Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and Howard Hughes Medical Institute have found mutations in a gene linked to the progression of colon and other cancers. The research findings, published online in the March 11 issue of Science, may lead to new therapies and diagnostic tests that target this gene.
The gene in which the mutations have been found, called PIK3CA, is part of a family of genes encoding lipid kinases, enzymes that modify fatty molecules and direct cells to grow
A team of researchers at the University of California, Davis, has pieced together a clearer picture of how wheat has been able to adapt to such a wide range of climates and become one of the world’s staple food grains.
They accomplished this by isolating and cloning the VRN2 gene in wheat, which controls vernalization — the cold-weather requirement for triggering flowering. The findings of the study, which have practical implications for improving wheat varieties through manipulation
A research team at The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) led by Dr. Howard Lipshitz has discovered that a protein previously linked to mammalian embryo implantation, as well as tumour metastasis, plays similar roles in fruit fly development. This research is reported in the featured article in the March 9, 2004 issue of the scientific journal Current Biology.
“We were surprised to find such high evolutionary conservation of the structure, expression and function of these proteins – cal
Researchers Tune the Electronic Properties of Individual C60 Molecules
A team led by Michael Crommie, a staff scientist in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Materials Sciences Division and a professor of physics at the University of California at Berkeley, has used a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to attach individual potassium atoms to isolated carbon-60 molecules.
By adding potassium atoms to familiar soccer-ball-shaped “buckyballs,” Crommie and his cowork
Findings have potential implications for the use of stem cells to treat neurological diseases
A UC Irvine study on cell growth in the adult brain may provide important clues to the potential use of stem cells in the treatment of memory-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
The study shows for the first time how newborn neurons in the adult brain grow and integrate into the area involved with learning and memory. The findings may prove significant because these new neuron
Nanotechnology is about making improved products by building them from components hundreds of times smaller than a human blood cell. But how do you put things together at such a tiny scale? One way is to create the right conditions, so that they assemble themselves.
For example, a new method for producing uniform, self-assembled nanocells has been developed by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Reported in the March 10 issue of the Journal of the Americ
Choosing the best chops, steaks or other fresh meat products is a tough job. It’s a delicate balancing of leanness, juiciness, taste, marbling and more. Increasingly, meat processors use electronic devices and equipment—such as optical probes, ultrasonic sensors and digital cameras—to evaluate critical fat to meat ratios. In 2003, for instance, electronic devices determined pricing for more than 80 percent of the almost $7.5 billion worth of swine processed in the United States. Multiple dev
Using STM, researchers demonstrate precise control needed to build molecular electronics
While the semiconductor industry today routinely dopes bulk silicon with billions of atoms of boron or phosphorous to obtain desired electrical properties, a team of physicists at the University of California, Berkeley, has succeeded in changing the properties of a single molecule by doping it just one atom at a time.
“We can precisely change the exact number of dopant atoms attached to a
Using rigorous statistical analysis, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers identified a potential source of error in the surface roughness data used in the automotive industry to predict how friction affects production of metal parts during forming.
With this improved analysis, automakers should be able to more easily incorporate lighter weight materials in their products and improve fuel efficiency.
The NIST scientists presented their findings at the Soc
Talk about precision. New measurements of key wavelengths of ultraviolet light — down to a few millionths of a nanometer — are among the most precise ever reported and are improving calibrations of microlithography tools used in making integrated circuits such as those in computer chips.
The dimensions involved are 10,000 times smaller than hydrogen atoms, the smallest of all atoms.
To make the measurements, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technolo
The process of educating young people on the prevention of eating disorders needs to start as early as middle-school, emphasizes Danny J. Ballard, a Texas A&M University health education professor.
Ballard, who specializes in women’s health and school health education, said that 5 to 10 million women and a million men in the United States suffer from some type of eating disorder or borderline condition that could lead to an eating disorder. She says the two most common eating disorders
Every manufacturing process, from casting and forging, to machining and finishing, induces residual stresses in components. For critical components, such as aircraft wings and turbine blades, these stresses affect the durability and lifetime of the structures and assemblies. Current methods are either destructive (e.g. hole drilling), limited to the surface (laboratory X-ray), or rely on large facilities (synchrotron and neutron sources). The new method uses a laboratory source of high energy polychr
Results of research from Hong Kong in this week’s issue of THE LANCET suggests that severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) without pneumonia could be common among populations affected by SARS outbreaks.
SARS has now affected 30 countries in five continents, with more than 8400 cases and more than 910 deaths. A novel virus, the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), is known to be the causative agent. Despite this knowledge, seroprevalence studies and mass screening for detection of possible subcl
Current methods of predicting short-term intake of pesticide residues by humans should be improved, according to a new study published in the journal Pest Management Science.
In the article, researchers from around the world come together to review existing safety measures and make eleven recommendations based on their research. Studies suggest that a single, or short-term exposure can affect health, as well as long term exposure.
‘The publication will prove an invaluable resource
ESA PR 15-2004. Today the Rosetta Science Working Team has made the final selection of the asteroids that Rosetta will observe at close quarters during its journey to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Steins and Lutetia lie in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Rosetta’s scientific goals always included the possibility of studying one or more asteroids from close range. However, only after Rosetta’s launch and its insertion into interplanetary orbit could the
A novel process for fabricating tuneable lasers using micro-machined mirrors was developed by IST project TUNVIC. Part of a special two-part device, it allows variable wavelengths of emitted light that will ultimately allow increased volumes of data to be sent through a single optical fibre cable.
High-capacity data links between networked routers are part of the Internet’s backbone. These links use optical fibre cables through which information is sent using semiconductor lasers. By d
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