LONDON, November 7 /PRNewswire/ --

Britain's strongest men could face their toughest task yet when they attempt to persuade air travellers to pack lighter this Monday (10th November). The men will be on hand at two of the UK's busiest airports, Heathrow and Manchester, to help passengers to guess the weight of their luggage before they check-in as part of a three-pronged campaign by Unite, the UK's biggest union, to urge travellers to cut the weight of airport baggage to 23kg.

Researchers have developed a new type of small-scale electric power generator able to produce alternating current through the cyclical stretching and releasing of zinc oxide wires encapsulated in a flexible plastic substrate with two ends bonded. 

The new "flexible charge pump" generator is the fourth generation of devices designed to produce electrical current by using the piezoelectric properties of zinc oxide structures to harvest mechanical energy from the environment, the authors write in Nature Nanotechnology.

HIV is a master of disguise, able to rapidly change its identity and hide undetected in infected cells. But now, in a long-standing collaborative research effort partially-funded by the Wellcome Trust, scientists from Oxford-based Adaptimmune Limited, in partnership with the Universities of Cardiff and Pennsylvania have engineered immune cells to act as "bionic assassins" that see through HIV's many disguises. 

ATHENS, Greece, November 9 /PRNewswire/ --

- Long-term benefits of preventing heart attacks highlighted in new study presented at global health outcomes meeting

From the Tour de France to NASCAR, competitors and fans know that speed is only part of the equation. Strategy, including the ability to use elements like aerodynamic drafting, which makes it easier to follow closely behind a leader than to be out in front, is also critical.

But in some cases, drafting happens in reverse: It's the leader of a pack who experiences reduced drag, while the followers encounter more resistance -- and have to expend more energy to keep up.

Researchers have taken the first critical steps in unraveling the mysteries of brain aneurysms, the often fatal rupturing of blood vessels that afflicts 500,000 people worldwide each year.

Annual crops grow, blossom and die within one year. Perennials overwinter and grow again the following year. The life strategy of many annuals consists of rapid growth following germination and rapid transition to flower and seed formation, thus preventing the loss of energy needed to create permanent structures. They germinate quickly after the winter so that they come out before other plants, thus eliminating the need to compete for food and light. The trick is basically to make as many seeds as possible in as short a time as possible. 

CALGARY, Canada, November 9 /PRNewswire/ -- MatrikonOPC(TM), the world's largest supplier of OPC connectivity products, has recently expanded its global footprint by adding a new regional office in Bahrain.

Building close relationships with our customers allows a true understanding of their business and helps realize the full potential of their operations from a technical and business perspective.

We take great pride in our customer service. To better serve our clients in the Middle East we knew we needed to have a local presence, said Sean Leonard, Vice President of MatrikonOPC. We've been doing business in this region for many years now, but with a local office we are able to reinforce and strengthen our existing ties in the Middle East, adds Leonard.

As a risk factor for high blood pressure, low levels of potassium in the diet may be as important as high levels of sodium—especially among African Americans, according to research being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 41st Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

By the time you feel sleepy, parts of your brain are actually already asleep, according to a new theoretical paper by sleep scientists at Washington State University.   Contrary to conventional wisdom, they  say there’s no 'control center' in your brain that dictates when it’s time for you to drift off to dreamland. Instead, sleep creeps up on you as independent groups of brain cells become fatigued and switch into a sleep state even while you are still (mostly) awake. Eventually, a threshold number of groups switch and you doze off.