News Articles

A Northwestern University-led study in the emerging field of nanocytology could one day help men make better decisions about whether or not to undergo aggressive prostate cancer treatments.
Technology developed by Northwestern University researchers may help solve that quandary by allowing physicians to identify which nascent cancers are likely to escalate into potentially life-threatening malignancies and which ones will remain "indolent," or non-aggressive.
The prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test was once the recommended screening tool for detecting prostate cancer, but there is now disagreement over the use of this test because it can't predict which men with elevated PSA levels will actually develop an aggressive form of the disease.

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that affects approximately two percent of the population.Despite extensive research and breakthroughs, one-third of patients are resistant to currently available therapies. A team of researchers as discovered a new cause to explain the development of temporal lobe epilepsy and may lead to future treatments: At an early stage, astrocytes are uncoupled from each other. This results in the extracellular accumulation of potassium ions and neurotransmitters, which cause hyperexcitability of the neurons.

 Most people don't realize that light can take different shapes. In the fundamental mode, light energy is most intense at the center and gradually fades towards the edge of the beam. Light also has higher order modes. For example, the energy pattern can look like a donut, with most of the energy contained in a ring, and none in the hole or middle. Scientists create higher order modes by shining light through crystals and in recent years passing light along optical microfibers or nanofibers to manipulate particles has gained popularity in research labs because it could some day have applications in physics and biology. 

One canyon on Earth has two mouths - but that is not the only mystery.First formally documented by western explorers mapping the Colorado Territory in the 1800s, Unaweep Canyon is a puzzling landscape
and so it has inspired numerous scientific hypotheses for its origin. A new paper published in Geosphere by Gerilyn S. Soreghan and colleagues brings together old and new geologic data of this region to further the hypothesis that Unaweep Canyon was formed in multiple stages.

80 percent of patients survive when kidney cancer is detected early - but it is often not easy. However, finding it early has been among the disease's greatest challenges.
Kidney cancer is the seventh most common cancer in men and the 10th most common in women, affecting about 65,000 people each year in the United States. About 14,000 patients die of the disease annually. Like most cancers, kidney tumors are easier to treat when diagnosed early. But symptoms of the disease, such as blood in the urine and abdominal pain, often don't develop until later, making early diagnosis difficult. 

Citizen science botanists in the Western Cape Province of South Africa have discovered two new species of beautiful blue-flowered legumes.
Few people take the chance to tramp the empty rolling ranges of mountains and the fragmented and jagged coastline of the Southern Cape in South Africa. Most avoid it because of how wild and tough-going it can be. This region is part of a unique and species rich global flora called the Cape Floral Kingdom. Yet there are a band of intrepid walkers and climbers who traverse these areas every week searching for rare and endangered plants.

Cancer cells crowded tightly together suddenly surrender their desire to spread, and this change of heart is related to a cellular pathway that controls organ size. These two stunning observations are reported today by researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in the journal Oncogene.

Winter storms dumped records amounts of snow on the East Coast and other regions of the country this February, leaving treacherous, icy sidewalks and roads in their wake. Now researchers from Canada are developing new methods to mass-produce a material that may help pedestrians get a better grip on slippery surfaces after such storms.
The material, which is made up of glass fibers embedded in a compliant rubber, could one day be used in the soles of slip-resistant winter boots. The researchers describe the manufacturing process in a paper in the journal Applied Physics Letters, from AIP Publishing.

Using discarded electronic boards, the UPV/EHU researcher Andoni Salbidegoitia has, in collaboration with international researchers, developed a system for obtaining clean hydrogen that can be used as fuel. The researchers have already registered the patent of the process in Japan.
The Chemical Technologies for Environmental Sustainability (TQSA) Group of the Department of Chemical Engineering of the UPV/EHU's Faculty of Science and Technology is aiming to make use of discarded plastic as effectively as possible from the environmental as well as energy and economic point of view.

Bicarbonate (baking soda) makes sparkling water sparkle, causes bread to rise, absorbs odors and can be used for cleaning all sorts of stuff, including your teeth. In the body, it plays essential roles in buffering pH, aiding in digestion and neutralizing lactic acid produced during physical exertion. Much of the bicarbonate in our bodies comes from carbon dioxide, which is produced as a waste product in all cells, although some is ingested with carbonated beverages and certain types of foods.

Hair and teeth are ectodermal appendages that share common developmental mechanisms. However, the major structural components making up hair and teeth are very distinct. The hair shaft is essentially made of keratin filaments that are highly cross-linked. Tooth enamel matrix is primarily composed of enamel proteins (amelogenin, ameloblastin) that are degraded and replaced by minerals during enamel maturation. Fully mineralized enamel contains a small fraction of cross-linked organic material that has not been fully characterized. In this study, researchers assessed the presence and functionality of a specific set of hair keratins in this organic fraction of enamel.

Scientists writing in Nature Communications have discovered an antioxidant system that, like a generator kicking in when the power fails, helps sustain the liver when other systems are missing or compromised.
This understudy 'takes the stage' when the lead actor is sick and is fueled by methionine, an amino acid that can't be manufactured in the body and doesn't come from herbal teas or supplements.
People get it only by eating protein.