Just as matter can be converted into energy, so too can energy become matter. That’s what five-dozen Jefferson Lab researchers were counting on for an experiment in Hall A
Albert Einstein figured it out by 1905, as he was formulating his special theory of relativity: while you can’t exactly get something from nothing, you can come close. His famous formula, E=MC 2 , works both ways. Just as matter can be converted into energy, so too can energy become matter.
That’s
When you look at a picture, your brain has to put together lines, patterns and shapes to make a meaningful scene. New research by neuroscientists at the University of California, Davis and the University of Minnesota shows that higher regions of the brain can quickly recognize patterns and shapes and tell lower areas of the brain to stop processing the information. The finding confirms predictions from computer models and helps explain how the human brain makes sense of what the eyes see.
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Everyone knows that if you eat a plate of beans or a bowl of bran cereal, you’re likely to get full pretty quickly. UC Davis nutrition researchers now have a better idea why.
A UC Davis study, published recently in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, indicates that increased fiber content in a meal boosts feelings of fullness in women and increases levels of a certain hormone associated with satiety.
Previous research has shown that the hormone cholecystokinin is rele
Researchers have discovered that a molecule best known for its anti-microbial properties also has the ability to activate key cells in the immune response. This newly discovered function, reported in the Nov. 1, 2002, issue of Science*, suggests the molecule, a peptide called ß-defensin 2, may be useful in the development of more effective cancer vaccines. Scientists have found that ß-defensin 2 initiates a chain of events leading to the growth and multiplication of T cells, components of the immune
Although it is expected that populations of many organisms will move away from the equator and toward the poles to stay cool during global warming, researchers have found that the intertidal zone does not exactly fit this pattern. A study published in this week’s Science Magazine indicates that there may be “hot spots” at northern shoreline sites within the next three to five years. This is partly due to the timing of the tides.
“Because they are assumed to live very close to their thermal
In an effort to stabilize climate and slow down global warming, Livermore scientists along with a team of international researchers have evaluated a series of new primary energy sources that either do not emit or limit the amount of carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere.
Possible candidates for primary energy sources include terrestrial, solar and wind energy; and solar-power satellites; biomass; nuclear fission; nuclear fusion; fission-fusion hybrids and fossil fuels from which carbon h
American college students are much more likely to worry about the way they look and to spend time obsessing over their bodies than their German counterparts, according to a new study.
“Cross-cultural differences in the value placed on appearances and resulting sociocultural pressures are the most likely explanation,” says lead author Antje Bohne of Harvard Medical School.
Despite these differences in body image, the American students were no more likely to have severe enough body d
Secretin is active in a brain region implicated in autism
Researchers from the Brain Imaging Center at McLean Hospital and Repligen Corporation (Nasdaq: RGEN) reported today the results of a clinical trial designed to assess the neurological activity of secretin by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results demonstrate for the first time in humans, that secretin is active in the central nervous system and that it potentiates activity in the amygdala, a region of the bra
Research scientists at INSERM, CNRS and the Institut Curie, in collaboration with physicians, have used a mouse model to demonstrate the efficacy of an innovative therapeutic approach to Ewing`s sarcoma: the combination of human interferon (alpha or beta) and a common anti-tumor agent, ifosfamide.
Their results were published in the November 2002 issue of Oncogene and point to an interesting lead in the development of a less intensive and more effective therapeutic strategy for Ewing`s sarc
Authors of an article in this week’s issue of THE LANCET-the first of a series of four articles assessing the role of the pharmaceutical industry in medicine-are critical of the way in which multinational pharmaceutical companies manipulate the provision of information, and say that this contributes to a distortion of medical research.
Joe Collier and Ike Iheanacho from Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin, London, UK, comment on how the pharmaceutical industry spends more time and resources o
Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center have made significant progress in identifying the first susceptibility gene for clinical depression, the second leading cause of disability worldwide, possibly providing an important step toward changing the way doctors diagnose and treat major depression that affects nearly 10 percent of the population.
Research results, which were accepted for rapid publication and published today in the American Journal of Medical Genetics, sho
Herpes viruses have two infectious phases: one just after infecting a new host, and one years or decades later when they reactivate.
According Michael Stumpf (UCL), Zoe Laidlaw (University of Sheffield), and Vincent Jansen (Royal Holloway, University of London), that latency period evolved because it allows the viruses to flourish when the availability of hosts from year to year is highly unpredictable.
Until now, scientists have thought that viruses like herpes simplex 1 a
Report provides key information resource for local and European decision makers
The Apheis programme, funded by the EC`s Health and Consumer Protection DG, today released the findings of a health impact assessment of particulate air pollution it conducted in 26 cities in 12 European countries during 2001.
The Apheis (Air Pollution and Health: A European Information System) study revealed in particular that air pollution continues to pose a significant threat to public health
Extreme cold and high heat help optimize the metal’s microstructure
Combining old-fashioned metal-working techniques with modern nanotechnology, engineers at The Johns Hopkins University have produced a form of pure copper metal that is six times stronger than normal, with no significant loss of ductility.
The achievement, reported in the Oct. 31 issue of the journal “Nature,” is important because earlier attempts to strengthen a pure metal such as copper have almost always
The rapid increase of nitrogen falling from the sky as a result of fossil-fuel combustion and crop fertilization, combined with carbon stored in Earth’s soils, could change the rate of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, rising into the atmosphere, according to a new study.
Scientists believe about 300 times more carbon is stored in soils than is being put in the atmosphere in the form of C02, according to biology Assistant Professor Alan Townsend of the University of Colorado at Bould
An innovative new software can detect and correct a database impaired by an attack while the database system continues to process transactions, says a Penn State researcher.
“We simulated attackers’ behaviors on a database and then monitored the response of the database,” said Dr. Peng Liu, assistant professor of information sciences and technology. “We can’t prevent attackers from getting in, but with this technology, the database can heal itself on-the-fly.”
Liu perfor
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