Surprise Discovery with World`s Leading Telescopes
Combining data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), a group of European and American astronomers have made an unexpected, major discovery.
They have identified a huge number of “young” stellar clusters, only a few billion years old , inside an “old” elliptical galaxy (NGC 4365), probably aged some 12 billion years. For the first time, it has been possible to identify several
A new study published in BMC Public Health shows that breathing in second-hand smoke significantly increases the risk of developing heart problems in non-smokers. These findings have serious consequences for public health giving weight to calls for smoking to be banned in public places.
In 1995 cardiovascular diseases accounted for nearly 15 million deaths, approximately 30% of deaths worldwide. Smokers are becoming increasingly aware of the links between smoking and heart disease as warning
Digital images that have been tampered with could now be spotted – thanks to a digital ‘watermark’ developed by UK scientists
Digital images such as CCTV footage are increasingly being used as evidence in high profile court cases. However, it is easy to tamper with an image and very difficult to tell if any manipulation has taken place.
Researchers have created a digital version of a watermark to tackle this problem and validate digital evidence. The team is led by Profes
Highly promising results from clinical trials indicate that alpha-emitting radioisotopes can kill cancer cells. The Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum presented this innovative therapy during a recent workshop in Heidelberg. Alpha-immunotherapy should develop into an effective treatment over the next few years and provide new methods of healing for patients. How does the cancer-killing mechanism work? A cancer-cell selective vehicle, (e.g. a monocolonal anti
Thanks to SEK 7 million in funding from the EU and other financiers, Luleå University of Technology in Sweden is now able to launch an urgent research project for the future of the Barents region. The overarching goal is to gather the knowledge and competence needed to solve and prevent looming environmental problems in the area.
The project will be carried out in cooperation between universities and companies in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Russia and is a step in Luleå University of Techno
University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center researchers have found that the aging of the human retina is accompanied by distinct changes in gene expression.
Using commercially available DNA slides, a team of researchers directed by Anand Swaroop, Ph.D., have established the first-ever gene profile of the aging human retina, an important step in understanding the mechanisms of aging and its impact on vision disorders.
In the August issue of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Scie
Trees may not actually commit suicide, but certain species do produce pollutants that hamper their own growth while contributing to global climate changes and causing harm to other life forms, contend two Texas A&M University researchers.
Renyi Zhang, an atmospheric chemist, is studying one such substance, isoprene, given off by oak trees and leading to increased ozone in our atmosphere. Working under a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Zhang and chemistry professor Simon
If grandma gets a bedsore, the best thing to put on it might be a plant that’s been used for 5,000 years.
The mysterious Aloe vera has been a source for healing since Old Testament times, and a Texas A&M University researcher is trying to uncover just what the substances are in the plant that work wonders and how they do it so that more might be learned about treating wounds.
Dr. Ian Tizard, a professor of immunology in the College of Veterinary Medicine, is studying a spe
Hackers who try to use or copy software illegally may soon find a sticky web waiting to trap them.
It’s not the World Wide Web. Instead, it’s a new approach under development at Purdue University designed to protect software. By placing a linked brigade of hundreds of tiny “guards” at different points within software code, computer scientists have made it far more difficult for hackers to use software without permission from the vendor.
“Merely cracking a single p
It’s a wonder cells make it through the day with the barrage of cues and messages they receive and transmit to direct the most basic and necessary functions of life. Such cell communication, or signal transduction, was at least thought to be an “automatic” cascade of biochemical events.
Now, however, a study reported in a recent issue of Nature by Johns Hopkins and Harvard scientists has found that even before a message makes it through the outer cell membrane to the inner nucleus, the
Ceramic materials with “split personalities” could lead to new high-temperature superconductors, according to physicists at Ohio State University and their colleagues.
Researchers here have learned that these ceramic materials, called cuprates (pronounced KOOP-rates), switch between two different kinds of superconductivity under certain circumstances.
The finding could settle a growing controversy among scientists and point the way to buckyball-like superconductivity in ceramics.
Based on a review of research in postmenopausal women and monkeys, Thomas B. Clarkson, D.V.M., of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, believes that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has a beneficial role in slowing heart vessel disease after menopause. Clarkson addressed the Third World Congress on Controversies in Obstetrics, Gynecology & Infertility in Washington, D.C. this weekend.
“Mounting evidence points to the conclusion that HRT can help prevent heart vessel disease – if
It’s no coincidence that the process of turning animal skins into leather is called tanning. When people tan, UV radiation from the sun breaks down protein in our skin cells and causes, over time, wrinkles and leathery-looking skin. According to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), most sun exposure occurs before the age of 18. With major summer “beach time” remaining, here’s some information from the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, on how consumers can prote
A study at Ohio State University is probing the nature of a unique sulfur-containing molecule — one that scientists consider a “missing link” in its chemical family.
The molecule, hydrogen thioperoxide, or HSOH for short, is related to the common bleaching and disinfectant agent hydrogen peroxide. Because HSOH contains sulfur, it could eventually help scientists understand how pollutants form in Earth’s atmosphere, and how similar molecules form in outer space.
Scientists
We`ve got digital television. Next comes digital cinema. Thanks to ESA, cinema-goers in five European countries will be able to get an early taste of the new technology later this summer. As part of an ESA-funded project, ten cinemas in Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK will be screening movies transmitted and played digitally rather than by the conventional analogue method.
The advantage to the cinema-goer should be no blemishes on the moving image and greater and consistent clarity
A new study reveals a far greater diversity of plants on earth than previously estimated. Writing in the latest Plant Talk magazine (published on 12 June), leading botanist and conservationist Dr David Bramwell calculates that there are around 422,000 species of flowering plants (termed Angiosperms) in the world. Until now, most scientists had worked from a much lower figure of some 270,000 or 320,000 species.
The increased estimate shows that there is an even more urgent need to complete t
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