Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is emitted in great quantities as bubbles from seeps on the ocean floor near Santa Barbara. About half of these bubbles dissolve into the ocean, but the fate of this dissolved methane remains uncertain. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara have discovered that only one percent of this dissolved methane escapes into the air -- good news for the Earth's atmosphere.
EDITOR'S PICK: You can teach an old dog new tricks: antimalarial prevents cancer in mice
Not all individuals who have epilepsy respond to traditional treatments and these individuals are said to have medically refractory epilepsy.
Strict use of a ketogenic diet high in fats and extremely low in carbohydrates is sometimes used for treatment of refractory epilepsy, and is effective about half of the time. However, the mechanisms whereby ketogenic diets suppress epileptic symptoms have long been a mystery.
New data generated by a team of researchers from St Jude Childrens Research Hospital, Memphis, and Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, have indicated that the antimalarial drug chloroquine effectively prevents cancer in mouse models of two distinct human cancer syndromes, Burkitt lymphoma and ataxia telangiectasia. As discussed in the accompanying commentary by Chi Dang, from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, these results complement an old epidemiology study suggesting that malarial prophylaxis with chloroquine diminished the incidence of Burkitt lymphoma.
Friday, December 21, 2007 Today researchers report new insights into how genetic variation may create phenotypic differences between individuals. This study, which investigates the influence of mutations associated with obesity on the mechanism of splicing, is published online in Genome Research (www.genome.org).
December 20, 2007 In one of the largest studies of its kind, researchers from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health assessed the risk of exposure to bloodborne pathogens among non-hospital based registered nurses (RNs), and found that nearly one out of 10 of the more than 1100 nurse participants reported at least one needlestick injury in the previous 12 months. Findings of the study are published in the December issue of Industrial Health.
Blacksburg, Va. New research, led by a Virginia Tech chemist, may someday help natural-products chemists decrease by years the amount of time it takes for the development of certain types of medicinal drugs. The research by T. Daniel Crawford, associate professor of chemistry, involves computations of optical rotation angles on chiral—non-superimposable—molecules. The research titled, The Current State of Ab Initio Calculations of Optical Rotation and Electronic Circular Dichcoism Spectra, appeared recently as the cover article in The Journal of Physical Chemistry A.
Severe muscle weakness caused by myasthenia gravis a highly debilitating autoimmune disorder can be prevented or reversed by blocking a key step in the immune response that brings on the disease, researchers at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine have found.
Myasthenia gravis, which affects about 120,000 Americans, is caused when the immune system produces antibodies that attack and damage acetylcholine receptors, which are mechanisms that play a key role in transmitting the electrical impulses that cause muscles to move and contract.
(Chestnut Hill, Mass.) December 20, 2007 -- A team of Boston College researchers led by Asst. Prof. Vidya Madhavan (Physics) has identified an alternative explanation for the microscopic origins of the glue that binds electrons during high-temperature superconductivity, according to results published in the December 13 edition of the scientific journal Nature.
HOBOKEN, N.J. — The Center for Maritime Systems at Stevens Institute of Technology recently acquired three pieces of advanced research equipment through a $522,450 grant from the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP). The first piece of equipment, the Computerized Numerically Controlled (CNC) machine, was installed on Thursday, December 6, 2007, and will be used for constructing ship models, appendages and other hydrodynamic research equipment.
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