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168,132 articles from ScienceDaily

Closest Look Ever At Edge Of A Black Hole

Astronomers have taken the closest look ever at the giant black hole in the center of the Milky Way. By combining telescopes in Hawaii, Arizona, and California, they detected structure at a tiny angular scale of 37 micro-arcseconds -- the equivalent of a baseball seen on the surface of the moon, 240,000 miles distant. These observations are among the highest resolution ever done in...

Hearing Restoration May Be Possible With Cochlear Repair After Transplant Of Human Cord Blood Cells

Hearing loss due to cochlear damage may be repaired by transplanting human umbilical cord hematopoietic stem cells. This study, using animal models of chemical and auditory cochlear damage, found that when transplanted stem cells migrated to the damaged area, "surprisingly few" transplanted cells were necessary to help repair sensory hair cells and neurons. Researchers say transplanting umbilical...

Second Site For Prostate Cancer Gene Found

Scientists studying a prostate cancer gene called HNF1B have found a second independent site within the HNF1B gene on chromosome 17 (17q12) -- increasing the number of genetic variants that may contribute to risk of developing the disease.

Complex Ocean Behavior Studied With 'Artificial Upwelling'

A team of scientists is studying the complex ocean upwelling process by mimicking nature -- pumping cold, nutrient-rich water from deep within the Pacific Ocean and releasing it into surface waters near Hawaii that lack the nitrogen and phosphorous necessary to support high biological...

Participating In Religion May Make Adolescents From Certain Races More Depressed

One of the few studies to look at the effects of religious participation on the mental health of minorities suggests that for some of them, religion may actually be contributing to adolescent depression. Previous research has shown that teens who are active in religious services are depressed less often because it provides these adolescents with social support and a sense of...

Addicted To Tanning Beds? 'Tanorexia' Common Among University Students

A new study conducted at a large university finds more than 25 percent of those surveyed reported symptoms of tanning dependence, including symptoms similar to alcohol and drug-addicted individuals. Suggestively, the study also found those with a tanning dependence tend to be more likely to be thin and smoke cigarettes than...

Do 68 Molecules Hold The Key To Understanding Disease?

Why is it that the origins of many serious diseases remain a mystery?  In considering that question, a scientist at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has come up with a unified molecular view of the indivisible unit of life, the cell, which may provide an...

A Fine-tooth Comb To Measure The Accelerating Universe

Astronomical instruments needed to answer crucial questions, such as the search for Earth-like planets or the way the Universe expands, have come a step closer with the first demonstration at the telescope of a new calibration system for precise spectrographs. The method uses a Nobel Prize-winning technology called a "laser frequency comb," and is published in...

Astronomers Discover Missing Link For Origin Of Comets

Astronomers have found an unusual object whose backward and tilted orbit around the Sun may clarify the origins of certain comets. In the first discovery of its kind, researchers from Canada, France and the United States have discovered an object that orbits around the Sun backwards, and tilted at an angle of 104 degrees -- almost perpendicular to the orbits of the...

Child Safety Seats And Lap-and-shoulder Belts Effective In Preventing Serious Injury, Study Suggests

Study reveals that lap-and-shoulder seat belts perform as well as child safety seats in preventing serious injury. For young children, all states currently require the use of child safety seats, and the minimum age and weight requirements to graduate to seat belts has been increasing over time. A new study reveals that lap-and-shoulder seat belts perform as well as child safety seats in preventing...

Discovery Challenges Fundamental Tenet Of Cancer Biology

Yale researchers have identified an unusual molecular process in normal tissues that causes RNA molecules produced from separate genes to be clipped and stitched together. The discovery that these rearranged products exist in normal as well as cancerous cells potentially complicates the diagnosis of some cancers and raises the possibility that anti-cancer drugs like Gleevec could have predictable...

Eyeball Reflexes: Security and Biometrics That Cannot Be Spoofed

Electronic fingerprinting, iris scans, and signature recognition software are all becoming commonplace biometrics for user authentication and security. However, they all suffer from one major drawback -- they can be spoofed by a sufficiently sophisticated intruder. Researchers now describe a new approach based on a person's reflexes that could never be copied, forged, or...

Gaining A Better Understanding Of Kidney Diseases

By introducing a genetic switch in mice it is possible to increase or decrease the production of specific protein molecules in their kidneys. Thus, researchers can study the influence of specific proteins on disease development. This model of investigating severe kidney diseases was published in Nature...