The life expectancy of fruit flies increases an average of 50 percent when signals within cells of fat tissue are blocked or altered, new Brown University research shows. Published in the current issue of Nature, results of the study suggest that reduced levels of insulin in one tissue regulates insulin throughout the body to slow aging – a finding that brings science one step closer to cracking the longevity code.
When the chemical messages sent by an insulin-like hormone are reduced
Twenty years ago, astronomers discovered a number of enigmatic radio-emitting filaments concentrated near the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. These features initially defied explanation, but a new study of radio images of the Galactic center may point to their possible source.
By combining data from the National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array (VLA) and Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), astronomer Farhad Yusef-Zadeh of Northwestern University has found evidence that at least
Combined data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and infrared observations with the Palomar 200-inch telescope have uncovered evidence that a gamma-ray burst, one of nature’s most catastrophic explosions, occurred in our Galaxy a few thousand years ago. The supernova remnant, W49B, may also be the first remnant of a gamma-ray burst discovered in the Milky Way.
W49B is a barrel-shaped nebula located about 35,000 light years from Earth. The new data reveal bright infrared rings,
Striking pictures of magnetic waves inside advanced ceramics may be the clue to understanding how they can transmit electricity without losing energy, according to results obtained by two teams of scientists using the UK’s world-leading ISIS neutron source in Oxfordshire and published this week in the journal Nature.
The ceramics, known as high-temperature superconductors, lose all resistance to the flow of electricity when cooled below a critical temperature. Wires made from the ceramics ca
A research team at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU, has succeeded in isolating a novel gene that regulates cell death in plant embryos. This is a world first.
The team consists of scientists from the Department of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics, headed by Peter Bozhkov and Sara von Arnold. The team has discovered programmed cell death in plant embryos and has recently identified the first gene that regulates this cell death. This research has been conducted in collab
Perfusion CT useful for strokes, clogged carotid arteries, some brain tumors
It’s a no-brainer that the brain needs a constant supply of blood to keep it going. But some medical conditions can block or reduce that life-giving flow. Whether it’s a stroke, a clogged artery or a brain tumor, any situation where blood can’t get to the whole brain can lead to death or permanent disability. And it’s often hard for doctors to tell just where blood is — or isn’t — g
Animated characters on the Internet are often soulless. They stare, speak monotonously and have limited facial expression. More realistic characters are being tested by a European team of researchers. Could such enhanced characters benefit e-commerce and build better Web-based communities?
Most of us interact with our computers by punching keys. But the time is ripe for a more sophisticated and realistic interface. One way forward is to program characters known as avatars. They can be given
Creating synergy by coordinating Europe’s protected areas requires consistent and accurate information to guide decision makers and management authorities. Geographic Information Systems can meet this need but uniform data collection is difficult. Nature-GIS is helping to simplify its collection.
This IST programme-funded project is providing some of the answers to how data from so many different sources, and in so many different formats, can be made accessible to all the various interest
Scientists have discovered a protein that controls the amount of fat stored in the body, offering new clues for obesity treatments.
The research, published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows how the protein regulates the activity of a key gene responsible for maintaining the body’s temperature, called uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1).
The new protein, called RIP140, blocks the expression of UCP1, and causes the body to use up more energy and sto
Fossils support idea of lingering bridges between landmasses
The fossil skull of a wrinkle-faced, meat-eating dinosaur whose cousins lived as far away as South America and India has emerged from the African Sahara, discovered by a team led by University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno. The find provides fresh information about how and when the ancient southern continents of Africa, South America and India separated.
The new species, which is 95 million years old, and a
The exposure of amphibians to damaging levels of ultraviolet-B radiation in sunlight is likely a significant part of global amphibian declines, researchers say, despite some recent suggestions to the contrary and a scientific controversy about what role UV-B actually plays in this crisis.
Scientists from the United States, Canada and Spain have outlined their understanding of UV-B’s biological effects on amphibians in an article in Ecology, a professional journal.
In it, they r
Images from NASA’s new Spitzer Space Telescope have allowed researchers to detect the long sought population of “missing” supermassive black holes that powered the bright cores of the earliest active galaxies in the young universe. The discovery completes a full accounting of all the X-ray sources seen in one of the deepest surveys of the universe ever taken. The results were presented at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Denver, Colorado.
Mark Dickinson, of the Natio
The very first stars that formed early in the history of the universe were smaller than the massive giants implied by the results of a NASA research satellite, but still larger than the typical stars found in our galaxy today, according to a research team led by the University of Chicago’s Jason Tumlinson.
“We have managed to reconcile within a single theory the two very different leading indicators of the nature of the first stars,” said Tumlinson, the Edwin Hubble Scientist in Astron
Near-infrared laser transfers data to mid-infrared laser’s beam
“Interband transitions controlling intersubband transitions” is the technical description for what has been achieved in an optics lab in Stevens Institute of Technology’s Physics Department. Robert K. Murawski, a post-doctoral research assistant working under the direction of Professor Rainer Martini , has a simpler way to describe it: “Controlling light with light.”
Regardless of styling, the concept is not a n
Two dozen volunteers bravely exposed their arms to jellyfish tentacles as part of a new Stanford University School of Medicine study to test a topical, over-the-counter cream designed to protect against stinging nettles. Fortunately for the volunteers, the cream appeared to be relatively effective.
“It didn’t completely inhibit the stings, but it came pretty darn close,” reported Alexa Kimball, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of dermatology who directed the study. The study appears in
With a microscope and computer monitor, researchers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., watch fluorescent bacteria flow through tiny, fluid highways on a dime-sized lab on a chip.
Lab-on-a-chip technology allows chemical and biological processes — previously conducted on large pieces of laboratory equipment — to be performed on a small glass plate with fluid channels, known to scientists as microfluidic capillaries.
“We are studying how lab-on-a-chip
Feedback
