News Articles

The future of biolectronics - being able to diagnose diseases, detect poisons and monitor health instantly - may still seem far away, but it may be closer than you think.
Researchers understand what biochemical reactors they need to monitor and they know which microelectronics they would need to use. They have just been unable to combine them because measuring the ions in receptors within cell membranes destroyed the cells being measured.
A team at the Max Planck Institute say they have solved the problem and describe the coupling of a receptor to a silicon chip by means of a cell–transistor interface. True bioelectronics at its most basic level.

Physicians have recognized scoliosis, the abnormal curvature of the spine, since the time of Hippocrates, but its causes have remained a mystery -- until now. For the first time, researchers have discovered a gene that underlies the condition, which affects about 3 percent of all children.
The new finding lays the groundwork for determining how a defect in the gene -- known as CHD7 -- leads to the C- and S-shaped curves that characterize scoliosis.
"Hopefully, we can now begin to understand the steps by which the gene affects spinal development," says Anne Bowcock, Ph.D., professor of genetics, of medicine and of pediatrics at Washington University in St. Louis.

Giant prehistoric penguins? In Peru? It sounds more like something out of Hollywood than science, but a researcher from North Carolina State University along with U.S., Peruvian and Argentine collaborators has shown that two heretofore undiscovered penguin species reached equatorial regions tens of millions of years earlier than expected and during a period when the earth was much warmer than it is now.
Paleontologist Dr. Julia Clarke, assistant professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences at NC State, and colleagues studied two newly discovered extinct species of penguins. Peruvian paleontologists discovered the new penguins’ sites in 2005.

Modern and ancient penguin skulls side-by-side.

Recent studies showing that commonly used anesthetic agents can cause brain damage in animals don't prove that similar harmful effects occur in human newborns—and shouldn't affect current approaches to anesthesia in preterm and ill infants, according to a leading expert on pain management in newborns.
The July issue of the journal Anesthesiology features an editorial by Dr. Kanwaljeet J.S. Anand, Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Pharmacology, Neurobiology & Developmental Sciences in the College of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Director of the Pain Neurobiology Lab at Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute.

Folk medicine, prayer, astrology, spells, mysticism - your treatment for disease in medieval times mattered most on the beliefs of the people around you rather than a codified study of the body.
It was commonly believed that body health resulted from a balance of the 'humours' in the body - black bile, phlegm and blood and yellow bile- and that a lack of balance meant an issue with a particular organ. Even today those beliefs are prevalent in the use of terms that described them then - if you have ever heard someone described as 'melancholic', it refers to an issue with their spleen resulting in too much black bile.
Many of the practices used then are still in use today.

18-year old Nicholas Tan Xue-Wei will soon depart for the U.S. to present a research paper at The 2007 World Congress in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Applied Computing (WORLDCOMP'07), June 25 to 28, in Las Vegas.
Before returning home to Singapore, Nicholas will continue to represent Singapore's Bioinformatics Institute by presenting his research paper at the World Congress on Engineering 2007 (WCE 2007), July 2 to 4 in London.
Nicholas will speak about his research paper, titled “Towards A Serum-Free Medium: Growth Receptors And Signaling Pathways That Regulate Multipotency In Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells."

A team of American and Irish researchers has concluded that the mysterious appearance in 2001 of an infant female bonnethead shark at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo in a tank that held only two adult female sharks was the result of parthenogenesis (Gr. virgin birth.) Parthenogenic reproduction takes place without fertilization by a male through the process of cell division, when the mother's egg fuses with a degenerative cell called a polar body, producing a new individual.
What does this mean for the evolution of the species?

Increasing intake of the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, found in popular fish-oil supplements, may protect against blindness resulting from abnormal blood vessel growth in the eye, according to a study done at Children's Hospital Boston. The study was done in mice, but a clinical trial will soon begin testing the effects of omega-3 supplementation in premature babies, who are at risk for vision loss.
Abnormal vessel growth is the cause of retinopathy of prematurity, diabetic retinopathy in adults, and "wet" age-related macular degeneration, three leading causes of blindness.

It figures: Dads have a major impact on the degree of interest their daughters develop in math. That's one of the findings of a long-term University of Michigan study that has traced the sources of the continuing gender gap in math and science performance.
"We've known for a while now that females do as well as males on tests that measure ability in math and science," said Pamela Davis-Kean, a psychologist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR).

Researchers have shown that bone marrow stem cells injected into a damaged inner ear can speed hearing recovery after partial hearing loss.
Hearing loss has many causes, including genetics, aging, and infection, and may be complete or partial. Such loss may involve damage to inner ear cells called cochlear fibrocytes, which are fundamental to inner ear function. Some natural regeneration of these cells can occur after acute damage, leading to partial recovery of temporary hearing loss. The researchers say say such restoration could be enhanced by using bone marrow stem cells, which can differentiate into various tissue-specific cell types.

It has long been known that eating potatoes is good for bowel health, but new research suggests that they may also have a beneficial effect on the whole immune system. Especially if eaten cold or in a potato salad, Anne Pichon reports in Chemistry&Industry.
Spanish researchers found that growing pigs fed large quantities of raw potato starch (RPS) had a healthier bowel. Not a surprise, but they also found that RPS pigs had decreased levels of white blood cells, such as leucocytes and lymphocytes in their blood. White blood cells are produced as a result of inflammation or disease, generally when the body is challenged.

A University of Utah study shows how various regions of North America are kept afloat by heat within Earth’s rocky crust, and how much of the continent would sink beneath sea level if not for heat that makes rock buoyant.
Of coastal cities, New York City would sit 1,427 feet under the Atlantic, Boston would be 1,823 feet deep, Miami would reside 2,410 feet undersea, New Orleans would be 2,416 underwater and Los Angeles would rest 3,756 feet beneath the Pacific.