Researchers have found that, although tuatara have remained largely physically unchanged over very long periods of evolution, they are evolving -- at a DNA level -- faster than any other animal yet examined.
A bodysuit that heats or cools a patient, combined with painless measurements of eye movements, is providing multiple sclerosis researchers with a new tool to study the mysterious link between body temperature and severity of MS symptoms.
The ubiquity of tiny particles of minerals -- mineral nanoparticles -- in oceans and rivers, atmosphere and soils, and in living cells are providing scientists with new ways of understanding Earth's workings. Our planet's physical, chemical, and biological processes are influenced or driven by the properties of these minerals.
Athletes who risk their careers by taking banned growth hormone to improve performance may not be getting the benefits they'd anticipated, according to a new analysis. Researchers pooled data from previous studies in an attempt to summarize what's known about growth hormone's effects on athletic performance.
An MIT materials scientist's research on sea snails has helped transform battery technology and may end the era when cell phones die if they're dropped and PDAs must be replaced if they get dunked in the tub. Thanks to those sea snails and a eureka moment a professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering is developing smart nano-materials -- hybrids of organic and inorganic components -- beginning with a rechargeable, biologically based battery that looks like plastic food wrap.
Parents concerned about their teens' involvement in risky and criminal behavior have traditionally involved their kids in sports, church and community activities. Do those activities really help prevent risky behaviors in youth? And do the activities affect boys and girls differently? New research in Crime &Delinquency studies those questions, helping parents and youth workers design effective delinquency prevention plans.
Using visible and infrared data collected from telescopes on Hawaii's Mauna Kea, astronomers have identified three asteroids that appear to be among our solar system's oldest objects.
A small RNA molecule, known as let-7 microRNA (miRNA), substantially reduced cancer growth in multiple mouse models of lung cancer. This new work demonstrates that let-7 inhibits the growth of lung cancer cells in culture and in lung tumors in mice. They also showed that let-7 can be applied as an intranasal drug to reduce tumor formation in a RAS mouse model lung cancer.
Recent research has demonstrated that thin films made of "metamaterials" -- manmade composites engineered to offer strange combinations of electromagnetic properties -- can greatly reduce the size of resonating circuits that generate microwaves, potentially enabling even smaller cell phones and other microwave devices.
Individuals with a number of life-threatening genetic diseases of the immune system have been successfully treated by gene therapy -- that is, they were infused with early precursors of immune cells that had the correct form of the defective gene delivered into them by agents known as retroviral vectors. However, some patients later developed leukemia.
The first 3-D images that disclose a double membrane surrounding mycobacteria have been recorded, ending a long scientific debate about the mycobacterial outer membrane and opening new pathways to improve the development of chemotherapeutic substances against tuberculosis.
Wesley Autrey, a black construction worker, a Navy veteran and 55-year-old father of two, didn't know the young man standing beside him. But when he had a seizure on the subway platform and toppled onto the tracks, Autrey jumped down after him and shielded him with his body as a train bore down on them. Autrey could have died, so why did he put his life on the line -- literally -- to save this complete stranger?
Major floods striking America's heartland in mid-March offer a preview of the spring seasonal outlook, according to NOAA's National Weather Service. Several factors will contribute to above-average flood conditions, including record rainfall in some states and snow packs, which are melting and causing rivers and streams to crest over their banks. The week of March 15, more than 250 communities in a dozen states are experiencing flood conditions.
Among the approximately 23,000 genes in human DNA, scientists estimate that there may be as few as 50 to 100 that have no counterparts in other species. Little is known about the distinctive contributions these genes likely make to our species. Now scientists have produced the first detailed analysis of the cellular functions of a gene found only in humans and primate relatives known as hominoids.
