“I would like Europe to become a centre of excellence and a focus for pharmaceutical research once again”, stated EU Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin today at the annual assembly of the European pharmaceutical industry (EFPIA) in Bruges. “We need to nurture our research-based industries by reinforcing science and technology in Europe. Europe needs to invest more and in a better, more consistent way: it has to cut red tape and be bold.” From 1999 to 2002 the Commission invested around € 1 billio
You may feel different at the dreary hour of 4 a.m. than you do mid-afternoon at 4 p.m. Now, researchers might understand why. A study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis helps explain how genes dictate our biological clock.
Nearly all living things have a natural rhythm that influences their behavior and physiology. This rhythm typically is “circadian”, following a near 24-hour cycle. Driven by an internal clock, a creature’s natural rhythm is synchronized to th
Unlike nuclear terrorism, bioterrorism won’t begin with a bang. It will begin with a whimper — a child feeling the effects of food poisoning.
E.coli, Listeria, Campylobacter, Salmonella are not weapons of mass destruction, they are weapons of mass disruption. Experts say it’s not a matter of if but when terrorists will attempt a strike at our food or water supply. If they succeed, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Americans will become sick, and some among the youngest and ol
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) launched a totally redesigned Web site today with a new Internet address – genome.gov . The streamlined Web site address makes it easy for users to access a comprehensive and authoritative government site focused on genomic research, including the international Human Genome Project slated for completion in April 2003. The new Web site supports ongoing scientific studies by researchers inside and outside
Scientists at the Research & Education Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (REI) are developing a new breast imaging diagnostic tool which will afford clinicians greater opportunities for detecting early stage breast cancers with greater certainty and help patients avoid biopsy in some cases. This detection method identifies breast lesions utilizing a radiopharmaceutical diagnostic imaging technology known as Tc-99 Sestamibi (MIBI) scintimammography. The procedure is based on a radioactive isotop
The high blood pressure drug irbesartan delayed the recurrence of irregular heartbeats, researchers report for first time in today’s rapid access issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
The drug helped stop irregular heartbeats (arrhythmias) known as atrial fibrillation (AF). AF is a disorder in which the two small, upper chambers of the heart quiver instead of beating effectively. Blood that isn’t pumped out may pool and clot. If a piece of clot leaves th
Physical fitness may have an anti-inflammatory effect that protects against heart attacks, according to a report in today’s rapid access issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
In a recent study, researchers compared the level of physical fitness in 135 women from three ethnic groups to their levels of C-reactive protein (CRP). CRP level indicates inflammation.
Elevated CRP is associated with a two- to five-fold increase in the risk of heart attack. T
Full-time work for wives decreases the likelihood of divorce but does not improve marital happiness, Penn State researchers say.
Marital unhappiness frequently drives wives into the workplace, says Dr. Robert Schoen, the Hoffman Professor of Family Sociology and Demography at Penn State. Whether it be unhappy wives, husbands or both, unhappiness can play an important role in wives taking on full-time employment.
Schoen, Dr. Stacy Rogers, assistant professor of sociology, and Dr.
p> Salmonella enterica causes approximately 16 million cases of typhoid fever worldwide, killing around 500,000 per year. One in thirty of the survivors, however, become carriers, such as Typhoid Mary who caused several typhoid outbreaks in New York City at the beginning of the last century. In carriers the bacteria remain hidden inside cells and the gall bladder, causing new infections as they are shed from an apparently healthy host.
The factors that enable the bacteria to establish ch
Arantxa Aranburu, doctor of the University of the Basque Country and lecturer of the Department of Geology, has proved that the bones of Homo heidelbergensis found in Sima de los Huesos, Atapuerca, are even older than thought.
In the gallery of Sima de los Huesos, Atapuerca, a speleothem was found during a stonecutting, over the bones of the ancestors of the Neanderthals, the Homo heidelbergensis . Speleohtem is a carbonate precipitate, that is, it is made of the same material
By the age of three, Catholic children are already twice as likely to say they don`t like the police compared to Protestant children. By the age of six, a third of children are identifying with one of the two main communities and just under one in six (15%) are making sectarian statements according to a major University of Ulster research report published today.
The report, called ‘Too Young to Notice? The Cultural and Political Awareness of 3-6 Year Olds in Northern Ireland,’ is the first
Primates found in Brazil’s Amazon rain forest
Conservation International announced today the discovery of two new species of titi monkey in Brazil’s Amazon rain forest. The findings are published in a just-released special supplement to the journal Neotropical Primates.
They were described by Marc van Roosmalen, a primatologist at Brazil’s National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA), his son, Tomas van Roosmalen, and Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation Internat
Theoretical physicist Lennaert Huiszoon has described a new family of strings in research conducted at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics and High Energy Physics. He investigated so-called open strings which can describe elementary particles with a strong interaction.
With string theory, physicists are trying to construct a unifying theory for gravity and quantum mechanics. The theory describes extremely heavy and very small objects such as the universe shortly after the Big Bang or
A first-of-its-kind, small-scale natural gas liquefaction facility designed by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory was unveiled today by Pacific Gas and Electric Company officials in Sacramento, Calif.
Other significant partners in the pioneering liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility effort include the California Energy Commission, Sacramento Air Quality Management District, SoCal Gas Company and South Coast Air Quality M
Protein movement can be simulated three times as fast than had been thought possible up to now. Researchers from Groningen achieved the gain in speed by leaving out the calculations concerning hydrogen atoms. Meanwhile research groups around the world are adapting their simulation programs.
Up until now researchers calculated all of the positions of atoms in a protein molecule after two femtoseconds. A femtosecond is one millionth of a billionth of a second. The research from Groningen revea
At the Hubrecht Laboratory in Utrecht, the biologist Sylvia Fischer has discovered how organisms protect themselves against transposons. Transposons are pieces of DNA which can translocate themselves within the genome. Sometimes transposons cause damage to the DNA. Plants probably have a similar mechanism which protects them against viruses.
Biologists from Utrecht discovered that the nematode C. elegans keeps transposons in check with a sophisticated mechanism. Due to the mechanism, the tra
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