Cassava is the third-most important food source in tropical countries, but it has one major problem: The roots and leaves of poorly processed cassava plants contain a substance that, when eaten, can trigger the production of cyanide.
That’s a serious problem for the 500 million people who rely on cassava as their main source of calories, among them subsistence farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, said Richard Sayre, a professor of plant biology at Ohio State University. He and his colleague Dimuth
The University of Pennsylvania has installed a virtual reality system that allows a participant full-body interaction with a virtual environment without the hassle of bulky, dizzying 3-D glasses. The system will be demonstrated for journalists and others Thursday, May 15.
Key to the installation, dubbed LiveActor, is the pairing of an optical motion capture system to monitor the body’s movements with a stereo projection system to immerse users in a virtual environment. The combination
Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN) researchers have demonstrated that genetically identical mice placed in different environments both pre- and post-natally differ dramatically as adults in their stress responses and learning abilities. The finding, reported in the May issue of Nature Neuroscience, suggests that pre- and post-natal maternal environments, when taken together, play a strong role in determining the stress profile and cognitive development of genetically identical mice.
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Scientists are not prepared to dismiss beliefs about aliens landing on Earth in the past or that some houses are haunted by ghosts.
Researchers from the University of Leicester, UK, and Waikato University, New Zealand, found scientists to be much more open-minded about ‘new age’ beliefs than might have been expected.
Water divining and the healing power of crystals were beliefs that some scientists were prepared to accept according to the findings which the researchers describe as ‘
Scientists have just returned from two months at sea aboard the oceanographic drill ship JOIDES Resolution where they studied the effects of a larger than expected methane release 55 million years ago that may have caused extreme global warming.
In March, the scientists traveled to a site near Walvis Ridge — an ancient submarine mountain chain off Africa—as part of the NSF-supported Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 208. The researchers searched for evidence of roughly 2,000 gigatons of meth
Hurricanes cannot form near the equator, or so meteorology textbooks maintain. But a storm named Typhoon Vamei upended scientists’ thinking when it swirled above the equator in the South China Sea near Singapore on December 27, 2001. It formed so close to the equator that its winds howled in both hemispheres.
New research funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research reveals the unusual mechanism for the birth of such a storm.
An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Stanford University and Tel Aviv University has developed the first computational method that can identify clusters of genes responsible for controlling processes within a cell, when those clusters become active, and, most importantly, how the clusters are regulated.
In a paper published online May 12 by Nature Genetics, the researchers report that their method revealed several previously unknown control, or r
Next-Generation, High-bandwidth Memory Architecture Targets Communication Data Storage Applications
Infineon Technologies AG and Micron Technology, Inc., today announced the release of the complete specification for reduced latency DRAM II (RLDRAM™ II) architecture. Operating at speeds of up to 400 MHz, RLDRAM II products are the second-generation, ultra high-speed double data rate (DDR) SDRAM that combines fast random access with extremely high bandwidth and high density targeting co
In the race to stay one step ahead of drug-resistant bacteria, scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley obtained high-resolution images of a protein complex found in bacteria that repels a wide range of antibiotics.
The images, which appear in the May 9 issue of Science, offer new insight into how bacteria survive attacks from different antibiotics, a growing health problem called multidrug resistance. As the team learned, these robu
The resilience of sockeye salmon runs in Alaska’s Bristol Bay -– after a century of fishing they’re as healthy as they’ve ever been – is about strength in numbers.
It’s not just an abundance of fish, although the numbers returning to spawn is tens of millions more than the total across the lower 48 states and prudent actions by fishermen and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have helped make it a classic example of a sustainable fishery.
As it turns out, it’
Tiny protein targets Bax, inhibits apoptosis
Researchers at The Burnham Institute have found that humanin, a small, 24-amino acid protein recently discovered in studies of Alzheimer’s Disease, suppresses activation of the protein Bax. Bax triggers pathologic cell death in a number of diseases, including Parkinson’s, stroke, heart attack and degeneration of ovaries during menopause. These results, to be published later this month in the journal Nature (currently available at the journa
With the aid of a chance discovery by a graduate student, scientists from Oregon State University have identified, dusted off and found a new use for an old math theory from the early 1800s that could revolutionize the management of lands, protection of species and study of ecology.
The discovery promises for the first time to address the enormous complexities of the natural world with the powerful tools of advanced mathematics – which, until now, have been of limited use in the study of man
A new scanning microscope developed at Brown University can uncover defects in the smallest and most complex integrated circuits at a resolution 1,000 times greater than current technology. The scanner removes a barrier to further shrinking of integrated circuits: As circuits get smaller, non-visual defects become harder to find.
“This microscope will allow manufacturers to find defects in each embedded wire in ever-tinier circuits,” said Brown University professor Gang Xiao. He developed th
Because they are able to recognize a particular cell marker — a protein — antibodies are generally used to identify abnormal cells in the body. As such, they play a key role in diagnosis, treatment and basic research.
At the Institut Curie, CNRS research scientists have recently prepared a new type of antibody which for the first time combines several crucial features: it can be produced in a few days, it can be expressed directly in cells, and it is, moreover, sensitive to the shape of pro
Geologists find meteorites 100 times more common in wake of ancient asteroid collision
Using fossil meteorites and ancient limestone unearthed throughout southern Sweden, marine geologists at Rice University have discovered that a colossal collision in the asteroid belt some 500 million years ago led to intense meteorite strikes over the Earth’s surface.
The research, which appears in this week’s issue of Science magazine, is based upon an analysis of fossil meteor
One-year results presented at annual ophthalmology meeting
Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, its Doheny Retina Institute and Second Sight, LLC, are reporting on the initial results of their groundbreaking, FDA-approved feasibility trial of an intraocular retinal prosthesis that appears to be able to restore some degree of sight to the blind.
“We have successfully completed enrollment and implantation of three patients in t
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