The search for life on other planets could soon extend to solar systems that are very different from our own, according to a new study by an Ohio State University astronomer and his colleagues.
In fact, finding a terrestrial planet in such a solar system would offer unique scientific opportunities to test evolution, said Andrew Gould, professor of astronomy here. In a recent issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters, he and his coauthors calculated that NASA’s upcoming Space Interferome
Scientists often look to nature for inspiration in the search for ways to make new materials. A new study of the clamworm, an intertidal creature, shows that it has jaws made partly of zinc, making them strong, stiff and tough –– fundamental properties by which all materials are evaluated.
The properties of the clamworm jaws are described in this week´s online publication of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences (PNAS). The research began with questions by scientists a
A study of 137 new product launches in 16 European countries shows the persistence of major regional disparity in the era of the European Union, according to an article in a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®).
“While we expected some differences, we were surprised by the size of the differences,” the authors write. “We were also surprised by the fact that Scandinavian countries tend to have the shortest `time-to-takeoff´ of all E
Water churns through diversion holes in the world’s largest dam – China’s Three Gorges project on the Yangtze River, imaged here by ESA’s Proba satellite this week. Seen to the left, the waters behind the dam have risen to a level of 135 metres since the sluice gates were first closed in early June, and in August Three Gorges is due to generate its first commercial hydroelectricity.
The Three Gorges project is set to create a new 600-km-long body of water on the face of the 21st century Ea
Which design principles unify the diversity of life on earth? To understand how biological designs emerged by natural selection, biomechanics studies organisms by applying engineering science and mechanics. Biomechanics studies life from molecules to ecosystems. Questions range ‘how do cells form tissue’, over ‘what shapes a muscle’ to ‘how do animals fly’ and ‘which mechanical constraints govern body shape and -dynamics when animals increase in size’. Biomechanics is applied not only to extant b
On August 18th and 19th in Stanford, California, at Hot Chips 15 conference, the most important international event on processors architecture, mAgic VLIW will be presented: it is a revolutionary electronic component derived by technologies developed by Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (Infn) in the context of the special project Ape and conceived by the Italian company Ipitec, financed by Atmel. The processor will be produced by Atmel itself, a world-wide leader in the semiconducto
Patients to benefit from new ultrasound qualification developed by Sheffield Hallam University
A new postgraduate qualification in ultrasound practice has been developed by Sheffield Hallam University to ensure health professionals offering scans are competent and safe to practice.
The University has a national reputation for excellence in ultrasound education and training. It already offers six specialist postgraduate certificates in medical, obstetrics and gynaecological,
Introduction – Enzymology in 2003
Why the 90th anniversary of v = Vmax x [S] / (Km + [S]) is as important as the 50th anniversary of the double-helical structure of DNA. Enzymology is essential, to find out how nucleic acids fulfil their biological functions. Moreover, genome analysis will always, at some stage in the process, have to advance from sequence gazing to enzymology, since the objective of the analysis must be to identify the reactions mediated by the products of each open
Swift or safe? That may be the question drivers with navigation systems ask themselves in future.
A new study by researchers at the University of Toronto Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Centre and Testbed suggests in-car systems, designed to guide drivers around traffic jams and accidents quickly, could actually cause a temporary surge in the risk of accidents. “Discovering that traveller information systems may be good for travel time but not for overall safety was shocking
A signal that triggers half the stem cells in the developing brain to commit suicide at a stage where their survival will likely do more harm than good has been identified by researchers at the Medical College of Georgia and the University of Georgia.
Identifying the factors that result in the timely, massive cell suicide is important to understanding the developmental puzzle, the researchers say of the work featured on the cover of the Aug. 4 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology.
Finding will aid drug design to combat depression, stroke and diabetes. Scientists are a step closer to understanding how essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals are ferried into cells.
For the first time, a member of the Major Facilitator Superfamily (MFS) of transport proteins, found in almost every form of life, has been visualised by researchers from Imperial College London and the University of California, Los Angeles.
Reporting in Science today, the researchers reve
Scientists have inactivated almost three-quarters of all genes in the genome of Arabidopsis thaliana, a species widely used in plant research. The feat, which results in the largest so-called “knockout” gene collection of a complex multi-cellular organism, now allows researchers to study the function of each of those genes individually or together.
The findings, published in the August 1 issue of the journal Science, mark an important milestone in the field of plant genomics. Follow
Since the time when humans first learned to record their thoughts in written form, codes have kept sensitive information from prying eyes. But conveying information through a code requires someone who can read it as well as write it. The same is true for one of nature´s methods for transmitting information that activates or silences a gene: the “histone code.”
First formally proposed in 2000 by C. David Allis, Ph.D., and his postdoctoral fellow Brian Strahl, Ph.D., the histone code is
A bold paper which has highly impressed some of the world´s top physicists and been published in the August issue of Foundations of Physics Letters, seems set to change the way we think about the nature of time and its relationship to motion and classical and quantum mechanics. Much to the science world´s astonishment, the work also appears to provide solutions to Zeno of Elea´s famous motion paradoxes, almost 2500 years after they were originally conceived by the ancient Greek philosopher. In doi
How can we more effectively harness the free and endless energy resources of the Sun, wind and water? One answer is orbiting above us.
Satellites provide us with a wide variety of data that can help with many aspects of the building and management of renewable energy plants. ESA recently held a workshop at its Frascati-based centre in Italy, attended by representatives of the Earth Observation (EO) service industry together with renewable energy companies and utilities to explore how
A multi-institutional team of scientists has gained important new knowledge about the regulatory role played in Alzheimer’s disease by Pin1, a protein that coaxes other proteins into untwisting. The research is published in the July 31 issue of Nature.
The team of researchers, including a group from the Department of Human Genetics at Emory University School of Medicine, examined slices of brain and found an inverse relationship between the abundance of Pin1 and both the susceptibili
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