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Polyphosphate from blood platelets plays a key role in inflammation and the formation of blood clots, scientists from Karolinska Institutet have shown. The study, which is presented in the prestigious scientific journal Cell, describes how this mechanism can be used in treatment. Blood clots are a common cause of myocardial infarction and stroke, and they arise when blood coagulates and clogs a blood vessel.

The geologic conditions that very nearly annihilated life 250 million years ago are still killing people today. Parts of Xuan Wei County in Yunnan Province in China have the world"€ s highest known death rates from lung cancer in non-smoking women. For thirty years the region, which uses locally mined coal for domestic cooking and heating, has been the focus of intense scientific research to establish a cause.

Schoolchildren at the Pueblo of Jemez get hands-on learning at a geothermal well during a recent Earth Day event. The well may be used for power or warmth. Los Alamos National Laboratory is providing technical assistance in the project thanks to funding from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered a mechanism that controls the brain's ability to create lasting memories. In experiments on genetically manipulated mice, they were able to switch on and off the animals' ability to form lasting memories by adding a substance to their drinking water.

Cambridge, Mass. November 4, 2009 - Physicists at Harvard University have created a quantum gas microscope that can be used to observe single atoms at temperatures so low the particles follow the rules of quantum mechanics, behaving in bizarre ways. The work, published this week in the journal Nature, represents the first time scientists have detected single atoms in a crystalline structure made solely of light, called a Bose Hubbard optical lattice.

Advances in experimental techniques and supercomputer performance, culminating with Roadrunner, have reduced the gap between experiment and simulation Los Alamos, New Mexico, October 30, 2009—The long-established and reliable SPaSM (Scalable Parallel Short-range Molecular dynamics) code, adapted to run on the world's fastest supercomputer, Roadrunner, is being used to study the physics of how materials break up, called "spall," and how pieces fly off, called "ejecta," from thin sheets of copper as shock waves force the material break apart at the atomic scale.

PHILADELPHIA – Born with a retinal disease that made him legally blind, and would eventually leave him totally sightless, the nine-year-old boy used to sit in the back of the classroom, relying on the large print on an electronic screen and assisted by teacher aides. Now, after a single injection of genes that produce light-sensitive pigments in the back of his eye, he sits in front with classmates and participates in class without extra help.

Scientists at the University of Sheffield have made an exciting breakthrough in the control of the movement of single molecules. The findings represent a significant step forward in the field of molecular nanotechnology, which requires such control to achieve self-assembling nano-machines. This could potentially lead to the development of a method to send artificial drugs to their targets, or the creation of self-healing structures which could naturally repair tears in a surface.

High-energy heavy ion collisions, which are studied at RHIC in Brookhaven and soon at the LHC in Geneva, can be a source of light flashes of a few yoctoseconds duration (a septillionth of a second, 10-24 s, ys) - the time that light needs to traverse an atomic nucleus. This is shown in calculations of the light emission of so-called quark-gluon plasmas, which are created in such collisions for extremely short periods of time.

PA 253/09 Scientists at The University of Nottingham have overcome one of the significant research challenges facing electrochemists. For the first time they have found a way of probing right into the heart of an electrochemical reaction. Their breakthrough will help scientists understand how catalysts work.

BERKELEY — A new way to select and switch on one cell type in an organism using light has helped answer a long-standing question about the function of one class of enigmatic nerve cells in the spinal cord. Through targeted insertion of light-sensitive switches into these cells in awake zebrafish larvae, University of California, Berkeley, and UC San Francisco scientists have found that these mysterious cells trigger burst swimming – the periodic tail twitching typical of larvae.

Genes that regulate the energy consumption of cells have a different structure and expression in type II diabetics than they do in healthy people, according to a new study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet published in Cell Metabolism. The researchers believe that these epigenetic modifications might have a key part to play in the development of the disease.

A new method for "recycling" hydrogen-containing fuel materials could open the door to economically viable hydrogen-based vehicles. Economical hydrogen-based vehicles could result from rechargeable 'chemical fuel tank' Ammonia borane (AB) is a potential hydrogen releasing fuel. In this Los Alamos National Laboratory graphic, the AB would be used on-board the vehicle to run a fuel cell.

Cambridge, Mass. August 27, 2009 - In a vivid illustration of natural selection at work, scientists at Harvard University have found that deer mice living in Nebraska's Sand Hills quickly evolved lighter coloration after glaciers deposited sand dunes atop what had been much darker soil. The work is described this week in the journal Science.

Researchers from Uppsala University and the Karolinska Institutet have found major genetic differences between the human variants of the intestinal parasite Giardia intestinalis. Sequencing of the genomes using the latest technologies shows that people are infected by two different Giardia species, according to a study published in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

Saturn's moon shows evidence of ammonia 22 July 2009 Data collected during two close flybys of Saturn's moon Enceladus by Cassini add more fuel to the fire about the icy world containing sub-surface liquid water. The results, based on data collected by Cassini's Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer during Enceladus flybys in July and October 2008, will be published in tomorrow's issue of the journal Nature.

July 14, 2009 — Coral Gables — Why Reinforcing Concrete Columns with Internal Bars Made of Glass Fibers Can Make a Building More Sturdy The University of Miami, through its NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center RB2C performed the first-ever tests of full-scale concrete columns internally reinforced with glass fiber reinforced polymer bars.

Cassini finding hints at ocean within Saturn's moon Enceladus 24 June 2009 European scientists on the joint NASA/ESA Cassini mission have detected, for the first time, sodium salts in ice grains of Saturn's E-ring, which is primarily replenished by material from the plumes of water vapour and ice grains emitted by Saturn's moon Enceladus.

A University of Plymouth lecturer is the lead author of a prestigious new Royal Society publication examining the effects of plastics on the environment and human health. Richard Thompson, who is one of the foremost researchers on this topical subject, was chosen to edit the 180 page special issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B which is published online today pending hard copy publication towards the end of the summer.

Cambridge, Mass. June 4, 2009 - By applying cutting-edge techniques in single-molecule manipulation, researchers at Harvard University have uncovered a fundamental feedback mechanism that the body uses to regulate the clotting of blood. The finding, which could lead to a new physical, quantitative, and predictive model of how the body works to respond to injury, has implications for the treatment of bleeding disorders.