Astronomers have captured rare video of a meteor falling to Earth. The physics and astronomy department has a network of all-sky cameras in Southern Ontario that scan the sky monitoring for meteors. On March 5, 2008 cameras captured a video of a large fireball.
A powerful plant toxin, ricin, widely feared for its bioterrorism potential, may one day be tamed using findings about how the toxin attacks cells. Biotechnology researchers discovered that ricin tricks a cell into turning off a natural defense mechanism that destroys foreign proteins. The discovery allows scientists to explore ways to disarm ricin, and may also help them combat food poisoning episodes such as those caused by bacteria-tainted produce and ground meat.
Just picture the scene: you're at a cocktail party, talking to someone you would like to get to know better but the background noise is making it hard to concentrate. Luckily, humans are very gifted at listening to someone speaking while many other people are talking loudly at the same time. This so-called cocktail-party-phenomenon is based on the ability of the human auditory system to decompose the acoustic world into discrete objects of perception. Now researchers have a better understanding of how this occurs. Different speakers have different temporal fine structure in their voiced speech and such signals are represented in different areas of the auditory cortex according to this different time structure. This provides a new solution for the cocktail party problem whereby people are able to hear and understand their conversation partner at a party in spite of considerable background noise.
Scientists have identified which variations of a specific gene determine a patient's initial response to treatment with the blood-thinning (anticoagulant) drug warfarin. Researchers found that the gene VKORC1 plays a major role in determining a patient's initial sensitivity to warfarin treatment -- when dosage amounts are most critical to prevent clotting problems in patients.
Scientists have discovered an Antarctic fish species that adopts a winter survival strategy similar to hibernation. The Antarctic 'cod' Notothenia coriiceps effectively 'puts itself on ice' to survive the long Antarctic winter.
Whether you are a habitual list maker, or you prefer to keep your tasks in your head, everyone pursues their goals in this ever changing, chaotic environment. We are often aware of our conscious decisions that bring us closer to reaching our goals, however to what extent can we count on our unconscious processes to pilot us toward our destined future?
What makes you suddenly dart into the bakery when you spy chocolate-frosted donuts in the window, though you certainly hadn't planned on indulging? As you lick the frosting off your fingers, don't blame a lack of self-control. New research reveals how hunger works in the brain and the way neurons pull your strings to lunge for the sweet fried dough. The research demonstrates how our brain decides what to pay attention to in a world full of stimuli -- not just sweets.
Cavities or not, your teeth could be in more trouble than you know because of a silent and destructive phenomenon called dental erosion. Scientists have found that the incidence of dental erosion, which is the steady loss of the teeth's protective enamel, is on the rise in the United States.
A new gadget can identify weaknesses in structures ranging from massive bridge construction to the tiniest elements of nanotechnology no larger than a speck of dust on a pinhead. The deformation prediction instrument uses the technology of optical interferometry to make precise measurements that identify weak spots in a wide range of materials, including metals, plastics and other products.
Autophagy is a process by which a cell degrades its own components. In tumor cells, this mechanism is frequently initiated by anti-cancer therapy. It is not known why the cells respond by activating the catabolic process of autophagy. Researchers have now been able to show that blocking of autophagy makes cancer cells more sensitive to radiation therapy.
Hardware piracy, or making knock-off microchips based on stolen blueprints, is a burgeoning problem in the electronics industry. Computer engineers have devised a comprehensive way to head off this costly infringement: Each chip would have its own unique lock and key. The patent holder would hold the keys. The chip would securely communicate with the patent-holder to unlock itself, and it could operate only after being unlocked.
A new study illustrates the real potential for contamination of globally sourced foods and proposes a conceptual framework of supply chain quality management. Various quality problems have been associated with foods and ingredients imported from China. There exists limited capacity of current regulatory bodies to police product flows, including lack of enforcement by the FDA, according to the new research.
Butterflies and moths are well known for their striking metamorphosis from crawling caterpillars to winged adults. This radical change makes it seem unlikely that learned associations or memories formed at the larval or caterpillar stage could be accessible to the adult moth or butterfly. However, scientists have recently discovered that a moth can indeed remember what it learned as a caterpillar.
Researchers trying to improve cancer immune therapy have made an unexpected find: They've produced the most accurate mouse model to date of inflammatory bowel disease, a cluster of conditions that afflict approximately 1.4 million Americans with abdominal pain, constipation and diarrhea.
