Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory believe that magnetic field lines extending a few million light years from galaxies into space may be the result of incredibly efficient energy-producing dynamos within black holes that are somewhat analogous to an electric motor. Los Alamos researchers Philipp Kronberg, Quentin Dufton, Stirling Colgate and Hui Li today discussed this finding at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Albuquerque, N.M.
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The use of key resources such as forests, fisheries and energy is likely to be unsustainable and threaten the ability of SE Asia to build an environmentally and economically stable future in the face of global change, say a group of international scientists meeting in Bali this week.
In the 1980s the rates of deforestation in Southeast Asia ranged between 60,000 hectare per year in Cambodia and 600,000 hectare per year in Indonesia. Twenty years later it became uncontrollable with larger ran
The catastrophic flooding in Jakarta in February this year could have been predicted nearly 3 weeks in advance with a new technique being developed by Dr Matt Wheeler and colleagues at the Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre in Australia.
The flooding was caused by large waves of air and clouds, so called Madden-Julian Oscillations (MJOs). Using satellite data Dr Wheeler and co-workers are able to predict the occurrence of MJOs, which take about one month to move across the Indian basin a
The results of a new study suggest that rising temperatures are leaving a mark on the world. According to a report published in the current issue of the journal Science, the first flowering of plants in Britain has changed by as much as 55 days over the past few decades in response to warmer weather. The results, the scientists say, are the “strongest biological signal yet of climatic change.”
Alastair Fitter of the University of York and his father, naturalist Richard Fitter, analyzed 47 y
Ph.D. candidate Lital Alfonta wins Kaye Award
Lital Alfonta, a Ph.D. candidate in the Faculty of Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has developed a fast, inexpensive test to determine if an AIDS patient has developed resistance to the medication he is taking. Ms. Alfonta was selected to receive the prestigious Kaye Innovation Award for her work, which could vastly improve treatment of AIDS patients.
Ms. Alfonta, who developed the test under the guidance of Prof.
Findings may lead to more effective regulations for protecting public health
Using data from one of the most comprehensive U.S. air pollution studies ever conducted, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as key sources of excess ozone smog in industrial areas of Houston, Texas — which appear to be different from traditional sources of ozone pollution in typical urban areas around the co
Brown scientists have described a previously unknown but critical blood-clotting role for Arp2/3, a complex of seven proteins found in animal and plant cells.
Reporting in the June 15 issue of Blood, the scientists show that Arp2/3 complex is a cellular machine that drives a human blood platelet to change shape into a larger, more flattened form and begin the process of clotting. The link between what happens at the surface of a platelet and the mechanism of shape change within it has mystif
A report published today by the European Commission establishes for the first time the situation of women scientists in 30 European countries . The report is presented at a seminar opening today in Madrid and organised with the Spanish Presidency of the European Union on “Women and Science: promoting women in the scientific sector”.
The report, prepared by a group of national representatives known as the `Helsinki Group on Women and Science`, compiles national statistical profiles which ar
Heart ’patches’ and functioning kidney units cloned in cows
Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (ACT) reported today that nuclear transplantation can be used to generate functional immune-compatible tissues. The research, which will appear in the July issue (cover story) of Nature Biotechnology, by ACT and its collaborators, provides the first experimental evidence that it may be possible to use cloning to generate medically important tissues and eliminate tissue rejection. Heart
Cloned cells organize into muscle, heart and kidney tissue; animals show no rejection
Boston – In a study published in the July issue of Nature Biotechnology, available on the internet June 3, researchers from Children’s Hospital Boston and colleagues demonstrated that laboratory-engineered tissues created from heart, skeletal, and renal cells cloned from cows, then transplanted back into the animals, developed into functional tissues and caused no signs of rejection.
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An Australian research team has solved one of the world’s big industrial waste headaches – what to do with spent pot lining (SPL) from aluminium smelters.
In a major advance for sustainable mineral production, the “Alcoa Portland SPL Process” developed jointly by Portland Aluminium, Alcoa, Ausmelt and CSIRO renders the hazardous waste harmless and at the same time produces two commercial by-products.
Aluminium smelters worldwide produce about half a million tones a year of the tox
Scientists at the University of Leicester’s Space Research Centre are recreating the hostile environment found on Mars in their laboratory, with a device known as the Martian Environment Simulator (MES). The machine reproduces the temperature, air pressure and unbreathable atmosphere known to exist on Mars. The MES is currently being used to test equipment on the Beagle 2 lander, part of the European Space Agency’s Mars Express Spacecraft and due to arrive on Mars during Christmas 2003. The chance o
A new and economical technology for the separation and capture of carbon dioxide from industrial processes could lead to a significant reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions to the atmosphere. Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory are developing a new high-temperature polymer membrane to separate and capture carbon dioxide, preventing its escape into the atmosphere. This work is part of the DOE Carbon Sequestration Program’s mission to reduce the amount of c
New product approved to prevent bleeding deaths
A razor nick during a much-too-close-shave ten years ago may result in hundreds of thousands of lives saved in the future. Scientist Frank Hursey was working with absorptive materials back in the late 80’s when he cut himself shaving. He picked up a volcanic mineral he’d been studying and decided to try it on his bleeding wound. The product worked so well as a coagulant that Hursey set to work doing further testing.
After three
Pulses of laser light can make molecules react in ways that are impossible using classical test-tube chemistry. Molecules vibrate, and each molecule has its own “tone,” its own “melody.” It’s a question of finding the right key, and that is something that a “smart” laser beam can do. It can find its way to the right tone. In a new issue of the prestigious journal Nature it is shown how such a laser can be used to control photosynthesis molecules that gather light. This is the first time this fea
Giving magnesium sulphate injections to pregnant women with pre-eclampsia halves the risk of eclampsia developing and can save their lives. This is the conclusion of a major international clinical trial funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and published in this week’s The Lancet.
The three-year £2.5 million study, the ‘Magpie’* Trial, was conducted in 33 countries spanning the UK and much of the developing world where eclampsia is the most common cause of death for pregnant women. Th
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