The speed of magnetic recording – a crucial factor in a computer’s power and multimedia capabilities – depends on how fast one can switch a magnet’s poles. An experiment at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) found that the ultimate speed of magnetic switching is at least 1,000 times slower than previously expected. The result, which appears in the April 22 issue of the journal Nature, has implications for future hard disk computer drive technologies.
In the push toward eve
At 9:57:24 am Pacific Daylight Time on Tuesday, April 20, 2004, the Gravity Probe B spacecraft had a picture-perfect launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in South-central California. The Boeing Delta II rocket hit the exact center of the bull’s eye in placing the spacecraft in its target polar orbit, 400 miles above the Earth.
“The Gravity Probe B Mission Operations Team has performed very well during this critical spacecraft activation period,” said Tony Lyons, Gravity Probe B NASA D
More and more, physicians are using the left ventricular assist device, or LVAD, to sustain patients who are awaiting heart transplants. The surgically implanted mechanical device takes over for weak and diseased hearts, acting as a bridge to transplant surgery.
For the LVAD to work optimally, however, the aortic valve, which releases oxygen-rich blood from the heart into the body, must be free from disease. In a study presented Thursday (April 22, 2004) at the International Society of Hear
If you need bright blue light at a very specific wavelength, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) can make it—and fast.
In the world of color, this is no small accomplishment. NIST’s traditional light sources, such as incandescent lamps, are thermal. A blue thermal source would need to function at such a high temperature that components would melt. Lack of blue light sources introduces uncertainty when calibrating instruments that measure the color of things like
Although cyclosporine is widely used to prevent rejection in organ transplant recipients over the long term, two problems remain for heart transplant patients: acute rejection, which occurs within the first three months after transplantation, and cardiac allograft vasculopathy, a thickening of the heart wall that can restrict blood flow.
Findings from the second year of a multi-center study of the new anti-rejection drug everolimus were presented Thursday (April 22, 2004) at the Internation
In this issue of Science, researchers at Yale University and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto report that curcumin, a compound in the spice turmeric, corrects the defect of cystic fibrosis in mice.
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a debilitating and ultimately fatal genetic disorder, caused by the failure of a chloride channel, the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane conductance Regulator (CFTR), to reach its proper place on the cell surface, where it transports chloride ions and water into and o
Computer scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have teamed up with a group of medical professionals to advance the use of telemedicine.
NIST and the American Telemedicine Association developed technical standards related to the diagnosis and treatment of diabetic retinopathy, which is a complication of diabetes and a leading cause of blindness.
Telemedicine helps patients to have access to health care professionals electronically, whatever their l
Fossilized organic molecules of green sulfur bacteria are helping to unlock secrets of what may have been a period of helter-skelter climate change and mass kills of sea life during the Jurassic Period some 150-160 million years ago.
The fossils were found in sedimentary rock commonly used to make house bricks in England, quarried from what is called the Oxford Clay Formation.
The findings are reported in the May issue of the journal Geology (now online to subscribers.) Fabien Ken
A universal three-in-one set-top network interface for domestic and small office markets that promises access to voice, video and data streams delivering a rich repertoire of services over triple-play broadband networks has been developed by IST project AVPACK.
“The unit is aimed at network operators and service providers that deploy such networks, and will enable them to offer value-added services and develop new markets,” says Christos Georgopoulos of inAccess Networks, the company market
Moscow scientists have managed to do simply and inexpensively something which normally proves complicated and expensive. The concept thought out and then implemented is a device which allows you to check the quality of ground and polished surfaces with unprecedented precision and rapidity and to detect every single defect of such surfaces. The effort has been funded by both the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Foundation for Promotion of Small-Size Enterprises in Research and Technical A
The meat of Australia’s bush kangaroo may be the highest known source of the healthy fat CLA, a University of Western Australia and CSIRO sponsored PhD student has discovered.
CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) is found in dairy products, beef and lamb.
In trials, CLA has been shown to possess potential anti-carcinogenic and anti-diabetes properties, in addition to reducing obesity and atherosclerosis (high blood pressure). PhD student Clare Engelke has found that the meat-fat of
The Gipuzkoa Cancer Institute and the Donostia-San Sebastian General Hospital have taken the first step to substitute traditional chemotherapy for breast cancer cases with a novel treatment. This new treatment is less aggressive and, thus, does not produce alopecia. From May, the two centres will test the efficacy of the new oral medicine, capecitabine.
The project involves women who have had breast cancer operations and who have been diagnosed with ganglions in the axilas. These women foll
An international team of researchers has discovered that respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a common cold virus causing bronchiolitis in children, can act as a ‘hit and hide’ virus. It was thought that the virus could only survive in the body for a few days, but these new results show that the virus can survive for many months or years, perhaps causing long-term effects on health, such as damage to the lungs.
The research, published in this month’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critica
A safer way to heat food products that retains nutritional qualities, which experts acknowledge has a positive effect on health, is being developed with the help of €693,000 from the Food Quality and Safety Programme of the European Union’s Framework Programme
In most cases, the production of safe food products requires some form of heat treatment and, in traditional heating methods, the result is often a loss of nutritional quality. This is because the heat is generated outside the food an
Experiment uses biomolecules to write on a gold substrate Duke University engineers have demonstrated that enzymes can be used to create nanoscale patterns on a gold surface. Since many enzymes are already commercially available and well characterized, the potential for writing with enzyme “ink” represents an important advance in nanomanufacturing. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation through a Nanotechnology Interdisciplinary Research Initiative (NIRT) grant.
Using magnets and video microscopy to measure the length of individual DNA molecules under experimental conditions, researchers have demonstrated that Condensin, a complex of proteins widely conserved in evolution, physically compacts DNA in a manner dependent on energy from ATP. The finding is significant because the Condensin complex, which is essential for life, has been known to play a key role in the dramatic condensation of genomic DNA that precedes mitosis and cell division. The new work puts
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