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News | Archive (10 July 2009)
New role discovered for molecule important in development of the pancreas
— 16:47 GMT | HealthFor years researchers have been searching for a way to treat diabetics by reactivating their insulin-producing beta cells, to no avail. Now, they may be one step closer. A protein, whose role in pancreatic development has long been recognised, has been discovered to play an additional and previously unknown regulatory role in the development of cells in the immature endocrine system. These cells ultimately give rise to pancreatic islet cells, which include beta cells…
Between the devil and the deep blue sea
— 16:42 GMT | EnvironmentExpansion of coastal cities is accompanied by a decline in the quality of life of the people, which was the reason they moved to the coastal zone instead of bringing growing welfare to the inhabitants. Many Megacities such as Tokyo (pop. 36.000.000), New York (22.000.000) and London (12.000.000) are found in the coastal zone. Coastal protection measures give a sense of false security and require increasingly expensive infrastructure…
New oral agents may prevent injury after radiation exposure
— 16:37 GMT | HealthResearchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and collaborators have discovered and analysed several new compounds, collectively called the 'EUK-400 series,' which could someday be used to prevent radiation-induced injuries to kidneys, lungs, skin, intestinal tract and brains of radiological terrorism victims. The findings, which appear in the June issue of the Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, describe new agents which can be given orally in pill form, which would more expedient in an emergency situation…
GOES-O satellite reaches orbit and renamed GOES-14
— 16:32 GMT | EnvironmentOn 27 June the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-O, soared into space during a spectacular launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. GOES-O has now been renamed and its solar array has been deployed…
A matter of density, not quantity
— 16:27 GMT | HealthInfections of wounds, pneumonia, etc. in hospitals in particular are often caused by bacteria called Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Once they reach a certain density, colonies of Pseudomonas aeruginosa produce virulence factors and can enter into a slimy state, a biofilm, which prevents antibiotics from penetrating. The process of quorum sensing, which cells use to 'sense' cell density, is triggered when the concentration of certain signalling compounds generated by the bacteria reaches a threshold level…
Exploring standards to advance microbial genomics
— 16:03 GMT | BiologyMicrobes contribute to manifold human endeavours ranging from bioenergy to agriculture to medicine. Moreover, they make the Earth's biogeochemical cycles go round, a prerequisite for all life on the planet. Exceedingly numerous, they are also extremely diverse, encompassing most of Earth's total biodiversity. So it should come as no surprise to find that two-thirds of the nearly 5,000 genome projects reported in the Genomes OnLine Database (http://www.genomesonline.org) involve microbes. But far more could be done with microbial genomics, according to DOE JGI Genome Biology head Nikos Kyrpides, if researchers would embrace the world of possibilities that lie beyond the present anthropocentric focus and would also institute shared standards for genomic data collection and analysis…
Einstein scientists link elevated insulin to increased breast cancer risk
— 15:58 GMT | HealthElevated insulin levels in the blood appear to raise the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women, according to researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. Their findings are published in the online version of the International Journal of Cancer…
Cardiac CT is more cost effective when managing low-risk patients with chest pain
— 15:53 GMT | HealthThe use of cardiac CT for low-risk chest pain patients in the emergency department, instead of the traditional standard of care (SOC) workup, reduces a patient's length of stay and hospital charges, according to a study performed at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA. The SOC workup, which is timely and expensive, consists of a series of cardiac enzyme tests, ECGs and stress testing…
Caltech chemists say antibody surrogates are just a 'click' away
— 15:48 GMT | ChemistryChemists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Scripps Research Institute have developed an innovative technique to create cheap but highly stable chemicals that have the potential to take the place of the antibodies used in many standard medical diagnostic tests…
Nanopillars promise cheap, efficient, flexible solar cells
— 15:43 GMT | TechnologyResearchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have demonstrated a way to fabricate efficient solar cells from low-cost and flexible materials. The new design grows optically active semiconductors in arrays of nanoscale pillars, each a single crystal, with dimensions measured in billionths of a metre…
Saiga faces migration crisis
Spitzer Space Telescope finds organics and water where new planets may grow