science wire

Matthew Silk, a second year undergraduate of Emmanuel College, at the University of Cambridge studying Natural Sciences, is spending his summer vacation learning about life in a research laboratory.

MEDIA ADVISORY : M10-109 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will host a media event at 1 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Aug.

Science | Environment Guest: Penny Sarchet | 02 Aug 10 At 389 years old, the Curator of the Oxford University Herbaria is one of the oldest positions in Oxford. Its current holder, Dr Stephen Harris, curates a vast collection of plant specimens, archived and housed in the Department of Plant Sciences.

Schoolchildren were inspired by tiny microbes they?d seen in a UCL lab to create artwork on display in the grounds of the Royal Free hospital.

PASADENA, Calif.—Our belief as to whether we will likely succeed or fail at a given task—and the consequences of winning or losing—directly affects the levels of neural effort put forth in movement-planning circuits in the human cortex, according to a new brain-imaging study by neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Organs wear out. Disease and trauma cause bone and tissue loss. Creating replacement human tissue is the "challenge of the century" for medical research, says Hala Zreiqat, one of the speakers at the next University of Sydney symposium at the Shanghai Expo.

David Gough Biosensors Lab at UCSD GlySens Incorporated Science Translational Medicine The glucose sensor is featured on the cover of the July 28, 2010 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine. CREDIT: C. BICKEL/SCIENCE TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE Bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego and GlySens Incorporated have developed an implantable glucose sensor and wireless telemetry system that continuously monitors tissue glucose and transmits the information to an external receiver.

Often causing no symptoms in carriers of the disease, worldwide tuberculosis (TB) infects eight to ten million people every year, kills two million, and it is highly contagious as it is spread through coughing and sneezing. 'It's a global health disaster waiting to happen, even here in Canada, but this new paradigm in TB research may offer an immediate opportunity to improve vaccination and treatment initiatives,? explains Dr. Maziar Divangahi of McGill University and of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.

Science Pete Wilton | 28 Jul 10 In mammals, many birds, and some invertebrates young offspring are totally dependent on their parents for food and protection.

Skin experts are to test a new cream for the treatment of eczema after trials of an oral version of the drug reduced patients' symptoms by 35% within a month.

Internationally-renowned dinosaur hunter Dr Phil Manning is setting off to the USA hoping to bag a Triceratops skeleton from the Badlands of South Dakota.

Researchers encourage bacteria that produce nitrous oxide and methane in sewage sludge. The gases can then be cleanly burned to produce energy to run the plant .

Working with colleagues from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the Open University the researchers will look at how blanket peatlands can be restored in a way that minimises greenhouse gas emissions. Northern-hemisphere peatlands, such as the blanket peatlands of north Wales and the north Pennines, contain three times as much carbon as the Amazon rainforest.

Biologists at the University of Freiburg, Germany, have produced in the moss bioreactor a human protein, the absence of which leads to age-related blindness in 50 million people.

A UCL professor has won a fellowship to develop her potential as one of the next generation of world-leading scientists. Professor Sofia Olhede (UCL Statistical Science) has been awarded an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Leadership Fellowship. The fellowships, which provide up to five years of funding, are a direct investment in Britain's most talented researchers.

21 July 2010 Marriage patterns drive fertility decline Researchers at the University of Sheffield have applied an evolutionary `use it or lose it´ principle when studying past marriage patterns, to show that marriage can influence the evolution of age-patterns of fertility.

A University of Manchester scientist is offering the public the chance to name two new species of spider, which have been fossilised in amber for millions of years.

New MSc at Imperial to help biologists tackle big issues MSc in Quantitative Biology will focus on recent research - News Wednesday 21 July 2010 By Becci Thompson and Lucy Goodchild Biologists of the

The University of Nottingham is to host the 60th Anniversary meeting of The Society for Reproduction and Fertility (SRF).

by Chris Barncard Borrowing computing power from idle sources will help geneticists sidestep the multimillion-dollar cost of reconstituting the flood of data produced by next-generation genome-sequencing machines.

Neuroscientists and others at UC San Diego will play a leading role in a $25 million project to better understand human-systems interactions.

Inherited glycosylation disorder might be treatable with simple supplement July 15, 2010 By Scott LaFee An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, has discovered the gene mutation responsible for a condition in which eye and brain development is severely disrupted in affected infants.

Scientists have developed a new way to target viruses which could increase the effectiveness of antiviral drugs.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. One of the most commonly studied laboratory animals is the zebrafish - a tiny fish with transparent embryos, or larvae, whose internal organs can be easily seen as they develop.

When Howard Florey came to Oxford in 1935 as the newly appointed Professor of Pathology, he arrived to state of the art but largely empty labs in the new Sir William Dunn School .

It could be the next sell-out toy in the shops one Christmas but it could also stop thousands of children falling ill with tummy bugs and other infectious diseases.

Scientists could be one step closer to developing a unique painkiller for millions of people worldwide with diabetes, who currently have little in the way of effective treatments for the severe chronic pain associated with the disease (diabetic neuropathic pain). The Wellcome Trust has awarded £3.8 million to a team of researchers led by David Wynick, Professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Bristol, to develop a new analgesic drug based on the protein galanin.

The UK farming industry is set to benefit from a new project by researchers at the University of Sheffield and RAGT Seeds Ltd, which will aim to develop new higher-yielding wheat varieties, less dependent on pesticides and chemical inputs.

PA 184/10 It could be the next sell-out toy in the shops one Christmas but it could also stop thousands of children falling ill with tummy bugs and other infectious diseases.

A new stem cell technology is to be used by Oxford University researchers to better understand the causes of Parkinson's disease. The technique will use skin samples to grow the brain cells thought to be responsible for the onset of Parkinson's disease, allowing these important neurons to be studied in detail.

University Park, Pa - Jellyfish moved into the oceans off the coast of southwest Africa when the sardine population crashed.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—In cells, as in cities, disposing of garbage and recycling anything that can be reused is an essential service.

Multi-national effort targets control and eventual eradication of mosquito-borne scourge July 8, 2010 By Scott Lafee Tropical disease specialist Joseph Vinetz, MD, of the University of California, Sa

Four teams competed for £20,000 development money in a competition organised by the Chemical Biology Centre - News Four teams of Imperial PhD students competed for £20,000 business development money i

UCL has launched an Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health to create a hub of expertise for sports and exercise-related research.

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