According to the World Health organisation, the definition of autism is based on a specific pattern of behaviour characteristics, as neither its aetiology nor pathology is defined. This is why a search for autism markers is proposed at three levels: morphological, cytogenetic and molecular.

In the 80s, a research group at the Leioa campus of the University of the Basque Country worked on dermatoglyphs, an analysis technique applied to autistic children. Dermatoglyphs, or handprin

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered how a small molecule of RNA called microRNA – a chemical cousin of DNA – helps fine tune the production of a key protein involved in the early development of heart muscle.

The findings, available in the online edition of the journal Nature, may aid scientists in their understanding of how a progenitor cell, or stem cell, decides to become a heart cell, as well as offer researchers a way to predict how other microRN

The second 20-metre antenna boom of the MARSIS instrument on board Mars Express was successfully – and smoothly – deployed, confirmed today by the ground team at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre.

The command to deploy the second MARSIS boom was given to the spacecraft at 13:30 CEST on 14 June 2005. Shortly before the deployment started, Mars Express was set into a slow rotation to last 30 minutes during and after the boom extension. This rotation allowed all the boom’s hing

The quest for a single theory that unites all of the universe’s fundamental forces has thus far eluded physicists, but that has not stopped a team of them from clearing the way for nanotechnologists while they look for it.

The group, which includes Purdue University’s Ephraim Fischbach, has recently completed research that improves our understanding of how tiny objects placed very close together can influence each other. Their experiment, which involves the behavior of

MARSIS, the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding on board ESA’s Mars Express orbiter, is now fully deployed, has undergone its first check-out and is ready to start operations around the Red Planet.

With this radar, the Mars Express orbiter at last has its full complement of instruments available to probe the planet’s atmosphere, surface and subsurface structure.

MARSIS consists of three antennas: two ‘dipole’ booms 20 metres long, and one 7-metre ‘mo

Dusty disk around Fomalhaut makes ideal laboratory for studying planet formation

Astronomers zooming in on a nearby star with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered unmistakable evidence of a planetary system: a perturbed dusty belt around the star that’s analogous to the vast Kuiper Belt of icy rocks encircling the sun.

While the discovery is expected to send astronomers scurrying to their telescopes to obtain direct images of a planet around the star, called F

British astronomers today (June 24th) saw the first images from an ambitious new programme of discovery, the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS). The survey will scour the sky with the world’s most powerful infrared survey camera ( WFCAM) to find some of the dimmest and most distant objects in the Universe. UKIDSS will reach at least twenty times deeper than the largest current survey conducted at this wavelength. Infrared light can be used to study objects that are not hot enough to sh

Scientists are fascinated by a dark, lake-like feature recently observed on Saturn’s moon Titan. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured a series of images showing a marking, darker than anything else around it. It is remarkably lake-like, with smooth, shore-like boundaries unlike any seen previously on Titan.

“I’d say this is definitely the best candidate we’ve seen so far for a liquid hydrocarbon lake on Titan,” said Dr. Alfred McEwen, Cassini imaging team member and

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found an enzyme vital for controlling the early stages of cell death – a beneficial and normal process when it works right, but malignant in a variety of cancers when it malfunctions.

The researchers are now examining tissue from cancer patients to try to determine how mutations in the enzyme’s gene may relate to cancer. “We think this gene will really be a hot spot in research,” said Dr. Qing Zhong, postdoctoral researcher

Physics researchers working at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) Laboratory in Japan have observed a new type of interaction among the most fundamental of particles, the quark. The scientists reported at the Symposium on Lepton-Photon Interactions at High Energies, June 30-July 5 in Uppsala, Sweden, that they had produced first evidence of a beauty quark converting to the lightest of quarks, the down quark.

“Observation of this very rare phenomenon allows us t

Researchers from HP Laboratories in Bristol, UK, have proposed an approach to distributed optical quantum computing with a technique that is highly efficient, flexible and scalable.

Quantum computing is expected to be much more powerful than conventional information processing. It should be able to search faster and simulate better, factor large numbers efficiently and virtually guarantee secure communications.

Optical quantum computing – using photons instead of electro

In the search for the best fats for a heart healthy diet, trans- and saturated fats have long been recognized as undesirable and those that contain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and mono-unsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) are preferred — with no clear benefit demonstrated for higher levels of either the PUFAs or the MUFAs within recommended limits.

Now, a Penn State study provides evidence that the optimum dietary fat isn’t one that contains either more PUFAs or more MUF

One in fifty children and adolescents live with severely debilitating and recurrent pain but there is an “embarrassing” lack of data on the best ways to treat them, according to researchers.

As many as 15 per cent of children suffer from headaches, abdominal and musculoskeletal pain but two per cent of children have pain symptoms that can be severe enough to interrupt sleep, restrict physical activity and prevent them from attending school.

Studies have shown that childr

Nerves talk to each other using chemicals called neurotransmitters. One of those “communication chemicals,” aptly named GABA (gamma amino butyric acid), shows up in unusually high amounts in some aggressive tumors, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The researchers investigated metastatic neuroendocrine tumors, which include aggressive types of lung, thyroid, and prostate cancers that spread to other parts of the body. Their study

Gene scanning techniques developed by Professor Ian Day and colleagues at the University of Southampton are set to have a major impact on healthcare in the future.

One of two gene mutation scanning techniques devised by Professor Day and his team in the Human Genetics Division of the University’s School of Medicine has been successfully applied to search for rare genetic mutations in the population at large.

Their method, called meltMADGE, which combines thermal ramp el

New, higher precision data that could only have been gathered at the Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) shows the Theta-plus pentaquark doesn’t appear in another place it was expected. This intriguing finding contradicts evidence previously presented by Jefferson Lab researchers that they had sighted a pentaquark, a particle built of five quarks. Volker Burkert, a Jefferson Lab Experimental Hall Leader, will present this preliminary result in a

Astronomers from across Europe today (July 7th) took a step closer to making their plans for a giant telescope a reality when they unveiled the scientific case for an Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) – a monster telescope with a light capturing mirror of between 50 and 100 metres, dwarfing all previous optical telescope facilities. The announcement was made at a meeting in Dwingeloo, the Netherlands and initiates the design phase of the project. Astronomers plan to use the ELT to search for p

Researchers at the San Raffaele Hospital (Milan, Italy) published unexpected results of studies in which immature nerve cells (adult mouse neural stem cells) injected into the blood of mice with MS-like disease were able to suppress the immune attacks that damage the brain and spinal cord tissues. The study, funded in part by the National MS Society, is being reported by Drs. Stefano Pluchino, Gianvito Martino and colleagues in the July 14, 2005 issue of Nature. These surprising findings, if confi

Millions of vehicles produced each year are transported by purpose-built car carrying ships that can be turned around quickly. Research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council confirms that as a consequence of technical, infrastructure and production changes in the industry, crew members have experienced a decline in work/life balance. Shore leave for many may amount to having time for a telephone call home at the port of destination only – before needing to set sail again.

Astronomers and supporters from eight institutions around the country who are developing the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) will gather at The University of Arizona Steward Observatory Mirror Lab on Saturday, July 23, to celebrate the casting of the first of seven 8.4- meter (27-foot) mirrors for the facility.

With this casting, the GMT becomes the first extremely large ground-based telescope to start construction.

The GMT will feature six giant off-axis mirrors around