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News | Archive (24 June 2009)
Further evidence about water ocean on Enceladus
— 17:00 GMT | AstronomyCassini has found further evidence to suggest that the Saturn's sixth largest moon Enceladus has a reservoir of water - perhaps an ocean - beneath its surface. A subsurface ocean could provide a suitable environment for the formation of life. The finding, published in the most recent (25 June) issue of Nature, was made by a European instrument team that detected sodium salts in ice grains of Saturn's outermost ring, which is primarily replenished by material from the jets of Enceladus…
Stem cell surprise for tissue regeneration
— 17:00 GMT | BiologyScientists working at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Embryology, with colleagues, have overturned previous research that identified critical genes for making muscle stem cells. It turns out that the genes that make muscle stem cells in the embryo are surprisingly not needed in adult muscle stem cells to regenerate muscles after injury. The finding challenges the current course of research into muscular dystrophy, muscle injury, and regenerative medicine, which uses stem cells for healing tissues, and it favours using age-matched stem cells for therapy. The study is published in the 25 June advance on-line edition of Nature…
Earliest musical tradition documented in SW Germany
— 17:00 GMT | Geology and palaeontologyExcavations in the summer of 2008 at the sites of Hohle Fels and Vogelherd produced new evidence for Palaeolithic music in the form of the remains of one nearly complete bone flute and isolated small fragments of three ivory flutes…
Climbing the ladder to longevity: Critical enzyme pair identified
— 17:00 GMT | BiologyExperiment after experiment confirms that a diet on the brink of starvation expands lifespan in mice and many other species. But the molecular mechanism that links nutrition and survival is still poorly understood. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a pivotal role for two enzymes that work together to determine the health benefits of diet restriction…
Streaming sand grains help define essence of a liquid
— 17:00 GMT | PhysicsWater forms droplets because attractive interactions between molecules produce surface tension. If macroscopic objects - say, grains of sand - replace the molecules, the relative strength of this attraction would dramatically drop. What vestiges of liquid behaviour remain in such ultra-low surface tension limit?…
Mouse model provides clues to human language development
— 13:24 GMT | BiologyScientists of the German Mouse Clinic at Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen have generated and analysed a mouse model in which parts of the human Foxp2 gene were introduced. Foxp2 is known to be a key gene for language. Since the human and chimpanzee lineages diverged, only minimal genetic alterations have occurred, even with reference to the mouse: The alterations, as scientists surmised, are closely associated with speech and language ability. However, proof on a functional level has been lacking until now…
New framework to link up Europe's polar research
— 13:19 GMT | EnvironmentMore than 26 leading scientific institutions across Europe are signing up to closer research cooperation through a new European Polar Framework agreement today in Brussels. The framework agreement is a major outcome from the four-year EUROPOLAR ERA-NET initiative, funded by the European Commission under Framework Programme 6, which ended in February this year…
USC, Argonne National Lab collaborate on study of ancient artefacts
— 13:14 GMT | TechnologyUSC's first pilgrims to a temple of high-energy physics will be seeking answers to worldly questions about ancient commerce…
Biomarkers predict brain tumour's response to therapy
— 13:09 GMT | HealthA report in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, highlights a new biomarker that may be useful in identifying patients with recurrent glioblastoma, or brain tumours, who would respond better to anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy, specifically cediranib…
Feather fibres fluff up hydrogen storage capacity
— 13:04 GMT | ChemistryScientists in Delaware say they have developed a new hydrogen storage method - carbonised chicken feather fibres - that can hold vast amounts of hydrogen, a promising but difficult to corral fuel source, and do it at a far lower cost than other hydrogen storage systems under consideration…
Japan quake may have shortened Earth days, moved axis
NASA shows topography of tsunami-damaged Japan city