2008 May

University of Queensland researchers have made a giant leap forward in the race to develop a vaccine for the potentially debilitating West Nile virus.
Associate Professor Alex Khromykh, from UQ’s School of Molecular & Microbial Sciences, and colleagues have found a way to generate immune response levels comparable to a live virus vaccine, which could also […]

A materials scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has deciphered the structure of a new class of materials that can store relatively large quantities of hydrogen within its crystal structure for later release. The new analysis* may point to a practical hydrogen storage material for automobile fuel cells and similar applications.
The […]

Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have discovered a drug combination that kills leukemia cells by shutting down their energy source and hastening cell starvation.
In a preclinical study, Lauren Akers, D.O., postdoctoral fellow from the Children’s Cancer Hospital at M. D. Anderson, found that combining a novel glycolysis inhibitor, 3-BrOP, […]

Everyone who has an e-mail account has probably received a forwarded chain letter promising good luck if the message is forwarded on to others — or terrible misfortune if it isn’t. The sheer volume of forwarded messages such as chain letters, online petitions, jokes and other materials leads to a simple question — how do […]

A new paper by North Carolina State University archaeologist Dr. Scott Fitzpatrick shows that Ferdinand Magellan’s historic circumnavigation of the globe was likely influenced in large part by unusual weather conditions — including what we now know as El Nino — which eased his passage across the Pacific Ocean, but ultimately led him over a […]

A new study from the University of Leicester has discovered a particular window of time when mobile signals and radio waves are ’super strength’ — allowing them to be clearer and travel greater distances, potentially interfering with other systems.
The research, examining the signal strength of radio waves travelling over the sea, identified late afternoons and […]

A sophisticated new surgical technology holds promise for future painless and scarless surgery with shorter recovery times than laparoscopic surgery. New research supporting the safety and efficacy of natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) and detailing the outcomes associated with new tools and robotic applications will be presented today at Digestive Disease Week 2008 (DDW). […]

ESA (European Space Agency) has opened applications for talented individuals wishing to become an astronaut in the European Astronaut Corps. There has not been a selection campaign since 1992, so this is a rare opportunity to be at the forefront of ESA’s human spaceflight programmes including future missions to the ISS, the Moon and beyond.
Prospective […]

A world-renowned team of experts in biomechanics and physiology from six universities, led by Professor Hugh Herr of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, refutes scientific claims that the prostheses worn by Oscar Pistorius, a 21-year-old South African bilateral amputee track athlete, provide him with an unfair advantage in the 400-meter race. Their conclusions […]

Many software designers intentionally create unnecessarily complex products that do less to serve their companies and customers than to advance their careers, according to the Management Insights feature in the current issue of Management Science, the flagship journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).
Management Insights, a regular feature of the […]

U.S. Forest Service scientists with the Center for Urban Forest Research have completed a study that found planting and nurturing Indianapolis street trees brought a 500 percent return in benefits from storm water reduction, energy conservation, cleaner air, and increased property values.
The researchers evaluated more than 117,000 trees the Indianapolis Parks and Recreation Forestry Section […]

Nanotechnology researchers at UC Davis have shown that they can use a red blood cell to calibrate a sensitive instrument — an atomic force microscope.
“It turns around the rules of nanotechnology, by using biology to calibrate an instrument,” said Volkmar Heinrich, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UC Davis and co-author of […]

Can a profit-boosting approach save energy too?
Could a business practice usually reserved for boosting profits be used to help turn companies green by reducing their energy use? Writing in the International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage (IJSSCA), researchers in India provide an answer.
According to mechanical engineer Prabhakar Kaushik of NC College of Engineering […]

A new NASA-led study shows human-caused climate change has made an impact on a wide range of Earth’s natural systems, including permafrost thawing, plants blooming earlier across Europe, and lakes declining in productivity in Africa.
Cynthia Rosenzweig of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Science in New York and scientists at 10 other institutions have linked physical […]

For the first time, a study combines measurements of abnormalities in the eye with models for assessing how well an individual can see, meaning it may be possible to program a machine to automatically produce prescriptions for corrective lenses.
The model for predicting visual clarity — based on measurements taken by today’s highly accurate aberrometers — […]

MIT engineers have improved the power output of one type of fuel cell by more than 50 percent through technology that could help these environmentally friendly energy storage devices find a much broader market, particularly in portable electronics.
The new material key to the work is also considerably less expensive than its conventional industrial counterpart, among […]

LOL, OMG, and TTYL: parents and teachers worry that teenagers’ use of these and other forms of online shorthand is harming their language skills. Perhaps they will take comfort from a study suggesting that instant messaging (IM) actually represents “an expansive new linguistic renaissance.”
Sali Tagliamonte and Derek Denis at the University of Toronto, Canada, say […]

The newest analysis of trace gases trapped in Antarctic ice cores now provide a reasonable view of greenhouse gas concentrations as much as 800,000 years into the past, and are further confirming the link between greenhouse gas levels and global warming, scientists reported today in the journal Nature.
They also show that during that entire period […]

Paul Morrow, who will graduate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on May 17, has come a long way from his days as an elementary school student, pulling apart his mother’s cassette player. The talented young physicist has developed two innovations that could vastly improve magnetic data storage and sense extremely low level magnetic fields in everything […]

Lunar dust could be more than a housekeeping issue for astronauts who visit the moon. Their good health may depend on the amount of exposure they have to the tiny particles.
To prepare for a return to the moon, researchers with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) are evaluating how dust deposits in the lungs […]