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Calculations are fine, but seeing is believing. That's the thought behind a new paper by Rice University students who decided to put to the test calculations made more than a century ago.
Source: Rice University Posted on: Saturday, Mar 13, 2010, 12:37am Rating: Not Rated | Views: 105 | Comments: 0
In a lecture he delivered in 1906, the German physician Paul Ehrlich coined the term Zuberkugel, or "magic bullet," as shorthand for a highly targeted medical treatment.
Source: Washington University in St. Louis Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 7:12pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 159 | Comments: 0
Blind scorpions that live in the stygian depths of caves are throwing light on a long-held assumption that specialized adaptations are irreversible evolutionary dead-ends.
Source: American Museum of Natural History Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 7:12pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 96 | Comments: 0
Researchers at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center have discovered that "microtentacles," or extensions of the plasma membrane of breast cancer cells, appear to play a key role in how cancers spread to distant locations in the body.
Source: University of Maryland Medical Center Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 7:12pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 78 | Comments: 0
Scientists headed by ICREA researcher Marco Milán, at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), reveal a surprising new function of Notch protein that contrasts with the one known to date.
Source: Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 6:52pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 99 | Comments: 0
UCSF scientists have discovered how a mutated gene known as Kras is able to hijack mouse cells damaged by acute pancreatitis, putting them on the path to becoming pancreatic cancer cells.
Source: University of California - San Francisco Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 6:52pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 111 | Comments: 0
The promise of stem cells lies in their unique ability to differentiate into a multitude of different types of cells. But in order to determine how to use stem cells for new therapeutics, scientists and engineers need to answer a fundamental question: if a stem cell changes to look like a certain type of cell, how do we know if it will behave like a certain type of cell?
Source: Northwestern University Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 6:52pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 104 | Comments: 0
A group of Argentine scientists, including health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society, have announced that yellow fever is the culprit in a 2007-2008 die-off of howler monkeys in northeastern Argentina, a finding that underscores the importance of paying attention to the health of wildlife and how the health of people and wild nature are so closely linked.
Source: Wildlife Conservation Society Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 5:34pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 99 | Comments: 0
Meet asteroid 1999 RQ36, a chunk of rock and dust about 1,900 feet in diameter that could tell us how the solar system was born, and perhaps, shed light on how life began. It also might hit us someday.
Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 5:34pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 105 | Comments: 0
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have created a molecular image of a system that moves electrons between proteins in cells. The achievement is a breakthrough for biology and could provide insights to minimize energy loss in other systems, from nanoscale devices to moving electricity around the country.
Source: University of Minnesota Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 5:34pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 85 | Comments: 0
Scientists studying the Anopheles gambiae mosquito – the main vector of malaria – have found that when the mosquito takes a blood meal, that act triggers two enzymes to form a network of crisscrossing proteins around the ingested blood.
Source: NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 5:34pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 84 | Comments: 0
Conventional biological wisdom holds that living cells interact with their environment through an elaborate network of chemical signals. As a result many therapies for the treatment of cancer and other diseases in which cell behavior goes awry focus on drugs that block or disrupt harmful chemical signals.
Source: DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 5:34pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 89 | Comments: 0
Replaying recent events in the area of the brain called the hippocampus may have less to do with creating long-term memories, as scientists have suspected, than with an active decision-making process, suggests a new study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Minnesota Medical School.
Source: Carnegie Mellon University Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 5:34pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 41 | Comments: 0
Cancer cells in rapidly growing brain tumors must adjust to periods of low energy or die. When energy levels are high, tumor cells grow and proliferate. When levels are low, the cells grow less and migrate more.
Source: Ohio State University Medical Center Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 4:58pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 117 | Comments: 0
By studying the hydra, a member of an ancient group of sea creatures that is still flourishing, scientists at UC Santa Barbara have made a discovery in understanding the origins of human vision. The finding is published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a British journal of biology.
