feed info

168,089 articles from ScienceDaily

Scientists offer solutions to arsenic groundwater poisoning in southern Asia

About 60 million people in Bangladesh are exposed to unsafe levels of arsenic in their drinking water, dramatically raising their risk for cancer and other serious diseases. Because most of the contaminated water is near the surface, many Bangladeshis have installed deep wells to tap into groundwater relatively free of arsenic. But now, farmers are using the deep aquifers for irrigation, which...

Flu doesn't die out, it hides out

Every autumn, as predictably as falling leaves, flu season descends upon us. Every spring, just as predictably, the season comes to a close. This cyclical pattern, common in temperate regions, is well known, but the driving forces behind it have been in question.

Solar panels can attract breeding water insects ... but scientists propose a simple fix

Solar power might be nature's most plentiful and benign source of energy, but shiny dark solar cells can lure water insects away from critical breeding areas, scientists warn. Applying white grids or other methods to break up the polarized reflection of light, however, makes mayflies and other aquatic insects far less likely to deposit eggs on the panels thinking that they are water, the group...

Virulent new strains of Ug99 stem rust, a deadly wheat pathogen

Four new mutations of Ug99, a strain of a deadly wheat pathogen known as stem rust, have overcome existing sources of genetic resistance developed to safeguard the world's wheat crop. Leading wheat experts say the evolving pathogen may pose an even greater threat to global wheat production than the original...

New bacterial signaling molecule could lead to improved vaccines

In a 20-year quest to determine why Listeria bacteria produce a uniquely strong immune response in humans, scientists have found part of the answer: an unsuspected signaling molecule that the bacteria pump out and which ramps up production of interferon by the host. Interferon mobilizes the immune system to fight off bacteria and viruses. According to researchers, the finding could help improve...

Scaffold gradients: Finding the right environment for developing cells

A research team has developed a way to offer cells a 3-D scaffold that varies over a broad range of degrees of stiffness to determine where they develop best. Their technique is a way to rapidly optimize 3-D cell growth media to meet the developmental needs of specific cell types for a wide variety of potential tissue-replacement...

New weapon against highly resistant microbes within grasp

An active compound from fungi and lower animals may well be suitable as an effective weapon against dangerous bacteria. We're talking about plectasin, a small protein molecule that can even destroy highly resistant bacteria. Researchers have shed light on how the substance does this. The authors see plectasin as a promising lead compound for new...

Novel therapeutic approach shows promise against multiple bacterial pathogens

A team of scientists from government, academia and private industry has developed a novel treatment that protects mice from infection with the bacterium that causes tularemia, a highly infectious disease of rodents, sometimes transmitted to people, and also known as rabbit fever. In additional experiments with human immune cells, the treatment also demonstrated protection against three other types...

Optical Legos: Building nanoshell structures

Scientists have created a way to use light-activated nanoshells as building blocks for 2-D and 3-D structures that could be useful for making chemical sensors, nanolasers and bizarre light-absorbing metamaterials. Much as a child might use Lego blocks to build 3-D models of complex buildings or vehicles, the scientists are using the new chemical self-assembly method to build complex structures...

Advances made in walking, running robots

Researchers have made an important fundamental advance in robotics, in work that should lead toward robots that not only can walk and run effectively, but use little energy in the process. By achieving an optimal approach with robotic mechanisms, studies are moving closer to robots that could take on dangerous missions in the military, create prosthetic limbs for humans that work much better, or...


THURSDAY 27. MAY 2010


Racial bias clouds ability to feel others' pain, study shows

When people witness or imagine the pain of another person, their nervous system responds in essentially the same way it would if they were feeling that pain themselves. Now, researchers have new evidence to show that that kind of empathy is diminished when people (black or white) who hold racial biases see that pain is being inflicted on those of another...

Compulsive behavior in mice cured by bone marrow transplant

Scientists earlier found that mice missing one of a group of core developmental genes known as the Hox genes developed an odd and rather unexpected pathology: the mutant animals groomed themselves compulsively to the point that they were removing their own hair and leaving self-inflicted open sores on their...