A Dresden research team using laser tweezers  measured the friction between a single motor protein molecule and its track and say that within our cells, motors work against the resistance of friction and are restrained in its operation—usually by far not as much though as their macroscopic counterparts.

These first experimental measurements of protein friction could help researchers to better understand key cellular processes such as cell division which is driven by such molecular machines.

A new mathematical model  could significantly improve the automatic recognition and processing of spoken language, meaning algorithms which imitate brain mechanisms could help machines to perceive the world around them.

Many people will have personal experience at how difficult it is for computers to deal with spoken language - people who "communicate" with automated telephone systems need a great deal of patience because if they speak just a little too quickly or slowly, or pronunciation isn't clear, the system often fails to work properly.

Members of sexual minorities are almost twice as likely as heterosexuals to seek help for mental health issues or substance abuse treatment.  48.5% of lesbian/gay/bisexual individuals reported receiving treatment in the past year as compared to 22.5% of heterosexuals. In addition, gender was shown to play a large role; lesbians and bisexual women were most likely to receive treatment and heterosexual men were the least likely, according to the results in BMC Psychiatry.

Susan Cochran worked with a team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles using data they collected from 2074 people first interviewed in the California Health Interview Survey.

Michael Massing at The NY Review of Books weighs in on the future of news organizations in the era of blogs:

A couple of months ago I wrote here about the first observation of a process called "diboson production", a quite rare occurrence in hadronic collisions: for the first time, the CDF collaboration could observe that rare process in events containing hadronic jets, which are usually riddled by enormous backgrounds.

Because I have played guitar some 30 years, I have always been interested in guitar construction.   I have multiple guitars because they all have different tones and are used for different things - that doesn't always make sense to people because a guitar is a guitar but I am not even in the top 50,000 guitarists obsessed with tone.    

Eric Johnson, most famous for "Cliffs of Dover"(1) says he can hear a difference in the batteries he uses in his gear - and I believe him.  There are too many instances of elite (yeah, I used that word) people doing extraordinary things to pass it off as placebo effect.

GLASGOW, August 13 /PRNewswire/ -- In the future social sites will cease to become a place on the internet and start becoming the internet itself.

That's the key conclusion from an authoritative industry report, End of the beginning for social media, published by social media agency Yomego.

The report (http://www.yomego.com/insight) suggests that the momentum behind social media is unlikely to slow down anytime soon and points to the convergence of critical factors creating a pivotal moment for the online phenomenon.

According to Steve Richards, Yomego managing director, the end of the beginning is nigh - and more importantly the future of social media is starting to take shape.

He explains:

LONDON, August 13 /PRNewswire/ --

- Survey Sheds Light on Patients' Concerns About Life-Threatening Complications

As the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes continues to rise significantly, with over 125,000 new cases diagnosed a year(1), new survey results show that those affected are now realising the wider implications of the condition and the fear associated with its complications. While people increasingly recognise that the condition is strongly linked to lifestyle factors such as a poor diet and lack of physical activity, the results highlight that it is not just those already diagnosed who could be affected, but that loved ones could also be impacted by the complications.

Cancer impacts millions of lives for the worse every year. Despite this difficult reality, it appears that we are becoming increasing successful in our efforts to stem the tide of patients who fall victim as time goes on.

According to a recently published report in the journal Cancer Research, cancer mortality rates have been steadily dropping over the last three decades.

“Our efforts against cancer, including prevention, early detection and better treatment, have resulted in profound gains, but thesegains are often unappreciated by the public due to the way the data are usually reported," said Eric Kort, M.D., one of the study’s authors and former research scientist at Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Diesel and gasoline fuel sources both bring unique assets and liabilities to powering internal combustion engines. But what if an engine could be programmed to harvest the best properties of both fuel sources at once, on the fly, by blending the fuels within the combustion chamber?

Such an engine just might be possible thanks to the University of Wisconsin-Madison engine research group headed by Rolf Reitz. The research team is developing a diesel engine that produces significantly lower pollutant emissions than conventional engines, with an average of 20 percent greater fuel efficiency as well.