Sunday, January 27, 2008

Science Sunday: Wrap-up of recent advancements in science from EurekAlert!

Thousands of crop varieties from 4 corners of the world depart for Arctic seed vault
At the end of January, more than 200,000 crop varieties from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East -- drawn from vast seed collections maintained by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research -- will be shipped to a remote island near the Arctic Circle, where they will be stored in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a facility capable of preserving their vitality for thousands of years.

DNA sensors found to be an effective artificial nose
Short sequences of solid-state DNA can selectively signal their interactions with small molecules in the vapor phase. These observations have been implemented in odor sensing in an electronic "nose" and further suggest that in vivo responses to small molecules may represent new, nongenetic attributes of DNA.

Researchers develop darkest manmade material
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Rice University have created the darkest material ever made by man. The material, a thin coating comprised of low-density arrays of loosely vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes, absorbs more than 99.9 percent of light and one day could be used to boost the effectiveness and efficiency of solar energy conversion, infrared sensors and other devices. The researchers who developed the material have applied for a Guinness World Record for their efforts.

'Telepathic' genes recognize similarities in each other
Genes have the ability to recognize similarities in each other from a distance, without any proteins or other biological molecules aiding the process, according to new research published this week in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B. This discovery could explain how similar genes find each other and group together in order to perform key processes involved in the evolution of species.

Team IDs weakness in anthrax bacteria
MIT and New York University researchers have identified a weakness in the defenses of the anthrax bacterium that could be exploited to produce new antibiotics.

Unanimous union: The mind and body together lean toward 'truthiness'
The more ambiguous an answer to a question, the more likely an individual will believe it is truthful. At least that is what psychologists Rick Dale of the University of Memphis, Michael Spivey of Cornell University and the late Chris McKinstry found when they asked college students questions that ranged in levels of vagueness and tracked their corresponding arm movements to clicking "yes" or "no" on a computer screen.

New MIT tool probes brain circuits
Researchers at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT report in the Jan. 24 online edition of Science that they have created a way to see, for the first time, the effect of blocking and unblocking a single neural circuit in a living animal.

Nanotubes go with the flow
Kahp Suh and his colleagues from Seoul National University have developed a technique for aligning nanotubes over large areas based on the flow of a nanotube-containing solution through nanochannels. This technique is especially attractive because of its simplicity; no external stimuli such as the application of an electric field or syringe pumping are required to align the nanotubes.

Engineers use blood's hydrodynamics to manipulate stem, cancer cells
A tiny, implantable device has pulled adult stem cells out of a living rat with a far greater purity than any present technique.The test of the device designed by Michael R. King, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Rochester, will be reported in the March 3 issue of the British Journal of Haematology.

Quality control mechanism tags defective sperm cells inside the body
Defective sperm cells do not pass through the body unnoticed. A new University of Missouri study provides evidence that the body recognizes and tags defective sperm cells while they undergo maturation in the epididymis, a sperm storage gland attached to the testis. According to researchers, only the best sperm that have the highest chance of succeeding in fertilization will survive the production process without a "tag."

Scientists use nanomaterials to localize and control drug delivery
Using nanotechnology, scientists from UCLA and Northwestern University have developed a localized and controlled drug delivery method that is invisible to the immune system, a discovery that could provide newer and more effective treatments for cancer and other diseases.

Cell phone sensors detect radiation to thwart nuclear terrorism
Researchers at Purdue University are working with the state of Indiana to develop a system that would use a network of cell phones to detect and track radiation to help prevent terrorist attacks with radiological "dirty bombs" and nuclear weapons.

Skin care: new research into scar-free healing
New research from the University of Bristol shows that by suppressing one of the genes that normally switches on in wound cells, wounds can heal faster and reduce scarring. This has major implications not just for wound victims but also for people who suffer organ tissue damage through illness or abdominal surgery.

Biologists use computers to study bacterial cell division
A group of computational biologists at Virginia Tech have created a mathematical model of the process that regulates cell division in a common bacterium, confirming hypotheses, providing new insights, identifying gaps in what is understood so far, and demonstrating the role of computation in biology.

In diatom, scientists find genes that may level engineering hurdle
Denizens of oceans, lakes and even wet soil, diatoms are unicellular algae that encase themselves in intricately patterned, glass-like shells. Curiously, these tiny phytoplankton could be harboring the next big breakthrough in computer chips.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home