New research suggests that pointing enhances understanding
In some cultures, pointing is a faux pas, sometimes even insulting. New research is turning this social don’t on its head, showing that hand gestures, such as pointing, can enhance the understanding of messages.
While describing portraits, participants in a study who used referential gesturing were better able to identify targets and reduce verbal cues than participants who only relied on verbal directions.
A group of researchers from The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute and from the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) has identified a small synthetic molecule that can control the fate of embryonic stem cells.
This compound, called cardiogenol C, causes mouse embryonic stem cells to selectively differentiate into “cardiomyocytes,” or heart muscle cells, an important step on the road to developing new therapies for repairing damage
An increase in the spread of rust diseases could have devastating results on the fast-growing ornamental crop industry, say pathologists with The American Phytopathological Society (APS).
The U.S. ornamental plant industry, which includes deciduous and evergreen trees, shrubs, cut flowers, and foliage and flowering potted plants, grew in value to $14.3 billion in 2002. Geranium, chrysanthemum, gladiolus, and daylily are just a few of the many crops produced in the U.S.
According t
Cells that produce insulin have been unexpectedly found in the fat, liver and bone marrow of diabetic mice, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in a report that appeared today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“In fact, the appearance of insulin-producing cells occurs in both type 1 (juvenile) and type 2 (adult-onset) diabetic mice,” said Dr. Lawrence Chan, chief of the BCM endocrinology section and professor in the department of medicine and molecular
For the first time, scientists have identified fresh produce as the source of an outbreak of human Yersinia pseudotuberculosis infections, according to an article published in the March 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online. The outbreak was identified in Finland and traced epidemiologically to farms producing lettuce.
Y. pseudotuberculosis, first identified in 1883, causes infections characterized by fever and abdominal pain that are often confused with acute
Increased levels of water temperature can have critical effects on predator-prey interactions in the marine environment. Increased water temperature, for example, could be beneficial to a predator if the primary effect were to accelerate its level of metabolism, and thus enhance foraging activity. On the other hand, warm temperatures could also enhance the metabolism of the prey, increasing its activity, mobility, and ability to escape from predators.
In a recent issue of the Marine Ecology
A new imaging technique used by a group of researchers at the University of Washington and elsewhere has revealed a previously unknown cellular structure in the retinas of mice. The structure is the site for an important part of the retinoid cycle, a chemical process critical to vision, the scientists said. Results of their study, which took more than three years, appeared in the Feb. 2 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology.
Dubbed a retinosome, the newly discovered organelle houses retinyl
It used to be considered dogma that a nerve, once injured, could never be repaired. Now, researchers have learned that some nerves, even nerves in parts of the brain, can regenerate or be replaced. By studying the chemical signals that encourage or impede the repair of nerves, researchers at the University of Washington, the Salk Institute, and other institutions may contribute to eventual treatments for injured spines and diseased retinas, according to a presentation at the annual meeting of the Ame
E-commerce makes it possible for a customer to order a mix of books, CDs and videos which will be shipped within 48 hours. Increasing “B2C” (business-to-customer) e-commerce and other ordering methods requires a new mailing and packaging philosophy. The partners in EUREKA project E! 2550 MAILPACK have developed a new mail management and packaging system to meet this challenge.
“Currently such orders are fulfilled by hand, or semi-automatic systems,” explains Ad Linssen, Financial Manager at
You would imagine that a 500,000 kilometre long arch of super heated plasma releasing energy equal to the simultaneous explosion of 40 billion Hiroshima atomic bombs would be as easy to “hear” as it is to “see” – but it’s not. Astrophysicists have long thought about using the acoustic waves in these flares to understand more about these gigantic events, that can be dozens of times bigger than the Earth, but have been unable to use effectively up till now. Now researchers at the University of Warwick,
No matter how funny the joke, many women try not to laugh. They worry about coughing or sneezing unexpectedly, afraid the pressure on the bladder will cause a loss of control. Regardless of how recently they’ve been to the ladies’ room, many women feel the need to go again, victims of an “overactive” bladder that tends to contract even when it isn’t full. Unfortunately, many of these women – and those with other types of urinary incontinence – live in fear, frustratio
A new tablet could hold the key for men who suffer premature ejaculation, reports Marina Murphy in Chemistry & Industry Magazine. Trials by a US company have shown the pill, compound LI 301, to have an effect on everyone tested. Trials suggest the drug starts working within two hours, so it could be taken on an as-needed basis.
Currently, there are no approved treatments for premature ejaculation. There is no definite date set for the release of LI 301 although some estimates suggest it coul
A snowboarder’s dream come true: THE HUB, a ’wearable electronics’ jacket wired for both sound and mobile telephony capable of withstanding the most radical snowboarding environment.
Designed by Infineon Technologies and O’Neill Europe (a leading high-quality sports wear and gear producer), THE HUB incorporates technology resulting from initial research done under the European Commission’s ESPRIT and IST research programmes.
“The success of wearable electr
Open telematic platforms offer the possibility of integrating Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) components by allowing service providers and equipment manufacturers to test, upgrade or demonstrate their products, services, equipment and standards free of charge. SMITH provides such a platform helping to guarantee that adopted solutions comply with existing and emerging European standards.
Testbed contributes to ITS standards
The quality manager of the IST programme funded
Wavelet bootstrapping
For certain classes of data that may be very expensive or difficult to obtain, a new statistical technique may provide useful information from a single data run by allowing meaningful re-sampling.
The technique, known as “wavelet bootstrapping” or “wavestrapping,” has applications in the geophysical sciences, bioinformatics, medical imaging, nanotechnology and other areas. It can also be useful for rapidly obtaining information from small data sets in s
The recent marriage of evolutionary biology with developmental biology has resulted in the birth of a new field, evolutionary developmental biology, or “evo-devo.” Evo-devo scientists study the mechanisms that produce evolutionary changes in body plans over time. As one of the field’s creators, Indiana University Bloomington biologist Rudolf Raff brings new understanding to the evolution of humans and other organisms by uniting fossil data and information about the genes that control development
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