Chemists at the University of Illinois have created a simple and inexpensive molecular technique that replaces an expensive atomic force microscope for studying what happens to small molecules when they are stretched or compressed.
The researchers use stiff stilbene, a small, inert structure, as a molecular force probe to generate well-defined forces on various molecules, atom by atom.
"By pulling on different pairs of atoms, we can explore what happens when we stretch a molecule in different ways," said chemistry professor Roman Boulatov. "That information tells us a lot about the properties of fleeting structures called transition states that govern how, and how fast, chemical transformations occur."
The benefits to animals of omega 3 fatty acids in fish oils have been well documented – helping the heart and circulatory system. Can they also help in improving meat quality and reducing methane emissions?
Perhaps. Methane given off by farm animals is a major contributor to greenhouse gas levels and researchers from University College Dublin have reported that by including 2% fish oil in the diet of cattle they achieved a reduction in the amount of methane released by the animals.
ORLANDO, Florida, March 28 /PRNewswire/ --
- EVEREST High-Risk Registry Data Shows Improved Symptomatic Status and Cardiac Function in Functional MR Patients Treated with the MitraClip(R) System
Percutaneous mitral valve repair using the MitraClip(R) system in symptomatic high-risk surgical patients with functional mitral regurgitation (FMR) improves patient clinical status, and left ventricular function, according to 12-month data from the high-risk registry arm of the EVEREST II (Endovascular Valve Edge-to-Edge REpair STudy) study presented today at the 58th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) i2 Summit Scientific Sessions.
Important business has taken me out of sunny California and across the country to the slightly warmer March days of Florida; baseball spring training.
I maintain an affection for spring training even though I no longer live in a winter climate where a few days of sunshine after 5 months of cold can truly be appreciated. But I spent my childhood in Florida, in a baseball haven aptly called Dodgertown, so cold climate or not baseball in spring is a necessary ritual. It gives me a reminder I haven't seen my family in a year and spring baseball is somehow both better and worse than regular season baseball, when it becomes more of a business and obviously played by the best of the best.
DURBAN, South Africa, March 28 /PRNewswire/ --
- After Seven Years of Growth, Ithembalabantu 'People's Hope' AIDS Clinic Moves to New, Larger Freestanding Site at Umlazi's Ithala Centre. Formal Dedication and Ribbon-cutting Ceremony Set for Tuesday, March 31st
- AHF to Provide Free Mass HIV Testing during Daylong Celebration and Launch with Goal of 500 Tests
A while back there was a news story that
the Pantheon may have been constructed to create a special effect in the sunlight at the equinoxes. I'm slow in reacting because I've read the book where the claim appears, and I've been taking time to try and track down one or two other ideas regarding the Pantheon. The story is based on a chapter from a new book
Time in Antiquity by Robert Hannah, and it's a great example of how thinking about ancient astronomy has gently expanded over the past decade.
Creationists have put us into a bizarre, alternate universe, at least when it comes to curriculum design. Their latest attempt to undermine science education involves inserting the code words 'strengths and weaknesses' into the public school science standards. The idea is that, whenever something religious fundamentalists find controversial crops up in science class, teachers have to teach the "strengths and weaknesses" of that particular topic. Fortunately, this creationist code has
just been kept out of the Texas state science standards, but you can bet the code is going to crop up again at some point.
It's worth taking a moment to think about how whacked this whole debate over strengths and weaknesses has become.
Botox and face lifts only give the appearance that you've turned back the clock, and although expensive procedural looks are deceiving, your telomeres don't lie. As your cells divide, telomeres become shorter, eventually leading to cell death over time.
Unfortunately, scientists are far from curing this universal "disease" known as aging. However, understanding the mechanisms of aging will have a more immediate impact on the development of stem cell therapies, and researchers at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have discovered that the female egg is capable of reversing this telomere molecular clock.
LONDON and TOKYO, March 27 /PRNewswire/ --
Chiltern International Limited (Chiltern), a global Clinical Research Organization (CRO) that provides clinical development and staffing services in Europe, the Americas and India and its Asian partner EPS International Co. Ltd. (EPS INTERNATIONAL), a wholly owned subsidiary of EPS Co. Ltd., a leading provider of clinical development services in the Asian region, have jointly organized a seminar in Tokyo, Japan on 24th April 2009 to coincide with the 3rd anniversary of EPS International.
Behind every major scientific effort is a story. Beadle and Tatum's story is one of persistence. They began with a hypothesis: each gene causes the production of a single enzyme, and that enzyme catalyzes a biochemical reaction within an organism.
The seeds of this hypothesis were spawned by Sir Archibald Garrod, who reported in 1909 that alkaptonuria - an inherited condition in which the urine is colored dark red by the chemical alkapton - results from a single recessive gene, which causes a deficiency in the enzyme that normally breaks down alkapton.
