Waste coffee grounds offer new source of biodiesel fuel

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Researchers in Nevada are reporting that waste coffee grounds can provide a cheap, abundant, and environmentally friendly source of biodiesel fuel for powering cars and trucks. Their study has been published online in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication.

Wind, water and sun beat biofuels, nuclear and coal for clean energy, Stanford researcher says

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The best ways to improve energy security, mitigate global warming and reduce the number of deaths caused by air pollution are blowing in the wind and rippling in the water, not growing on prairies or glowing inside nuclear power plants, says Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford.

And "clean coal," which involves capturing carbon emissions and sequestering them in the earth, is not clean at all, he asserts.

Study first to show that RNA interference can facilitate vaccine development

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Athens, Ga. - Pharmaceutical companies and universities are racing to develop drugs that use the gene silencing mechanism known as RNA interference to treat a host of diseases. Now, a new study opens up an entirely new possibility for this powerful tool: Researchers at the University of Georgia have demonstrated for the first time that RNA interference can be used as a tool in the development of vaccines.

Scans show immune cells intercepting parasites

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St. Louis, December 10, 2008 — Researchers may have identified one of the body's earliest responses to a group of parasites that causes illness in developing nations.

In a paper published online in Public Library of Science Pathogens, scientists report that they tracked immune cells as they patrolled the second-shallowest layer of the skin in an animal model. Injections of a genetically modified form of the parasite Leishmania major caused the immune cells to turn from their patrols and move to intercept the parasites.

Asian students top latest global math, science study, report Boston College researchers

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CHESTNUT HILL, MA -- Students from Asian countries were top performers in math and science at both the fourth and eighth grade levels, according to the most recent reports of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), released by the study's directors Michael O. Martin and Ina V.S. Mullis of Boston College.

A special type of collagen may help protect the brain against Alzheimer's disease

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Dec 10, 2008 – Scientists from the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND), UCSF, and Stanford have discovered that a certain type of collagen, collagen VI, protects brain cells against amyloid-beta (Aβ ) proteins, which are widely thought to cause Alzheimer's disease (AD). While the functions of collagens in cartilage and muscle are well established, before this study it was unknown that collagen VI is made by neurons in the brain and that it can fulfill important neuroprotective functions.

Snowy owl -- a marine species?

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Wildlife satellite studies could lead to a radical re-thinking about how the snowy owl fits into the Northern ecosystem.

"Six of the adult females that we followed in a satellite study spent most of last winter far out on the Arctic sea ice," said Université Laval doctoral student Jean-Francois Therrien, who is working with Professor Gilles Gauthier as part of an International Polar Year (IPY) research project to better understand key indicator species of Canadian northern ecosystems.

CSHL researchers map changing epigenetic modifications that enable transposons to run amok

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Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – Much like cancer cells, plant cells grown for a long time outside of their normal milieu, in culture dishes, have highly unstable genomes. Changes in gene activity, or how genes are "expressed," help cells cope with challenging culture conditions but inadvertently also leave genes prone to mis-regulation by transposons -- bits of DNA that can jump around in the genome, inserting themselves into random genetic locations, often disrupting normal gene function and regulation.

UBC researchers discover gene mutation that causes eye cancer

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A University of British Columbia geneticist has discovered a gene mutation that can cause the most common eye cancer - uveal melanoma.

Catherine Van Raamsdonk, an assistant professor of medical genetics in the UBC Faculty of Medicine and a team of researchers, have discovered a genetic mutation in a gene called GNAQ that could be responsible for 45 per cent of the cases of uveal melanoma.

The findings, published today in Nature, will allow researchers to develop therapeutic interventions against some melanomas.

First functional stem-cell niche model created by Stanford scientists

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STANFORD, Calif. — Like it or not, your living room probably says a lot about you. Given a few uninterrupted moments to poke around, a stranger could probably get a pretty good idea of your likes and dislikes, and maybe even your future plans. Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine employing a similar "peeping Tom" tactic to learn more about how stem cells develop have taken a significant step forward by devising a way to recreate the cells' lair — a microenvironment called a niche — in an adult animal.