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61 articles from ScienceDaily
Flipping the script on novel cancer therapy leads to insights into lupus
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 23:11
In the last decade, scientists discovered that blocking a key regulator of the immune system helped unleash the body's natural defenses against several forms of cancer, opening up a new era of cancer immunotherapy. Now scientists have essentially flipped this script and found that when impaired a molecularly similar regulator can cause the damaging immune system attacks on skin and organs that are...
Take long naps? Sleep more than nine hours a night? Your stroke risk may be higher
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 23:11
People who take long naps during the day or sleep nine or more hours at night may have an increased risk of stroke, according to a new study.
Paleontology: Experiments in evolution
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:57
A new find from Patagonia sheds light on the evolution of large predatory dinosaurs. Features of the 8-m long specimen from the Middle Jurassic suggest that it records a phase of rapid diversification and evolutionary experimentation.
First mathematical proof for key law of turbulence in fluid mechanics
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:57
Turbulence is one of the least understood phenomena of the physical world. Long considered too hard to understand and predict mathematically, turbulence is the reason the Navier-Stokes equations, which describe how fluids flow, are so hard to solve that there is a million-dollar reward for anyone who can prove them mathematically. But now, mathematicians have broken through the barrier and...
Research confirms timing of tropical glacier melt at the end of the last ice age
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:56
Findings on ice retreat across the global tropics clarifies how the low latitudes transformed during the end of the last ice age and can help current-day predictions of our own climate future.
Focus on food security and sustainability
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:56
The number of malnourished people is increasing worldwide. More than two billion people suffer from a lack of micronutrients. Infant mortality rates are unacceptably high. Against this background, there is a need for the global pooling of research efforts, more research funding and an international body for food security and agriculture that prepares policy decisions.
State of shock: 200-year-old law about gas mixtures called into question
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:56
According to a new study led by a team from The University of New Mexico, centuries-old laws about the behavior of gas mixtures do not apply in the presence of shock waves. This finding could have potential impact on everything that involves mixtures of gases exposed to a shock wave, for example, during combustion in an engine.
Mountain goats' air conditioning is failing, study says
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:56
A new study says Glacier National Park's iconic mountain goats are in dire need of 'air conditioning.'
Teams of microbes are at work in our bodies. Here's how to figure out what they're doing
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:56
An algorithm akin to the annoyingly helpful one that attempts to auto-complete text messages and emails is now being harnessed for a better cause. A group of researchers are using its pattern-recognition ability to identify microbial communities in the body by sifting through volumes of genetic code. Their method could speed the development of medical treatments for microbiota-linked ailments like...
Azteca ant colonies move the same way leopards' spots form
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:56
What could Azteca ants in coffee farms in Mexico have in common with leopards' spots and zebras' stripes?
Earth was stressed before dinosaur extinction
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:56
By measuring the chemistry of fossilized seashells collected in Antarctica, researchers discovered that Earth was already experiencing carbon cycle instability before the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.
Researchers discover brain circuit linked to food impulsivity
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:56
A team of researchers has now identified a specific circuit in the brain that alters food impulsivity.
A new early whale, Aegicetus gehennae, and the evolution of modern whale locomotion
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:56
A newly discovered fossil whale represents a new species and an important step in the evolution of whale locomotion.
New human autoinflammatory disease
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:56
Scientists from Australia and the US have discovered and identified the genetic cause of a previously unknown human autoinflammatory disease. The researchers determined that the autoinflammatory disease, which they termed CRIA (cleavage-resistant RIPK1-induced autoinflammatory) syndrome, is caused by a mutation in a critical cell death component called RIPK1. The discovery suggests that compounds...
New material design tops carbon-capture from wet flue gases
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:56
Chemical engineers have designed a material that can capture carbon dioxide from wet flue gasses better than current commercial materials.
New technique to determine protein structures may solve biomedical puzzles
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:56
Researchers have now demonstrated a powerful 'experimental evolution' method to discover details of protein shape and function, and the method may find uses across a very broad spectrum of biomedical research.
Cheers! Maxwell's electromagnetism extended to smaller scales
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:56
More than one hundred and fifty years have passed since the publication of James Clerk Maxwell's "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" (1865). What would our lives be without this publication? It is difficult to imagine, as this treatise revolutionized our fundamental understanding of electric fields, magnetic fields, and light. The twenty original equations (nowadays elegantly reduced...
Scrubbing carbon dioxide from smokestacks for cleaner industrial emissions
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:56
Chemistry researchers have uncovered a better way to scrub carbon dioxide from smokestack emissions, which could be a key to mitigating global climate change.
Immune outposts inside kidney tumors predict post-surgery outcomes
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:56
Patients with well-supported immune cells in their tumors are more likely to control their cancers' growth for a longer time, an observation that could guide treatment decisions after surgery for kidney cancer. In addition, the findings could help researchers expand the dramatic but sparse benefits of cancer immunotherapy to more people.
Heat energy leaps through empty space, thanks to quantum weirdness
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:56
A surprising new study shows that heat energy can leap across a few hundred nanometers of a complete vacuum, thanks to a quantum mechanical phenomenon called the Casimir interaction. Though this interaction is only significant on very short length scales, it could have profound implications for the design of computer chips and other nanoscale electronic components where heat dissipation is key,...
Virtual reality and drones help to predict and protect koala habitat
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:55
Researchers have used a combination of virtual reality (VR), aerial thermal-imaging and ground surveys to build a better statistical model for predicting the location of koalas and, ultimately, protecting their habitat.
A digital approach to proteins and cancer
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:55
What if scientists could create more effective drugs to treat cancers and other diseases by better targeting specific sites on proteins in the body?
Mechanisms help pancreatic cancer cells avert starvation
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:49
A new study reveals the mechanism that helps pancreatic cancer cells avoid starvation within dense tumors by hijacking a process that pulls nutrients in from their surroundings.
Safer viruses for vaccine research and diagnosis
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 20:47
A new technology to produce safer 'hybrid' viruses at high volumes for use in vaccines and diagnostics for mosquito-borne diseases has been developed.
Tropical flower offers potential new route for treating pancreatic cancer
- ScienceDaily
- 19/12/11 18:19
An international team of scientists have made drug-like molecules inspired by a chemical found in a tropical flower, that they hope could in the future help to treat deadly pancreatic cancer.