Solar physicists at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL, University College London) in Surrey have found new clues to the thirty year old puzzle of why the Sun ejects huge bubbles of electrified gas, laced with magnetic field, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). In a paper published this month in the Journal of Solar Physics, they explain that the key to understanding CMEs, which can cause electricity black outs on Earth, may be due to twisted magnetic fields originating deep within the he
In the late 1990s, as scientists were reaching consensus that the Arctic had gone through 30 years of significant climate change, they began reading the first published papers about the Arctic Oscillation, a phenomenon reported to have hemisphere-wide effects.
In short order the arctic-science and the global-change communities were galvanized, says Richard Moritz, polar oceanographer with the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory and lead author of a review of recent Arctic climate change in
Scientists at Northwestern University have developed a powerful new method for detecting infectious diseases, including those associated with many bioterrorism and warfare threats such as anthrax, tularemia, smallpox and HIV.
A research team led by Chad A. Mirkin, director of Northwestern’s Institute for Nanotechnology, has invented a technique for creating thousands of DNA detection probes made of gold nanoparticles with individual molecules attached. Much like human fingerprints, the
A chemical isolated from a weed that grows in mountain meadows in the western United States kills the cells of an aggressive brain cancer that affects some children. The compound, cyclopamine, blocks a signaling pathway that appears to be important for the survival of medulloblastoma, a form of cancer for which there is no effective treatment.
In an article published in the August 30, 2002, issue of the journal Science, a research team led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Phi
It shouldn’t be there, but it is. Deep in the central Amazonian rainforest lies a rich, black soil known locally as terra preta do Indio (Indian dark earth) that farmers have worked for years with minimal fertilization. A Brazilian-American archeological team believed terra preta, which may cover 10 percent of Amazonia, was the product of intense habitation by Amerindian populations who flourished in the area for two millennia, but they recently unearthed evidence that societies lived and farmed
MIT researchers have shown that a common pollutant strongly impacts the behavior of arsenic and possibly other toxic metals in some lakes, adding to scientists’ understanding of how such elements move through the water.
“The work shows that nitrate pollution, which arises from sources such as automobile exhaust, wastewater disposal and fertilizers, is more important in lake dynamics than had been thought,” said Harry Hemond, the Leonhard Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Eyeglasses with built-in computer monitors could soon be a reasonable alternative to reading text from a traditional computer screen, according to new research from Ohio State University.
Participants in a recent study rated the comfort and performance of these so-called near-eye displays as comparable to that of traditional computer monitors. Near-eye displays are like eyeglasses with a monitor built into the lenses.
“The problems with near-eye devices range from motion sickness t
Recent changes in Antarctic seabird populations may be linked to environmental change according to scientists reporting in the journal Science this week. Researchers from the Cambridge-based British Antarctic Survey (BAS) reviewed the best available data from a range of long-term studies to test the view that warming of the Earth`s climate is affecting Antarctic marine life. Whilst they found that sea-ice has a profound influence on population levels of snow petrels, Adélie and emperor penguins, the
Danish authors of a research letter in this week’s issue of THE LANCET provide further evidence which suggests that allergic diseases are becoming increasingly common in western populations.
Allergic diseases are thought to be increasingly common in more-developed countries, but few studies have measured the frequency of atopy with objective measures, and most of these studies have been done in industrialised countries. Tyra Krause and colleagues from Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, De
Protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) belongs to a group of molecules that on the basis of earlier studies has been proposed to be a controlling factor for learning and memory. The ETH researchers produced genetically modified mice in which the activity of PP1 can be reduced at will. These animals were subjected to various learning and memory tests in one of which, the mice had to learn about various objects in a box. For this, they were trained on different schedules: without any interruption during learning
In the search for a nonpolluting energy source, hydrogen is often cited as a potential source of unlimited clean power. But hydrogen is only as clean as the process used to make it. Currently, most hydrogen is made from fossil fuels like natural gas using multi-step and high-temperature processes.
Now, chemical engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a new process that produces hydrogen fuel from plants. This source of hydrogen is non-toxic, non-flammable and can be
Mechanism may provide insights into development and cancer
When cells divide in two, they must carefully manage the process by which their DNA is replicated and then apportioned to the daughter cells. In one critical step along the way, the replicated DNA strands – or sisters – are held together for a period by a temporary scaffold of bridging proteins. When the timing is right, the proteins unzip, allowing the DNA sisters to separate. Errors in this or other steps in cell division ca
Answer revealed in glowing live cells
Using a new mouse model that literally glows with health- protecting molecules, researchers have rewritten part of the textbook tale about how the immune system knows when to fight germs.
Time-lapse video from a pair of Harvard Medical School labs shows how pieces of captured germs may work their way to the surface of live dendritic cells. Dendritic cells are immune cells that alert other immune cells about invading germs. Inside a dendri
Discovery reveals smallest size molecules form functional structures; nanotechnology, research implications may be significant
While it may not make much of an anniversary present, a gold chain built atom by atom by UC Irvine physicist Wilson Ho offers an answer to one of the basic questions of nanotechnology—how small can you go?
In the first study of its kind, Ho and his colleagues have discovered the molecular phase when a cluster of atoms develops into a solid structur
Atmospheric measurements made at Earth’s geographic poles provide a convenient way of validating and calibrating global circulation models. Such measurements also might provide some of the first conclusive evidence of global change in the middle and upper atmospheres. But new data shows that the current models are wrong: Temperatures over the South Pole are much colder in winter than scientists had anticipated.
As reported in the Aug. 28 issue of Geophysical Research Letters, scientist
A NASA researcher finds that the amount of sea ice that moves between Greenland and Spitsbergen, a group of islands north of Norway, is dependent upon a “wave” of atmospheric pressure at sea level. By being able to estimate how much sea ice is exported through this region, called Fram Strait, scientists may develop further insights into how the ice impacts global climate.
This export of sea ice helps control the thermohaline circulation, a deep water ocean conveyor belt that moves warm, sal
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