to preserve the fertility of women who must undergo chemotherapy. This method, which can be done quickly, does not involve surgery or hormonal stimulation of the ovaries. “Our technique of removing immature eggs from the woman’s ovaries, then maturing them by a technique called in-vitro maturation (IVM), has been successfully used for eight female cancer patien
NASA and University of Maryland scientists have found the African monsoon consists of two distinct seasons The first season is in the late spring and early summer. The rain is concentrated on the West African Coast near the Gulf of Guinea, five degrees north of the equator. This season appears strongly influenced by sea surface temperatures off the coast of West Africa. The second season arrives later in summer in July at around 10 degrees north of the equator. Atmospheric wa
NASA satellite data are giving scientists insight into how large-scale deforestation in the Amazon Basin in South America is affecting regional climate. Researchers found during the Amazon dry season last August, there was a distinct pattern of higher rainfall and warmer temperatures over deforested regions.
Researchers analyzed multiple years of data from NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). They also used data from the Department of Defense Special Sensor Microwave Imag
New reserach by Columbia University
For years, researchers have examined climate records indicating that millennial-scale climate cycles have linked the high latitudes of the Northern hemisphere and the subtropics of the North Pacific Ocean. What forces this linkage, however, has been a topic of considerable debate. Did the connection originate in the North Pacific with the sinking of oxygen-rich waters into the interior of the ocean during cool climate intervals, or did it originate
Experimental verification would mean more spatial dimensions exist
According to string theory, all the different particles that constitute physical reality are made of the same thing–tiny looped strings whose different vibrations give rise to the different fundamental particles that make up everything we know. Whether this theory correctly portrays fundamental reality is one of the biggest questions facing physicists.
In the June on-line Journal of High Energy Physics (JHEP)
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