Tue, 30/11/2010 - 10:26 by Prince damin
Boston -- A U.S. study suggests reactivating an enzyme that protects the tips of chromosomes in cells can reverse premature aging, researchers say.
Studies at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston showed that mice engineered to lack the enzyme, called telomerase, became prematurely decrepit, an article published by the journal Nature reported. When the enzyme was replaced, the mice recovered their health, the researchers said.
Reawakening the enzyme in cells in which it has stopped working might slow normal human aging, Ronald DePinho, a cancer geneticist at the Dana-Farber institute, says.
"This has implications for thinking about telomerase as a serious anti-aging intervention," he says.
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Tue, 30/11/2010 - 10:22 by Prince damin
Gothenburg, Sweden -- Consumption of plastic bags in China dropped by half when stores starting charging consumers for them, a Swedish study says.
Research by the University of Gothenburg showed the Chinese, the No. 1 consumers of plastic bags in the world, cut their use of them by half after a June 2008 ordinance against free plastic bags took effect.
Plastic bags is a growing global environmental problem and are becoming subject to various regulations in an growing number of countries with mixed results, a university release said.
University doctoral student Haoran He studied the effect of the Chinese ordinance as part of his thesis in environmental and behavioral economics.
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Tue, 30/11/2010 - 10:20 by Rakhi
Bristol, England -- Giant pterosaurs, ancient flying reptiles, were at their best in gentle tropical breezes, soaring over hillsides and coastlines, a British researcher says.
Colin Palmer, an engineer turned paleontology student in the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, says the flying dinosaurs, also known as pterodactyls, were too slow and flexible to brave the stronger winds and waves found over oceans, as albatrosses of today do, LiveScience.com reported.
Flying slowly also allowed pterosaurs to land very gently, reducing the chance of breaking their paper-thin bones, Palmer says.
This slow flying and careful landing explains how pterosaurs were able to become the largest flying animals ever known, he says.
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Tue, 30/11/2010 - 10:18 by Prince damin
Edinburgh, Scotland -- The ability to forecast the progress of a fire and predict how it will spread in a home or office could help rescue crews save lives, Scottish researchers say.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have developed a method of feeding data taken from sensors located in burning buildings into computer models to yield real-time predictions of how a fire will spread, a university release said.
Simple sensors incorporated into smoke alarms, room temperature sensors or CCTV cameras can measure the temperature and height of a fire, researchers say, and sophisticated computer models can convert these into a forecast of the fire's dynamics.
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Tue, 30/11/2010 - 10:10 by Prince damin
Montreal -- Computer game players can have fun and contribute to genetic research with an on-line computer game that analyzes genetic sequences, Canadian researchers say.
Scientists at McGill University in Montreal say the game, called Phylo, was launched Monday after testing within the scientific community to ensure its accuracy, a university release said.
"There are some calculations that the human brain does more efficiently than any computer can, such as recognizing a face," Jerome Waldispuhl of the School of Computer Science says.
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Tue, 30/11/2010 - 10:09 by Prince damin
University Park, Pa. -- U.S. researchers say they've developed a color-changing patch soldiers could wear on their uniforms to show the severity of their exposure to explosions.
University of Pennsylvania scientists say calibrating the color change to the intensity of the explosion could provide immediate information on possible injury to the brain and the need for medical intervention, a university release said.
"We wanted to create a 'blast badge' that would be lightweight, durable, power-free, and perhaps most important, could be easily interpreted, even on the battlefield," Douglas H. Smith, professor of neurosurgery at Penn State, said.
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Tue, 30/11/2010 - 10:03 by Prince damin
Durham, N.C. -- As the U.S. government considers defining coal ash as a hazardous waste material, researchers say they've developed new ways of measuring its ecological impact.
Researchers from Duke University studied contaminant levels in aquatic ecosystems over an 18-month period following a massive coal sludge spill in 2008 at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant in Kingston, Tenn., a university release said.
The Duke scientists found that high concentrations of arsenic from the TVA coal ash remained in river-bottom sediment long after contaminant levels in surface waters had dropped back below safe thresholds.
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Tue, 30/11/2010 - 07:53 by Prince damin
London -- Drug and chemical companies say they endorse a Europe-wide initiative intended to eventually end the use of animals in research and safety testing.
Experts from companies including drug giants AstraZeneca, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and cosmetics firm L'Oreal say that soon the safety testing of new drugs and chemical products will use new technologies, including cell cultures and computer models, rather than living animals, The Daily Telegraph in Britain reported.
A report published by a panel of experts from industry, academic institutions and regulatory bodies supports an initiative aimed at finding alternatives to animal research.
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Tue, 30/11/2010 - 07:49 by Prince damin
London -- Dogs have evolved bigger brains than cats because social species of mammals need more brain resources than solitary animals, U.K. researchers say.
Scientists at Oxford University charting the evolutionary history of the brain across different groups of mammals discovered there are huge variations in how the brains of different species have evolved over time, ScienceDaily.com reported.
Analyzing data on brain size and body size of more than 500 species, found that groups of mammals that evolved relatively bigger brains, such as monkeys, horses, dolphins and dogs, tend to live in stable social groups.
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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.
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Sun, 28/11/2010 - 10:24 by Rakhi
Boulder, Colo. -- The expectation that men do better in physics than women is an "identity threat" that undermines women's success in the subject, U.S. researchers say.
Co-authors Geoffrey Cohen, formerly a University of Colorado at Boulder psychologist now at Stanford University, and Lauren Kost-Smith, a physics graduate student at Colorado, said the randomized double-blind experiment of 399 students -- 283 men and 116 women -- were randomly assigned writing assignments that either affirmed their values or did not.
The students in the "affirmation group" were given a list of 12 values, such as "relationships with friends and family" or "learning or gaining knowledge," and were asked to write about the values most important to them.
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Sat, 27/11/2010 - 10:11 by Rakhi
Washington -- NASA says future airliners need to be quieter, greener and more fuel-efficient, and the agency is putting its money where its mouth is, officials say.
NASA awarded almost $6 million in contracts this week to two defense industry giants, Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp., to begin the journey toward those goals, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The technology goals NASA has set are for future aircraft to burn 50 percent less fuel than current models, cut harmful emissions in half and shrink the geographic areas affected by obnoxious airport noise by 83 percent, the newspaper said.
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