— Hogchoker - the new Internet star — A small flatfish living along the coast of North America is the…
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— Entangled diamonds vibrate together — Objects big enough for the eye to see have been placed in a weirdly…
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— New Icelandic volcano eruption could have global impact — Hundreds of metres under one of Iceland's largest glaciers there…
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News | Archive (12 May 2008)
Face-to-face or Facebook?
— 16:31 GMT | TechnologyCan online networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, help new students settle into university social and academic life and minimise the chance of them withdrawing from their courses? Researchers at the University of Leicester are now looking for first-year University of Leicester students who use Facebook to help their pioneering research into this issue…
Sniffing dogs help monitor and protect threatened animals in Brazil
— 16:28 GMT | EnvironmentIt's a tough job, but somebody, or at least some dogs, have to do it. In the Cerrado region of Brazil, four dogs trained to detect animal faeces by scent are helping researchers monitor rare and threatened wildlife such as jaguar, tapir, giant anteater and maned wolf in and around Emas National Park, a protected area with the largest concentration of threatened species in Brazil…
Oxidation of contaminants as if they got burnt in the water itself
— 16:25 GMT | EnvironmentReducing the level of contamination of water is the aim of the line of research being undertaken by Dr Jose Ignacio Lombrana at the University of the Basque Country's Faculty of Science and Technology. He is investigating chemical treatment capable of eliminating contaminants dumped by industry, in order to reuse the waste water…
Think before you drink, say health psychologists
— 16:21 GMT | HealthPeople are being urged to think before they drink as part of a research project aimed at changing people's binge drinking habits. A team of health psychologists at The University of Nottingham plan to discover whether using the workplace to supply information on the health effects of binge drinking and asking employees for a small commitment to reducing the amount they drink in a single session could change people's binge drinking behaviour in the long term…
Arsenic-based therapy shown to help eradicate leukaemia initiating cells
— 16:18 GMT | HealthIn both leukaemia and solid tumours, there exists among the multitude of warrior cancer cells a small subgroup that work undercover, patiently lying in wait to launch their attacks. Known as either cancer initiating cells (CICs) or leukaemia initiating cells (LICs), these stealth populations are impervious to conventional chemotherapy and undaunted by targeted cancer therapies…
Identifying abnormal protein levels in diabetic retinopathy
— 16:15 GMT | HealthResearchers in Massachusetts are reporting an advance in bridging huge gaps in medical knowledge about the biochemical changes that occur inside the eyes of individuals with diabetic retinopathy (DR) - a leading cause of vision loss and blindness in adults…
Ancient protein offers clues to killer condition
— 16:12 GMT | BiologyMore than 600 million years of evolution has taken two unlikely distant cousins - turkeys and scallops - down very different physical paths from a common ancestor. But University of Leeds researchers have found that a motor protein, myosin 2, remains structurally identical in both creatures…
Microwave zapping kills invasive species before the invasion
— 16:08 GMT | EnvironmentScientists in Louisiana are reporting development and successful testing of a new cost-effective system to kill unwanted plants and animals that hitch a ride to the United States in the ballast water of merchant ships. These so-called 'invasive species,' such as the notorious zebra mussel, devastate native organisms and infrastructure and cost taxpayers billions of dollars annually…
New process may convert toxic computer waste into safe products
— 16:05 GMT | EnvironmentDiscarded computer parts could one day wind up fuelling your car. That's because researchers in Romania and Turkey have developed a simple, efficient method for recycling printed circuit boards into environmentally-friendly raw materials for use in fuel, plastic, and other useful consumer products. Their study is scheduled for the 21 May issue of ACS' Energy and Fuels, a bi-monthly journal…
Key step in the 'puncture' mechanism of cell death revealed
— 16:02 GMT | HealthA team of medical researchers led by Dr Ruth Kluck at Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) has discovered a key step in the mechanism by which cells destroy themselves. In this process, called 'apoptosis,' certain proteins cause the cell to self-destruct by puncturing its 'power plant.' How the proteins do this has been clarified by the WEHI team…
Mining MIT for neurotechnical know-how
Breakthrough makes lab-produced stem cells safer for humans