Astronomers have made the best ever determination of the power of a supernova explosion that was visible from Earth long ago using X-ray observations of a supernova remnant and optical observations of the expanding light echoes from the explosion. These results establish the validity of an important new method for studying supernovas.
Better understanding of Parkinson's disease onset during aging is important for improving diagnostics and developing strategies for therapeutic intervention. Scientists have now identified genes and processes that may underlie what makes some people more susceptible to this disease.
Oceangoing sailing rafts plied the waters of the equatorial Pacific long before Europeans arrived in the Americas, and carried trade goods for thousands of miles all the way from modern-day Chile to western Mexico, according to new findings by MIT researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
Demand for stem cells from cord blood is greater than supply. Two senior doctors analyze the UK's growing cord blood banking industry and the potential impact of a new bank that provides blood for both personal and public use. One private cord blood bank will store 20% of a sample for private use and 80% for public use.
Logistics is a key part of life. Nutrition, tools and information constantly have to be transported from one place to another in cells. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces have now discovered how molecular motors transport cargo in cells. Two competing teams of motors pull in opposite directions, like in a tug-of-war contest. The winning team determines the direction of transport after the competition.
A new study in the Journal of School Health reveals that children with healthy diets perform better in school than children with unhealthy diets. Students with an increased fruit and vegetable intake and less caloric intake from fat were significantly less likely to fail the literacy assessment.
Based on a close look at the everyday eating habits of a large group of men and women, researchers have found that people whose diets were most similar to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans were least likely to have metabolic syndrome. For the study, metabolic syndrome was defined as a condition occurring among people who have at least three of the following health risks: abdominal obesity, poor blood sugar control, high blood fats, low levels of HDL "good" cholesterol, and high blood pressure.
Radiofrequency ablation -- an interventional treatment that "cooks" and kills lung cancer tumors with heat -- greatly improves survival time from primary or metastatic inoperable lung tumors, according to a new study. These survival results are similar to surgical results from other studies, but the interventional treatment is less invasive and has far fewer side effects and less recovery time.
The dramatic increase that has occurred in the cure rate for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia will be difficult to replicate in older patients without considerable additional research, according to a new article. Research aimed at understanding the success in treating pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia combined with molecular science could help clinicians treat adolescents and adults with the disease.
When an individual is challenged by a virus, a bacterium or any other infectious agent, several classes of white blood cells are being activated in order to fight the invasion. One particular important class of white blood cells are the so-called T lymphocytes. These cells originate in the bone marrow and mature in the thymus, hence called 'T' cells. Once matured, these cells circulate as naïve T cells throughout the body in an inactive form.
To a patient recovering from severe burns, no place would be more soothing than a polar landscape of gently falling snowflakes, snowmen, penguins, igloos and icy rivers. That's the thinking behind SnowWorld, an interactive, virtual-reality video game being used to manage pain felt by burn patients during wound care and physical therapy.
Electrical engineers are developing an on-chip imaging sensor with small pixels and 12,616 mini-optic lenses that are created as part of the semiconductor manufacturing process. Used in a digital camera, these lenses will record overlapping views of the scene, creating an electronic "depth map" as well as a photograph. Downloaded to a computer, the map can be used in many ways. The camera technology produces a "depth map" of a scene. The possible uses range from facial recognition to 'in vivo' biological imaging.
The virus responsible for most cases of cervical cancer has a serious weakness which may provide hope for new treatments for the disease. Human Papillomavirus (HPV), a virus which causes several types of cancer but is particularly associated with cervical cancer, has developed clever ways of hiding in the body, but researchers have found that its ability to trick the body's first line of defense leaves it vulnerable to attack from a second defense system.
