science wire

PA 60/11 Scientists at The University of Nottingham have published results that will forever change the way researchers view the interplay between gene expression, DNA replication and the prevention of DNA damage. DNA damage, if not kept in check, can lead to many problems including cancers. Experts funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Wellcome Trust have shown that the process of replication is even riskier than originally thought.

Experimental physicists have put a lot of effort in isolating sensitive measurements from the disruptive influences of the environment. In an international first, Innsbruck quantum physicists have realized a toolbox of elementary building blocks for an open-system quantum simulator, where a controlled coupling to an environment is used in a beneficial way.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded research fellowships to seven young faculty members at the University of California, San Diego, the largest group from a single institution to be recognized this year.

UCSD physicists James Danielson, Clifford Surko and Craig Schallhorn (left to right) inspect the apparatus they are using to develop the world's largest trap for low-energy positrons, which is expected to hold a trillion or more antiparticles. Photo Credit: Kim McDonald, UCSD Once regarded as the stuff of science fiction, antimatter'the mirror image of the ordinary matter in our observable universe'is now the focus of laboratory studies around the world.

Nano Tumor Center Sadik Esener Robert Mattrey Andrew Goodwin photos Dr. Andrew Goodwin, a post doctoral fellow in the Department of Nanoengineering in the Jacobs School of Engineering recently

Science | Health Jonathan Wood | 23 Feb 11 As an embryo grows towards its final adult form, the initial fertilised egg cell must divide many times over into cells that will become specialised and form the many different tissues and organs of the body.

For insects, as for humans, mating can involve complicated interactions between males and females, with each partner engaging in rituals or behaviors that influence the other. Those behaviors often end once the mating is complete. But research by Mariana Wolfner, Cornell professor of molecular biology and genetics, and colleagues shows that male and female insects continue to influence each other on molecular, cellular and physiological levels - even after the partners go their separate ways.

Ultrasensitive electronic skin developed by Stanford researcher Zhenan Bao is getting even better. Now she's demonstrated that it can detect chemicals and biological molecules, in addition to sensing an incredibly light touch.

Applying an organic layer less than a nanometer thick improves the efficiency of certain solar cells threefold.

The production of inexpensive hydrogen for automotive or jet fuel may be possible by mimicking photosynthesis, according to a Penn State materials chemist, but a number of problems need to be solved first.

News release Integrative Oceanography Division Marine Physical Laboratory Scripps Institution of Oceanography Scripps News Diverse projects address concern for acidifying marine ecosystems Scripps In

Cambridge, MA - The search for planets outside our solar system continues to heat up. NASA's Kepler spacecraft has located more than 1,200 planetary candidates, however confirming them remains a challenge. In some circumstances, an eclipsing binary star can mimic the shallow dimming due to a planet crossing in front of its star.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Pure organic compounds that glow in jewel tones could potentially lead to cheaper, more efficient and flexible display screens, among other applications.

PA 48/11 A University of Nottingham scientist has won an international Fellowship to help improve the communication of important science research to the media and general public. Dr Wim Thielemans is a researcher whose work spans chemistry, chemical engineering and materials science and is among ten scientists worldwide to begin a year-long programme in how to publicise new discoveries in environmental health and sustainable chemistry.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—DNA, that marvelous, twisty molecule of life, has an alter ego, research at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Irvine reveals.

Science | Technology 04 Feb 10 A new way of splitting layered materials, similar to graphite, into sheets of material just one atom thick could lead to revolutionary new electronic and energy storage technologies.

Scientists from the University of Bristol have been able to watch a chemical reaction happening in solution with more detail than ever before. This could lead to improved drug design for medical therapies and catalysts for industrial processing, and pave the way for further applications in bio- and atmospheric chemistry.

Every day is a bad-air day on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Blanketed by haze far worse than any smog belched out in Los Angeles, Beijing or even Sherlock Holmes' London, the moon looks like a dirty orange ball.

Accidental damage to thin or buried nerves during surgery can have severe consequences, from chronic pain to permanent paralysis. Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine may have found a remedy: injectable fluorescent peptides that cause hard-to-see peripheral nerves to glow, alerting surgeons to their location even before the nerves are encountered.

"Cornell Dots" - brightly glowing nanoparticles - may soon be used to light up cancer cells to aid in diagnosing and treating cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first clinical trial in humans of the new technology. It is the first time the FDA has approved using an inorganic material in the same fashion as a drug in humans.

