One of astronomy's big questions is why galaxies forming as recently as 1 billion years after the Big Bang contain so much dust. The leading hypothesis is that supernovae, stars that explode at the end of their lives, contain large amounts of metal-enriched material that, in turn, harbors key ingredients of dust, like silicon, iron and carbon.
Radio frequency identification (RFID) devices have widely been used for tracking for years; recently, scientists from U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have developed a unique tracking technology that also monitors the environmental and physical conditions of containers of nuclear materials in storage and transportation.
"RFID technology is ideally suited for management of nuclear materials during both storage and transportation," said Dr. Yung Liu, Argonne senior nuclear engineer and RFID project manager. "Key information about the nuclear materials is acquired in real-time," he explained.
While finding a biomarker for Parkinson's disease that would let physicians screen for or track its progression remains an elusive goal, a team led by a University of Illinois at Chicago neuroscientist has shown that a non-invasive brain scanning technique offers promise.
The tool may also help advance the development of new drugs or neuroprotective agents to treat or ward off Parkinson's. The findings, now online, will appear in a forthcoming issue of Neurology.
David Vaillancourt, assistant professor of kinesiology at UIC, along with colleagues from UIC and Rush University, used a type of MRI scan called diffusion tensor imaging on 28 subjects, half with early symptoms of Parkinson's and the other half without.
For parents who have found themselves repeating the same warnings or directions to their toddler over and over to no avail, new research from the University of Colorado at Boulder offers them an answer as to why their toddlers don't listen to their advice: they're just storing it away for later.
Scientists -- and many parents -- have long believed that children's brains operate like those of little adults. The thinking was that over time kids learn things like proactively planning for and understanding how actions in the present affect them in the future. But the new study suggests that this is not the case.
Medical experts at The University of Nottingham have shown that an innovative anti-microbial catheter could vastly improve treatment and the quality of life for many community-based dialysis patients.
Results of a study published in the leading journal Biomaterials, have shown that the catheter has the potential to ward off attack from a wider variety of pathogens and protect Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) patients from infections for up to 100 days — around 20 times longer than current catheters.
RICHMOND, Va. (March 24, 2009) – A team of scientists from Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Uppsala in Sweden, and the Savannah River National Laboratory have identified that carbon nanostructures can be used as catalysts to store and release hydrogen, a finding that may point researchers toward developing the right material for hydrogen storage for use in cars.
Scientific findings indicate that hydrogen has all the makings of an ideal alternative fuel because it is clean, renewable and abundant, but there are challenges to safely and efficiently store it.
WASHINGTON—The World Health Organization released staggering new data about the threat of tuberculosis and the toll it takes on people with HIV/AIDS today, in recognition of World TB Day.
The TB-HIV co-infection crisis is twice as big as previously thought, the new WHO figures show. In 2007, there were at least 1.37 million cases of HIV-positive TB—or nearly 15 percent of the total incident cases. That's double the previous WHO estimates.
"A global health catastrophe is unfolding," said Gerald Friedland, a professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University School of Medicine and a leading expert on the emerging threat.
PHILADELPHIA (March 24, 2009)—This month Fox Chase Cancer Center performed the world's first successful minimally invasive distal pancreatectomy using the ViKY® system's revolutionary robotic, compact laparoscope holder. The technology, developed in France and tested on thousands of patients in Europe, made its debut in a cancer setting in the United States this week at Fox Chase.
New trends reveal that laser technology is steering the future of the cosmetic surgery industry. The American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery (AACS), a leader in the cosmetic surgery industry, conducted its annual Procedural Survey and the most notable finding is the shift towards non-invasive laser treatments.
Over the past three years, cosmetic surgeons have seen a significant increase in both males (456%) and females (215%) electing to have laser resurfacing. Laser resurfacing is performed with a "super-pulsed" carbon dioxide (CO2) laser to minimize wrinkles and lines on the face. In addition, laser hair removal has jumped to the overall number two most performed non-invasive cosmetic procedure.
Family secrets such as alcoholism, abuse and unwanted pregnancies are quite common and an obstacle to healing when disease strikes, according to Marie-Dominique Beaulieu, a professor at the Université de Montréal's Department of Family Medicine.
"I see it in my practice," says Beaulieu, who also holds the Dr. Sadok Besrour Family Medicine Research Chair. "Family secrets lead to feelings of guilt, anger and helplessness. These feelings have a considerable impact on health, specifically on the capacity to adapt and find a balance in times of disease."
Leading members of the Texas scientific community, in collaboration with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), have urged the Texas State Board of Education to reject amendments to the state's draft science standards that would undermine sound science teaching.
The board is to take a final vote on the standards on Friday, 27 March.
In a 23 March letter to Chairman Don McLeroy and the other members of the Texas board, the scientists said certain amendments, introduced and approved during the January 2009 board meeting, "would mislead students should they make it into the final standards."
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A precise, new nanotechnology treatment for drug addiction may be on the horizon as the result of research conducted at the University at Buffalo.
Scientists in UB's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics and UB's Department of Medicine have developed a stable nanoparticle that delivers short RNA molecules in the brain to "silence" or turn off a gene that plays a critical role in many kinds of drug addiction.
The UB team's in vitro findings were published online the week of March 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The risk of being involved in a traffic accident with personal injury is significantly higher among codeine users than non-users. However, sporadic or moderate use of codeine alone does not carry an increased risk, according to a newly published study from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
Codeine and tramadol are painkillers in the opiate group, used for mild to moderate pain. In Norway, codeine is included in Paralgin forte and Pinex forte, and tramadol, amongst others, in Nobligan. Norway has a higher consumption of codeine preparations than other European countries.
