Since the creation of the first working laser — a ruby model made in 1960 — scientists have fashioned these light sources from substances ranging from neon to sapphire. Silicon, however, was not considered a candidate. Its structure would not allow for the proper line-up of electrons needed to get this semiconductor to emit light. Now a trio of Brown University researchers, led by engineering and physics professor Jimmy Xu, has made the impossible possible.
A system that morphs brain images can significantly simplify a neurosurgical technique called deep brain stimulation (DBS) that is gaining popularity in the treatment of movement disorders, including tremor, rigidity, stiffness and slowed movement, caused by a variety of neurological conditions ranging Parkinson’s to dystonia to multiple sclerosis to obsessive-compulsive disease.
Those infected with HIV in the UK have one of the highest rates of resistance to anti-HIV drugs of anywhere in the world, prompting fears of a second wave epidemic of resistant virus, a new study claims in this week’s BMJ. The study authors are concerned that the large reductions in deaths and improvements to health since people with HIV were given combinations of drugs (combination antiretroviral therapy) may be compromised because of this.
Counting calories isn’t the best way to lose weight, according to a new Brigham Young University study that suggests that an approach toward food called “intuitive eating” is better at producing lower cholesterol levels, body mass index scores and cardiovascular disease risk.
In the new documentary “Storm That Drowned a City,” NOVA deconstructs the passage of events that led to Hurricane Katrina’s destruction, and exposes critical failures in preparation and engineering that brought about the worst disaster in U.S. history. The film examines the immense challenges posed by rebuilding New Orleans and other coastal areas, and whether the increase in these killer storms is due to global warming or just part of a natural cycle.
Surprisingly, people with mild depression are actually more tuned into the feelings of others than those who aren’t depressed, a team of Queen’s psychologists has discovered. “This was quite unexpected because we tend to think that the opposite is true,” says lead researcher Kate Harkness. “For example, people with depression are more likely to have problems in a number of social areas.”
A Qstudy of fruit flies that may revolutionize the way birth defects are studied has identified the genes affected by a widely prescribed drug known to cause birth defects. Methotrexate (MTX), a popular cancer-fighting drug also used to treat psoriasis, ectopic pregnancies, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus, lasts a long time in the body and causes birth defects in children from women who have it in their systems. The study of the drug’s effect on fruit flies has allowed Queen’s researchers including graduate student Joslynn Affleck to identify the genes on which the drug acts.
Each morning, Mian Abbas enters his laboratory and sits down to examine–a single mote of dust. Zen-like, he studies the same speck suspended inside a basketball-sized vacuum chamber for as long as 10 to 12 days. The microscopic object of his rapt attention is not just any old dust particle. It’s moondust. One by one, Abbas is measuring properties of individual dust grains returned by Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972 and the Russian Luna-24 sample-return spacecraft that landed on the Moon in 1976.
In a study involving more than 50 nursery school children, researchers found higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol in children whose mothers found their jobs less rewarding, or left them feeling emotionally exhausted, than those who reported more enjoyment from their jobs. Levels of cortisol in the evening were more than double in these children.
The entire bacterium is oriented like a compass needle inside the magnetic field. Until now, it was not clear how the cells organise magnetosomes into a stable chain, against their physical tendency to collapse by magnetic attraction. But using modern molecular-genetic and imaging processes, researchers from the Max Planck Institue for Marine Microbiology in Bremen and Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany have identified the protein responsible for creating the magnetosome chain.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Cell Engineering (ICE) have discovered a protein that could be the best new target in the fight against Parkinson’s disease since the brain-damaging condition was first tied to loss of the brain chemical dopamine. Over the past year, the gene for this protein, called LRRK2 (pronounced “lark-2”), had emerged as perhaps the most common genetic cause of both familial and unpredictable cases of Parkinson’s disease. Until now, however, no one knew for sure what the LRRK2 protein did in brain cells or whether interfering with it would be possible.
In an important discovery in infectious disease research, a team of scientists from Northwestern University has identified a possible viral cause of Kawasaki disease, the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children in developed nations. Since 1967 when Kawasaki disease was originally described, investigators have suspected an infectious cause, but, until now, none has been identified.
Help END suicide! It works, which is the only point!!
In answer to the question “What is your interest in suicide
prevention?”
on NCSPT’s web site {National Center for Suicide Prevention Training}: