News Articles

Today, scientists from Procter&Gamble (P&G), the University of Calgary and the University of Virginia announced results from the first study to examine the entire human genome's response to the most common cold virus, human rhinovirus.

A wish could come true for paraplegics who play the piano and are paralyzed from the hips down: Heidelberg researcher Dr.-Ing. Rüdiger Rupp has developed a method with which a pianist can operate the right pedal of a concert grand wirelessly – a first in the world. A paraplegic pianist can thus overcome the handicap of being able to play the piano using only his arms and hands. Dr. Rupp, director of the research department at the spinal cord injury unit of the Orthopedic Clinic of Heidelberg University Hospital (Director: Prof. Dr. Hans Jürgen Gerner), was honored for this invention with € 15,000 from the Innovation Award 2008 of the German Paraplegic Foundation (DSQ).

Genetically, the Germans and British are very close to each other but the genetic distances between the Swedes and Eastern and Western Finns are larger, and the diversity in these populations is lower.A recent study shows that genetic differences in Central Europe appear smaller than between and even within North European populations.    The study, led by researcher Päivi Lahermo from Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) and University of Helsinki, Finland, and professor Juha Kere from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.The understanding of genetic variation in human populations is important not only for obtaining information on population history, but also for successful studies of genetic factors behind human diseases, says Juha Kere. 

If a doctor believes an antibiotic or sedative is not needed and instead provides a placebo to a patient, is the physician protecting public health or subjectively disregarding the ethics of full disclosure? You decide.

Many rheumatologists and general internal medicine physicians in the US say they regularly prescribe "placebo treatments" including active drugs such as sedatives and antibiotics, but rarely admit they are doing so to their patients, according to a study on BMJ.com today.

One of the smallest dinosaur skulls ever discovered has been identified and described by a team of scientists from London, Cambridge and Chicago. The skull would have been only 45 millimeters (less than two inches) in length. It belonged to a very young Heterodontosaurus, an early dinosaur. This juvenile weighed about 200 grams, less than two sticks of butter. In the Fall issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the researchers describe important findings from this skull that suggest how and when the ornithischians, the family of herbivorous dinosaurs that includes Heterodontosaurus, made the transition from eating meat to eating plants.

Warm hands, cold heart?   Not when it's our own hands that are warm.   Our judgment of a person's character can be influenced by something as simple as the warmth of the drink we're holding.   It makes sense; everyone is friendlier if they have a cup of coffee in their hand.

Sounding the Sun through a technique similar to seismology has opened a new era for understanding the Sun’s interior. The CNES/ESA COROT satellite has now applied this technique to three stars, directly probing the interiors of stars beyond the Sun for the first time. When global oscillations of the Sun were discovered, scientists realised they opened a window to the Sun’s interior. Like the propagation of seismic waves on Earth providing information about our planet’s interior, sound waves travel throughout the Sun carrying information about what is happening below the surface. 

In the UK, the government has chosen the vaccine Cervarix for their human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program.But actual UK doctors choose Gardisal for their own children, says Phil Hammond, general practitioner, writer, and broadcaster, on bmj.com today.The reason has nothing to do with the effectiveness of either vaccine, but rather with genital warts.    "You’d be mad not to protect your daughter against genital warts if you can afford to." he quotes Peter Greenhouse, a sexual health consultant, as saying.   

In a study of medical students, more serious cardiac risk estimates were given to Christians and less serious estimates for Muslims despite the patients being otherwise identical in their characteristics and symptoms, according to research in an upcoming issue of Medical Decision Making.Risk assessment, the first step in a medical triage process, determines subsequent treatment.In the study, led by Jamie Arndt, PhD, of the University of Missouri-Columbia, randomly chosen university medical students were asked to answer questions about their own mortality. Afterward, all the study participants inspected fictitious emergency room admittance forms for Muslim and Christian patients complaining of chest pain, and risk assessments were made for each patient.

Quantum computing is the Holy Grail of processing.    The analogy is apt because, like that relic of legend, no one is sure exactly what it looks like but we all know it has awesome power.  Another step towards quantum computing was achieved when an international team of scientists were able to successfully store and retrieve information - using the nucleus of an atom.

Research that has provided a deeper understanding into the centre of planets could also provide the way forward in the world's quest for cleaner energy.An international team of scientists, led by the University of Oxford, working alongside researchers at the Science and Technology Facilities Council's (STFC) Central Laser Facility, has gained a deeper insight into the hot, dense matter found at the centre of planets and as a result, has provided further understanding into controlled thermonuclear fusion.

What does it take to build a car capable of going 1,000 MPH, 30% faster than any car that has gone before?  Richard Noble of Swansea University and lead of the aerodynamics team for the BLOODHOUND SSC (super sonic car) Project, intends to find out by 2011.