Source: University of California - Santa Barbara Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 4:58pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 115 | Comments: 0
The quality of entries in the world's largest open-access online encyclopedia depends on how authors collaborate, University of Arizona Professor Sudha Ram finds.
Source: University of Arizona Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 4:58pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 109 | Comments: 0
In most animal species, males and females show obvious differences in body size. But how can this be, given that both sexes share the same genes governing their growth? University of Arizona entomologists studied this conundrum in moths and found clues that had been overlooked by previous efforts to explain this mystery of nature.
Source: University of Arizona Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 4:57pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 89 | Comments: 0
Materials scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have designed a way to harvest small amounts of waste energy and harness them to turn water into usable hydrogen fuel.
Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 4:12pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 130 | Comments: 0
Listen: Rock Out With A Homemade Electric Guitar Forget the air guitar solos, go electric for under $10. Sound artist Ranjit Bhatnagar, a member of NYC Resistor, specializes in building cheap, DIY instruments. He explains how to make an electric guitar from a plank of wood, some wire, a magnet and a guitar string.
Source: NPR Posted on: Monday, Mar 08, 2010, 1:24pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 35 | Comments: 0
Scientists Still Hopeful About Gene Therapy's Promise For 25 years, scientists have touted the promise of gene therapy to treat human diseases, but only a handful of therapies have shown progress. Nonetheless, proponents remain optimistic and say the approach may yet revolutionize medicine.
Source: NPR Posted on: Monday, Mar 08, 2010, 1:24pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 42 | Comments: 0
No Endangered Status for Plains Bird
The Interior Department said Friday that the greater sage grouse was facing extinction but would not be designated as an endangered species for now.
Source: NYTimes Posted on: Monday, Mar 08, 2010, 1:24pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 39 | Comments: 0
Big Bang experiment may reveal dark universe: CERN Dark matter, which scientists believe makes up 25 percent of the universe but whose existence has never been proven, could be detected by the giant particle collider at CERN, the research centre's head said Monday.
Source: Reuters Posted on: Monday, Mar 08, 2010, 1:23pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 39 | Comments: 0
Getting More from Location Data Thanks to smart phones and other mobile devices, the number of applications that make use of geolocation data is exploding. But developers and device makers face new challenges that include determining physical location accurately, turning coordinates into meaningful information, and protecting users' privacy.
Source: Technology Review Posted on: Monday, Mar 08, 2010, 1:23pm Rating: Not Rated | Views: 32 | Comments: 0
Scientists find clue to anxiety drug addiction Valium-like drugs use the same potentially addictive "reward pathways" in the brain as heroin and cannabis, scientists said on Wednesday, findings which may help in the search for non-addictive alternative anxiety drugs.
Source: Reuters Posted on: Monday, Feb 15, 2010, 11:23am Rating: Not Rated | Views: 122 | Comments: 0
Dunes On Mars: How Sand Shifts Without Wind It's a scientific mystery: How did dunes form on Mars when the wind doesn't seem strong enough to move the sand? Jasper Kok tells Guy Raz he may have the answer — it has to do with sand "bouncing" and "splashing" in a way that's different than what happens on Earth.
Source: NPR Posted on: Monday, Feb 15, 2010, 11:21am Rating: Not Rated | Views: 145 | Comments: 0
The Sacred Island That's Shrinking Away Rising sea levels are destroying the fields and livelihoods of people on Sagar Island in the Bay of Bengal. Refugees arrived from a nearby island after it was swallowed up by waves. Scientists say climate change is a factor. Residents of the island, which is a sacred place for Hindus, say God is responsible.
Source: NPR Posted on: Monday, Feb 15, 2010, 11:21am Rating: Not Rated | Views: 145 | Comments: 0
Get This: Warming Planet Can Mean More Snow With snow blanketing much of the country, the topic of global warming has become the butt of jokes. But most scientists who study the climate don't see a contradiction between a warming world and lots of snow.
Source: NPR Posted on: Monday, Feb 15, 2010, 11:21am Rating: Not Rated | Views: 128 | Comments: 0