Despite the vast evolutionary gulf between humans and the three-spined stickleback fish, the two species have adopted a common genetic strategy to acquire the skin pigmentation that helps each species thrive in new environments.
Considered "transitional"a generation ago, milk and egg allergies now appear to be more persistent and harder to outgrow, according to new research. In what are believed to be the largest studies to date of children with milk and egg allergies, researchers followed more than 800 patients with milk allergy and nearly 900 with egg allergy over 13 years, finding that, contrary to popular belief, most of these allergies persist well into the school years and beyond.
Advances in fuel desulfurization and reforming lead to a successful demonstration of a portable fuel cell system using JP-8 military jet fuel. Portable fuel cell power units are quieter, more efficient and have lower emissions than standard diesel generators, but are challenged when used with JP-8 fuel because of its sulfur content. The fuel desulfurization and reforming systems developed at PNNL reduce the sulfur content of JP-8 and generate a hydrogen stream compatible with an integrated fuel cell.
Telmisartan, a drug widely used to help control blood pressure, may have uniquely potent activity in preventing stroke, according to a new study conducted in an animal model.
As a step towards designing tomorrow's super-fast optical communications networks, scientists have demonstrated a way to transfer encoded information from a laser beam to sound waves and then back to light waves again.
An independent panel convened this week by the NIH found that fewer than half of individuals experiencing fecal or urinary incontinence -- the inability to control bowel movements or urination, respectively -- report their symptoms to healthcare providers without being prompted. The secrecy and distress surrounding these issues erode the quality of life for millions, and hamper scientific understanding and development of prevention and treatment strategies.
The transition from apes to humans may have been partially triggered by the need to stand on two legs, in order to safely carry heavier babies. For safety, all nonhuman primates carry their young clinging to their fur from birth, and species survival depends on it. The carrying pattern changes as the infant grows.
Investigators have identified two new targets for drugs aimed at controlling lupus. If companies are able to develop drugs that hone in on these targets, patients may be able to control their disease with few side effects. Because abnormally high levels of interferon-alpha can lead to lupus, researchers have developed drugs that block interferon. These drugs, however, have immunosuppressive side effects that can leave patients vulnerable to various illnesses and infections, some of which can be deadly.
NIST has developed an imaging system that quickly maps the mechanical properties of materials -- how stiff or stretchy they are, for example -- at scales on the order of billionths of a meter. The new tool can be a cost-effective way to design and characterize mixed nanoscale materials such as composites or thin-film structures.
A preliminary study suggests that combining a medication currently used to treat multiple sclerosis with an antibiotic may slow the progress of the disease, according to a new article. The most common type is relapsing-remitting MS, in which patients experience attacks of symptoms such as muscle weakness and spasms followed by periods of symptom-free remission.
New software is helping NASA find safe places for the Spirit rover to ride out future Martian winters -- and also plan where Spirit and its companion rover, Opportunity, will explore in the future. The steep Martian mesa dubbed "Von Braun"would be a safe haven, the software and data analysis determined -- but the path that Spirit would have to follow to get there is a little too risky to travel with winter on the way.
The outcome of the United Nations Climate Change Convention in Bali, Indonesia was that 187 countries agreed to launch a two-year process of formal negotiations on strengthening international efforts to fight, mitigate and adapt to the problem of global warming. After almost two weeks of marathon discussions, delegates have agreed on both the agenda for the negotiations and a 2009 deadline for completing them so that a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions can enter into effect in 2013.
Separating out particular kinds of cells from a sample could become faster, cheaper and easier thanks to a new system developed by MIT researchers that involves levitating the cells with light. The system, which can sort up to 10,000 cells on a conventional glass microscope slide, could enable a variety of biological research projects that might not have been feasible before, its inventors say. It could also find applications in clinical testing and diagnosis, genetic screening and cloning research, all of which require the selection of cells with particular characteristics for further testing.
A combination of a "targeted"therapy and chemotherapy shrank metastatic brain tumors by at least 50 percent in one-fifth of patients with aggressive HER2-positive breast cancer. Up to one-third of women with advanced, HER-2-positive breast cancer may develop metastases to the brain.
