USGS-funded research weighs benefits of forest thinning on plants and animals
Recent studies show that thinning of young forests can benefit the development of old-growth characteristics and the diversity of plants and animals, but only if methods are used that protect and promote the development of shrubs, hardwoods, and large or old trees.
The findings, which were made by researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Oregon State University (OSU), hold special sig
Geologists may have to revise their ideas about what goes on in the Earth’s interior, following the publication today of new research in the journal ’Nature’. It appears that contrary to previous belief, part of the interior has remained undisturbed for at least two-and-a-half billion years, in spite of the massive forces at work inside the planet.
Like a saucepan of thick syrup being heated on the stove, huge convection currents within the Earth, generated by heat from the co
Flavonoids that are found in fruit, vegetables, chocolate, tea, wine, and grape juice reduce cellular oxidative stress and are associated with a reduced risk of heart disease and cancer. Concord grape juice is a rich source of flavonoids, but it has not been compared to antioxidant supplements in terms of its efficacy in reducing oxidative stress. In an article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, O’Byrne et al. compared the effects of Concord grape juice (CGJ) and antioxidant suppleme
A nuclear probe developed by CSIRO for minerals exploration and mining may soon be used to combat some of the world’s biggest environmental problems.
Overseas the probe could help prevent acid rain, one of the most pressing environmental problems in the northern hemisphere.
CSIRO also hopes to use the probe to measure salt concentrations in soil as part of its assault on dryland salinity.
“Acid rain is caused when high sulphur fossil fuels are burnt,” says Dr Mihai Bo
New research carried out by scientists at partner institutions UWIC (University of Wales Institute, Cardiff), University of Wales College of Medicine (UWCM) in Cardiff and the University of Waikato, New Zealand, has found sensitivity to honey of wound infecting bacteria.
In a report published in the November 2002 issue of Journal of Applied Microbiology, Dr Rose Cooper (UWIC), Professor Peter Molan MBE (University of Waikato) and Professor Keith Harding (UWCM) explain: “In laboratory tests,
Major international research programme on Life as learning
Mobile phones are the new learning tools of the future
Mobile phones look set to become an important new learning tool for the future. One of the projects under the umbrella of the Academy of Finland international research programme Life as Learning (or LEARN for short) is working on theoretical models and practical applications that will facilitate the use of mobile technology in learning. In charge of this project is Pro
A Northumbria University lecturer has helped devise a scheme to use music to catch computer bugs.
Dr Paul Vickers from Northumbria and Professor James Alty from Loughborough University’s Department of Computer Science have come up with an idea that would see features of computer programming languages being given short, musical themes. All similar instructions would be given related tunes so that any bug would be easily identified within the system.
“To ensure the musicality
By taking continuous electrocardiogram (ECG) readings for 24 hours after treating heart attack patients, Duke University Medical Center researches have shown that giving a combination of a new drug that prevents platelets from clumping together, as well as a clot-busting drug, opens up clogged arteries faster and keeps them open longer.
The researchers found that giving the anti-clotting drug eptifibatide along with a half-dose tenecteplase (TNK) — a genetically altered version of the comm
A new radiation approach being tested at Stanford University Medical Center could shorten the overall treatment time for women with breast cancer. Participants will receive a single dose of radiation at the time of surgery rather than the usual six-week course of radiation therapy. The clinical trial is now recruiting patients.
“The trial should tell us whether this accelerated form of radiotherapy is safe, feasible and effective in controlling cancer recurrence in the breast for certain wo
The measured abundance of helium in the universe (about 25% of all normal matter) suggests that there is about one proton for every 1010 photons. This in turn suggests that at some earlier phase of the universe an almost equal number of protons and anti-protons existed and gradually annihilated, but that because of some fundamental asymmetry (at the level of one part per ten billion) in the way that the weak nuclear force treats matter and antimatter, protons but not anti-protons survived to the pre
Record-high magnetic fields in the lab, almost a Gigagauss in magnitude, have been achieved by aiming intense laser light at a dense plasma, expanding the possibilities for laboratory re-creations of astrophysical events.
At last week’s APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting in Orlando, researchers from Imperial College, London, and the Rutherford Appleton Lab in the UK announced evidence of super-strong magnetic fields that are hundreds of times more intense than any previous magnetic
Oil from the wrecked tanker off the northwest coast of Spain had already reached the Spanish coast when ESA’s Envisat satellite acquired this radar image of the oil slick, stretching more than 150 km, on Sunday, 17 November, at 10.45 UTC.
The 26-year-old tanker, Prestige, can be seen as a bright white point located about 100 km off the coast. Support vessels are identifiable as smaller white points surrounding the ship. The huge oil slick is clearly visible as a dark plume emanating from the
Faced with a patient who is ‘tired all the time’ and reports ‘pain in my body every day’, many General Practitioners may struggle to identify fibromyalgia, a little-known but debilitating condition as the cause of their patient’s suffering.
Fibromyalgia is a widespread and yet little-recognised and little-understood pain and fatigue disorder that is thought to affect millions world-wide. Symptoms include persistent pain – the body interprets touch or movement as pain although there is no t
University of Minnesota researchers, with collaborators at the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa, have completed sequencing the genome of the bacteria that causes Johne’s disease, a major chronic wasting disease found in dairy cattle. The bacterium, Mycobacterium paratuberculosis, is considered one of the most important threats to the health of dairy cattle worldwide and may represent a potential risk to the safety of the milk supply. The gene se
’Surprisingly effective’ says French research team
A new drug that targets tumour blood vessels has produced a surprisingly effective response in its first patient study – shrinking the tumours in a number of patients treated so far, according to researchers carrying out the study at the Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, France.
The drug, SU011248[1], which is given in capsule form, is a signal transduction inhibitor designed to act against several abnormally b
A group of Italian investigators led by Drs Francesco Fallo (Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Padova) and Dr Nicoletta Sonino (Department of Mental Health, Padova) explores a neglected issue: the relationship between daytime stress and the physiological lowering of blood pressure which should occur during sleep (dipping).
Scarce data are available on the influence of psychological aspects on 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure patterns either in normotensive or hyper
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