A new study by Johns Hopkins Children’s Center scientists confirms the lasting benefits of hemispherectomy, a dramatic operation in which half the brain is removed to relieve frequent severe seizures that medications cannot control.
Results of the study, published in the Oct. 14 issue of Neurology, show that 86 percent of the 111 children who underwent hemispherectomy at the Children’s Center between 1975 and 2001 are either seizure-free or have non-disabling seizures that do not
Previous year’s drought might predict following year’s mosquito population
So you think you know mosquitoes?
Consider the venerable law that rainy weather is the cause of increased mosquito populations.
An ecologist at Washington University in St. Louis says if you believe that, youre all wet.
Jon Chase, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, and his wife Tiffany Knight, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher at the
Revised periodic table slanted toward astronomers
The periodic table isn’t what it used to be, thanks to innovations by a planetary chemist at Washington University in St. Louis.
Katharina Lodders, Ph.D., Washington University research associate professor in Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences, has evalutated data from numerous studies including her own and arranged the data into a periodic table slanted toward astronomers and cosmochemists. It’s the Cosmochemic
Blood from families at risk contributed to discovery
A team of researchers from University Hospitals of Cleveland (UHC) and Case Western Reserve University have identified a specific location on a human chromosome that can be linked to familial cases of colon cancer–the type of colon cancer that tends to run in families.
Research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS article #2286) identifies a specific stretch of DNA on chromosome 9 t
Size matters, but so does shape, at least in the world of semiconducting nanocrystals, report chemists at Washington University in St. Louis.
Their findings, published in the August 2003 issue of Nature Materials, demonstrate experimentally that the shape of a semiconductor nanocrystal can affect its electronic and optical properties. The study, led by graduate student Heng Yu and William E. Buhro, Ph. D., professor of chemistry in Arts & Science, is the first comprehensive compariso
Findings shed light on the evolution of human cognition, the capacity for long lifespan and the potential for neurodegenerative disease
A research team from the Salk Institute, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University and the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA), has identified genes in the cerebral cortex that differ in levels of activity between humans and nonhuman primates, including chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys. These findings, which appear in the
The citizens of Kuwait became more supportive of democracy during the mid- to late-1990s, but that did not include a desire for closer ties with the United States and other Western countries, a new study found.
A survey of 1,500 Kuwaiti citizens conducted in 1994, 1996, and 1998 found that the citizens became less interested in trade alliances with the West and less likely to pay attention to Western media over that time period.
The long-term survey is one of the first in the Arab
Almost two out of three children with severe asthma are boys. But women account for more than two out of three adults with severe asthma. And no one really knows why. Those are some of the most striking results of a cross-sectional study of severe asthma by researchers from National Jewish Medical and Research Center being published in the October issue of the journal Chest. The research team, led by Joseph Spahn, M.D., also found that children with severe asthma had surprisingly good airflow in and
Researchers at the University of Warwick have found that phosphorus, an element commonly found in teeth, can act as a “superconductor” – but you would have to have the strength of Superman to clench your teeth hard enough for it to work – as it happens at a pressure of around 2.5 megabars – some 30,000 times harder than an ordinary human can clench their teeth.
Physicists were aware that lower pressures of around 0.1 megabars could convert the electrically insulating phosphorus to a form whi
In line with the dogma of molecular biology “DNA makes RNA makes protein”, RNA molecules have largely been thought of as intermediaries between the information encoded in the genome and the proteins that do the work. More recently, however, it has become clear that RNAs play far more active roles in most if not all plant and animal species.
We know that small RNAs that do not encode proteins themselves can regulate messenger RNA molecules that do. They bind to their specific targets, which
Researchers at Oxford University’s Department of Engineering Science have recently made great lengths in both engineering and monitoring 3-dimensional tissue.
Engineering tissue involves the seeding of appropriate cells into a scaffold to form a bio-construct or matrix. The Oxford team has improved this process by developing a new kind of nutrient circulation and scaffold system for 3-D bulky tissue culture. The scaffold, made from biopolymers or synthetic polymers, has a network of capillar
Will spacecraft travelling through interplanetary space be able to determine their positions by using signals from dead stars as astronomical clocks?
What is the likelihood of artificial muscles made from electro-active polymers replacing mechanical parts in spacecraft? Will it ever be possible to conceive an interstellar highway in which spacecraft journey across the galaxy using the delicate gravitational balance between neighbouring stars?
These are just some of the imaginative,
Large-scale genetic research carried out by Russian and American scientists have proved that contemporary mankind originated from a very small group of people. Common ancestors have been discovered for the entire population of many billions inhabiting all five continents of the Earth: these are two thousand primeval hunters-gatherers who used to live in Africa more than 100,000 years ago. New data has been also obtained about the rates and directions of human beings’ prehistoric evolution, and the wa
Floods are one of Europe’s most widespread disasters. Major flooding has occurred nearly every year somewhere on our continent during the last few decades. Today, European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin is visiting the city of Dresden (Germany), which was hit very hard last year by one of the worst flood catastrophes to occur in Central Europe since the Middle Ages. During this visit, the European Commission has organised a media briefing at Dresden’s Ständehaus to present the results of
By taking a fresh approach to an old problem, University of California, San Diego biologists and colleagues at other institutions have found a new gene essential for plant growth, a discovery that could lead to the design of better herbicides and even novelty plants.
Despite 100 years of research on auxin, a plant hormone essential in regulating plants’ development and responses to their surroundings, including the ability of plants to grow toward light, much remains unknown about how auxin
Biological invasions have well-known direct effects on native ecosystems but may also unleash forces with complex, unexpected consequences. These ecological surprises may be especially common in simple systems, like islands, following introduction of ’megainvaders,’ like tramp ants.
In the September issue of Ecology Letters, O’Dowd, Green, and Lake show that impacts of invasion by the crazy ant Anoplolepis gracilipes ramify through the food web in rainforest on Christm
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