In the quest to unravel the characteristics of the mysterious neutrino particle, millions of which pass through us undetected every day, scientists from several international universities have joined forces with UK research colleagues to build a unique engineering technology demonstrator at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire. Known as MICE [Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment] the experiment will prove one of the key requirements to produce intense beams of neutrinos at a dedicated

Chemical compounds consisting of noble gases combined with hydrocarbon molecules – a feat previously thought to be unattainable – have been created as the result of the work of researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

This achievement by Benny Gerber, Saerree K. and Louis P. Fiedler Professor of Chemistry, and his associates at the Hebrew University Institute of Chemistry opens the way for further research to produce new chemical compounds in such areas as anesthesiology

Researchers from St. Petersburg have ascertained that formation of a child’s sex depends, among other things, on the geomagnetic field status at the time of conception.

Who will be born – a boy or a girl? The answer to this question that worries all parents is determined by a lot of conditions, including external ones. The scientists of the Central Scientific-Research Institute of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Ministry of Health Care of the Russian Federation (St. Petersburg)

Scientists have discovered that a protein that was originally believed to be involved in tuberculosis antibiotic resistance is actually a “missing enzyme” from the biosynthetic pathway for an agent used by the bacteria to scavenge iron.

The research appears as the “Paper of the Week” in the April 8 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, an American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology journal.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculos

A natural tumor suppressor that could potentially be turned on in certain cancer cells to prevent the formation of tumors has been discovered by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine.

Located on chromosome 18 and called PH domain Leucine-rich repeat Protein Phosphatase (PHLPP, pronounced “flip”), the tumor suppressor is described in the April 1, 2005 issue of the journal Molecular Cell. The scientists demonstrated that PHLPP deletes a p

Dozens of new genes identified

By intensely and systematically comparing the human X chromosome to genetic information from chimpanzees, rats and mice, a team of scientists from the United States and India has uncovered dozens of new genes, many of which are located in regions of the chromosome already tied to disease.

Regions of the X chromosome, one of the two sex chromosomes (Y is the other), have been linked to mental retardation and numerous other disorders, but find

A UK-led team of astronomers has discovered a completely new type of star cluster around a neighbouring galaxy.

The new-found clusters contain hundreds of thousands of stars, a similar number to the so-called “globular” star clusters which have long been familiar to astronomers.

What distinguishes them from the globular clusters is that they are much larger – several hundred light years across – and hundreds of times less dense. The distances between the stars are, there

Information on the internet about the health risks associated with the consumption of smokeless tobacco usually overstates the risk. This is the conclusion of research published today in the Open Access journal BMC Public Health, entitled “You might as well smoke; the misleading and harmful public message about smokeless tobacco”. A study of 316 internet websites showed that most government, health advice, and advocacy websites suggested that smokeless tobacco use is as harmful as cigarette smok

Scientists at New York University School of Medicine viewing the actual journey of immune cells in the liver have found that these cells travel in the liver’s blood vessels with surprising speed and agility.

It is the first time that the movement of live immune cells called natural killer T (NKT) cells has been seen in the liver, according to a study published in the April 5, 2005, issue of the Public Library of Science, an open-access, online journal.

NKT cells ar

As Americans’ waistlines continue to expand, contributing to a burgeoning epidemic of type 2 diabetes, the scientific jury is in and the verdict is clear: weight loss and increased physical activity is directly related to improved diabetes control. To help Americans fight the dramatic increase in type 2 diabetes, Joslin Diabetes Center has crafted new nutrition and physical activity guidelines for overweight and obese individuals with type 2 diabetes and those at risk for developing diabetes

New Young Sub-stellar Companion Imaged with the VLT

Since the discovery in 1995 of the first planet orbiting a normal star other than the Sun, there are now more than 150 candidates of these so-called exoplanets known. Most of them are detected by indirect methods, based either on variations of the radial velocity or the dimming of the star as the planet passes in front of it (see ESO PR 06/03, ESO PR 11/04 and ESO PR 22/04).

Astronomers would, however, prefer to obtain a

Millions of painted lady butterflies that fluttered into California’s Central Valley in the last week of March could be just the advance guard of one of the largest migrations of the species on record, said Arthur Shapiro, a professor and expert on butterflies at UC Davis.

“This may be the biggest migration of modern times,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro said he is getting reports of “billions” of butterflies around Trona, near Death Valley, and in the San Fernando Valley. M

Nearly three out of every four adults over age 50 use some kind of alternative medicine, such as acupuncture and herbal medicine, according to a new study.

While previous research has been limited, this appears to be a higher rate than occurs within the general population, said Gong-Soog Hong, co-author of the study and professor of consumer sciences at Ohio State University.

This study found that 71 percent of older adults used some form of alternative medicine in 2000. A

A team of scientists from Colombia, the United States and elsewhere has successfully completed a 15-year-plus search for the genetic problems behind the very rare Roberts syndrome, whose physical manifestations often include cleft lip and palate and shortened limbs that resemble those of babies whose mothers took thalidomide during pregnancy.

The discovery, which is reported in the April 10 advance online section of Nature Genetics, proves that genes behind very rare inherited d

Imagine a firefighter scrambling through a burning building, searching for survivors of a devastating explosion. Injured people on the far side of a brick wall, but out of reach. However, the partner on the other side promptly smashes through the wall, clears a path so both can help the survivors. Science fiction perhaps? No, this is exactly the scenario that partners in the PELOTE project have been working on.

Libor Preucil, from the Czech Technical University in Prague and coor

In a study of mothers with a history of preeclampsia, a hypertension complication in pregnancy affecting five percent of all women, researchers at Yale have found that these women have an increased lifetime risk for cardiovascular illness and death.

“Even when a mother’s blood pressure returns to normal after delivery, preeclampsia might increase her risk of life–threatening cardiovascular disease,” said lead author Edmund F. Funai, M.D., associate professor and co–chief, Divis

We all know that a viral infection can be developed extremely quickly, but in fact it’s even more dramatic than that – the process is literally explosive.

The pressure inside a virus is 40 atmospheres, and it is just waiting for an opportunity to blow up. The virus is like a living DNA cannon. How this cannon functions has been mapped by Dr. Alex Evilevitch at the Department of Biochemistry at Lund University in Sweden. This is knowledge that will have applications in ge

Finding could lead to new therapeutic strategies

Scientists have discovered the mechanism that enables some CD4 T cells — the main target of HIV — to thwart the virus. The discovery, reported on April 13 in the online version of Nature, could open the door to an entirely new strategy for preventing the spread of HIV infection in the body’s cells, according to the senior author of the study, Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology Director Warner C. Greene, MD, PhD.

Gene hunters at Johns Hopkins have discovered a common genetic mutation that increases the risk of inheriting a particular birth defect not by the usual route of disrupting the gene’s protein-making instructions, but by altering a regulatory region of the gene. Although the condition, called Hirschsprung disease, is rare, its complex genetics mimics that of more common diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.

“It’s a funny mutation in a funny place,” says study leader Aravinda

Weizmann Institute Scientists Reveal the Shape of a Protein That Helps Retroviruses Break into Cells

Retroviruses are among the trickier and more malicious disease agents, causing AIDS and cancers such as leukemia. The viruses manage to sneak into cells with the help of special protein assemblies scattered all over their surfaces. These retrovirus surface proteins cause the membrane envelope of the virus to fuse with the membrane of the cell, spilling virus RNA into the cell to wr