Industry experts at Search Engine Watch recently named Vivísimo the Web’s Best Meta-Search Engine for its ability to instantly organize search results into a computer-generated “index.” The software behind Vivísimo’s search engine can also be applied to any collection of documents, in languages ranging from English and German to Arabic and Korean.
A success story from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research and computer science programs, Vivísimo’s Web site
University of Minnesota researchers have made the first-ever hardness measurements on individual silicon nanospheres and shown that the nanospheres’ hardness falls between the conventional hardness of sapphire and diamond, which are among the hardest known materials. Being able to measure such nanoparticle properties may eventually help scientists design low-cost superhard materials from these nanoscale building blocks.
Up to four times harder than typical silicon-a principal ingredient o
Inhaled glucocorticoid drugs are more effective than the newer anti-leukotriene tablets for adults with mild or moderate asthma, concludes a study in this week’s BMJ.
Professor Francine Ducharme reviewed 13 trials comparing leukotriene receptor antagonists with low doses of inhaled glucocorticoids for 28 days or more in children and adults.
She found that adults treated with leukotriene receptor antagonists were 60% more likely to suffer worsening of symptoms, whereas those treated
Observations with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at the ESO Paranal Observatory (Chile) have provided the first-ever direct determination of the angular sizes of the disks of the solar-type stars Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B. As the two largest members of this triple stellar system that also includes the much smaller Proxima Centauri, they are the Sun’s nearest neighbours in space at a distance of just over 4 light-years. Together with photometric and asteroseismic observati
Research at Oxford University’s Institute of Molecular Medicine has identified a novel therapeutic regimen for the treatment of cancer that provides significant advantages over the existing methods of cancer treatment.
There are already a number of regimens available for treatment of cancer, including chemotherapy, which is commonly used to treat a number of different types of cancer. In most cases chemotherapeutic agents are given at the maximum tolerated dose (MTD), but at such doses the
The human body has barriers such as skin and the lining of airways and gut that protect and separate us from the outside world. If these barriers are breached, our survival is threatened. Therefore it is critical that the cells that form these barriers have mechanisms that can instantly repair any injury.
University of Iowa researchers have discovered a surprisingly simple but effective repair system in airway barrier cells. The UI study shows that by placing a messenger molecule on one side
Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers and their colleagues have discovered one way in which the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) wins its cat-and-mouse game with the body’s immune system.
The study, published in the March 20, 2003, issue of the journal Nature, shows that HIV-1, a common strain of the virus that causes AIDS, uses a strategy not seen before in other viruses to escape attack by antibodies, one of the immune system’s prime weapons against invading viruses and b
The delicate interplay of two chemical signals coaxes stem cells into becoming hair follicles, according to new research by scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at The Rockefeller University.
The research has implications for understanding hair growth and hair-follicle development, and it may also help explain how diverse structures, such as teeth and lungs, are formed or how some forms of skin cancer develop.
In an article published in the March 20, 2003, issue of the
A sensor system that can autonomously, continuously and in real-time monitor streams, lakes, ocean bays and other bodies of liquid may help solve problems for environmentalists, manufacturers and those in charge of homeland security, according to Penn State engineers.
“The importance of developing a network sensor technology for operation in liquid environments has recently been highlighted in reports detailing the chemical slurry of antibiotics, estrogen-type hormones, insecticides, nicotin
By constructing artificial materials that break long-standing rules of nature, a University of Toronto researcher has developed a flat lens that could significantly enhance the resolution of imaged objects. This, in turn, could lead to smaller and more effective antennas and devices for cell phones, increased space for data storage on CD-ROMs and more complex electronic circuits.
“This is new physics,” says George Eleftheriades, a U of T professor specializing in electromagnetic technology
In the developing brain, nerve cells make connections with one another by extending processes, often over long distances.
The growing tips of these nerve cell processes are guided to their ultimate connection sites by molecular cues in the environment.
A Salk Institute research team has discovered a receptor-protein interaction that guides nerve cells along specific pathways.
John Thomas, professor of molecular neurobiology, working on the fruit fly Drosophila, found tha
Lightning may be Mother Nature’s greatest show on Earth, but scientists now know it can produce significant amounts of ozone and other gases that affect air chemistry.
Researcher Renyi Zhang of Texas A&M University helped lead a study on the impact of lightning, and the results are surprising: Lightning can be responsible for as much as 90 percent of the nitrogen oxides in the summer and at the same time increase ozone levels as much as 30 percent in the free troposphere, the area that
Physicists and geoscientists join forces in a Dutch research centre.
Luminescence dating is a new technology for the determination of the age of sediments such as sand. At the Netherlands Centre for Luminescence Dating (NCL), physicists and geoscientists join forces to use and improve this new method. The foundation of the NCL will be celebrated on Thursday 20th of March in the form of an opening symposium in the auditorium of the TNO-NITG building in Utrecht. TU Delft will act as se
A team of scientists from Cambridge University and Bristol University, led by Dr Naomi Langmore of the Australian National University, has found that some Australian birds are one step ahead of their British counterparts in their ability to avoid being victimized by cuckoos.
Cuckoos exploit other bird species by laying their eggs in the nests of other birds. Soon after hatching, the cuckoo chick kills host young by tipping them out of the nest. The foster parents then work hard to rear the i
In at least one type of endeavor, humans can’t even begin to compete with their best friends. Dogs can be trained to sniff out drugs and explosives or to track down a crime suspect by smell. Why can’t we do the same? Scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology propose an explanation for this ancient quandary.
All mammals, including humans, have about 1,000 genes encoding smell-detecting proteins, or olfactory recepto
Proteins, it appears, have taken Frank Sinatra’s “I Did It My Way” close to heart. A new study published in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reveals how single proteins, each a few nanometers (billionths of a meter) long, fold to assume their final shape. It shows that even proteins having the same final shape achieve it by taking different routes.
Proteins are the fundamental components of all living cells. They start out as randomly shaped c
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