Scientists have reported that an experimental vaccine targeting one of the most common genetic drivers of pancreatic cancer, called mutant KRAS, is safe and generated a durable immune responses aimed at preventing the cancer.
In Europe, where over 19 million students are in tertiary education, they are looking for ways to improve the teaching skills of scientists in order to teach more effectively the next generation of innovators. It would seem obvious that reducing the anti-science mentality of the culture would be the obvious step but the sociologists argue instead that the position of 'teacher researcher' should be created under the social sciences banner.
Rats socially isolated during a critical period in adolescence are more vulnerable to addiction to amphetamine and alcohol, according to a new paper. Amphetamine addiction is also harder to extinguish in the socially isolated rats.
These effects persist even after the rats are reintroduced into the community of other rats.
"Basically the animals become more manipulatable," said Hitoshi Morikawa, associate professor of neurobiology in the College of Natural Sciences. "They're more sensitive to reward, and once conditioned the conditioning takes longer to extinguish. We've been able to observe this at both the behavioral and neuronal level."
In a genome-wide analysis of 13 metastatic prostate cancers done on men who died of metastatic prostate cancer and whose tissue samples were collected after a rapid autopsy, scientists found consistent epigenetic signatures across all metastatic tumors in each patient.
The discovery of stable epigenetic marks that sit on the nuclear DNA of cancer cells and alter gene expression, defies a prevailing belief that the marks vary so much within each individual's widespread cancers that they have little or no value as targets for therapy or as biomarkers for treatment response and predicting disease severity.
A new image from the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope in Chile shows a beautiful view of clouds of cosmic dust
nebula NGC 1999
in the region of Orion. While these dense interstellar clouds seem dark and obscured to visible-light observations, APEX’s LABOCA camera can detect the heat glow of the dust and reveal the hiding places where new stars are being formed. But one of these dark clouds is not what it seems.
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed an automatic ice detection system for cars that makes use of a new, real-time method of obtaining information on a road's actual slipperiness.
Obviously, such a system helps drivers avoid personal injuries and damage to vehicles in slippery road conditions. Not only are vehicles are warned in advance of a road's actual slipperiness, if the road becomes slippery, other vehicles arriving in the area will also be warned immediately.
Predicting weather events is more mysticism than science and it's only after the fact that predictions are recalibrated to try and hone in on more accuracy. Hurricane Sandy in the eastern United States was predicted to be a super-storm but by the time it hit New York City was a regular old tropical storm, though one that became a welcome $17 billion federal stimulus plan and a call for action on global warming that did not cause it.
During our zeal to recapture manufacturing like Apple iPhone and solar panel construction during the last four years, something obvious was ignored; the environmental hazards were never going to be acceptable in the USA. The rich people who can afford the latest technology turn a blind eye to non-union wages, slave labor and environmental impact as long as it is happening in th developing world.
Optimal Monitoring has produced a free eBook about the Department of Energy and Climate Change consultation period, which is open until the end of January.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has invited companies to influence the latest Climate Change Bill and UK government energy policy. This consultation period on the UK draft Energy Bill is open until January 31st, 2013 and asks for ideas on how the Government can help businesses reduce their energy usage and therefore their cost. Carbon monitoring software provider Optimal Monitoring has created a free guide which addresses the opportunities the DECC consultation period presents for businesses and landlords to influence the Energy Bill.
Studies are revealing new details about a molecular surveillance system that helps detect and correct errors in cell division that can lead to cell death or human diseases.
The purpose of cell division is to evenly distribute the genome between two daughter cells. To achieve this, every chromosome must properly interact with a football-shaped structure called the spindle. However, interaction errors between the chromosomes and spindle during division are amazingly common, occurring in 86 to 90 percent of chromosomes, says cell biologist Thomas Maresca at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The key to flawless cell division is to correct dangerous interactions before the cell splits in two.
Public health scholars in Spain say they have done the first comparative study on the evolution of sperm quality in young Spanish men and found that over a ten year period, spermatozoid concentration in men between 18 and 23 years in the regions of Murcia and Almeria has dropped by an annual average of 2%.
The multidisciplinary study headed by the Department of Preventative Medicine and Public Health of the University of Murcia (UMU) found that "total sperm count and concentration has declined amongst young men in the south-east of Spain in the last decade." More specifically, the decrease amounts to 38%.
Arctic sea ice has not only declined over the past decade but has also become distinctly thinner and younger - mainly thin, first-year ice floes which are extensively covered with melt ponds in the summer months where once meter-thick, multi-year ice used to float.
Researchers have now measured the light transmission through the Arctic sea ice for the first time on a large scale, enabling them to quantify consequences of this change. They come to the conclusion that in places where melt water collects on the ice, far more sunlight and therefore energy is able to penetrate the ice than is the case for white ice without ponds.
Cyanobacteria belong to the Earth's oldest organisms. They are still present today in oceans and waters and even in hot springs. By producing oxygen and evolving into multicellular forms, they played a key role in the emergence of organisms that breathe oxygen.
A team of scientists under the supervision and instruction of evolutionary biologists from the University of Zurich wrote a paper showing that cyanobacteria developed multicellularity around one billion years earlier than eukaryotes (cells with one true nucleus) and at almost the same time as multicellular cyanobacteria appeared, a process of oxygenation began in the oceans and in the Earth's atmosphere.
