Using organic waste presents a win-win situation for municipalities, agriculture
Sewage sludge has the potential to boost production for certain crops while addressing the increase in the amount of waste and the growing scarcity of landfills, according to scientists at the University of Florida.
Using organic waste as fertilizer is not a new concept. Before the 1940s, when synthetic nitrogen fertilizer became widely available, animal manure and human waste were commonly used
Cancer researchers have known that the tumor-suppressor gene p53 is critical in preventing cells from dividing inappropriately and becoming tumors. But now, researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have established that the ability of the p53 gene to perform its job depends on the type of p53 within each cell. This and another new finding about p53, published in Nature Genetics (Feb. 3, 2003 online version, March 2003 print version), have implications for tailoring chemotherapy, designing new cancer tr
New method for the study and treatment of disease
The application of RNA interference (RNAi) to the study of mammalian biology and disease has the potential to revolutionize biomedical research and speed the development of novel therapeutic strategies.
A series of studies by Greg Hannon at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have revealed a great deal of information about the mechanism of RNAi, as well as how RNAi can be adapted for use in medical research. These and other
In their ongoing research on turning adult stem cells isolated from fat into cartilage, Duke University Medical Center researchers have demonstrated that the level of oxygen present during the transformation process is a key switch in stimulating the stem cells to change.
Their findings were presented today (Feb. 2, 2003) at the annual meeting of the Orthopedic Research Society.
Using a biochemical cocktail of steroids and growth factors, the researchers have “retrained” specific
New research examines why African-American infants are at greater risk
Why is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome more common among African-American infants than in babies of other races?
Research in this month’s issue of Pediatrics suggests the answer might lie in the high prevalence of African-American infants who have died suddenly after being put to sleep in adult beds or on surfaces other than cribs, such as sofas. It urges public health officials to make African American
A new drug that is biologically linked to Thalidomide destroys cancerous cells by forcing them to commit suicide according to research by a team at St George’s Hospital Medical School, Tooting, London. This work, published today in the journal Cancer Research, adds to the recent study by the same team showing how similar drugs can reduce new blood vessel development, starving growing tumours of nutrients. Both results suggest these new compounds could be powerful anti-cancer agents.
By attem
Researchers from Duke University Medical Center and the Medical College of Wisconsin have shown that removing a portion, instead of all, of the spleen, can successfully treat children with a variety of congenital anemias while preserving important splenic immune function.
In the largest study of its kind in the U.S., the researchers performed the surgery, known as a partial splenectomy, on 25 children with congenital forms of anemia caused by abnormal red blood cells. Typically, these
Some mice with a genetic mutation for mahogany-colored coats also develop spongiform degeneration of brain tissue, similar to mad cow disease. Because of this oddity, the mice could be valuable animal models for human disorders, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, according to geneticists at Cornell and Stanford universities.
The surprising discovery in a mouse strain known to geneticists since the 1960s is reported in the latest issue of the journal Science (Jan. 31, 2003
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, a report published in the February issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association says that chocolate is good for your heart.
Researchers at the University of California at Davis reviewed a number of recent studies on chocolate – particularly dark chocolate – and its health benefits. They found that flavan-3-ols, the main flavonoids found in cocoa, are associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease.
“Cocoa contains th
Removing pituitary tumors through the nasal cavity rather than using the classic approach beneath the upper lip offers patients a minimally invasive alternative with similar results, less discomfort and faster recovery, a new UCLA study indicates.
The findings, published in the February 2003 edition of the peer-reviewed Journal of Neurosurgery, quantify the advantages of the direct endonasal approach over the sublabial procedure, regarded as the surgical standard for more than 40 years.
“The computing world is moving from the desktop and workstation to an arena of embedded and wearable computers,” remarked Sandeep Shukla, who recently received a $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to help solve one of the major problems in this transition.
Shukla, who joined the Virginia Tech electrical and computer engineering faculty in August 2002, will use his Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award to devise a strategy for achieving the optimal balance
Discovery could help scientists to understand how cells ’remember’ which genes to switch on or off
Scientists from Imperial College London, the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK and the Hammersmith Hospital have discovered an important aspect of how heterochromatin, the wrapping around DNA, works.
The researchers, whose work is published today in Science, discovered that heterochromatin is dynamic, constantly wrapping and unwrapping around DNA, and not s
Results of a Chinese population-based study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET provide strong evidence that women who take folic acid supplements during pregnancy do not have an increased likelihood of having a multiple birth.
Folic acid supplements are recommended for women of childbearing age to prevent neural tube defects-such as spina bifida and anencephaly-in their children. However, results from some small studies have suggested that consumption of vitamins containing folic acid during
New research published in Genome Biology investigates genes that increase the life span of fruit flies in an effort to gain a greater understanding of the ageing process. The researchers from the University of Southern California and Harvard Medical School screened 10,000 fruit fly populations that were mutated.
Their results revealed that six populations of mutant flies lived 5-17% longer than normal. Furthermore, analysis of these long-lived flies showed that the extended life span
Data gathered by Penn State engineers in a volunteer effort at the World Trade Center tragedy, suggests that simple, inexpensive microphones dropped into the rubble of a collapsed building may be able to aid search and rescue teams despite ground level noise.
Dr. Thomas B. Gabrielson, associate professor of acoustics and senior research associate at Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory, says, “In conventional survivor searches, noise generating activities at the surface must be stopped
Whilst experimenting with nanospheres and perfluorodecalin, a liquid used in the production of synthetic blood, researchers at Germany’s University of Ulm have stumbled across a phenomenon that could ultimately help remove ozone-harming chemicals from the atmosphere. The perfluorodecalin, against all expectations, was taken up by a water-based suspension of 60 nm diameter polystyrene particles.
The scientists believe that this occurred because nanoscopic perfluorodecalin droplets became
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