Johns Hopkins scientists investigating nitric oxide (NO) – the molecular messenger that contributes to body functions as wide-ranging as cell death, new blood vessel growth and erections – have figured out how it can block blood vessel inflammation and prevent clotting, a process that has long stumped biologists.
Reporting in the Oct. 17 issue of the journal Cell, cardiologist Charles J. Lowenstein, M.D., and his team observed that NO has the power to inhibit endothelial cells lining blood
People who offer love, listening and help to others may be rewarded with better mental health themselves, according to a new study of churchgoers in the September/October issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.
The study is one of the first to track the positive health benefits of altruistic behavior, say Carolyn Schwartz, Sc.D., of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and colleagues.
“The findings really emphasize how helping others can help oneself,” Schwartz says.
Even proficient bilingual speakers always have both languages on the tips of their tongues, according to Penn State researchers. “What appears amazing, is that people do not make extensive mistakes,” says Dr. Judith F. Kroll, professor of psychology and applied linguistics. “We have an exquisite cognitive control system that monitors the code switching between one language and another.” While no one knows exactly how the control system allows even people of limited bilingual ability to speak in a se
First use of disordered nanowires, organic molecules as programmable memory
Chemists at Rice University have demonstrated that disordered assemblies of gold nanowires and conductive organic molecules can function as non-volatile memory, one of the key components of computer chips.
“A large part of the cost associated with creating integrated circuits comes from the painstaking precision required to ensure that each of the millions of circuits on the chip are placed in exactl
A specific enzyme that is a central part in the regulation of body temperature has been identified by a research team at Linkoping University, Sweden. The enzyme is a potential target in the development of new and selective fever reducing drugs.
Professor Anders Blomqvist, MD David Engblom and co-authors are publishing their findings in Nature Neuroscience.
Fever is caused when small, easily diffusible molecules known as prostaglandin E2 are bonded to receptors on deep neural structures
A new way of generating electricity from flowing water could mean that in the future you will never have to charge up your mobile phone again. Instead of a normal battery, mobile phones could be fitted with a battery that uses water – you just need to pressurise it regularly.
Research published today by the Institute of Physics journal, Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering reveals a new method of generating electric power by harnessing the natural electrokinetic properties of a li
On 19 October 30 cars will be jostling for position at the start of the 7th World Solar Challenge in Darwin, Australia. After winning in 2001 with Nuna I, the Nuon Solar Team, from the Netherlands, will be bidding to retain their title.
The strong team of twelve from Delft University of Technology and Erasmus University Rotterdam are determined to beat the world record and try to average 100 km/h, compared to 91.81 km/h in 2001. Nuna II uses advanced space technology, provided to the team th
The increasing use of mobile phones has resulted in increased human exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields: already more than 80% of the Finnish population have a mobile phone. Although the electromagnetic fields from mobile phones are weak, the high number of exposed persons, together with some provocative but inconclusive scientific results, has raised concerns about possible health hazards. Finnish universities and research institutes have investigated possible health effects of mobile
The digital world surrounding us is full of images. Many of them are very large and do not easily fit into small devices, such as smart mobile phones. Alexander Kolesnikov’s thesis brings a revolutionary change to this. He has invented the most efficient vector graphics compression technique in the world that will make all maps, drawings and cartoons fit into small but smart mobile phones.
Digital images on digital TV’s, DVDs and computer and mobile device displays come in two variants: ras
Rice physicists show that quantum methods can predict nanophotonic behavior
According to new research from Rice University, scientists studying the way light interacts with metallic nanostructures should throw out their old optics textbooks and bone up on their quantum mechanics instead.
The new findings, which are described in the Oct. 17 issue of the journal Science, offer a new understanding of plasmonics, an emerging field of optics aimed at the study of light at the nan
A novel treatment developed by UCSF vascular surgeons has been used in a first-of-its-kind operation to repair a life-threatening aneurysm in the patient’s aortic arch, which carries blood from the heart.
In an aortic aneurysm the walls of the aorta, the primary blood vessels leading away from the heart, bulge out like a filling water balloon. Eventually it bursts, usually causing a fatal bleeding episode.
Using a wire-thin catheter, the UCSF team inserted a specially designe
It is hard to imagine that graphite, the soft “lead” of pencils, can be transformed into a form that competes in strength with its molecular cousin diamond. Using a diamond anvil to produce extreme pressures and the ultra-brilliant X-ray beams at the Advanced Photon Source in Illinois, scientists with the High-Pressure Collaborative Access Team (HPCAT)* have surmounted experimental obstacles to probe the changes that graphite undergoes to produce this unique, super-hard substance. The study is report
In 1998, scientists found the mammalian version of a gene, known as timeless, which in flies is crucial for the biological clock. However, all but one of the research groups involved determined that timeless did not have such a role in mammals. Now that research group says timeless is indeed a key timekeeper in mammals.
In a new complex molecular study of rats, published in the Oct. 17 issue of Science, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign blocked the functional abi
Science study reveals that habitat loss imperil one of the world’s most promising source of new drugs
In a letter published in the October 17th issue of Science, three scientists warn that biodiversity loss could have devastating consequences for drug discovery and the development of new medicines. “Tropical cone snails may contain the largest and most clinically important pharmacopoeia of any genus in Nature” says lead author of the study, Eric Chivian from the Harvard Medical S
Discovery of protein chain may lead to new drugs and treatments
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have identified a complex series of proteins that enable HIV to bypass the natural defenses of human cells and replicate. The discovery of these proteins is the key for understanding how HIV overcomes host defenses and could potentially be new targets for HIV medications. A study detailing the finding is published in the October 16, 2003, online version of
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new class of nanometer-scale structures that spontaneously form helical shapes from long ribbon-like single crystals of zinc oxide (ZnO). Dubbed “nanosprings,” the new structures have piezoelectric and electrostatic polarization properties that could make them useful in small-scale sensing and micro-system applications.
Just 10 to 60 nanometers wide and 5-20 nanometers thick – but up to several millimeters long – the new st
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