The International Council for Science (ICSU), one of the world’s oldest independent, non-governmental scientific organizations, has launched a completely new Web site (http://www.icsu.org). The diversified content and convivial style reflect ICSU’s interdisciplinary approach and longstanding commitment to international scientific cooperation.
This new site gives access to information on a wide spectrum of scientific topics relevant to both science and society. ICSU’s objective is to provide
Genetic testing identifies illnesses that might be linked to our genes. It can help recognise hereditary diseases, tailor cures to an individual’s genetic make-up and develop new drugs. But its use also has important ethical implications.
At a conference on “Human genetic testing: what implications?” organised by European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin in Brussels today and tomorrow, a High Level expert group will present a report and 25 recommendations on how genetic testing can be
University of Leicester scientists have made a unique discovery at an Atlantic island popular with British holidaymakers.
They have uncovered giant sand dunes on Tenerife that tell a tale of terrifying destruction in ancient times, when fiery clouds swept right across the island, leaving very little in their wake.
Volcanic islands – volcanoes whose summits poke out of the oceans – make popular holiday destinations, like Madeira, Hawaii and the Azores. Some, like Hawaii, erupt lava f
There is little, if any, evidence that adult stem cells can build other cells in an adult organism than those formed in the organs they themselves come from. At any rate, blood stem cells do not convert to heart muscle cells in a damaged heart, which was previously hoped. This has been shown by a research team from the Stem Cell Center at Lund University in Sweden in an article in Nature Medicine.
During the end of the 1990s and early 2000s scientists nourished great hopes that adult stem ce
Imagine throwing out your old shrimp shells after dinner–in a bag made of shrimp shells. In his doctoral dissertation, Mikael Gällstedt at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden describes how we can make environmentally friendly packing out of garbage.
The number of grocery packages is constantly growing. Most packages are made of plastic, which both adds to the mountains of waste and uses oil reserves. There are good reasons to look for smart, environmentally friendly alternatives.
Parkinson’s disease was first described in 1817 by the London physician James Parkinson. A great amount of research has been carried out since that time but the fundamental causes of the disease remain unresolved. Some time ago now researchers found that a neurotransmitter, dopamine, played a key role in this illness. This is why the majority of treatments used today to counter Parkinson’s increase the level of dopamine in the brain exciting the receptors of this neurotransmitter.
Animal
An error in a spreadsheet or Web page calculation sounds harmless enough, unless you’re the person whose retirement funds, credit history or medical treatment rely on decisions based on that calculation. A six-campus team of computer scientists led by Margaret Burnett at Oregon State University is working to help exterminate the bugs that infest the spreadsheets and other “programs” created by millions of computer users. You may not think of yourself as a programmer, but that’s jus
For years the debate about climate change has had a contentious sticking point – satellite measurements of temperatures in the troposphere, the layer of atmosphere where most weather occurs, were inconsistent with fast-warming surface temperatures.
But a team led by a University of Washington atmospheric scientist has used satellite data in a new and more accurate way to show that, for more than two decades, the troposphere has actually been warming faster than the surface. The new approach
Results published in May 6 Issue of Nature
It has taken more than 50 years to accumulate the current body of knowledge on Escherichia coli, a bacterium which is one of the best studied organisms in biology. Now, bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have integrated this knowledge into the first genome-scale model of the gene regulatory system in E. coli. The computational model helps to define the rules governing cell function and quickly enabled an exponential increa
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers at Harvard University have discovered that insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas that are attacked in type 1 diabetes are replenished through duplication of existing cells rather than through differentiation of adult stem cells.
Although the experiments, which were done using mice, do not rule out the possibility that there are adult stem cells in the pancreas, the researchers say that they do suggest strongly that embryonic stem cell
’Virtual’ technology could change how experiments are done
Tidewater Community College has found a groundbreaking way to “virtualize” real-life experiments through cutting-edge software programs. Determined to mine the latest technology for better – and affordable – learning methods, professors in TCC’s electronic engineering technology (EET) program have succeeded in bringing “virtual instruments” to life for their students.
The result: a virtually functionin
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) currently afflicts approximately 4.5 million Americans. One of the most feared diseases of old age, AD robs its victims of their memories and personalities long before it takes their lives. Curing or slowing the progress of AD has been a high priority in the scientific community, but an early and accurate diagnosis is equally important given that several other forms of dementia display the same symptoms as AD, especially in the early stages.
A promising breakth
A new type of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) is being developed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories to help bring the goal of a micro fuel cell closer to realization using diverse fuels like glucose, methanol, and hydrogen.
This Sandia Polymer Electrolyte Alternative (SPEA) could help fulfill the need for new, uninterrupted autonomous power sources for sensors, communications, microelectronics, healthcare applications, and transportation.
One of the unfortunate side effects of bone marrow and stem cell transplantation is that the newly implanted cells often stage an internal attack against the patient they’re intended to help. Stanford University School of Medicine researchers now have a better grasp of this phenomenon, known as graft-versus-host disease, or GVHD, and have proposed a possible method of prevention: simple ultraviolet light.
In a new animal study, researchers identified the principal culprit in GVHD: an i
Plankton appear to play a major role in regulating the global climate system, according to new research
David Siegel, professor of geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and director of the Institute for Computational Earth System Science, made the discovery with his former Ph.D. student Dierdre Toole, who is now based at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
In an article in the May 6 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the scientists explai
If DNA can be compared to an architect who gets all the glory for designing the building, RNA can be compared to the engineer who often goes unrecognized, but is needed to turn the blueprints into a real three-dimensional, functional and safe structure. RNA has numerous functions in a cell, including translating the genetic blueprints found in DNA and catalyzing reactions in the cell to build proteins.
In order to carry out its functions, strands of RNA molecules will bind with other RNA mo
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