The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health, has reached a milestone in its efforts to support accelerated development of malaria vaccines. Working with an international group of public and private partners, NIAID has launched its first trial of a candidate malaria vaccine in a country where malaria is endemic. The Phase I trial, taking place in Mali, seeks to confirm the safety and immunogenicity in adults of a candidate vaccine called
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory detected sound waves, for the first time, from a super-massive black hole. The “note” is the deepest ever detected from an object in the universe. The tremendous amounts of energy carried by these sound waves may solve a longstanding problem in astrophysics.
The black hole resides in the Perseus cluster, located 250 million light years from Earth. In 2002, astronomers obtained a deep Chandra observation that shows ripples in the gas filling the cluster.
How fat contributes to high blood pressure is the focus of a new study at the Medical College of Georgia that is part of a National Institutes of Health initiative to understand the relationship between obesity and cardiovascular disease.
“You have obesity and you have hypertension. Where is the link?” says Dr. Gregory A. Harshfield, principal investigator on the $1.4 million grant from the NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute that will study 160 adolescents, half lean and ha
On the slopes of Mt. Kenya and the terraced hills of Nepal local farmers are using their cattle in much the same way as scientists use test tubes.
They may be illiterate and continents apart. And there isn’t a laboratory for hundreds of miles. But when it comes to animal nutrition they can teach western scientists a thing or two about the feeding value of the diverse range of tree species found in the hills around them.
While western laboratories break down and then analyse the sep
Thousands of breathless trekkers each year gratefully stop to admire the stunning high altitude scenery as they pass through the village of Landruk on their way to Nepal’s famous Annapurna mountain range.
As their gaze shifts from the famous ‘Fish Tail’ mountain to the brilliant green sloping terraced foot hills 6,000 ft up the Himalayas they could be forgiven for thinking it was all mother nature’s work.
It isn’t. In fact it’s all down to novel relationships being forged between l
People with weakened immune systems, including patients with cystic fibrosis, could be better protected in future from a highly resilient bacteria thanks to work by medical scientists from the University of Leeds. The research is presented today, Wednesday 10 September 2003, at the Society for General Microbiology’s meeting at UMIST in Manchester.
“British soldiers stationed in South East Asia and North Australia, as well as local people, can be exposed to infection by a dangerous bacterium
Potato blight causes worldwide losses of £3 billion every year, but scientists are only just discovering how it infects potato plants, according to research due to be presented tomorrow, Thursday 11 September 2003, at the Society for General Microbiology’s meeting at UMIST in Manchester.
“In the past potato blight, Phytophthora infestans, was always thought to be a member of the fungal family, but now we know that it is more closely related to golden brown algae, which are commonly known as kelp
Spotting disease causing germs has just become a lot easier with a new technique developed by researchers from Newcastle upon Tyne, scientists learned today, Wednesday 10 September 2003, at the Society for General Microbiology’s meeting at UMIST in Manchester.
“Knowing exactly which bacteria and micro-organisms are around at any given time is vital if you want to be able to kill the dangerous ones,” says Dr Olivier Sparagano, from the School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development at the
The humble yeast can teach us vital lessons in coping with stress, according to researchers from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Speaking tomorrow, Thursday 11 September 2003, at the Society for General Microbiology’s meeting at UMIST in Manchester, Dr Jan Quinn will explain how she and colleagues have tracked stress responses in yeast to give a new understanding of how cells cope with oxidative stress.
Reactive oxygen chemicals occur naturally through respiration (breathing
Death and taxes may be unavoidable, but road tolls and car insurance could be made fairer if satellite-assisted distance pricing is implemented.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is funding Irish provider of location technology products Mapflow to undertake a feasibility study to look into the possibility of implementing a pan-European road tolling system. The research aims to establish whether satellite technology can be used to calculate the cost of motoring.
A plan exists to
The rapidly increasing demands of today’s car buyers have placed a heavy burden on car manufacturers to constantly innovate. Building prototypes to test innovative car designs is a lengthy, not to mention expensive, process and one that companies keen to retain their competitive edge can ill afford. With contemporary simulation systems often falling short of R&D expectations, the eight-company-strong team of EUREKA project E! 1924 CARDS (Comprehensive Automobile Research and Development Simulator) s
Just like the manufacturers of silicon electronics, a team of Penn State chemical engineers wants to assemble circuit boards in place, but these circuits are made of conducting organic polymers that pose major fabrication roadblocks.
“We want to build electronic devices like transistors and flexible circuits,” says Dr. Seong Kim, assistant professor of chemical engineering.
Kim and Sudarshan Natarajan, graduate student in chemical engineering, looked at fabricating circuits from po
In an attempt to understand why ruthenium sulfide (RuS2) is so good at removing sulfur impurities from fuels, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have succeeded in making a model of this catalyst — nanoparticles supported on an inert surface — which can be studied under laboratory conditions. “If we can understand why this catalyst is so active, we might be able to make it even better, or use what we learn to design other highly efficient catalysts,” sa
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have used a new way to isolate and study an important intermediate in the epoxidation of olefins such as ethylene: They run the reaction in reverse. By starting with the final products (epoxides) and placing them on the surface of a model catalyst, the scientists are able to use surface chemistry techniques to “catch” the intermediate. Understanding this intermediate may ultimately help the scientists develop improved o
Using MRI scans can help make the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) more quickly, according to a guideline developed by the American Academy of Neurology. The guideline is published in the September 9 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The point at which MS can be diagnosed has been under debate, according to guideline author Elliot Frohman, MD, PhD, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas.
“Before, the crit
Scientists have known for some time that red wine is healthy for the heart. Now, they have found evidence that provides yet another explanation for this effect.
Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have identified another group of chemicals in red wine that is linked to the ability to lower cholesterol. Called saponins, these glucose-based plant compounds are being found in an increasing number of foods. This is the first time they’ve been found in wine, says Andrew Water
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