News Articles

A new analysis of the remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) that roamed Earth 68 million years ago has confirmed traces of protein from blood and bone, tendons, or cartilage.The findings published in the Journal of Proteome Research is the latest dataset in an ongoing controversy over which biochemical remnants can be detected in the dino.

Scientists in New York and North Carolina say they have assembled the first functioning prototype of an artificial Golgi organelle, a key structure inside cells which helps process and package hormones, enzymes, and other substances that allow the body to function normally. They say their 'lab-on-a-chip' device could lead to a faster and safer method for producing heparin, the widely used anticoagulant or blood thinner, the researchers note. The study is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The Golgi organelle is named for Camillo Golgi, the Italian scientist and Nobel Prize winner who discovered the structure in 1898.

Striking differences in the risk factors for developing heart failure (HF) and patient prognosis exist between men and women, according to a review article published in the August 4, 2009, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.   Men and women may also respond differently to treatment, raising concerns about whether current practices provide the best care and reinforcing the urgency for sex-specific clinical trials for heart failure. 

Genetic disease such as leukemia are a big target in 21st century science thanks to advancements in our understanding of how the body works.  Some of our treatments, like chemotherapy, are rather brute force in their solution.   Now scientists from the Université de Montréal and McGill University say they have re-engineered a human enzyme, a protein that accelerates chemical reactions within the human body, to become highly resistant to harmful agents like chemotherapy.

Researchers writing in BMC Infectious Diseases say their numerical model of influenza transmission and treatment suggests that if a H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic behaves like the 1918 flu, antiviral treatments should be reserved for the young.They argue that providing the elderly with antiviral drugs would not significantly reduce mortality, and may lead to an increase in resistance.   This is not a case of young researchers doing social engineering.  H1N1 swine flu has also impacted the young much more than the old, the reverse of traditional flu.

Depressed people may prefer the dark but it won't be a good thing for their cognitive abilities, say researchers writing in Environmental Health.They  used weather data from NASA satellites to measure sunlight exposure across the United States and linked this information to the prevalence of cognitive impairment in depressed people.   Shia Kent, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, led the team of US researchers who used cross-sectional data from 14,474 people in the NIH-NINDS-funded REGARDS study, a longitudinal study investigating stroke incidence and risk factors, to study associations between depression, cognitive function and sunlight.

Superman's X-ray vision may be closer than you think.   The tubes that power X-ray machines are shrinking and also improving in clarity.A team of nanomaterial scientists, medical physicists, and cancer biologists at the University of North Carolina has developed new lower-cost X-ray tubes packed with sharp-tipped carbon nanotubes for cancer research and treatment.   This tiny technology was presented at this year's meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine in Anaheim, California. The science goal is to image human breast tissue, laboratory animals, and cancer patients under radiotherapy treatment, and to irradiate cells with more control than previously possible with conventional X-ray tubes.   The fun goal will be just about anything else.

Most people learn more quickly if they are rewarded for making correct decisions but little is understood about how rewards facilitate the learning process.Studies have shown that if a decision leads to a successful outcome, it is registered in the brain's reward system. The reward stimulus is then relayed to the area of the brain which was responsible for making the decision. In this way, the brain optimizes its processes for improved performance each time.

Researchers say they directly convert spermatogonial stem cells, the precursors of sperm cells, into tissues of the prostate, skin and uterus, an effective alternative to the medical use of embryonic stem cells.

Scientists may be closer to understanding how to grow replacement bones with stem cell technology. Many scientists are trying to create bone-like materials derived from stem cells to implant into patients who have damaged or fractured bones or who have had parts of diseased bones removed. The idea is that, ultimately, these bone-like materials could be inserted into cavities so that real bone could meld with it and repair the bone. 

Nearly all species have some ability to detect light and at least three types of cells in the retina allow us to see images or distinguish between night and day. Now, researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine say they have discovered another type of cell that can sense light and contribute to vision.Reporting in Nature, the team of neuroscientists say that retinal horizontal cells, which are nerve cells once thought only to talk to neighboring nerve cells and not even to the brain, are light sensitive themselves. 

A new technique has allowed researchers to make film bacteria infecting their living host.Most studies of bacterial infection are done after the death of the infected organism a new technique developed by scientists at the University of Bath and University of Exeter has allowed researchers to make film bacteria and  follow the progress of infection in real-time with living organisms.The researchers used developing fruit fly embryos as a model organism, injecting fluorescently tagged bacteria into the embryos and observing their interaction with the insect's immune system using time-lapse confocal microscopy.