A team of Duke University biomedical engineers has developed a polymer scaffold for growing cartilage that includes gene therapy vectors to induce stem cells to produce the growth factors they need. The new technique -- biomaterial-mediated gene delivery -- is shown to produce cartilage at least as good biochemically and...

Using zebrafish, scientists can determine how individual neurons develop, mature and support basic functions like breathing, swallowing and jaw movement. Researchers at the University of Missouri say that learning about neuronal development and maturation in zebrafish could lead to a better understanding of birth defects such...

Big data is everywhere, and we are constantly told that it holds the answers to almost any problem we want to solve. But simply having lots of data is not the same as understanding it. New mathematical tools are needed to extract meaning from enormous data sets. Two researchers at CSHL now challenge the most recent advances in...

As a range of climate change mitigation scenarios are discussed, researchers have found that the injection of sulfate particles into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight and curb the effects of global warming could pose a severe threat if not maintained indefinitely and supported by strict reductions...

Plop living, swimming bacteria into a novel water-based, nontoxic liquid crystal and a new physics takes over. The dynamic interaction of the bacteria with the liquid crystal creates a novel form of soft matter: living liquid crystal. This new type of active material holds promise for improving the...

One of science's strongest dogmas is that complex life on Earth could only evolve when oxygen levels in the atmosphere rose to close to modern levels. But now studies of a small sea sponge fished out of a Danish fjord shows that complex life does not need high levels of oxygen in order to live and...

An interdisciplinary team re-examined Kleiber's Law, a famous 80-year-old equation that accurately describes many biological phenomena, although scientists don't agree on why it works. The team shows that Kleiber's Law captures the physics and mathematics underlying the evolution of plants' and...

NASA's Global Hawk No. 872 completed a 17.5-hour science flight Feb. 14, it's first for the 2014 Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment (ATTREX) mission. Objectives were to sample vertical distribution of the Western Pacific tropical tropopause layer trace gases, water vapor and clouds. Fuente :...

Varios voluntarios y voluntarias se afanan en una nave industrial de la ciudad española de Málaga, organizando miles de kilogramos de arroz, azúcar, lentejas y aceite, que este mes partirán hacia los campamentos de refugiados saharauis de Tinduf, en el oeste argelino. “Esperamos enviar unos 60.000 kilos de alimentos básicos”,...

Estudiantes de las Áreas Tribales bajo Administración Federal (FATA, por sus siglas en inglés) de Pakistán exigen el cese de la ofensiva militar contra la insurgencia islámica Talibán, que provocó muertes y el desplazamiento de la población civil en su tierra.   “Estamos hartos de la acción militar...

Cuando falta solo un año para que venza el plazo de los Objetivos de Desarrollo de la ONU para el Milenio (ODM), el foro mundial divulgó un nuevo informe revelando el progreso logrado por las sociedades, pero también el largo camino que les queda por transitar. El estudio hace un seguimiento de los últimos 20 […]El...

Grasping the concept of climate change and its impact on the environment can be difficult. Establishing common ground and using models, however, can break down barriers and present the concept in an easily understood manner, says an ecologist and modeler. Fuente :...

The dramatic images of natural disasters, including hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and the Tohoku, Japan, earthquake and tsunami, show that nature, not the people preparing for hazards, often wins the high-stakes game of chance. In a recent presentation, a geophysicist uses general principles and...

When a team goes on a multi-game winning streak, it has nothing to do with momentum, according to a new study. By examining varsity college hockey teams winning and losing record, researchers discovered that that momentum advantages don’t exist. Fuente :...

UC Riverside baseball players who participated in novel brain-training research saw significant improvement in vision, resulting in fewer strikeouts and more hits. The experiment demonstrated that improvements from a multiple perceptual-learning approach transfer to real-world tasks. Fuente :...

A new study describes the complexity of the new T cell repertoire following immune-depleting therapy to treat multiple sclerosis, improving our understanding of immune tolerance and clinical outcomes. Fuente : http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/s...

A cocktail of ingredients containing omega-3 fatty acid found in fish oil is being tested in patients with mild cognitive impairment as a means to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s dementia down Fuente : http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=1...

Un estudio del Centro de Investigación Ecológica y Aplicaciones Forestales indica que la detección de distintos tipos de peligro a través del olfato cambia la manera en que los roedores buscan y manipulan las bellotas. Debido al papel clave que tienen estos animales como dispersantes de semillas, esto puede afectar a la...

Dziś, 17 lutego br, w Narodowym Centrum Badań Jądrowych (NCBJ), w ramach projektu „Szkoła z przyszłością” 41 uczniów techników z województwa mazowieckiego rozpoczęło praktyki. Pod okiem ekspertów wykonają ćwiczenia w laboratoriach instytutu oraz zwiedzą jedyny w Polsce badawczy reaktor jądrowy „Maria”. To kolejny etap do...

La Universidad Politécnica de Madrid ha participado en el desarrollo de OSIRIS, uno de los instrumentos con los que la nave Rosetta fotografiará el cometa al que se dirige. El Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA) y el Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía también participan en este proyecto. Fuente :...

Albert Einstein accepted the modern cosmological view that the universe is expanding long after many of his contemporaries. Until 1931, physicist Albert Einstein believed that the universe was static. An urban legend attributes this change of perspective to when American astronomer Edwin Hubble showed Einstein his observations...

Inspired by a floating droid battling Luke Skywalker in the film Star Wars, the free-flying satellites known as Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) have been flying aboard the International Space Station since Expedition 8 in 2003. Although there have been numerous SPHERES...

A Queen's University final year dental student has been ranked number one in the National Dental Foundation Training assessment procedure. Fuente : http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=1...

Thanks to optical signals, mails and data can be transmitted rapidly around the globe. But also exchange of digital information between electronic chips may be accelerated and energy efficiency might be increased by using optical signals. However, this would require simple methods to switch from electrical to optical signals....

Dank optischer Signale laufen Daten schnell um den Erdball. Aber auch zwischen elektronischen Chips könnten digitale Informationen optisch schneller und energieeffizienter ausgetauscht werden. Dazu bedarf es jedoch einfacher Methoden, um von elektrischen zu optischen Signalen zu wechseln. Im Fachmagazin Nature Photonics wurde...

Investigadores de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) han diseñado Valid@doc, un sistema que agiliza los trámites administrativos on line ya que verifica de forma automática y valida los documentos electrónicos impresos. Hasta ahora este proceso se realizaba manualmente. Fuente :...

Some people recall a dream every morning, whereas others rarely recall one. In a new study, research shows that the temporo-parietal junction, an information-processing hub in the brain, is more active in high dream recallers. Increased activity in this brain region might facilitate attention orienting toward external stimuli...

Experts reveal the spread of antibiotic-resistance to one of the most pristine locations in Asia is linked to the annual human pilgrimages to the region.  The research team are now calling on governments around the world to recognize the importance of clean drinking water in our fight against antibiotic resistance. Fuente :...

A commonly-used HIV drug has been shown to kill off the human papilloma virus (HPV) that leads to cervical cancer in a world-first clinical trial. Researchers examined Kenyan women diagnosed with HPV positive early stage cervical cancer who were treated with the antiviral HIV drug lopinavir in Kenya. The results showed a high...