Recent studies have shown the importance of links between soil organisms and those feeding above-ground. However, to date these have involved two or three trophic levels, because it has been assumed that the effects weaken as one progresses up or down a food chain. In a forthcoming paper in Ecology Letters, Gange, Brown & Aplin show that strong interactions occur between four trophic levels.
They found that symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi in the soil affect plant growth, which determined the a
Leeds researchers are aiming to unlock the secrets of the British weather, bringing forecasters one step closer to that elusive holy grail: the ability to predict exactly where, when and how much rain is going to fall.
Dr Alan Blyth from the school of the environment explains: “There’s still a lot we don’t know about exactly how rain is formed, so it’s no surprise that the forecasting models don’t always get it right, particularly in relation to the quantity of rain that’s going to fall.”
A novel approach that combines gene therapy and radiation therapy for treating prostate cancer has shown promising results for its safety and effectiveness, according to Henry Ford Hospital researchers.
The study, published in this month’s edition of Cancer Research, shows that patients experienced no significant side effects when treated with gene therapy and radiation therapy. It also showed that the treatment lowered patients’ prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and eliminated the
The European Space Agency is working with Portuguese organisations on how space technology can improve road safety.
Each year in Europe, 40 000 people die and 1 700 000 are injured in road accidents. Statistics show that one in three Europeans will become road accident victims during the course of their lifetime. These appalling figures are from the European Commission’s White Paper “European Transport policy for 2010: time to decide”.
Europe is looking at ways to lower thes
The building community soon may have radio vision—a new way to “see” moisture inside walls. Building researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have joined forces with Intelligent Automation Inc. in Rockville, Md., to develop a way to use ultra wide-band radio waves to non-destructively detect moisture within the walls of a building. As any homeowner who’s suffered with leaky plumbing or mold problems will tell you, the current state of the art for pinpointing moi
New research from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) suggests that next-generation, high-temperature superconductor (HTS) wire can withstand more mechanical strain than originally thought. As a result, superconductor power cables employing this future wire may be used for transmission grid applications. Projected to become available in three to four years, the advanced superconductor wire (known in the industry as second generation HTS wire) is expected to cost less than the HT
Chicago has one of the highest rates of lead poisoning in the United States, an extremely persistent health problem that particularly plagues urban areas. Now a new study by Northwestern University researchers shows that edible plants grown in urban gardens could contain potentially hazardous amounts of lead.
Kimberly A. Gray, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University, and her team tested a variety of plants cultivated in Chicago residential garde
Adding greenery in the form of a garden to the often sterile, cold environment of hospitals and other healthcare facilities can reduce stress in patients, visitors and staff and even lessen a patient’s pain in some instances, says a Texas A&M University authority on health care design.
Roger Ulrich, professor and director of the Center for Health Systems & Design at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture, says a growing body of research is giving credibility to the widely held belief
Enormous quantities of sediment are deposited in the flood-plains traversed by the Amazon and its tributaries in times of flooding. Scientists have hitherto considered the sedimentation rate to be generally constant with time.
Research conducted jointly by the IRD, the Universities of Washington1 and California2 and the Bolivian National Meteorology and Hydrology Service (SENAMHI) of La Paz, on two Bolivian rivers shows on the contrary that such events are irregular and less frequent than h
For the first time supercomputers in the UK and the US have been linked to carry out an interactive scientific experiment. It involves three of the most powerful computing resources in the world working in parallel with each other.
This is the first demonstration of the use of the “Grid” to simultaneously link the high performance computers with remote visualisation centres in the UK and the US. This allowed scientists to interact with the computer models as they evolved in real time.
A gene responsible for lymphatic vessel formation
Novel discoveries at the University of Helsinki, Finland, about the development of the lymphatic network may help researchers to better understand the mechanisms of cancer and its metastasis, and also diseases such as lymphedema, wound healing and inflammatory and autoimmune disorders.
Lymphatic vascular network is essential in transporting the tissue fluids and immune cells from tissues to the nearby lymph nodes and back to t
IRISCOM is a system that enables the total control of a computer through the movement of the eye. This idea has been awarded the 1st Prize at the 2003 “New Basque Enterprise” Business Ideas Competition. The service is already operating and providing very good results for those with various disabilities and with ages ranging from 6 to 75.
IRISCOM uses a system known as Quick Glance that tracks the movement of the eye. This device substitutes the mouse used in Windows applications.
Th
For decades, doctors have known that patients who develop higher than normal blood sugar eventually require medication and ultimately need to take insulin, having progressed to what is known as Type 2, or adult-onset diabetes. So when a natural protein analog known as GLP-1 was found to lower blood sugar levels in laboratory mice, researchers began investigating its effectiveness in diabetes patients in clinical trials. Once again, they found that GLP-1 lowered blood sugar and increased insulin produ
Enzymes, microbes and fungi are being brought into service to help clean up industrial and urban pollution, minesites, pesticide residues and chemically degraded agricultural areas.
CSIRO’s Dr John Oakeshott says that bioremediation of pesticides and other toxins has the potential to earn significant export dollars, as the work of Australian researchers finds overseas markets. It can also mean huge savings for Australian industry.
CSIRO is hosting an international Bioremediati
Better competitive ability for new products
VTT, Nokia, Ericsson and several other telecom companies in central and southern Europe have worked together in the EU IST-programme research project SYDIC-Telecom to specify a conceptual model for electronic systems design, and have defined the relevant concepts in a new glossary. They have further defined means for companies to better reuse work done once in product design. Thus the European companies in the field will be able to create ne
Tropical regions could enjoy secure food supplies over the next fifty years if local smallholder farmers are helped to help themselves, says a University of East Anglia development expert writing in this week’s international journal Science.
Professor Michael Stocking acknowledges that soil degradation is rife in some areas and that around a billion people currently lack food security, but he questions the bleak picture of the future of tropical soils and food security often painted by
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