Diarrhoea, a worldwide killer, could be diagnosed more rapidly thanks to a new diagnostic test devised by researchers at the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England. It is anticipated that this will lead to the development of a device capable of diagnosis at the bedside, saving both lives and money.
The new test produces a chemical fingerprint for different strains of viral and bacterial infection and allows them to be differentiated from ‘normal’ controls, according
A group of Dutch investigators has published in the March-April issue of Psychotherapy and Psychoomatics a study linking childhood adversities and alexithymia (the inability to express emotions).
Affect regulation is assumed to be a biologically based function that can become disrupted by inadequate parenting and by traumatic experiences. We studied the relation between the perceived parental parenting style, and sexual and physical abuse, with alexithymia, dissociation, anxiety and depress
A spectroscopy technique that offers advances in detection of toxic chemicals and counting of molecules has been demonstrated by a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) scientist and collaborators. Described in the Feb. 8 issue of the Journal of Chemical Physics, the NIST-patented technique may be useful for development of miniaturized chemical sensors, as well as for fundamental surface science studies.
The technique (a variation on cavity ring-down spectroscopy) relies on
A new collaboration at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will contend with lots of sticking points–by design. NIST and industry researchers intend to devise rapid screening and measurement methods that speed discovery of new epoxies, pressure-sensitive adhesives and other products manufactured for the $30 billion global adhesives market.
In a project just getting under way, the partners will refine and extend miniaturized technologies for simultaneous testing of hun
You should never use a pen, pencil or hard-tip marker to write on your CDs
That is among several recommendations made by computer scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), who sliced, diced and baked CDs and DVDs to see how long the digital information would survive.
Most CDs and DVDs will last 30 years or more if handled with care, but many factors can slash their longevity. Direct exposure to sunlight can do a great deal of damage both from
A group of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has solved the structure of a protein that regulates the expression of genes by controlling the stability of mRNA — an intermediate form of genetic information between DNA genes and proteins.
“Gene expression can be controlled at many levels, ” says Scripps Research Professor Peter Wright, Ph.D., who is chairman of the Department of Molecular Biology and Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Investigator in Medical Research at Scripps Research.
Equipped with cutting-edge techniques to track the activity of tens of thousands of genes in a single experiment, biologists now face a new challenge – determining how to analyze this tidal wave of data. Stanford Associate Professor of Computer Science Daphne Koller and her colleagues have come to the rescue with a strategic approach that reduces the trial-and-error aspect of genetic sequence analysis.
’’What we’re developing is a suite of computational tools that take reams
After a 7-year interplanetary voyage, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will reach Saturn this July and begin what promises to be one of the most exciting missions in planetary exploration history.
After years of work, scientists have just completed plans for Cassini’s observations of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
“Of course, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy,” said Ralph Lorenz, an assistant research scientist at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Plan
Madzuu is a village in Kenya’s western highlands and Lake Victoria basin where the rainfall is abundant, and there is some access to urban markets. And yet about 61 percent of the village population earned less than 50 cents a day in real terms in both 1989 and 2002. Many people there are trapped in chronic poverty from which escape is difficult.
Alice Pell, professor of animal science at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., is the principal investigator on a five-year, multidisciplinary
Researchers have identified an astounding 4,000 distinctive proteins in human blood plasma, a critical step toward cataloging biological markers for early diagnosis of cancer and other diseases.
“This is 10 times the number of proteins identified” and previously reported, said Richard D. Smith, a senior scientist and Battelle Fellow at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The proteomics advance was announced Saturday at the American Association for the Advan
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today launched the first public database of results from clinical blood and marrow stem cell transplants involving unrelated donors. Accessible at http://www.ncbi.nih.gov/mhc, this centralized resource provides genetic as well as age, gender and ethnicity data on more than 1,300 tr
Since the advent of Darwinism in the mid-19th century, a variety of movements have jousted for the intellectual high ground in the epic evolution versus creationism debate.
At one end of the spectrum reside the “naturalistic evolutionists” who argue that life neither requires nor benefits from a divine creator. At the other pole, “scientific creationists” compress the entire history of the cosmos into 6,000 years and insist that the heavens and Earth and all life arose in one six-day creati
In a few decades, it’s likely that scientists will look back at the early part of the 21st century and regard it as a fundamental stage in understanding the importance of the effects of aerosols on Earth’s climate. In fact, it was in this time period, they may say, that aerosols were first found to be as climatologically significant as greenhouse gases.
Aerosols, tiny atmospheric particles made up of various elements and produced by a range of sources, have become a prominent conc
Security mechanisms also must protect what goes out
Passwords to guard entry aren’t enough to protect complex data – security mechanisms also must protect what goes out
“Data can easily find itself in danger of being accessed by ’bad guys,’” says emeritus professor of computer science Gio Wiederhold, who will speak about trusted information databases Feb. 14 in Seattle at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). “Pa
A three-dimensional microfabrication technique that uses a unique class of light-activated molecules to selectively initiate chemical reactions within polymers and other materials could provide an efficient way to produce complex structures with sub-micron features.
Known as “two-photon 3D lithography,” the technique could compete with existing processes for fabricating microfluidic devices, photonic bandgap structures, optical storage devices, photonic switches and couplers, sensors, actuat
A growing body of evidence questions calculations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the land will automatically provide a significant, long-term carbon “sink” to offset some of the effects of greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists reported these findings today at the 2004 AAAS (Triple-A-S) Annual Meeting.
The latest information about carbon dioxide fertilization – by which plants soak up carbon from the atmosphere – “really paints a different picture of the way the world w
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