Psychology’s Ron Rensink Discovers Visual Sensing Without Seeing
Most of us have felt it before — that sinking feeling that something is about to happen, that something is not quite right. It’s the stuff of scary movies, X-Files episodes and psychic visits.
But according to a new study by Ron Rensink, an associate professor in both psychology and computer science at UBC, the “sixth sense” is a distinct mode of visual perception and may be something all of us can le
Conventional wisdom says that people deficient in one sense–such as vision or hearing–often acquire heightened acuity in another. These adjustments, of course, take place over the lifetime of an individual. Now it appears, however, that similar adjustments may occur over evolutionary time. Yoav Gilad and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthology in Germany and the Weizmann Institute in Israel have found a correlation between the loss of olfactory receptor (OR) genes, whi
The HIV protein Nef sparked intensive research after observations that patients with a rare strain of HIV lacking Nef took a very long time to develop AIDS symptoms. Nef has been linked to molecules involved in cell signaling pathways and may use them for its own ends. But how Nef does this has not been clear. Now Jacek Skowronski and his colleagues at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York have identified a mechanism involving Nef, by which HIV-infected T cells are kept from traveling to sites wi
A new anti-inflammatory compound called Lisofylline prevents diabetes from coming back after insulin-manufacturing islet cells are transplanted into diabetic mice, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Virginia Health System. The study is published in the January 20 issue of the journal Transplantation.
Pancreatic islet cell transplantation has become a promising treatment for type 1 diabetes in humans in recent years. But without several powerful immunosuppressive dr
ESA’s Mars Express, successfully inserted into orbit around Mars on 25 December 2003, is about to reach its final operating orbit above the poles of the Red Planet. The scientific investigation has just started and the first results already look very promising.
Although the seven scientific instruments on board Mars Express are still undergoing a thorough calibration phase, they have already started collecting amazing results. The first high-resolution images and spectra of Mars have al
Scientists at Aston University in Birmingham have been awarded a substantial research grant worth over half a million pounds that could lead to new treatments for human motor disorders, including Parkinson’s disease.
Dr Ian Stanford, who is a lecturer in the School of Health & Life Sciences, will lead the project which will run for the next five years.
The research will explore a relatively unknown area of the brain called the basal ganglia (BG). The BG are of a set of six int
A novel wound dressing made of genetically engineered human collagen that will enable faster and improved healing of injuries has been developed by researchers at the Hebrew University Faculty of Dental Medicine.
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the animal kingdom, including humans. It is the major constituent of connective tissues – tendons, skin, bones, cartilage, blood vessel walls and membranes. Collagen fibers are the “warp and woof” of these connective tissues and are responsi
Tumatxa is a web application that handles Translation Memories. It has been created by CodeSyntax(http://www.codesyntax.com/en ), a Basque company working with free software and language technologies. The application can be tested on our website http://www.tumatxa.com where two online demos are also available.
What are translation memories?
Translation Memory or TM is a technology widely used in professional translation and localization (unlike machine translation). The idea
Stronger or tougher? For designers of advanced materials, this tradeoff may complicate efforts to devise efficient methods for assembling nanometer-scale building blocks into exotic ceramics, glasses and other types of customized materials.
“Not all properties may benefit from microstructural refinement, so due caution needs to be exercised in materials design,” writes the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Brian Lawn in the January issue of Journal of Materials Researc
A tiny, novel device for generating tunable microwave signals has been developed by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Described in the Jan. 16 issue of Physical Review Letters, the device measures just a few micro-meters square and is hundreds of times smaller than typical microwave signal generators in use today in cell phones, wireless Internet devices, radar systems and other applications.
The device works by exploiting the fact that individual elec
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) scientists recently unveiled an online calculator on NIST’s Web site designed to make chemical analysis by mass spectrometry faster and more reliable. The tool also may make some chemical evidence introduced in criminal cases more trustworthy.
The NIST tool, called MassSpectator, automates the mathematical calculations needed to convert plots of mass spectrometry data into final results–a listing of the chemical components and conc
By modifying the surface of tiny, fluorescent crystals called quantum dots, Carnegie Mellon University scientists have enabled them to circulate for hours in animals and to provide fluorescent signals for at least eight months, the longest that anyone has observed quantum dot fluorescence in a living animal. This technological feat overcomes a major limitation, making quantum dots finally practical for long-term studies in mammals.
Reporting in the January/February issue of Bioconjugate Che
Rutgers researchers have discovered what could be the newest target for drugs in the treatment of memory and learning disabilities as well as diseases such as Alzheimer’s and fetal alcohol syndrome: a protein known as cypin.
Cypin is found throughout the body, but in the brain it regulates nerve cell or neuron branching. Branching or dendrite growth is an important process in normal brain function and is thought to increase when a person learns. A reduction in branching is associated w
By exposing rats to novel objects and measuring their brain signals, Duke University researchers have detected telltale signal reverberations in wide areas of the brain during sleep that reveal the process of consolidating memories. According to the researchers, their findings offer important evidence that extensive regions of the brain are involved in processing memories during a particular form of sleep, called slow-wave sleep.
The researchers said their findings lay to rest previous doub
This time next year, ESA’s Huygens spaceprobe will be descending through the atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon, becoming the first spacecraft to land on a body in the outer Solar System.
Earlier this month, the giant ringed planet Saturn was closer to Earth than it will be for the next thirty years. All the planets orbit the Sun as if on a giant racetrack, travelling in the same direction but in different lanes.
Those in the outer lanes have further to travel than those on the in
The first Russian power system based on a solid-oxide fuel cell is tested in Snezhinsk. By importance, this event is comparable with the first automobile construction.
The first Russian power system based on a solid-oxide fuel cell had been tested in the All-Russia Research Institute of Technical Physics (Russian Federal Nuclear Center, Snezhinsk, Chelyabinsk oblast). In this system, hydrogen is obtained from natural gas, and oxygen – from the air. For the first time, such a system ha
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