The High Resolution Stereo Camera on board the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft has spotted evidence of flooding in a region on the south-western portion of Mars’ Tharsis bulge. The small-scale chaotic terrain is characterized by isolated blocks of surface material which, according to theory, were randomly arranged during the release of subsurface water and subsequent collapse of the surface.
Four engineering students have designed and built a remote-controlled robotic vehicle to find deadly land mines in rugged terrain and mark their location with a spray of paint. The prototype has been given to professional explosive detection researchers as a model for a low-cost robot that humanitarian groups and military troops could use to prevent mine-related deaths and injuries.
Exercise is more influential than calcium intake in determining bone strength in young women, a Penn State College of Medicine study suggests. ”Although calcium intake is often cited as the most important factor for healthy bones, our study suggests that exercise is really the predominant lifestyle determinant of bone strength in young women,” said Tom Lloyd, Ph.D., professor of health evaluation sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. ”There was only a small positive relationship between calcium intake and bone variables, but a significant association between sports exercise score and young adult bone mass and strength.”
Life today runs more and more on circuits. Electrons racing through increasingly tiny transistors now control our airplanes, deposit money in our checking accounts and keep our houses warm. But these miniature devices face an invisible enemy from outer space that can strike computer chips, miniaturized controls and other complex integrated circuits, spoiling the digital work that permeates 21st century human activity.
New health communication research shows that casual conversations in hospital hallways and waiting rooms poses a threat to the confidentiality of patients’ medical information. Research conducted at Purdue University by Maria Brann, assistant professor of communication studies at West Virginia University, and Marifran Mattson, associate professor of communication at Purdue, shows patient privacy is breached when hospital employees talk about patient cases in public areas, such as the cafeteria, or with people outside of work. The researchers’ paper appears in the spring issue of the journal Health Communication.
A substantial proportion of heart attack patients may be resistant to the blood thinner clopidogrel — and face an increased risk of recurrent blockages, researchers report. Researchers studied clopidogrel, a commonly used drug that helped prevent blood clotting in 60 patients, average age 58, who were treated with angioplasty and stenting after heart attacks.
Blood levels of two metals — lead and cadmium — may increase the risk of peripheral artery disease — even at levels currently considered safe, according to new research. The general public can be exposed to lead and cadmium through cigarette smoke, in ambient air near industrial and combustion sources, in certain foods and sometimes in drinking water. Peripheral artery disease or PAD affects 8 to 12 million Americans.
Although people age 65 and older account for 62 percent of patients with lung, colon, breast or prostate cancer, they make up only 32 percent of cancer research participants, Yale researchers report in the June 9 Journal of the American Medical Association. ”We found that cancer research participation varied significantly across sex and racial/ethnic groups as well as age,” said principal investigator Cary Gross, M.D., assistant professor of internal/general medicine at Yale School of Medicine. ”Enrollment in cancer trials is low for all patient groups, but the elderly, racial and ethnic minorities, and women were less likely to enroll in cooperative group cancer trials than were whites, men and younger patients.”
The sad irony of obesity in developing, food-starved nations has not gone unnoticed by scientists. In a new report, a University of Michigan researcher attempts to explain the odd co-existence of malnourishment and obesity by drawing comparisons to the yo-yo dieter syndrome, where the body compensates for starvation by storing fat for later. That both malnourishment and obesity exist simultaneously in developing populations seems counterintuitive, especially when the reasons for obesity in developing nations such as the United States are inactivity and excess fat intake. Those conditions, especially the latter, don’t exist in developing nations.
A new study indicates that postnatal exposure to thimerosal, a mercury preservative commonly used in a number of childhood vaccines, can lead to the development of autism-like damage in autoimmune disease susceptible mice. This animal model, the first to show that the administration of low-dose ethylmercury can lead to behavioral and neurological changes in the developing brain, reinforces previous studies showing that a genetic predisposition affects risk in combination with certain environmental triggers.
Heat turns colonial algae into hotties. When algae find themselves in hot water, the normally asexual organisms get all stressed out and turn sexual. Blame it on the free radicals, says a team of researchers. Colonies of the multicellular green alga Volvox carteri exposed to temperatures of 111 degrees Fahrenheit (42.5 degrees Celsius) had twice the amount of free radicals, oxidants that can damage biological structures, as unheated colonies. High levels of oxidants within their cells activated the algae’s sex-inducer gene, the researchers report.
Eric Drexler, known as the father of nanotechnology, Wednesday publishes a paper that admits that self-replicating machines are not vital for large-scale molecular manufacture, and that nanotechnology-based fabrication can be thoroughly non-biological and inherently safe. Talk of runaway self-replicating machines, or ”grey goo”, which he first cautioned against in his book Engines of Creation in 1986, has spurred fears that have long hampered rational public debate about nanotechnology. Writing in the Institute of Physics journal Nanotechnology, Drexler slays the myth that molecular manufacture must use dangerous self-replicating machines.
Cancer patients who suffer from a progressive, deep scarring of tissue following radiation treatment might benefit from a drug that’s FDA-approved to treat vascular disease, according to a University of Rochester study published in this month’s Journal of Clinical Oncology.