“The light shines brilliantly these days at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL). The start up of SSRL’s new synchrotron light facility, SPEAR3, guarantees a world-class program in x-ray science for years to come,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. “This is the first time the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health have joined in funding an accelerator research facility. I expect this to be a long and productive collaboration whose impact will be truly
Ownership of genetic materials, environmental consequences in question as 21st Century bio-prospecting gets underway in Antarctica
Work should be stepped up on international agreements to oversee prospecting efforts in Antarctica by research institutions, universities and pharmaceutical companies to discover and stake ownership to promising organisms and compounds with genetic properties that make survival possible in extremely cold, arid and salty conditions, says a new UN University
Détente, and a good fence, can be far more effective than all-out assault in the age-old war between man and microbe, University of Chicago researchers report in the February issue of Gastroenterology. By injecting a protective coating into the intestines to pacify bacteria there instead of relying on antibiotics to kill them, the scientists were able to protect mice from otherwise lethal infections.
The protective coating, a high-molecular-weight polyethylene glycol, protected mice who had
Antibiotics, antihistamines, alcohol use, tobacco use, untreated hypertension and multisystem autoimmune diseases are potential risk factors for a retinal disorder known as central serous chorioretinopathy. This is the conclusion of a study appearing in the February issue of Ophthalmology, the clinical journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Eye M.D. Association. Central serous chorioretinopathy, or CSCR, is a disorder in which retinal cells detach and atrophy, causing visual impairment
Research from Iron Mountain mine sheds light on acid drainage
Examining life extracted from toxic runoff at a northern California mine, researchers for the first time have reconstructed multiple individual genomes from a microbial community taken from an environmental sample rather than from a laboratory culture.
According to Jill Banfield, the leader of the scientific team behind the discovery, “This takes the study of natural biogeochemical systems to a new level.”
New findings may pave way for improved pain relief methods
Although physicians administer radiation therapy to relieve bone cancer pain in more than 100,000 patients each year in the United States, little is known about why the treatment works. Using an experimental radiation model, University of Minnesota Cancer Center researchers and colleagues have determined that radiation treatment may relieve pain by reducing bone tumor size and decreasing progression of cancer-induced bone dest
Children with cerebral palsy who are severely impaired showed significant improvement in their motor skills using a new experimental physical therapy regimen, said researchers at Georgetown University and University of Alabama at Birmingham. The study – the first randomized, controlled trial of its kind conducted on children – appears in the February 2 issue of the journal Pediatrics.
All treated children in this study outperformed the children in conventional therapy across all measures of
It’s common knowledge that stealing is wrong. Even if the thief is a dumb animal, for instance, a fox in a hen house, it deserves punishment anyway. But what if a leopard, a rare animal registered in the Red Book (their population being extremely limited on the planet) is a thief or has killed someone’s sheep or horse? How can environment protection interests be reconciled with stock-breeders’ losses? Specialists of WWF Russia have clearly proved that such reconciliation is possible.
Th
Ruby is mineralogically the chromiferous variety of corundum gemstone, in other words an aluminium oxide in which some of the aluminium ions have been substituted by chromium. Chromium contributes, along with vanadium, another metal constituent of ruby, to the crystal’s red colour. The most prized ruby deposits are those of Central and South-East Asia, like in the celebrated Mogok deposit in Myanmar (ex-Burma), from which the highest gem-quality rubies are extracted, reputed for their intense “pigeo
Chemists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have uncovered the molecular activity of an enzyme responsible for naturally turning a small protein into a potent antibiotic known as a lantibiotic.
The finding is described in the Jan. 30 issue of the journal Science. The research details how the enzyme performs two biosynthetic reactions that lead to the formation of fused cyclic structures required for antimicrobial activity. The discovery unlocks a door that could lead to a ne
Careful study of changes in the genetic make-up of the SARS virus through the recent epidemic has allowed researchers from China and the University of Chicago to bolster the evidence for the animal origins of SARS and to chart three phases of the virus’s molecular evolution as it gradually adapted to human hosts, becoming more infectious over time.
The earliest phase involved cases that appeared to be independent and featured viral genomes identical to those found in animal hosts, the
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute discover the normal prion protein may contribute directly to disease
In a surprising twist on a timely topic, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute are presenting evidence that mad cow disease prions cannot kill neurons on their own and that normal, healthy cellular prion protein may be a direct accomplice in unleashing neuronal destruction.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, is caused by prions, a
A pint-sized, tree-dwelling Brazilian monkey has proven to be strikingly similar to humans when it comes to sexual responses, a national research team has discovered.
Through functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and collaborating institutions for the first time peered into the brains of fully conscious nonhuman primates to learn what’s really on their minds when it comes to sex. The research appears in the February 2004 issu
Birds were dying on an island off the coast of Florida, and people didn’t know why. A group of conservationists wondered if the culprit might be a pesticide sprayed into the air to wipe out mosquitoes. The explanation quickly came from an unlikely source in Wisconsin.
For several years, Warren Porter, a professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been working with faculty and staff across campus to develop a computer model that could predict how animals, living on a
Freighters, cruise lines, marine rescuers and coastal managers are among those who could benefit from prototype three-dimensional, three-day ocean condition forecasts created with the assistance of NASA satellite data, computer models and on-site ocean measurements.
Scientists hope to forecast ocean conditions several days ahead, much like regional weather forecasts broadcast on television news. “It’s a three-dimensional look at the ocean, from the surface to the ocean bottom,” said Yi
Views on wolves determined more by culture than individual encounters
Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? The survey says: it largely depends on who you are and what you do, according to a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the University of Wisconsin. Published in the December issue of the journal Conservation Biology, survey results among people who live with wolves in northern Wisconsin revealed that deeply rooted social identities and occupations are more powe
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