It was worshipped by the ancient Egyptians, was said to keep vampires at bay, and is good for keeping you healthy.
Scientists from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne have now found the pungent herb garlic could win the costly worldwide war against slugs and snails as an environmentally friendly pesticide.
The findings are published in the current edition of the academic journal, Crop Protection*. Lead researcher Dr Gordon Port will speak about the effective alternatives
For over 60 years now, the University of Liege Astrophysics and Geophysics Institute (IAGL) has been concerned with the study of comets. Again today, four of its researchers have just made a major discovery for the understanding of these celestial objects : a lot of extra heavy nitrogen detected in two comets suggests the presence of great quantities of complex organic molecules in them. The results obtained by the Liege team will be published in the next number of the international magazine, Science
The latest epidemiological assessment for the global effect of smoking on deaths worldwide is detailed in this week’s issue of THE LANCET. Smoking-related deaths for the year 2000 were as high in developing countries than in industrialised areas of the world, with 84% of such deaths in developing countries being among male smokers.
To strengthen the scientific evidence for national and global tobacco control efforts, a consistent method is needed to estimate the health effects of smoking acr
Research News in the British Journal of Surgery
11 September 2003: Laser light can be delivered in a controlled and predictable manner to destroy tumours. By inserting fibre optic cables through needles, doctors can direct the powerful laser light onto liver tumours – killing the cells and thus eliminating the need for major surgery. A review of recent research shows that this ‘interstitial laser thermotherapy’ (ITL) can be a safe and effective way of removing tumours and improving ov
ESA’s Herschel spacecraft will collect infrared radiation from some of the coldest and most distant objects in the Universe. But why are observations of infrared light so special?
The Universe is full of radiation of all types but most of this does not reach us here on Earth because our atmosphere blocks out many wavelengths of radiation, but lets others through.
Fortunately for life on Earth, the atmosphere blocks out harmful, high-energy radiation like X-rays, gamma rays and
New evidence supports volcanic eruption theory
The extinction of the dinosaurs – thought to be caused by an asteroid impact some 65 million years ago – was more likely to have been caused by a ’mantle plume’ – a huge volcanic eruption from deep within the earth’s mantle, the region between the crust and the core of the earth.
This theory, already supported by a significant body of geologists and palaeontologists, is strengthened by new evidence to be presented
For the first time in any animal, Duke University Medical Center researchers have linked a single pheromone receptor in the fruit fly to a specific sexual behavior.
Pheromones are chemical signals exuded by many animals — including humans — that serve as stimuli to evoke behavioral responses in other individuals of the same species. Pheromones often attract members of the opposite sex and provide important cues during courtship and mating.
Yet little is known about pheromone re
Potent, environmentally friendly catalysts called Fe-TAML® activators, developed by scientists at Carnegie Mellon University, can destroy colored pollutants and toxic compounds resulting from paper and wood pulp processing.
The results of extensive field trials conducted by Carnegie Mellon University, Forest Research of New Zealand and the University of Auckland are being presented by Dr. L. James Wright of the University of Auckland on Wed., Sept. 10, in New York City at the 226th annual m
Dirt may help scientists answer a question that has baffled them for decades: How does chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer and elk spread from animal to animal?
By turning to the land, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers show that prions – infectious proteins considered to be at the root of the disease – literally stick to some soil types, suggesting that the landscape may serve as an environmental reservoir for the disease.
The findings will be discussed during a poste
Creating unique structures
Researchers have developed a laser-based technique for creating patterns in self-assembled colloidal crystals produced from hydrogel nanoparticles – soft spheres that respond to heat by changing size. The development could make possible the fabrication of waveguides, three-dimensional microlenses and other photonic structures from the unusual crystals.
In related work, the Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have also learned to use weak at
Scientists at Ohio State University have found a way to boost the light absorption of a metal mesh up to 1000 times, possibly paving the way for powerful chemical sensors and laboratory instruments.
Key to the technology is a new coating technique that enables the mesh to capture and transmit more light through its microscopic holes than would normally be possible.
James V. Coe, associate professor of chemistry at Ohio State, and his colleagues also found that if they coated the mes
After more than a century of intensive study, scientists have assumed that larvae of non-parasitic invertebrates reproduce only very rarely, but new research by University of Alberta scientists overthrows this conventional wisdom. Graduate student Alexandra Eaves and Dr. Richard Palmer, from the U of A’s Faculty of Science, have found that asexual cloning by some marine invertebrate larvae is not as rare and enigmatic a phenomenon as previously assumed.
“A wealth of knowledge of how em
Can genetically engineered cottonwood trees clean up a site contaminated with toxic mercury? A team of researchers from the University of Georgia – in the first such field test ever done with trees – is about to find out.
The results could make clearer the future of phytoremediation – a technique of using trees, grasses and other plants to remove hazardous materials from the soil. UGA scientists and city officials in Danbury, Conn., planted on July 16 some 60 cottonwoods with a special gene
Total lymphocyte count and hemoglobin concentration lowers at onset of the disease
People with HIV and their physicians could have a less expensive tool to track the progression from HIV infection to AIDS. According to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a decline in the total lymphocyte counts (TLC) and hemoglobin (Hgb) concentration in the blood may be used to monitor a patient’s disease status. Currently, HIV RNA and CD4+ cells in the blood ar
It may soon be possible to produce a low cost, high-value, high-strength fiber from a biodegradable and renewable waste product for air filtration, water filtration and agricultural nanotechnology, report polymer scientists at Cornell University. The achievement is the result of using the recently perfected technique of electrospinning to spin nanofibers from cellulose.
“Cellulose is the most abundant renewable resource polymer on earth. It forms the structure of all plants,” says Margaret
Using a video game featuring a yellow taxi, virtual city and human players with electrodes embedded in their memory banks, neuroscientists at UCLA and Brandeis University have discovered how three types of brain cells interact to help people navigate the real world.
Published in the Sept. 11 edition of the peer-reviewed journal Nature, the findings offer unique information about how human memory works and present new avenues of investigation for treatment of memory disorders such as Alzheim
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