— Hogchoker - the new Internet star — A small flatfish living along the coast of North America is the…
— Cancer deaths are projected to double by 2030 — Cancer deaths are projected to double in the next two decades.…
More Boiling point…
— Entangled diamonds vibrate together — Objects big enough for the eye to see have been placed in a weirdly…
— How animals predict earthquakes — Animals may sense chemical changes in groundwater that occur…
— New Icelandic volcano eruption could have global impact — Hundreds of metres under one of Iceland's largest glaciers there…
More Minuscule…
Or subscribe for our Newsletter, a free e-mail publication. It is published practically every day.
News | Archive (6 January 2011)
Syracuse University team develops functionally graded shape memory polymers
— 15:47 GMT | TechnologyA team led by Patrick T. Mather, director of Syracuse Biomaterials Institute (SBI) and Milton and Ann Stevenson professor of biomedical and chemical engineering in Syracuse University's L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science (LCS), has succeeded in applying the concept of functionally graded materials (FGMs) to shape memory polymers (SMPs)…
Carbon taxes are the answer to the stalled climate negotiations
— 15:44 GMT | EnvironmentFor global warming policy, the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference (Copenhagen Summit) was a major disappointment. Designed to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, the Summit concluded without a binding agreement because of deep divisions on the distribution of emissions reductions and costs. In addition, the United States failed to take action on a carbon cap-and-trade bill in 2010. Confronting this policy vacuum, leading climate economist William Nordhaus argues in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, published today, that carbon taxes are the best approach to achieve significant emissions reductions…
Antibiotic resistance is not just genetic
— 15:41 GMT | HealthGenetic resistance to antibiotics is not the only trick bacteria use to resist eradication - they also have a second defence strategy known as persistence that can kick in…
New findings show vitamin D accelerates recovery from TB
— 15:38 GMT | HealthNew research findings which show that vitamin D can speed up antibiotic treatment of tuberculosis (TB) have been revealed by scientists at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. The study - which gives fresh insight into how vitamin D may affect the immune response - is published today (6 January 2011) in The Lancet…
Protective properties of green tea uncovered
— 15:35 GMT | HealthRegularly drinking green tea could protect the brain against developing Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, according to latest research by scientists at Newcastle University…
Widespread ancient ocean 'dead zones' challenged early life
— 15:32 GMT | Geology and palaeontologyThe oceans became oxygen-rich as they are today about 600 million years ago, during Earth's Late Ediacaran Period. Before that, most scientists believed until recently, the ancient oceans were relatively oxygen-poor for the preceding four billion years…
Globally sustainable fisheries possible with co-management
— 15:29 GMT | EnvironmentThe bulk of the world's fisheries - including the kind of small-scale, often non-industrialised fisheries that millions of people depend on for food - could be sustained using community-based co-management. This is the conclusion of a study reported in this week's issue of the journal Nature…
Malfunctioning gene associated with Lou Gehrig's disease leads to nerve-cell death in mice
— 15:26 GMT | HealthLou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) are characterised by protein clumps in brain and spinal-cord cells that include an RNA-binding protein called TDP-43. This protein is the major building block of the lesions formed by these clumps…
Rifaximin provides significant relief of irritable bowel syndrome symptoms
— 15:23 GMT | HealthA pair of clinical trials, conducted in part at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, found that two weeks of treatment with rifaximin provides significant relief of irritable bowel syndrome symptoms including bloating, abdominal pain and loose or watery stools…
Scientists now know why some cancers become malignant and others don't
— 15:20 GMT | HealthCancer cells reproduce by dividing in two, but a molecule known as PML limits how many times this can happen, according to researchers lead by Dr Gerardo Ferbeyre of the University of Montreal's Department of Biochemistry. The team proved that malignant cancers have problems with this molecule, meaning that in its absence they can continue to grow and eventually spread to other organs. Importantly, the presence of PML molecules can easily be detected, and could serve to diagnose whether a tumour is malignant or not…
Are Ice Age relics the next casualty of climate change?
Researchers conclusively linked T. rex with the birds