Scientists using data from a NASA satellite have found another piece in the global climate puzzle created by El Niño. El Niño events produce more of a steady rain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This is important because whenever there is a change in the amount and duration of rainfall over an area, such as the central Pacific, it affects weather regionally and even worldwide.
The findings appeared in a paper authored by Courtney Schumacher and Robert Houze, atmospheric scientists at t
Artemisinins are one of the only treatments for drug resistant forms of the malaria parasite. Drug resistant parasites are found in most parts of the world, and kill millions of children every year. Even though artemisinins have been used for decades to treat patients with malaria, no one knew how they worked. Now scientists at St George’s Medical School have discovered how artemisinins attack the malaria parasite. After years of clinical and laboratory based research, Professor Sanjeev Krishna and
Whilst western Europe is feeling the effects of global warming, a “freeze” has come to the rescue of quantum computing.
Quantum Computers – computers so fast they could break any code devised for a digital computer – have a fatal flaw which has until now made it impossible to build really fast quantum computers. They make so many operations that very rare and tiny errors occur rapidly and are amplified, making them unable to function properly.
The Institute of Physics and Ge
The advantages of production in plants
According to Navarre Public University lecturer, Angel Mingo, this novel system of protein production is highly advantageous, not only due to its reduced costs with respect to cell cultures in bioreactors, but also because the method is free of the health risks associated with animal cell culture.
Moreover, the technology involved is easily accessible and enables targeting the accumulation of protein to specific compartments and organs
A new study settles a long-standing dispute about the genesis of an endangered species. With scant fossil evidence supporting a prehistoric presence, scientists could not say for sure where Borneo’s elephants came from. Did they descend from ancient prototypes of the Pleistocene era or from modern relatives introduced just 300–500 years ago? That question, as Fernando et al. report in an article that will appear in the inaugural issue of PLoS Biology (and currently available online at http://bio
Data from a five-year study suggests that limited-field radiation therapy (radiation directed at the tumor site) may be as effective as whole-breast radiation therapy in preventing breast cancer recurrence in women treated with breast-conserving surgery. The study appears in the August 20 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Whole-breast radiation therapy is part of standard treatment for women with early-stage breast cancer who have undergone breast-conserving surgery. Ho
On a high hilltop terrace in Oaxaca, Mexico, a team of Field Museum archaeologists discovered a 1,500-year-old underground tomb while excavating a palace-like residence. Although it was near the end of their excavation season, they dared not leave the tomb unexplored. News of this find at El Palmillo was sure to get around, and looting would follow. As it was, workers had to guard the tomb every night until the tomb was excavated.
Images of the stone-lined interior – snapped with a digital c
There’s a lot said about a woman’s ticking biological clock, but male biology doesn’t age as gracefully as men might like to think.
By analyzing sperm from men of various ages, scientists from the McKusick-Nathans Institute for Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins have discovered that older men’s sperm is more likely to contain disease-causing genetic mutations that also seem to increase a sperm’s chances of fertilizing an egg.
The findings, which appear in t
If you’re hunting for illegal drugs, you don’t have to leave your computer desk to find them. A simple internet search will turn up dozens of websites that let you order your drug-of-choice for home-delivery.
In fact, if you search for “no prescription codeine” through one of the standard computer-search systems, the odds are almost fifty-fifty that the first site you hit will provide an instant opportunity to buy drugs illegally.
That finding by researchers at the University of
Fire fighters tackling the blazes that have ravaged Portugal are doing so with the aid of a satellite data-link.
For the first time, ESA’s satellite Artemis has been used to support an emergency request under the International Charter on “Space and Major Disasters”.
Portugal’s civil protection unit (SNPC) was able to receive information and groups of images that showed the scope of the fires. The data, transmitted from ESA’s Earth observation satellite, Envisat, via the Artemis d
Until ten years ago, most astronomers did not believe stardust could enter our Solar System. Then ESA’’s Ulysses spaceprobe discovered minute stardust particles leaking through the Sun’s magnetic shield, into the realm of Earth and the other planets. Now, the same spaceprobe has shown that a flood of dusty particles is heading our way.
Since its launch in 1990, Ulysses has constantly monitored how much stardust enters the Solar System from the interstellar space around it. Usi
There has been some controversy in the media and within the scientific research community concerning whether Icelanders are genetically homogenous or heterogeneous relative to other European populations.
Following an article published in Annals of Human Genetics in January 2003 by E. Árnason, who concluded that Icelanders were one of the most heterogeneous populations in Europe, researchers from deCODE Genetics and the University of Oxford, have published an article in Annals of Human Geneti
When NASA launches its Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) – the agency’s fourth ‘Great Observatory’ – later this week, astronomers around the world will be looking forward to using one of the most powerful time machines ever built.
Among those anticipating the opportunity to look back billions of years to an era when the universe was in its youth are Professor Michael Rowan-Robinson (Imperial College London) and Dr. Sebastian Oliver (University of Sussex), who will be participating in
The European Society of Cardiology (EBAC), in association with the European Board for Accreditation in Cardiology (EBAC), has set up ESCed, http://www.ESCed.org, as a one-stop resource for case studies, guidelines, references and abstracts. ESCed registrants can compare answers and clinical decisions with colleagues across Europe and earn Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits by following the on-line courses.
Professor Roberto Ferrari, Ferrara, Italy, Chairman of the ESC Education Commi
Researchers at Northwestern University have discovered for the first time in humans the presence of a toxic protein that they believe to be responsible for the devastating memory loss found in individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
An understanding of this key molecular link in the progression of Alzheimer’s could lead to the development of new therapeutic drugs capable of reversing memory loss in patients who are treated early, in addition to preventing or delaying the d
Chemists at the University of California, San Diego have developed a novel method of detecting molecules with a conventional compact disk player that provides scientists with an inexpensive way to screen for molecular interactions and a potentially cheaper alternative to medical diagnostic tests.
A paper detailing their development will appear this week in an advance on-line edition of the Journal of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry and in the printed journal’s September 21st issue.
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