Tue, 30/11/2010 - 07:48 by Prince damin
Palo Alto, Calif. -- U.S. scientists say they are a step closer to being able to "program" cells to respond to certain conditions and react in a pre-determined manner.
Researchers at Stanford University say they have created RNA molecules that could rewire cells to sense certain conditions and respond by making particular proteins, ScienceNews.org reported Monday.
The technique could produce cell-based therapies and cancer-fighting treatments, researchers say.
Christina Smolke, a biochemical engineer at Stanford, and her colleagues created RNA molecules that work something like a cellular security system "programmed" to be triggered by only one type of intruder.
|
Wed, 24/11/2010 - 06:01 by Prince damin
Pasadena, Calif. -- Earth's largest lakes have warmed in the past 25 years in response to climate change, a global survey of temperature trends by U.S. scientists says.
Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used satellite data to measure the surface temperatures of 167 large lakes worldwide for the comprehensive study, a JPL release said Tuesday.
They found an average warming rate of 0.81 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, with some lakes warming as much as 1.8 degrees per decade.
Although the warming trend was global, the greatest increases were in the mid- to high-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, the study found.
|
Wed, 17/11/2010 - 07:52 by Prince damin
West Lafayette, Ind. -- U.S. scientists studying the effects of fire on steel structures such as buildings and bridges say they've built a one-of-a-kind system to create their "fire."
Researchers at Purdue University designed a system made up of heating panels with electrical coils much like giant toaster ovens that are placed close to the surface of large steel beams and other components to simulate fire as they are subjected to forces with hydraulic equipment, a university release says.
Such testing is customarily conducted inside large furnaces.
|
|
Fri, 01/10/2010 - 22:59 by Samia Sehgal
Government of the United States formally apologized on Friday for an “unethical” experiment conducted in the 1940s by U.S. scientists. The experiment involved deliberate infection of Guatemalan prisoners, service members and mental hospital patients with Sexually transmitted diseases.
|
Fri, 19/02/2010 - 09:19 by harsheeb
Spartanburg -- U.S. scientists say they've discovered crickets are able to warn their unborn babies about predator threats.
University of South Carolina-Spartanburg Assistant Professor Jonathan Storm and Professor Steven Lima of Indiana State University said they placed pregnant crickets into enclosures containing a wolf spider. The spiders' fangs were covered with wax so the spiders could stalk the crickets, but couldn't kill them.
After the crickets laid their eggs, Storm and Lima compared the behavior of the offspring to offspring whose mothers hadn't been exposed to spiders. The scientists said the differences were dramatic.
|
Fri, 27/11/2009 - 06:46 by harsheeb
Blackburg-- U.S. scientists have secured funding to complete the genetic map of the North American domesticated turkey adorning millions of U.S. dinner tables Thursday.
The Turkey Genome Sequencing Consortium -- made up of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University researchers working with the University of Minnesota, the University of Maryland and the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- received a $908,000 USDA grant to complete the last 10 percent of the turkey genome decoding, the researchers said.
A benefit of the decoding will be that turkeys could lead healthier lives if breeders know how their immune systems work and how to fight off such pathogens as bird flu, the consortium scientists say.
|
Thu, 19/11/2009 - 23:42 by harsheeb
Rochester -- U.S. scientists have organized a research project to study dangers presented by Rwanda's Lake Kivu, which contains high levels of carbon dioxide and methane.
Scientists said they can't be certain the volatile mixture at the bottom of the lake will remain still as it has for 1,000 years or someday explode without warning. The region, prone to volcanic and seismic activity, is also home to approximately 2 million people, many of them refugees living along the north end of the lake.
The Rochester Institute of Technology, using a National Science Foundation grant, will fund the travel and lodging expenses for 18 U.S. scientists to attend a three-day January workshop in Gisenyi, Rwanda, to discuss the problem.
|
Tue, 20/10/2009 - 02:50 by surajdogra
Manhattan, Kan. -- U.S. scientists say they've discovered human peripheral vision is more important than central vision for determining what type of scene is being viewed.
Two Kansas State University psychology researchers say the most surprising part of their study is that they didn't anticipate peripheral vision to be so important for perceiving scenes.
Assistant Professor Lester Loschky and graduate student Adam Larson said they are attempting to determine how people understand and label what they see.
"We found that your peripheral vision is important for taking in the gist of a scene and that you can remove the central portion of an image, where your visual acuity is best, and still do just fine at identifying the scene," Larson said.
|
Mon, 19/10/2009 - 22:27 by surajdogra
La Jolla, Calif. -- U.S. scientists say they've been able to dramatically improve the creation of stem cells from human adult tissue without using embryonic cells.
The researcher team, led by the Scripps Research Institute, said its new technique that uses three small drug-like chemicals is 200 times more efficient than, and twice as fast as, conventional methods for transforming adult human cells into stem cells.
|
Thu, 15/10/2009 - 22:44 by surajdogra
Stanford, Calif. -- U.S. scientists say they've discovered how the absence of a gene associated with autism and schizophrenia influences the behavior of mice.
Stanford University Professor Thomas Sudhof and graduate student Mark Etherton examined the physiology and behavior of mice lacking a gene that makes a specific protein. The deletion of that gene occurs in 0.5 percent of people with autism but never in healthy people.
Sudhof said the researchers decided to see whether the genetic deficiency led to any changes in communication between neurons and, if so, whether the disrupted or altered communication was correlated with any observable behavioral abnormalities associated with human cognitive disorders, such as autism or schizophrenia.
|
Wed, 14/10/2009 - 23:58 by surajdogra
New York -- U.S. scientists say an international genetic study of 1,527 Southern Hemisphere humpback whales has been completed.
The goal of the 15-year project was to gather genetic data to explore the population dynamics and relatedness of Southern Hemisphere humpbacks and inform management decision in the sometimes politically charged realm of whale
conservation, officials said.
Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the American Museum of Natural
History and an international coalition of organizations conducted the research in the Southern Atlantic and Indian oceans.
"Humpback whales are perhaps the most studied species of great whale in the
|
Mon, 12/10/2009 - 22:30 by surajdogra
Ruston, La. -- U.S. scientists say they are using nanotechnology to improve the cellulosic ethanol processes involved in producing biofuels.
Louisiana Tech Professors James Palmer, Yuri Lvov, Dale Snow and Hisham Hegab say biofuels will play an important part in sustainable fuel and energy production solutions for the future. But the professors say the nation's appetite for fuel cannot be satisfied with just traditional crops, such as sugar cane or corn. But they note emerging technologies are allowing cellulosic
biomass (wood, grass, stalks, etc.) to also be converted into ethanol.
|
