Higher cutoffs led to more accurate identification of high-functioning
Diagnosticians would do well to raise the bar when testing high-functioning people for pre-clinical signs of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study. Higher test cutoffs, rather than the standard group average, more accurately predicted how many highly intelligent people would deteriorate over time. This finding is reported in the January issue of Neuropsychology, which is published by the American Psych
Two articles and a Commentary in this week’s issue highlight how combination therapy offers the best hope for tackling drug resistance for the millions of people worldwide affected by malaria.
Drug resistance is the main barrier to effective malaria treatment. Artemisinin (extract of sweet wormwood , commonly used in Chinese herbal medicine) and its derivatives, artemether and artesunate, are of potential importance as other malarial drugs have been associated with microbial resistance.
A bacterium that can be dangerous to premature babies and young infants could be more widespread in the environment than previously thought, suggest authors of a research letter in this week’s issue of THE LANCET.
Enterobacter sakazakii occasionally causes illness among premature babies and infants. In some previously described outbreaks, infant formula-contaminated during factory production or bottle preparation-was recognised as a source for bacterial colonisation; however the degree of wi
At 19.44 hours GMT on 2nd January NASA’s space probe, STARDUST, successfully flew through Comet Wild 2, collecting interstellar particles and dust on its way. One of the instruments on board, the Dust Flux Monitor Instrument (DFMI), has been built by a team which include space scientists from the Open University.
Since its launch in February 1999, STARDUST has covered 3.2 billion km (2.3 billion miles). It is the first mission designed to bring samples back from a known comet. The study of c
At a press briefing in London today, Professor Colin Pillinger (Open University), Beagle lead scientist, and Dr Mark Sims (University of Leicester), the mission manager, congratulated their colleagues at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the successful landing of the Spirit rover on Mars.
“I’d like to give congratulations to NASA and the Spirit team for getting the lander down safely,” said Professor Pillinger. “We wish them every luck.”
Adding his congratulations, Mark Sims said,
Scientists have identified a gene in the cerebral cortex that apparently controls the developmental clock of embryonic nerve cells, a finding that could open another door to tissue replacement therapy in the central nervous system. In a new study, the researchers found that they could rewind the clock in young cortical cells in mice by eliminating a gene called Foxg1. The finding could potentially form the basis of a new method to push progenitor cells in the brain to generate a far wider array of ti
In research published today scientists at the John Innes Centre (JIC), Norwich(1), report on what plants do during the hours of darkness. During daylight hours plants use the energy from sunlight to power the production of food (sugar) from carbon dioxide and water. This process (photosynthesis) is well understood, but what happens when the sun goes down? The JIC researchers have found a previously unknown sugar transport system within plants and this has, for the first time, shed light on what plan
A team of scientists has discovered bacteria in a hole drilled more than 4,000 feet deep in volcanic rock on the island of Hawaii near Hilo, in an environment they say could be analogous to conditions on Mars and other planets.
Bacteria are being discovered in some of Earth’s most inhospitable places, from miles below the ocean’s surface to deep within Arctic glaciers. The latest discovery is one of the deepest drill holes in which scientists have discovered living organisms encas
Study raises questions about potential impact of climate change
A study has shown that marine life around the world is surprisingly dependent on a single ocean circulation pattern in the Southern Hemisphere where nutrient-rich water rises from the deep and spreads across the seas.
The results suggest that ocean life may be more sensitive to climate change than previously believed because most global warming predictions indicate that major ocean circulation patterns will cha
Find opens debate about whether man’s earliest ancestors came from Asia and were diurnal or nocturnal
A skull and jawbones recently found in China is the oldest well-preserved primate fossil ever discovered – as well as the best evidence of the presence of early primates in Asia. But the fossil raises the tantalizing possibility that remote human ancestors may have originated in Asia and stirs up debate about the nature of early primates.
In the words of Robert D. Martin
Study in NEJM indicates dietary fatty acids may influence atherosclerosis in a segment of the population genetically at risk
Scientists have found the first strong link in humans between a common gene and risk for the disease that leads to most heart attacks and strokes, according to results of a study by researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
People with a variant form of a gene ca
An international team of researchers finds that taking a single daily dose of an approved antiviral drug known as valacyclovir can reduce the transmission of genital herpes to uninfected partners by 50 percent. The results are published in the Jan. 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
The team of researchers led by Dr. Larry Corey, a member of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research, conducted a study of nearly 1,500 heterosexual monogamous couples in which one partner had genital herpes
In the future, your cell phone calls and television pictures could become a lot clearer thanks to tiny antennas thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair. At least that’s the speculation of a University of Southern California researcher who has been investigating nanotube transistors.
The USC scientist, Bart Kosko, Ph.D., a professor in the school’s Electrical Engineering Department, led a study that has demonstrated for the first time that minuscule antennas, in t
Trapping carbon dioxide in an icy age
In collaboration with oceanographers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), a team of geologists at Washington University in St. Louis is using a rare instrument on the ocean floor just west of California. One of their earliest projects was to see if it’s possible to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it on the ocean floor. The research is supported by the Department of Energy.
The geologists,
Researchers of the Moscow State Textile University have invented the way to impart a stable fragrance to fabrics and polymeric fibers. The smell of rose, hyacinth or lily of the valley does not disappear even after washing.
The application of aromatic rugs, polymeric fiber napkins or fragrant fabrics will be driven by fantasy that can be put to life thanks to the development by the Moscow scientists from the State Textile University. They have learned to process fabrics with special substanc
Russian scientists’ efforts targeted to recover European bison (Bison bonasus) which are exterminated everywhere have succeeded. According to the results of the all-Russian accounting of the bison quantity, their population has grown by 20% within the last five years. Herds of these relic ungulates living at large is a dream that has good chances to come true.
The last wild bison were exterminated by 1927, only 48 animals remained scattered all over the Zoos of different countries, although
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