Results may help settle debate about how Earth sheds its internal heat
Like doctors taking a sonogram of a human body, Princeton geoscientists have captured images of the interior of the Earth and revealed structures that help explain how the planet changes and ages.
The scientists used tremors from earthquakes to probe the inside of the planet just as sound waves allow doctors to look inside a mother’s womb. The technique, a greatly refined version of earlier efforts,
Scientists who developed the first yeast model of Parkinson’s disease (PD) have been able to describe the mechanisms of an important gene’s role in the disease. Tiago Fleming Outeiro, Ph.D., and Susan Lindquist, Ph.D., of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studied the gene’s actions under normal conditions and under abnormal conditions to learn how and when the gene’s product, alpha-synuclein, becomes harmful to surrounding cells. The scie
Researchers at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a protein that breast cancer tumors over-produce when they become resistant to the drug tamoxifen. The researchers said their finding could help them predict which tumors will benefit from tamoxifen — the front-line drug used to treat operable breast cancer — and which tumors won’t.
Future studies will be able to determine if tumors that over-produce this protein, called MTA-1, could be treated with a different hormonal
A study led by Imperial College London has shown for the first time it is possible to help prevent organ rejection using a novel strategy that redirects the body’s immune response instead of suppressing it.
Writing in the Journal of Clinical Investigation today, researchers from the University of Cambridge, the University of Edinburgh, Lorantis Ltd and Imperial demonstrate that it is possible in mice to alter whether T white blood cells specialise to attack foreign tissue and th
By studying how monkeys choose to look at lighted targets for juice rewards, neurobiologists have identified a still-mysterious region of the cerebral cortex as an area that judges the value of rewards, and adjusts that value as circumstances change.
The finding adds a significant piece to the puzzle of how the brain is wired to make judgments, perhaps even moral judgments, about the outside world, said the researchers. The findings may also have implications for understanding a number of
In a first-of-its-kind study, seismologists have used tiny “microearthquakes” along a section of California’s notorious San Andreas Fault to create unique images of the contorted geology scientists will face as they continue drilling deeper into the fault zone to construct a major earthquake “observatory.”
A chain of 32 seismometers recorded the small earthquakes at underground locations along a 7,100-foot-deep vertical drill hole. This eight-inch-diameter pilot hole was excavated last
Device Allows Early Detection of Botulism Toxins and More Effective Treatment
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have developed a device that speeds the detection of a virulent strain of botulism neurotoxin from hours or days to minutes, making treatment or vaccination more effective.
Botulinum neurotoxin B, one of five strains that are known to be toxic to humans, is targeted in the paper that appeared in the Nov. 11 issue of the Proceedings of the Nat
Nearly 10 years after Los Angeles was shaken by the devastating, magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake, scientists at NASA and other institutions say maturing space-based technologies, new ground-based techniques and more complex computer models are rapidly advancing our understanding of earthquakes and earthquake processes.
Dr. Andrea Donnellan, a geophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., says the past decade has seen substantial progress in space-based earthqu
With a slight tweak of temperature, geneticist Barry Ganetzky’s flies drop like, well, flies.
For 25 years, Ganetzky has been identifying, breeding and studying a raft of fly mutants that, when exposed to minor temperature change, become completely paralyzed. The flies, which quickly recover when returned to room temperature, are now finding many uses in studies of human neurological disorders, drug discovery and insecticide development.
Ganetzky, a University of Wisco
In a daring yet successful experiment to cure deadly brain tumors, researchers have combined the cancer-killing properties of poliovirus together with a harmless genetic coding element from the common cold.
The resulting modified virus created a remarkably strong anti-cancer agent that rapidly killed cancer cells in laboratory cell cultures and in animals — and without causing polio, said Matthias Gromeier, M.D., assistant professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at the Duke Compre
The structure of the proton is under the microscope at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) in Newport News, Virginia, where a series of experiments continues to produce unexpected results.
Simple theories of proton structure say that the way electric charge is distributed in the proton is the same as the magnetization distribution. But Jefferson Lab results indicate these distributions are definitely different.
A
A study led by Imperial College London has shown for the first time it is possible to help prevent organ rejection using a novel strategy that redirects the body’s immune response instead of suppressing it.
Writing in the Journal of Clinical Investigation today, researchers from the University of Cambridge, the University of Edinburgh, Lorantis Ltd and Imperial demonstrate that it is possible in mice to alter whether T white blood cells specialise to attack foreign tissue and thus cause reje
Authors of a UK study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET propose a new approach for cervical cancer screening. Testing for the human papilloma virus (HPV)-the main cause of cervical cancer-could be the primary screening tool, with cytology reserved for women who test positive for HPV.
HPV testing (by genetic analysis) of cervical smears is known to be more sensitive than conventional cytology for detecting pre-malignant cervical cells called high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN
Certain forms of cancer occur more often in patients with type 1 diabetes compared with the general population in the corresponding sex and age groups. This has been shown in a new Swedish study from Karolinska Institutet.
The study, which has been published this week, is the first large-scale investigation of the risk of cancer among patients with type 1 (youth onset) diabetes. It included nearly 30,000 patients who had been treated at hospitals between 1965 and 1999. Of these, 355 received
INASMET Technological Centre is working on a project to develop metallic foams. Metal foams and cellular metals have become one the preferred research fields in mew materials in recent times. Given their special structure and extreme lightness, they have enormous potential for use in a never-ending list of applications in diverse industrial sectors.
Metallic foams are, as their name indicates, metallic materials with a porous structure. They can take either the form an open structure of int
Pioneering worldwide research has unearthed a major new source of data for weather forecasters hoping to predict future climate changes
For the past three years a team of international experts, led by the University of Sunderland, have been examining a vast array of ships’ logs – from 1750 to 1850 – which has given one of the most accurate pictures yet of daily weather over the oceans.
These logs have never before been examined in such detail and the findings have given scie
Feedback
