ScienceBlog.com

Excessive moisture can typically wreak havoc on electronic devices, but now researchers have demonstrated that a little water can help create ultra-dense storage systems for computers and electronics. A team of experimentalists and theorists at the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and Harvard University has proposed a new and surprisingly effective means of stabilizing and controlling ferroelectricity in nanostructures: terminating their surfaces with fragments of water.

Paleontologists at the Duke Lemur Center have assembled a new picture of a 35-million-year-old fossil mammal — and they even have added a hint of sound. By painstakingly measuring hundreds of specimens of a fossil mammal called Thyrohyrax, recovered from the famous fossil beds of Egypt’s Fayum Province, the researchers determined that males of this now-extinct species — and only males — had oversized, swollen lower jaws shaped much like a banana. Further, the team speculated, the animals may have used the balloonlike structural chamber that shaped their bizarre jaws to produce sound.

New research shows how topping up the levels of a hormone found in the gut could help reduce the appetite and increase activity in overweight and obese people. The study now being pre-published online in the International Journal of Obesity shows how the team from Imperial College London gave injections of oxyntomodulin to fifteen overweight but healthy volunteers from Hammersmith Hospital, and monitored how this affected their food intake, and levels of activity.

A new study, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Political Economy, calculates the prospective gains that could be obtained from further progress against major diseases. Kevin M. Murphy and Robert H. Topel, two University of Chicago researchers, estimate that even modest advancements against major diseases would have a significant impact – a 1 percent reduction in mortality from cancer has a value to Americans of nearly $500 billion. A cure for cancer would be worth about $50 trillion.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health measured levels of an antibacterial hand soap ingredient, triclocarban, as it passed through a wastewater treatment facility. They determined that approximately 75 percent of the ingredient washed down the drain by consumers persists during wastewater treatment and accumulates in municipal sludge, which later is used as fertilizer for crops.

When the number of uninsured goes up, so does the cost of health care for the rest of us. A report today showing an increase in the percentage of uninsured Americans will be fodder for the endless debate over health reform.

A genetic finding by researchers at the National Institutes of Health provides new insight into the cause of a series of related, common and complex illnesses – including hay fever and asthma as well as the skin disorders eczema and psoriasis – and suggests a novel therapeutic approach. These illnesses are essentially inflammatory disorders of the tissues that separate the inside of the body from the outside world, such as the skin and the linings of the throat and lungs.

Taking the “triple therapy” of aspirin, cholesterol drugs, and blood pressure drugs to prevent stroke also reduces stroke severity if one occurs, according to a new study published in the April 25, 2006, issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. People who were taking all three drugs had less severe strokes, had shorter hospital stays, and were better able to function when leaving the hospital than those who were taking one, two, or none of the three drugs.

The prototype of a revolutionary new type of vehicle only one metre wide specially designed for cities has been developed by a team of European scientists. The vehicle combines the safety of a micro-car and the manoeuvrability of a motorbike, while being more fuel-efficient and less polluting than other vehicles. The CLEVER (Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport) vehicle is a £1.5 million collaborative project which has involved nine European partners from industry and research, including the University of Bath

Katie Couric and horror-show fear-mongering by the news media and special interests are making people sick.

One billion miles per gallon — that’s how far a car could travel if it were powered by a typical black hole. Scientists with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory recently arrived at this estimate after determining black holes are the most fuel-efficient “engines” in the universe, a discovery that highlights a black hole’s economical performance and its benefits.

A promising new technique to ensure complete tumor removal at breast cancer excision is introduced in the May issue of Radiology. Researchers used light waves in a newly explored region of the electromagnetic spectrum–the terahertz region–to examine excised breast tissue and determine if the removed tissue margins were clear of cancer, with good results. This technology has the potential to eliminate the need for multiple surgeries and tissue samples to get clear surgical margins.

A device invented by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) to clean dust and microorganisms from the air of poultry houses may also help people escape during fires and make it easier for fire fighters to locate people in smoke-filled rooms.

The Binary Research Institute (BRI) has found that orbital characteristics of the recently discovered planetoid, “Sedna”, demonstrate the possibility that our sun might be part of a binary star system. A binary star system consists of two stars gravitationally bound orbiting a common center of mass. Once thought to be highly unusual, such systems are now considered to be common in the Milky Way galaxy.

As a book reviewer, I hit a triple yesterday. My review of The View from the Center of the Universe by cosmologist Joel R. Primack and his philosopher-of-science wife, Nancy Ellen Abrams, was published in different lengths in three major metropolitan newspapers.

I didn’t care for the book very much, but I could see that it would have strong appeal to a certain audience, including many readers of this blog.

Examples are piling up every week about the stealth of drug- and device-makers and the laziness of the news media in keeping important safety and pricing information from the consumer.

Today, the Wall Street Journal, in a blockbuster Page One report, examines our good friend the aspirin and how drug companies have enlisted prominent scientists and journals to argue that this virtually cost-free pill may not work as well for preventing heart disease as we all assumed. Instead, they suggest, costlier drugs and devices may be the answer.

Men may cringe at the idea, but sperm-producing stem cells found in testicles could be extracted, grown in the lab, and frozen for future use. A team in the Netherlands has successfully harvested spermatogonial stem cells from cows and cultured them inside mouse testes. The hope is that the same thing could be done for men.

A new human clinical trial will begin this month at several sites around the country testing both components of an HIV/AIDS vaccine developed by a team of researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University, GeoVax, Inc., and the Emory Vaccine Center, along with colleagues at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).