Stanford
Quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of general relativity are both extremely accurate theories of how the universe works, but all attempts to combine the two into a unified theory have ended in failure.
STANFORD, Calif. -- The labeling information that comes with prescription drugs tells you what's known about the medication, but researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine think it's high time that the labeling tell you what isn't known.
Menlo Park, Calif. -- Water is familiar to everyone -- it shapes our bodies and our planet. But despite this abundance, the molecular structure of water has remained a mystery, with the substance exhibiting many strange properties that are still poorly understood.
STANFORD, Calif. -- The first few times that scientists mapped out all the DNA in a human being in 2001, each effort cost hundreds of millions of dollars and involved more than 250 people. Even last year, when the lowest reported cost was $250,000, genome sequencing still required almost 200 people. In a paper to be published online Aug.
Menlo Park, Calif. -- The Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory will receive $21.8 million in new funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
STANFORD, Calif. -- For the past eight years, scientists who wanted to use federal funds for research on human embryonic stem cells had to restrict their studies to 21 cell lines approved by the National Institutes of Health. But an analysis by a researcher at the Stanford University School of Medicine suggests that only two of those lines have been used routinely.
STANFORD, Calif. -- Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered, for the first time, a common molecular pathway that is used by both normal stem cells and cancer stem cells when they reproduce themselves.
STANFORD, Calif. -- Two common anti-influenza drugs -- Relenza and Tamiflu -- appear equally effective at preventing common flu symptoms when given before infection, say researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine.
SUMMARY: The target content of the global Open Access (OA) movement is the 2.5 million articles published yearly in the planet's 25,000 peer-reviewed journals. The natural and optimal locus to deposit these articles to make them OA is the author's institutional repository. That way deposit mandates from both institutions and research funders collaborate and converge, covering all research output. Unmandated central repositories are no more successful in getting themselves filled with their target content than unmandated institutional repositories. The critical variable is the mandate, not the repository's centrality or size. The denominator -- the total target content relative to which we are trying to calculate, for a given repository, what proportion of it is being deposited -- is far bigger for a central disciplinary repository than for an institutional repository.
(1) Repository size and "infrastructure" do not generate content.
(2) Empty repositories are useless.
(3) The only way to fill them is to mandate deposit.
(4) Not all or most research is funded.
(5) But all research originates from institutions.
(6) Institutions' interests are served by hosting and managing their own research assets.
(7) Hence both institutional and funder mandates should converge on institutional deposit.
(8) Any central collections can then be harvested from the global distributed of institutional repositories.
STANFORD, Calif. -- They're called "fruit flies" for a reason, and it sure isn't for lack of appetite. But like most animals, the pests typically lose their appetite when they get infected. We humans go them one better: Even when bug-free and hungry, some of us are tempted to do some serious fasting, in hopes of living longer, healthier lives.
STANFORD, Calif. -- Going out like a brilliant flame is one way to get attention. If physicians could watch tumor cells committing a form of programmed suicide called apoptosis, a desired effect of workhorse cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, they could more quickly pick the most effective treatment.
Wild sheep on the Scottish island of Hirta have been diminishing in size for over 20 years and now researchers have puzzled out why: it's the heat.
STANFORD, Calif. -- A molecule called telomerase, best known for enabling unlimited cell division of stem cells and cancer cells, has a surprising additional role in the expression of genes in an important stem cell regulatory pathway, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Thanks to a unique "ballistic study" that combines data from ESO's Very Large Telescope and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have now solved a long-standing mystery of the Milky Way's particle accelerators. They show in a paper published today on Science Express that cosmic rays from our galaxy are very efficiently accelerated in the remnants of exploded stars.
STANFORD, Calif. -- Comparative effectiveness research is generating buzz these days, with the recent economic stimulus package allocating $1.1 billion for these types of studies. But a researcher at the Stanford University School of Medicine is asking policymakers to take a step back and make sure that the plans for comparative effectiveness research go deep enough to make a difference.
