Despite the rich knowledge scientists now have of the genes that constitute the human genome, researchers have yet to unravel the precise choreography by which they work – or malfunction – together in the cell in response to triggers from the outside world.
“There is a code we need to understand to determine what happens to a cell under many different conditions, and ultimately to make predictions of how an entire genome is regulated,” explains Julia Zeitlinger, a postdoctoral associate at
Future cellular telephones and other wireless communication devices are expected to be much more versatile as consumers gain the ability to program them in a variety of ways. Scientists and engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have teamed up with a variety of computing and telecommunications companies to develop both the test methods and the standard protocols needed to make this possible.
Programmable networks will include location aware services that will
People with depression are five times more likely to have a breathing-related sleep disorder than non-depressed people, according to a study at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The study is the first to show a link between depression and sleep apnea along with its related disorders.
Although it remains unclear how the conditions are linked, Maurice Ohayon, MD, PhD, said his study should encourage physicians to test depressed patients for this type of sleep disorder.
“Ph
Researchers at Harvard University have demonstrated for the first time that they can easily apply a film of tiny, high-performance silicon nanowires to glass and plastic, a development that could pave the way for the next generation of cheaper, lighter and more powerful consumer electronics. The development could lead to such futuristic products as disposable computers and optical displays that can be worn in your clothes or contact lenses, they say.
Their research appears in the November is
The Dutch Ministers of Economical Affairs and of Education, Culture and Science have announced the mission name of the next Soyuz flight to the International Space Station, which has Dutch ESA astronaut André Kuipers serving as flight engineer. This mission has been christened ’DELTA’.
Flanked by Kuipers and ESA’s Director of Human Spaceflight, Mr Jörg Feustel-Büechl, on Tuesday Ministers Brinkhorst and Van der Hoeven unveiled the mission logo and also announced the experime
Yesterday, at its 105th meeting, ESA’s Science Programme Committee (SPC) has made important decisions concerning the Cosmic Vision programme. Due to the current financial exigencies and an outlook with no budget increase or other relief, the SPC was forced to cancel the Eddington mission and rescope the BepiColombo mission.
Eddington had two aims, both remarkable and very pertinent to front-line astronomical interests. The first aim was to look for Earth-like planets outside our solar s
A computer model developed at Ohio State University is giving researchers a new understanding of how municipal wells at a famous toxic waste site in Woburn, Massachusetts, came to be contaminated, and how much contamination was delivered to residents.
As dramatized in the book and movie A Civil Action, a cluster of childhood leukemia cases in Woburn led to a lengthy court battle in the 1980s, during which three commercial companies were accused of dumping toxic chemicals that entered
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Bielefeld, Germany, have discovered a new type of hollow spherical vesicles formed by large-scale, wheel-shaped inorganic molecules. These vesicles, described in the November 6, 2003, issue of Nature, represent a new kind of self-assembly in nature with implications for the emerging field of nanoscience as well the solution behavior of other types of particles or systems previously thought to be unrela
A new study cautions that drugs being designed to enhance some forms of memory in the elderly may actually worsen working memory, such as the cognitive ability to hold a phone number in mind long enough to dial it.
The research, published online in Neuron on November 5, analyzes the effects of these drugs on multiple brain regions and suggests that the medications may actually have hazardous consequences on higher-order thought processes that are regulated by the prefrontal cortex.
Simple semantics may help quell patient’s fears about taking part in medical education, according to a letter to this week’s BMJ.
Surprisingly, patients tend to accept a trainee’s presence in a consultation if they are addressed as student doctor or trainee doctor, as opposed to medical student, writes Dr Hany George El-Sayeh. This may be because of fears about being seen by a scruffy, disinterested youth who may well later report their intimacies in the bar.
He also recomme
A computer model developed at Ohio State University is giving researchers a new understanding of how municipal wells at a famous toxic waste site in Woburn, Massachusetts, came to be contaminated, and how much contamination was delivered to residents.
As dramatized in the book and movie A Civil Action, a cluster of childhood leukemia cases in Woburn led to a lengthy court battle in the 1980s, during which three commercial companies were accused of dumping toxic chemicals that entered two o
Young adults who received growth hormone treatment as children for deficiencies in producing that essential hormone likely will need continued treatment for years and at higher doses than doctors now prescribe, a new multi-center North American study concludes.
Higher doses of the hormone should help protect such patients from excessive and eventually crippling declines in the density of their bones and from higher blood levels of harmful fats that could promote heart disease, researchers sa
Cognitive abilities are influenced by an interplay of genes and environment. With regard to the genetic component, multiple genes are assumed to be responsible for interindividual variation in cognitive abilities. Despite tremulous progress in molecular genetics, little is known about specific genes that contribute to this complex behavior. In an attempt to further delineate the genetic component of cognitive abilities, the authors investigated the relationship between a genetic variation in the prio
ONE of NASA’s highest profile space telescopes is losing its sight. The $2 billion Chandra X-Ray Observatory is suffering from a mysterious build-up of grease on an optical filter in front of one of its cameras, blocking almost half the light at some frequencies.
Since being placed in orbit by the space shuttle in 1999, Chandra has been studying X-rays emitted by astronomical objects such as quasars and black holes. It is expected to carry on working for up to 15 years.
Jane
Using naturally occurring patterns of stable-isotopes created by weather and plants, Jason Duxbury of the University of Alberta and his colleagues are tracking the migration routes of birds of prey. Their work on the summer origins of migrating and wintering Peregrine Falcons and Burrowing Owls has shed new light on what has previously been the secret, non-breeding half of the birds’ lives.
By analyzing stable isotopes of hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen in bird feathers, Duxbury has bee
The latest research shows that some women at very high risk of having a preterm baby may benefit from treatment with a derivative of the hormone progesterone, according to an opinion issued by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Committee on Obstetric Practice and published this month in ACOG’s official journal, Obstetrics & Gynecology.
However, the ACOG Committee said further studies are needed to evaluate the value of progesterone further and resolve issues
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