The promising link between certain properties in human hair which could have potentially helped in diagnosis of breast cancer is “dubious” according to research published today in the Institute of Physics journal, Physics in Medicine and Biology. Dr Mark Sutton of the McGill University in Canada and colleagues have found no clear association between peaks seen in what is known as small angle x-ray scattering and the risk of breast cancer, as had been reported previously in the journal Nature (James e

A University of Ulster researcher has discovered a new population of cave dwelling crocodiles, never before seen outside their Saharan habitat.

PhD student Tara Shine discovered the cave dwelling crocodiles while living in the remote African country of Mauritania as part of a two and a half year volunteer project.

Previously unknown, except by local tribespeople, the crocodiles live in burrows and caves throughout the dry season and periods of drought – a phenomenon never

A novel prototype light meter has been developed by researchers in New York. Published today in the Institute of Physics journal, Measurement Science and Technology, this new retinal flux density meter will provide an affordable tool for measuring light at all levels and might ultimately lead to new standards to improve both energy efficiency and safety at night.

The retina in the eye detects light using cells called rods and cones. At high light levels, such as in daylight, the cones detec

The key role of computer technology in the fine-tuning of drug development and design will be considered by Professor Stephen Muggleton of Imperial College, London in his inaugural lecture, Models of Mind and Models of Body, today.

The new Professor of Bioinformatics in the Department of Computing will focus on how machine learning and logic programming can reduce the high costs of drug development in the pharmaceutical industry.

The pharmaceutical industry is increasingly overwhelm

Jubilant astronomers today unveiled humankind`s most spectacular views of the Universe as captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope`s new Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). They also reported that Hubble is operating superbly since the March servicing mission and are looking forward to more pictures from the newly revived NICMOS camera.

“The ACS is opening a wide new window onto the Universe. These are among the best images of the distant Universe humans have ever seen,” says Johns Hop

Dark-matter detector could pin down the Universe’s missing mass.

Researchers in London are building a cheap dark-matter detector that should be able to spot the exotic particles called WIMPs that are suspected of hiding most of the Universe’s missing mass 1 .

A prototype of the detector has just shown, for the first time, that it can spot something as close to a WIMP as it’s possible to produce in the lab.

WIMP stands for ’weakly interacting massiv