First Polarimetric Detection of Explosion Asymmetry has Cosmological Implications
An international team of astronomers [2] has performed new and very detailed observations of a supernova in a distant galaxy with the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory (Chile). They show for the first time that a particular type of supernova, caused by the explosion of a “white dwarf”, a dense star with a mass around that of the Sun, is asymmetric during the initial phases of exp
On Wednesday, July 30, as scientists all over the country looked intently on, a synthetic earthquake shook a half-real building.
Part of the structure was conventional steel: full-sized structural support columns sitting in laboratories at the University of Colorado and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
But a third support column and the building floor that rested on them, forming a typical 1-story, 2-bay component of a modern steel frame building, exist
For over two thousand years, musicians and scientists have puzzled over why some combinations of musical tones played together sound more harmonious than others. Now, Duke University perception scientists David Schwartz, Catherine Howe and Dale Purves have presented evidence that variation in the relative harmoniousness, or “consonance,” of different tone combinations arises from people´s exposure to the acoustical characteristics of speech sounds. Schwartz and Howe are postdoctoral fellows, and Pur
Giant hollow towers of ice formed by steaming volcanic vents on Ross Island, Antarctica are providing clues about where to hunt for life on Mars.
University of Melbourne geologist, Dr Nick Hoffman has found evidence from recent infra-red images of Mars that similar structures may exist on Mars and, if life is to be found, such towers may be best place to start looking.
Hoffman has drawn attention to strange temperature anomalies in these latest Mars images taken with an inf
Previous Food and Drug Administration approval for use of retinoids to treat another form of childhood cancer, will mean clinical trials in pediatric medulloblastoma patients to begin with minimal delay
Researchers find that vitamin A derivatives may be highly effective and minimally toxic treatments for medulloblastoma, the most common form of childhood brain cancer. Clinical trials of the drugs, known as retinoids, are being planned for children who are at high risk for tumor relaps
This is clearly Europe´s time for interplanetary exploration. Having sent the first European mission to Mars, ESA is about to launch its first probe to the Moon. It is called SMART-1 and its goals are both technological and scientific. It is the first of a series of “Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology”.
On the one hand, SMART-1 will test new state-of-the art instruments and techniques essential to ambitious future interplanetary missions, such as a solar-electric prim
Much has been written about the glass ceiling, the double standard and other barriers to women in management. A related question that has consumed both academic and popular writers is whether men and women have the same leadership abilities.
The answer suggested by a comprehensive meta-analysis published in the current Psychological Bulletin (Vol. 129, No. 3) might surprise you. On average, women in management positions are somewhat better leaders than men in equivalent positions, according
University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center scientists have been studying a family whose members have an eye disease that looks like age-related macular degeneration (AMD), but that has a rarer pattern of inheritance that results in an exceptionally high incidence of the disease among family members in the study.
In the August issue of Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (IOVS), Kellogg scientist Radha Ayyagari, Ph.D., and her collaborators from the U-M and other institutions identify
Green tea´s ability to fight cancer is even more potent and varied than scientists suspected, say researchers who have discovered that chemicals in green tea shut down one of the key molecules that tobacco relies upon to cause cancer. It´s a find that could help explain why people who drink green tea are less likely to develop cancer.
The finding by scientists at the University of Rochester´s Environmental Health Science Center appears in the July 21 issue of Chemical Research in Toxicology
CryoSat, the first Earth Explorer mission within ESA’s Living Planet Programme, is now entering the final phase of assembly prior to its scheduled launch next year.
CryoSat is designed to measure changes in the Earth’s terrestrial and marine ice fields and aims to provide conclusive evidence as to whether there is a trend towards diminishing polar ice cover as a result of climate change.
The first part of the Critical Design Review (CDR), which was successfully completed on
How did life begin? What chemical combination launched the first organism with self-contained metabolism? And then what happened? Researchers in Robert H. White’s group at Virginia Tech are tracing the family tree of life on earth by tracing the biochemical mechanisms within the cell – specifically those that are used in the formation of peptide bonds.
The building blocks of enzymatic and functional structures in living organisms are proteins created by linking amino acids into pepti
Global Cancer Alliance calls on Cancer Control community to put words into action and save millions of lives
The Alliance for Global Cancer Control issued its first public statement today, calling for the rapid implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The Alliance, the first worldwide coalition addressing global cancer control, emphasised that eliminating tobacco use could prevent an estimated 30% of all cancer cases and 90% of all lung cancer cases.
The Liverpool Telescope, the world’s largest fully robotic telescope, has snapped its first images of the heavens this week. This 2 meter optical telescope is owned by the Astrophysics Research Institute (ARI) of Liverpool John Moores University (JMU), but observes autonomously from its site on La Palma in the Canary Islands. The telescope was designed, constructed and commissioned by Telescope Technologies Ltd., a subsidiary company of JMU.
The Liverpool Telescope’s unique capabilities of
A research team in Austria has been unravelling the secrets of the charging of plastic foams. Its findings open the way for the development of flat microphones and loudspeakers, as well as “smart” surfaces that could be used as floor coverings, among other things. The interest in the success of the group´s work – which was co-funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) – has resulted in the integration of the project in a European interdisciplinary research network.
During a thunder st
Researchers of the Bochvara All-Russian Scientific Research Institute for Inorganic Materials, supported by the International Scientific and Technical Center have developed new tilth technology, which allows to get rid of radioactive or poisonous dust, to transform dust-forming slag-heaps into green lawn and even to grow forest in the desert.
The technology is based on the polyelectrolytes developed by chemists of the Lomonosov Moscow State University. The polyelectrolytes are polymers, the
The promise of the genomics revolution – the ability to compare important genes and proteins from many different organisms – is that such detailed knowledge will produce new scientific insights that will improve human quality of life. In work on a key human enzyme, PBGS (porphobilinogen synthase), the laboratory of Fox Chase Cancer Center scientist Eileen K. Jaffe, Ph.D., has characterized a rare mutation that results in an unprecedented rearrangement of the enzyme´s structure. The discovery provides
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