New research from the University of Glasgow suggests that lifespan is affected by the rate at which bodies grow early in life: manipulating growth rates in stickleback fish can extend their lifespan by nearly a third or reduce it by 15 percent.
A team from the University’s Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine altered the growth rate of 240 fish by exposing… read more
Nanoparticles carrying a toxin found in bee venom can destroy human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while leaving surrounding cells unharmed, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown.
The finding is an important step toward developing a vaginal gel that may prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.“Our hope is that in places where HIV is running rampant, people… read more
Apple was granted a patent for a head-mounted display apparatus on Tuesday.
Titled “Peripheral treatment for head-mounted displays,” it describes how images could be projected to generate a peripheral display that would create “an enhanced viewing experience” for the user.
Apple calls its implementation a head-mounted display (HMD) rather than a head-up display (HUD), and it’s designed to display video information in front of one’s eyes.… read more
Salk Institute for Biological Studies researchers have shared a how-to secret for biologists: code for Amazon Cloud that significantly reduces the time necessary to process data-intensive microscopic images.
The method promises to speed research into the underlying causes of disease by making single-molecule microscopy of practical use for more laboratories.
“This is an extremely cost-effective way for labs to process super-resolution images,” says … read more
Bigelow Aerospace and NASA say they’ve agreed to look at ways for private ventures to contribute to human exploration missions, perhaps including construction of a moon base, but not asteroids and Mars, NBC News Cosmic Log reports.
The Moon ranks high among the targets that Bigelow Aerospace has in mind. The Nevada-based company has been working on moonbase concepts for years, including a… read more
New independent studies offer proof that confirms findings from the Council of Europe: pulsed digital signals from cell phones disrupt DNA, impair brain function, and lower sperm count, according to a statement by the Environmental Health Trust (EHT).
On May 23, a think-tank of experts organized by Gazi University and EHT convened at a workshop in Istanbul, Turkey, “Science Update:… read more
Scientists from Rice University, the Dutch firm Teijin Aramid, the U.S. Air Force, and Israel’s Technion Institute have unveiled a new carbon nanotube (CNT) fiber that looks and acts like textile thread and conducts electricity and heat like a metal wire.
In this week’s issue of Science, the researchers describe an industrially scalable process for making the threadlike fibers, which outperform commercially available high-performance materials… read more
Autism is thought to result from abnormal cell communication. Testing a new theory, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have used a newly discovered function of an old drug called suramin — used medically for the treatment of African sleeping sickness — to restore cell communications in a mouse model of autism, reversing symptoms of the devastating disorder.
The findings… read more
Some Medtronic insulin pumps are vulnerable to a hacking attack that could let someone break into the devices from 300 feet away, disable security alarms, acquire the serial number, and force them to dispense fatal insulin doses directly into diabetics’ bloodstreams, according to McAfee Inc. computer-security researcher Barnaby Jack.
Research from a consortium of academics in 2008 found that a popular pacemaker-defibrillator… read more
One in five American adults show signs of chronic sleep deprivation, making the condition a widespread public health problem. Sleeplessness is related to health issues such as obesity, cardiovascular problems, and memory problems.
New findings presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience Tuesday report the important role sleep plays, and the brain mechanisms at work as sleep shapes memory, learning, and behavior.
The findings show… read more
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have surgically implanted a pacemaker-like device into the brain of a patient in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, the first such operation in the United States.
The device, which provides deep brain stimulation and has been used in thousands of people with Parkinson’s disease, is seen as a possible means of boosting memory and reversing cognitive decline.
The… read more
Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics in China physicists have designed and built a remote-sensing “ghost imaging” device that uses a single pixel to record three-dimensional images, MIT Technology Review reports.
Ghost imaging is the extraordinary technique of bouncing a laser beam off an object and making high quality images from the reflected light using a single pixel. This single pixel is used to record data… read more
The first real-time brain-scanning speller will allow people in an apparent vegetative state (unable to speak or move) to communicate, according to Maastricht University scientists.
The new technology builds on earlier uses of fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) brain scans by Adrian Owen and colleagues to assess consciousness by enabling patients to answer yes and no questions. fMRI tracks brain activity by measuring blood flow.
“The work led me… read more
Google just sent out invitations to a “special event” in Kansas City on July 26 that is undoubtedly the launch of its much-anticipated fiber-to-the-home network, Gigaom reports.
Google announced plans to build the gigabit network back in February of 2010 and thousands of municipalities competed to be the future home of the planned network.
In March, it selected Kansas City as the… read more