Depression and post-traumatic stress disorder “remain a significant public health concern” three years after the 1999 NATO campaign in Serbia, according to an article published this week in BMC Medicine. Refugees and people living in remote areas are particularly vulnerable to suffering from mental health problems. Almost half the people questioned had symptoms of depression and more than one in eight had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). American researchers teamed
Astrophysical Virtual Observatory Proves To Be Essential Tool Active galaxies
Active galaxies are breathtaking objects. Their compact nuclei (AGN = Active Galaxy Nuclei) are so luminous that they can outshine the entire galaxy; “quasars” constitute extreme cases of this phenomenon, their powerful engine making them visible over a very large fraction of the observable Universe.
It is now widely accepted that the ultimate power station of these activities originates in sup
New percolation model may allow researchers to study biochemistry at the atomic level A new report in the May 24 Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical and Physical Sciences announces a mathematical model that will help researchers understand “cell signaling” and learn how single atoms travel along the circuitous pathways in a cell. The model is a new approach to look at percolation-the flow of a liquid or small particle through a porous material.
Discovery may lead to insights into cancer, birth defects, fertility and neurological disorders
A cellular structure discovered 125 years ago and dismissed by many biologists as “cellular garbage” has been found to play a key role in the process of cytokinesis, or cell division, one of the most ancient and important of all biological phenomena.
The discovery of the function of the dozens of proteins harbored within this structure – which are necessary for normal cell division – by
Experiments by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers have revealed it might be possible for randomness in gene expression to lead to differences in cells — or people, for that matter — that are genetically identical.
The researchers, HHMI investigator Erin K. O’Shea and colleague Jonathan M. Raser, both at the University of California, San Francisco, published their findings May 27, 2004, in Science Express, the online edition of the journal Science.
According to O
Investigators from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have conducted studies in mice to gain a new picture of how the immune system’s “killer” T cells are prompted to destroy infected cells. Their insights provide a blueprint for rational design of vaccines that induce desired T-cell responses.
The findings are published in this week’s Science. “If we are correct, what we’ve found will put rational vac
Researchers from Havard University have discovered the presence of a previously unidentified microbial community inside the porous stone of the Maya ruins in Mexico that may be capable of causing rapid deterioration of these sites. They present their findings at the 104th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
“The presence of a previously undescribed endolithic microbial community that is different than the surface community has important implications for the conservation
UCLA chemists have devised an elegant solution to an intricate problem at the nanoscale that stumped scientists for many years: They have made a mechanically interlocked compound whose molecules have the topology of the beloved interlocked Borromean rings. In the May 28 issue of the journal Science, the team reports nanoscience that could be described as art.
The UCLA group is the first to achieve this goal in total chemical synthesis, which research groups worldwide have been pursuing.
According to a new NASA-funded study, insights into Earth’s climate may come from an unlikely place: the moon.
Scientists looked at the ghostly glow of light reflected from Earth onto the moon’s dark side. During the 1980s and 1990s, Earth bounced less sunlight out to space. The trend reversed during the past three years, as the Earth appears to reflect more light toward space.
Though not fully understood, the shifts may indicate a natural variability of clouds, w
Yale scientists have discovered a new way of illuminating MCH neurons, which may play an important role in regulating appetite and body weight, by using a virus that has been genetically engineered so that it cannot replicate.
MCH neurons are located in the hypothalamus, a homeostatic regulatory center of the brain. Because these nerve cells look like any other brain cell, it has been difficult to study their cellular behavior previously.
The researchers took the “safe” virus, know
Student-designed device helps the visually impaired avoid hazards, day and night
Using a common laptop computer and a sophisticated head-mounted projection device, students at the University of Washington (UW) have created a system to help people with poor vision navigate around stationary objects.
The Wearable Low Vision Aid (WLVA) is the first portable device to draw attention to obstacles using an illuminated, vibrating crystal that projects a warning icon-a raster image
Some erupted more often, others less often after big jolt 2,000 miles distant
A powerful earthquake that rocked Alaska in 2002 not only triggered small earthquakes almost 2,000 miles away at Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park – as was reported at the time – but also changed the timing and behavior of some of Yellowstone’s geysers and hot springs, a new study says.
“We did not expect to see these prolonged changes in the hydrothermal system,” says University of Uta
Instantaneous ice ages, grapefruit-size hail and tidal waves – all courtesy of global warming – are being served up as Memorial Day weekend entertainment in movie theaters.
The side order: A little scientific food for thought.
“The Day After Tomorrow,” a star-studded movie that paints a vivid picture of global climatic catastrophe, is a simplistic look at the complex and real issue of a potential outcome of global warming, said David Skole, professor and director of MSU’s Center for
Some of the first data from a new orbiting infrared telescope are revealing that the Milky Way – and by analogy galaxies in general – is making new stars at a much more prolific pace than astronomers imagined.
The findings from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope were announced today (May 27) at a NASA headquarters press briefing by Edward Churchwell, a University of Wisconsin-Madison astronomer and the leader of a team conducting the most detailed survey to date of our galaxy in infrared l
Finding overturns long held ideas about how cells build proteins
Writing in the May 28 issue of Cell, Johns Hopkins researchers report that four critical components of cells’ protein-building machine don’t do what scientists had long assumed.
The machine, called the ribosome, is a ball of RNA (DNA’s cousin) surrounded by proteins. In the RNA center, genetic instructions are read, the right protein building block is added onto a growing chain, and at the appropriate
A tiny speck of an island in the broad expanse of the Mediterranean is drowning with tourists. And for that reason, the exquisite Greek island of Santorini awaits an interdisciplinary team of University of Cincinnati students and faculty this summer. That team – having proven itself in other locales in Greece – will serve as an academic version of “Extreme (Tourism) Make-Over” from June 10-August 14.
On the tiny Greek island of Santorini, a vividly painted village perches precariously
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