Findings by Geri Richmond’s team provide insight for environmental challenges

Chemists have discovered details about how the tadpole-shaped molecules found in many soaps and detergents bury their heads into the top-most surface of water, an insight expected to yield benefits such as better methods for cleaning up environmental hazards. The findings of a team led by University of Oregon chemist Geri Richmond are featured on the cover of the Sept. 8 issue of the Journal of Physi

An article published in the Sept. 8, 2005 New England Journal of Medicine sheds new light on the $130 billion smoking cessation plan proposed in the Department of Justice suit against the tobacco companies. The tobacco cessation plan was embroiled in controversy when Department of Justice attorneys reduced the amount proposed for the smoking cessation remedy from $130 billion over 25 years to $10 billion over five years.

“Spending $5 billion a year on tobacco cessation for 25 y

Tool quantifies level of consciousness, severity of brain injury

Mayo Clinic neurologists have created the first new, reliable and easy-to-use clinical tool in 30 years for measuring coma depth, a proposed replacement for the Glasgow Coma Scale. The new scoring system, called the FOUR (Full Outline of UnResponsiveness) Score, will be described in the October issue of Annals of Neurology, to be published online Friday, Sept. 9.

When using the FOUR Score, evaluators a

Flavour, texture and shelf life of wheat bread improved

Recent research carried out at the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) indicates that sourdough, which is traditionally used for baking rye bread, can also be used for making tasty, high-fibre wheat bread with a prolonged shelf life. A seven-year research project conducted at VTT shows that optimising the sourdough process by fermenting bran with yeast and lactic acid bacteria makes it possible to produce mildly sour w

A key technological breakthrough led by the University of Edinburgh suggests that a futuristic world where people can move objects about ‘remotely’ with laser pointers could be closer than we think. Chemists working on the nanoscale (80,000 times smaller than a hair’s breadth) have managed to move a tiny droplet of liquid across a surface – and even up a slope – by transporting it along a layer of light-sensitive molecules.

Scientists at Edinburgh, Groningen and Bologna are the first to ma

A major advance in nanotechnology with far-reaching potential benefits in medicine and other fields is to be announced at this year’s BA Festival of Science in Dublin.

Scientists have built molecules that can, for the first time ever, move larger-than-atom-sized objects. Constructing molecular machines capable of performing relatively large-scale mechanical tasks has never been achieved before.

Now, in an unprecedented breakthrough, chemists at Edinburgh University have

Smoking appears to reduce a key enzyme in the lungs, possibly contributing to some of smoking’s deleterious health effects, according to a study published in the September issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. The study, which used a radiotracer to track the enzyme, also shows that smokers had a lower concentration of the tracer in the bloodstream than nonsmokers did, leading to speculation that smokers and nonsmokers may respond differently to a variety of substances administered by inhala

By experimentally relocating migratory white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii) from their breeding area in the Canadian Northwest Territories to regions at and around the magnetic North Pole, researchers have gained new insight into how birds navigate in the high Arctic. In particular, the findings aid our understanding of how birds might determine longitudinal information–a challenging task, especially at the earth’s poles.

The work is reported in Current Bi

In findings that support a relationship between agricultural chemicals and Parkinson’s disease, two groups of researchers have found new evidence that loss of DJ-1, a gene known to be linked to inherited Parkinson’s disease, leads to striking sensitivity to the herbicide paraquat and the insecticide rotenone. The two studies were performed with the fruit fly Drosophila, a widely used model organism for studies of human disease, and shed new light on biological connections between inheri

Duke University Medical Center researchers have found that the naturally occurring marine toxin domoic acid can cause subtle but lasting cognitive damage in rats exposed to the chemical before birth. Humans can become poisoned by the potentially lethal, algal toxin after eating contaminated shellfish.

The researchers saw behavioral effects of the toxin in animals after prenatal exposure to domoic acid levels below those generally deemed safe for adults, said Edward Levin, Ph.D.

Four sugar-coated faces made by stem cells as they differentiate into brain cells during development have been identified by scientists.

These unique expressions of sugar on the cell surface may one day enable stem cell therapy to repair brain injury or disease by helping stem cells navigate the relative “jungle” of the adult brain, says Dr. Robert K. Yu, director of the Institute of Neuroscience and the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Genetics at the Medical College of Geor

A group of researchers from Mexico has discovered that a diet rich in soy protein may alleviate fatty liver, a disease which often accompanies diabetes. The details of their findings appear in the September issue of the Journal of Lipid Research, an American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology journal.

The high levels of insulin and insulin-resistance that accompany diabetes are often associated with fatty liver or hepatic steatosis, an untreatable condition that c

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers are the first to create a large-scale, cell-based screening method that identifies which compounds activate immune-response cells that hold promise for future cancer-fighting vaccines.

The new screening technique can scan thousands and even millions of compounds to identify those that activate dendritic cells, which are on constant recon patrol throughout the body to scout out cancerous or infected cells and alert the immune system.

University of Florida researchers have uncovered how the inhaled form of anthrax disarms bacteria-fighting white blood cells before they can fend off the disease, which kills most victims within days.

The lethal toxin in anthrax paralyzes neutrophils, the white blood cells that act as the body’s first defense against infection, by impairing how they build tiny filaments that allow them to crawl throughout the body and eat invading bacteria.

Just two hours of expo

Research published in Science demonstrates the value of high-throughput sequencing in small RNA analysis

Solexa, Inc. (Nasdaq: SLXA) today announced that its researchers in collaboration with the Delaware Biotechnology Institute and the University of Delaware reported the most comprehensive analysis to date of the small RNA component of the transcriptome. The research, “Elucidation of the Small RNA Component of the Transcriptome,” was published in the September 2, 2005 issue of t

Often viewed as a hindrance, having a quirky or socially awkward approach to lifemay be the key to becoming a great artist, composer or inventor.

New research on individuals with schizotypal personalities – people characterized by odd behavior and language but who are not psychotic or schizophrenic – offers the first neurological evidence that they are more creative than either normal or fully schizophrenic individuals, and rely more heavily on the right sides of their brains tha