Scientists at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UCSD analyzing traffic to one of the 13 Domain Name System (DNS) “root” servers at the heart of the Internet found that the server spends the majority of its time dealing with unnecessary queries. DNS root servers provide a critical link between users and the Internet’s routing infrastructure by mapping text host names to numeric Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Researchers at the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA) at
Findings point to complex social behaviour
The large tusks of an animal that roamed Earth before the dinosaurs may provide the earliest evidence yet of male-female distinctions in land animals that existed millions of years ago, say U of T scientists.
Robert Reisz, a biology professor at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, and his team have found convincing evidence of sexual dimorphism – different physical traits between the sexes of the same species – in their study
A vaccine aimed against AIDS, developed at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University, the Emory Vaccine Center, and the Laboratory of Viral Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will begin a Phase I clinical trial this week.
A total of 30 human volunteers will be enrolled at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Washington in Seattle, and the San Francisco Departmen
In an organic chemistry lab located in the Science II building on the campus of Binghamton University, Scott Handy is busy whipping up promising new substances modeled after natural compounds found in sea sponges and tobacco plants. Some of the synthetic compounds could help in the fight against cancer and AIDS. Others could provide a safer, more effective, and more affordable alternative to the traditional solvents organic chemists use to catalyze reactions and synthesize compounds, one molecule at
Neural circuits that control eye movements play multiple roles in visual attention
With so many visual stimuli bombarding our eyes — cars whizzing by, leaves fluttering — how can we focus attention on a single spot — a word on a page or a fleeting facial expression? How do we filter so purely that the competing stimuli never even register in our awareness?
A pair of Princeton scientists have found that it has a lot to do with the brain circuits that control eye movements.
Analysis of Martian volcanoes will help determine when Hesperian epoch began
Research by a University at Buffalo planetary geologist suggests that generally accepted estimates about the geologic age of surfaces on Mars — which influence theories about its history and whether or not it once sustained life — could be way off.
Funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the research eventually could overturn principles about the relative ages of different are
Findings Show The Force of Blood Flow Has Anti-Inflammatory Effect
Scientists have found a new way in which exercise may protect against heart disease. Increased blood flow can mimic the powerful anti-inflammatory actions of certain glucocorticoid steroid drugs, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Medicine and Engineering. The researchers discovered that an increase in shear stress – the drag force exerted by blood flowing over endothelial
Authors of a fast-track study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET propose an alternative to antibiotics to treat infection associated with the use of chemotherapy for patients with blood cancer.
The toxic effects of chemotherapy cause organisms in the gut to migrate to the bloodstream, frequently resulting in bacterial infection. Michael Ellis and colleagues from the United Arab Emirates investigated whether interleukin 11 (IL-11)-an agent involved in the immune response and thought to prote
Fear of the dark is a common complaint in children and is often attributed to attention seeking behaviour. Yet researchers in this week’s BMJ suggest that it may be due to night blindness – a diagnosis which can be easily missed.
They describe two children with an inherited form of stationary night blindness. Both were very frightened of the dark, had a history of bumping into things at night, and insisted that curtains were drawn much earlier than others would choose. One child had fear of
An immense grassland in Mongolia – an area likened to the long-gone prairies of the American West, complete with staggering migrations of hundreds of thousands of animals – is threatened by a proposal to build a road through its center, according to scientists with the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.
The road proposal is part of the “Millennium Highway,” which plans to connect Mongolia to China and the Russian Far East. The current version of the plan calls for de-gazetteing al
Voluntary Initiative, Born Out of WSSD, Set to Deliver Major Health and Environmental Benefits to Continent’s 800 Million Citizens
UNEP’s Governing Council 3 to 7 February: Environment for Development
An international effort to phase out lead, the health-hazardous heavy metal, from petrol is accelerating as increasing numbers of African countries switch to unleaded fuel.
Research, to be presented to environment ministers attending a key conference organized by the Un
Animals lacking molecules called cryptochromes have abnormal sleeping patterns because their internal biorhythms are disrupted. New research from scientists at Stanford University, the University of North Carolina and SRI International published in the open access journal, BMC Neuroscience shows that mice lacking these molecules also respond differently to sleep deprivation. This suggests that cryptochromes are also involved in sleep homeostasis, the process by which we feel tired after we have been
Researchers using three dimensional computer modeling and wind tunnels have made the first accurate comparative measurements of muscle power output of birds in-flight to establish that physical structure, body mass, force and flight style all have major effects upon the magnitude and shape of a species’ power curve.
The research by Harvard integrative physiologist Andrew A. Biewener and fellow researchers was publicly funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF) and published in the
Global Positioning Systems prepare a digital map for precise soil acidity identification
A study conducted by Iowa State University soil scientists suggests Global Positioning Systems (GPS) available to corn and soybean producers can markedly improve the management of soil acidity and lime application. The research is published in the January/February 2003 issue of Agronomy Journal.
Soil acidity can limit plant growth, and due to soil formation processes and management pract
The scientists have not yet found the limits of the monkeys’ learning capacity
Psychologists have found evidence that monkeys have sophisticated abilities to acquire and apply knowledge using some of the same strategies as do humans. Specifically, the researchers have discovered that rhesus monkeys can learn the correct order of arbitrary sets of images and can apply that knowledge to answer new questions about that order.
Not only can the monkeys choose which image came f
UF researchers report: Immunosuppressant drug prevents late rejection of transplanted kidneys
A drug that suppresses the immune system and prolongs the survival of donated kidneys in patients in the first months after transplantation also has the ability to block organ rejection over the long haul, University of Florida researchers have found.
The drug, mycophenolate mofetil, has been shown to decrease acute rejection by 50 percent compared with an older agent commonly used,
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