Researchers identify first gene variant that appears to increase risk of autism in significant portion of the population
Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine are first to strongly link a specific gene with autism. While earlier studies have found rare genetic mutations in single families, a study published in the April issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry is the first to identify a gene that increases susceptibility to autism in a broad population.
Approximat
Ames Laboratory researchers studying self-assembling polymers
A group of bioinspired polymers are being studied by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory to understand how they are able to form and react to stimuli similar to the way proteins, lipids and DNA react in nature. Unlocking how these soluble block polymers are able to self-assemble could potentially lead to a variety of uses such as controlled release systems for sustained and modulated delivery of d
Imagine wireless context tags mounted inside shop windows, furniture or beside statues supplying content to your PDA as you walk through an airport or an old city centre. Such is the vision of ambient intelligence recently tested by IST-project AMBIESENSE.
The 30-month project, which runs until October 2004, has developed a system of context tags linked with digital content. Placed at strategic locations in a given environment, the tags communicate information to users relevant to their sur
The psychoactive ingredient of the drug cannabis exerts its effects on the human brain by activating proteins known as cannabinoid receptors. Dr. Maurice Elphick of Queen Mary, University of London has uncovered the first evidence that cannabinoid receptors may not be unique to humans and other vertebrates.
The genome of the sea- squirt was recently sequenced, revealing a cannabinoid receptor gene in an invertebrate for the first time. This means that these receptors were present in the com
How does a tree know it’s autumn? Thanks to its genes, which are turned on and off in a pre-determined order. But in what order? Scientists at Umeå Plant Science Center and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm have now brought to light the autumn “genetic timetable” of a tree.
Philosophers like Winnie the Pooh are not the only ones who try to understand what goes on when nature explodes in a pageant of color during the fall. Researchers ask themselves those deep questions to
The world’s dialects are multiplying faster than ever before – quashing fears that globalisation is leading to a standardising of language.
Immigrants to places like Europe, the US and Australia are creating completely new dialects when they learn the language of their host country by mixing it with aspects of their native tongue, experts will discuss at a major international conference at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne today (April 1 2004).
Previous research has
An international group of astronomers led by Dr Jean-Philippe Beaulieu (Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris) and Dr Martin Dominik (University of St Andrews) are about to continue their hunt for extrasolar planets with an enhanced world-wide telescope network in May this year. They are hoping to secure the firm evidence for the existence of Earth-mass planets orbiting stars other than the Sun, which has so far eluded astronomers. Dr Dominik will describe the project, known as PLANET (Probing Lensi
A new survey made with the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) has revealed dozens of previously unsuspected miniature galaxies in the nearby Fornax galaxy cluster. They belong to a class of galaxies dubbed “ultra-compact dwarfs” (UCDs), which was unknown before the same team of astronomers discovered 6 of them in the Fornax cluster in 2000. Now they say the UCDs outnumber the “conventional” elliptical and spiral galaxies in the central region of the Fornax cluster and they have found some in the Virgo
At present, we know of no worlds beyond our Earth where life exists. However, primitive organisms on our planet have evolved and adapted over billions of years, colonising the most inhospitable places.
Since life seems to gain a foothold in the most hostile environments, it seems distinctly possible that living organisms could exist in ice-covered oceans on worlds far from the Sun, according to Dr. David Rothery (Open University), who will be speaking today at the RAS National Astronomy Mee
These are exciting times for space exploration. For the first time in a generation, human missions beyond Earth orbit are being seriously considered by space agencies on both sides of the Atlantic. Europe has initiated the Aurora programme, with the ultimate aim of landing people on Mars by 2033, while the U.S. has recently redirected its human space activities towards a return to the Moon.
On Friday 2 April, Dr. Ian Crawford, a planetary scientist based at Birkbeck College, London, will be
Very Large Telescope sets stringent limit on possible variation of the fine-structure constant over cosmological time
A fine constant
To explain the Universe and to represent it mathematically, scientists rely on so-called fundamental constants or fixed numbers. The fundamental laws of physics, as we presently understand them, depend on about 25 such constants. Well-known examples are the gravitational constant, which defines the strength of the force acting between tw
A £5.85 million pound study of the soil in the Cheviot Hills has finally come to an end, producing a huge wealth of new information for scientists.
“I suspect we know more about the biodiversity of this one field at Sourhope than any other soil on this planet,” said Professor Michael Usher, the chairman of the Soil Biodiversity Programme steering committee.
The seven-year study, involving 120 scientists and the largest of its kind in the world, aims to improve knowledge of soil bio
GAIKER Technological Centre is leading a European project on evaluating the uses for agricultural food residues. The project analyses the generation of residues in the meat, fish, milk products, wine production and processed vegetable sectors and the uses to which these are put in other sectors.
In Europe 220 million tons of agrifood residues and by-products are generated each year from industrial processes). This study, led by Gaiker, points to the great possibilities of putting these resi
A promising enterprise became an economical and ecological disaster. The golden apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata) that was brought to Asia in 1980 to be cultured in ponds for human consumption instead spread through rice fields, irrigation channels and wetlands. It had a voracious appetite for rice seedlings and soon became a dreaded pest in the rice fields. In the Philippines alone, accumulative crop losses since the snail introduction is estimated to 1 billion US dollars. The snail is still spread
More than 250 million under-fives in the world are at risk from vitamin A deficiency. Such deficiency, currently the primary cause of avoidable blindness, provides the conditions for diseases to take hold, leading to high death rates among these young children. Several strategic options exist for combating these deficiencies: medicinal supplements, vitamin A enrichment of foods at industrial or community scale, or diet diversification founded on the use of locally available resources. The latter appr
Neurobiologists have discovered that a nearly identical version of a gene whose mutation produces an inherited language deficit in humans is a key component of the song-learning machinery in birds.
The researchers, who published their findings in the March 31, 2004, issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, said that their finding will aid research on how genes contribute to the architecture and function of brain circuitry for singing in birds.
Among the lead researchers was neurobiol
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