Month: June 2011

Scientists at the University of Southampton have pioneered a chemical method of linking DNA strands that is tolerated by living organisms.

An international team of scientists, including Dr Chris Coath from the University of Bristol, have measured oxygen isotopes in solar wind, captured by NASA’s Genesis mission, to infer the isotopic composition of the Sun, and, by inference, the solar system as a whole.

There is no simple or unambigious connection between population growth and poverty, according to Vigdis Broch-Due. Her research in northern Kenya questions stereotypical views of poverty.

Targeted multi-drug treatments for hepatitis C patients that could stop the virus in its tracks have come a step closer, thanks to researchers at the University of Leeds, UK.

Men who have difficulty falling asleep are at greater risk of depression than those who nod off easily, researchers have found.

A University of Alberta research team will be introducing new varieties of root crops and goats to rural areas in Tanzania, hoping to improve local food security and nutrition.

Limiting television and other media use, encouraging infants and children in preschool and child care to be more physically active, and requiring child care providers to promote healthy sleeping practices are some of the actions needed to curb high rates of obesity among America’s youngest children, according to a new report.

The eye of the peacock mantis shrimp has led an international team of researchers to develop a two-part waveplate that could improve CD, DVD, blu-ray and holographic technology, creating even higher definition and larger storage density.

A multidisciplinary research team in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta has taken a big step towards understanding the cause and potential cure for a deadly cardiovascular disease.

In the war between drugs and drug-resistant diseases, is the current strategy for medicating patients giving many drug-resistant diseases a big competitive advantage? That is the question being asked in a research paper that will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Fast action on pollutants such as black carbon, ground level ozone and methane may help limit near term global temperature rise and significantly increase the chances of keeping temperature rise below 2 degrees C, says a new assessment.

The unusual geological characteristics of the seabed and underlying sediments south of the epicentre of the 2004 Boxing Day Sumatran-Andaman earthquake contributed to the devastating power of the resulting tsunami, according to research involving University of Southampton scientists.

Patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) could lose brain function earlier than is noticeably detectable, affecting their ability to make decisions about their care. Physicians need a method to assess these sensitive changes in brain function, without the need for extensive neuropsychological tests.

University of Sydney researchers have discovered that children whose mothers smoke during pregnancy had lower levels of the type of cholesterol known to protect against heart disease in later life – high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.

With the launch earlier this month of NASA’s satellite Aquarius, more than half a dozen University of Washington researchers are involved in projects to calibrate data from space with actual measurements of ocean salinity.

Diabetic kidney disease has become more prevalent in the United States over the past 20 years, despite a substantial increase in the use of medications for the treatment of people with diabetes, according to a study to be published June 22 in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In a world-first study, researchers at the Brain and Mind Research Institute (BMRI) at the University of Sydney may have found a new way to help the Parkinson’s disease patients who experience walking problems.

There have been instances in Earth history when average temperatures have changed rapidly, as much as 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit) over a few decades, and some have speculated the same could happen again as the atmosphere becomes overloaded with carbon dioxide.

University of Leeds researchers, funded by Cancer Research UK, have used a library of DNA to create a vaccine that could be used to treat cancer, according to a study published in Nature Medicine.

Scientists from the University of Sydney are celebrating the 100th anniversary of superconductivity with a discovery of their own.

Women who go to sleep on their left side on the last night of their pregnancy have a halved risk of late stillbirth compared with women who do not according to findings from The University of Auckland published on bmj.com today.

Soon, some treatments for blinding eye diseases might be developed and tested using retina-like tissues produced from the patient’s own skin, thanks to a series of discoveries reported by a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison stem cell researchers.

Young adults who are Web-savvy but lack knowledge about federal government may struggle to use the Web for political participation, according to a team of researchers.

Fast action on pollutants such as black carbon, ground level ozone and methane may help limit near term global temperature rise and significantly increase the chances of keeping temperature rise below 2 degrees C, says a new assessment launched today.

Researchers at The University of Western Australia in collaboration with scientists at CSIRO Plant Industry have made a discovery that will change the way scientists look at the role of respiration in regulating plant responses to disease.

Southampton scientists have set sail on the first research cruise specifically to study ocean acidification in European waters.

Twenty-four scientists from eight different UK institutes, led by the National Oceanography Centre Southampton, will carry out the science from aboard the UK research vessel RRS Discovery.

From May 16 to 18, the 2011 International Symposium on Functional Polymers and Nanomedicine was held in Hangzhou. The Symposium was organized by Center for Bionano-Engineering at Zhejiang University, University of Leeds and Zhejiang Sci-Tech University jointly.

Scientists at Penn State have used large-scale DNA sequencing data to investigate, for the first time, a longstanding evolutionary assumption: that DNA mutation rates are influenced by life-history traits, including metabolic rate and the length of time between generations.

Detailed analysis of the most pristine meteorite ever recovered shows that the composition of the organic compounds it carried changed during the early years of the solar system. Those changed organics were preserved through billions of years in outer space before the meteorite crashed to Earth.

It is time to drop the alien versus native species dichotomy in conservation, according to a group of eminent scientists concerned with the restoration of ecosystems around the world.

A recently released paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), “The Role of Mother’s Genes and Environment in Postpartum Depression,” explores the interplay between genes and environment when determining whether a mother is at high or low risk for postpartum depression.

Seven per cent of adults and 14 per cent of Canadian children have a hard time breathing because of asthma. Brian Rowe, in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta, is working towards making life easier for both asthma patients and emergency physicians who treat them.

Controlling water loss is an important ability for modern land plants as it helps them thrive in changing environments. New research from the University of Bristol, published today in the journal Current Biology, shows that water conserving innovations occurred very early in plants’ evolutionary history.

It has been 100 years since the discovery of superconductivity, a state achieved when mercury was cooled, with the help of liquid helium, to nearly the coldest temperature achievable to form a superfluid that provides no resistance to electrons as they flow through it.

Researchers from the University of Sheffield have discovered valuable insight into how people develop B-cell lymphoma, one of the most common cancers in the UK.

Research from the University of Sheffield has found that a common treatment for a life-threatening heart condition has little significant impact on patient outcomes. The paper is due for publication this week (Saturday 21 May) in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

The rate of release of carbon into the atmosphere today is nearly 10 times as fast as during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), 55.9 million years ago, the best analog we have for current global warming, according to an international team of geologists.

As invasive forest pests such as emerald ash borer and Asian long-horned beetle decimate forests they never should have seen, scientists are investigating ways to slow the introduction of new insects that may be just as devastating.

Brain cancer therapy may be more effective if the expression of an iron-storing protein is decreased to enhance the action of therapeutic drugs on brain cancer cells, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.

University of Sydney scientists have discovered a startling new mechanism where sunlight can rearrange the atoms of molecules to form new chemical substances.

Oceanographers at The University of Western Australia have discovered the first underwater ‘rivers’ to be identified in a sub-tropical region flowing along the ocean bed off Perth’s coastline.

Baby clownfish use hearing to detect and avoid predator-rich coral reefs during the daytime, but new research from the University of Bristol demonstrates that ocean acidification could threaten this crucial behaviour within the next few decades.

People who are deaf benefit from better vision due to the fact their retinas develop differently, experts at the University of Sheffield have shown.

Ground-breaking research by NIWA and The University of Auckland, investigating the annual movements of New Zealand seabirds migrating within the Pacific Ocean, has revealed that populations are genetically distinct, and have been for centuries as a result of their differing migration behavior.