When a cell is preparing to grow or replicate, it starts the way a monarch planning to expand his territory might: by identifying and marshaling the necessary resources, loading them onto the appropriate vehicles, and transporting them to the front line. For cells, that means connecting key molecules with so-called motor proteins, which are neatly equipped to recognize them and carry them to their designated positions at the intended site of growth.

Science Pete Wilton | 21 Jan 11 Did you know that the humble robin uses quantum physics? Researchers have been investigating the mechanism which enables birds to detect the Earth's magnetic field to help them navigate over vast distances. This ability, known as magnetoreception, has been linked to chemical reactions inside birds' eyes.

By Dean A. Haycock Research/Penn State Some medications are so prevalent, people jokingly suggest they should be added to the water supply. OK, consider it done. Detectable levels of common pharmaceutical medications have been found in drinking water in the United States and Canada. Public awareness of this issue spiked after a well-publicized 2008 Associated Press article, but researchers have known for decades that the drugs we throw away or put into our bodies wash out into the water supply, said Albert Jarrett , professor of biological engineering at Penn State.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. University of Illinois materials scientists have developed a simple, generalizable technique to fabricate complex structures that assemble themselves. Their advance, published in the Jan. 20 issue of Nature, utilizes a new class of self-assembling materials that they developed. The team demonstrated that they can produce a large, complex structure - an intricate lattice - from tiny colloidal particles called triblock Janus spheres.

PASADENA, Calif. Paul Mahaffy, the scientist in charge of the largest instrument on NASA's next Mars rover, watched through glass as clean-room workers installed it into the rover. The specific work planned for this instrument on Mars requires more all-covering protective garb for these specialized workers than was needed for the building of NASA's earlier Mars rovers.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Researchers at the University of Illinois and Northwestern University have demonstrated bio-inspired structures that self-assemble from simple building blocks: spheres.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have a significant new computing resource.

Under the proposed scheme coal would be burned underground to generate energy, offering a new lease of life to coal seams that are too expensive to mine.

New laboratory aims to revolutionise surgery with real-time metabolic profiling Metabolic profiling of tissue samples could transform the way surgeons make decisions in the operating theatre, say researchers at a new laboratory being launched today.

The digital revolution has triggered a wild proliferation of video games, but what of the revolution in biotechnology?

A team of chemists headed by Thomas Loerting from the University of Innsbruck and Hinrich Grothe from the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) have prepared and isolated gas-phase carbonic acid and have succeeded in characterizing the gas-phase molecules by using infrared spectroscopy.

Seattle, Wash. University of California, Berkeley, astronomers may have found the missing link between gas-filled, star-forming galaxies and older, gas-depleted galaxies typically characterized as “red and dead.

Ever had goosebumps or felt euphoric chills when listening to a piece of music? If so, your brain is reacting to the music in the same way as it would to some delicious food or a psychoactive drug such as cocaine, according to scientists.

A quick look at new Cornell research hints at colorful patchwork quilts, but they are actually pictures of graphene - one atom-thick sheets of carbon stitched together at tilted interfaces.

Scientists at The University of Manchester and St George's, University of London, have received an additional Seeding Drug Discovery award of £390,000 from the Wellcome Trust to explore a new class of experimental drugs that block the trigger of allergic reactions before symptoms arise. The team is developing a series of drugs based on novel chemical compounds known as Allergen Delivery Inhibitors (ADIs).

Ten years ago, on Dec. NASA's Cassini spacecraft made its closest approach to Jupiter on its way to orbiting Saturn. The main purpose was to use the gravity of the largest planet in our solar system to slingshot Cassini towards Saturn, its ultimate destination. But the encounter with Jupiter, Saturn's gas-giant big brother, also gave the Cassini project a perfect lab for testing its instruments and evaluating its operations plans for its tour of the ringed planet, which began in 2004.

A rock-zapping laser instrument on NASA's next Mars rover has roots in a demonstration that Roger Wiens saw 13 years ago in a colleague's room at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument on the rover Curiosity can hit rocks with a laser powerful enough to excite a pinhead-size spot into a glowing, ionized gas.

To survive in a tumultuous environment, sea urchins literally eat through stone, using their teeth to carve out nooks where the spiny creatures hide from predators and protect themselves from the crashing surf on the rocky shores and tide pools where they live.

Researchers with two University of Wisconsin-Madison plasma fusion experiments have received $10.7 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Fusion Energy Sciences.