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If It Can't Detect Missiles, Let's Use It To Detect Breast Cancer

If It Can't Detect Missiles, Let's Use It To Detect Breast Cancer

Jan 31 2007 | comment(s)

A breast cancer treatment based on MIT research originally intended for detecting missiles is documented in a new book by Alan J. Fenn, an MIT researcher and inventor of the technique.


Image at left shows process of detecting and destroying an enemy missile using MIT targeted radar. Microwave energy is fixed on a missile while simultaneously nullifying enemy jammers. On right, microwave energy is aimed at a cancerous tumor with a deep focused beam while simultaneously nullifying any energy that would overheat surrounding healthy tissue. (Image courtesy of Lincoln Laboratory_

Researchers Discover Zip Codes For Protein

Researchers Discover Zip Codes For Protein

Jan 31 2007 | comment(s)

McMaster scientists are very close to defining small molecule drugs that should be able to redirect the huntingtin protein from accumulating in the wrong place within brain cells, which could potentially translate to a therapy for Huntington's Disease (HD).


Three proteins viewed in a live cell. (Image courtesy of McMaster University)

Sea Launch Operations To Be Resumed Despite Liftoff Failure

Sea Launch Operations To Be Resumed Despite Liftoff Failure

Jan 31 2007 | comment(s)

Russia's Federal Space Agency said Wednesday it hopes the Sea Launch project will be resumed despite the explosion of a Zenit-3SL rocket carrying a commercial communications satellite.


"A Sea Launch Zenit-3SL vehicle, carrying the NSS-8 satellite, experienced an anomaly today during launch operations. Sea Launch will establish a Failure Review Oversight Board to determine the root cause of this anomaly," said a statement issued by Sea Launch.

Dig Deeper To Find Martian Life

Dig Deeper To Find Martian Life

Jan 31 2007 | comment(s)

Probes designed to find life on Mars do not drill deep enough to find the living cells that scientists believe may exist well below the surface of Mars, according to research led by UCL (University College London). Although current drills may find essential tell-tale signs that life once existed on Mars, cellular life could not survive the radiation levels for long enough any closer to the surface of Mars than a few metres deep -- beyond the reach of even state-of-the-art drills.


Elysium's frozen sea may be one of the best places to look for life on Mars. (Credits: ESA/DLR/Berlin/Neukum)

Molecular Motors And Brakes Work Together In Cells

Molecular Motors And Brakes Work Together In Cells

Jan 31 2007 | comment(s)

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that microtubules – components responsible for shape, movement, and replication within cells – use proteins that act as molecular motors and brakes to organize into their correct structure. If microtubules are not formed properly such basic functions as cell division and transport can go wrong, which may have implications in such disease processes as cancer and dementia. The study, published in the January issue of Cell, is featured on the cover of that issue.


Daughter microtubule (red) being formed on mother microtubule (red), within yeast cell (dashed line).

Worldmapper Draws Attention To The World's Health Inequalities

Worldmapper Draws Attention To The World's Health Inequalities

Jan 31 2007 | comment(s)

When it comes to the inequality in people's health across the globe, says Professor Danny Dorling (University of Sheffield, United Kingdom) "you can say it, you can prove it, you can tabulate it, but it is only when you show it that it hits home."


Public Health Spending: Worldmapper Poster 213. Source of data used to create map: United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report 2004. (Credit: Worldmapper)

Researchers Achieve Major Breakthrough In Laser Diode Development

Researchers Achieve Major Breakthrough In Laser Diode Development

Jan 31 2007 | comment(s)

A team of researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara led by Shuji Nakamura, winner of the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize, has reported a major breakthrough in laser diode development.


The photograph shows the far-field pattern of the world's first gallium nitride (GaN) nonpolar blue-violet laser diodes. The bright spots illustrate clear lasing modes. (Credit: UCSB Solid State Lighting and Display Center)

"No One Is Going To Drop The ISS"

Jan 31 2007 | comment(s)

The International Space Station will likely remain operational until 2025, the head of the Russian spacecraft manufacturer Energia said Tuesday.

"No one is going to sink or drop the ISS, as all countries realize that the station is becoming a full-scale industrial facility in space.

MiG-29 K/KUB Fighters For India

MiG-29 K/KUB Fighters For India

Jan 31 2007 | comment(s)

The first MiG-29KUB carrier-based fighter developed for the Indian Navy took off at the Russian Zhukovsky aircraft test centre on January 22.

How Many Cups Of Coffee Do You Need This Morning In Order To Be Functional?

How Many Cups Of Coffee Do You Need This Morning In Order To Be Functional?

Jan 30 2007 | comment(s)

I'm off the wagon. And when I fall, I fall hard.

It's not just the regular this time—I'm into the hard stuff, like cappuccino and those Starbucks drinks with nifty, pseudo-European names (ah, my soul for one sip of sweet, sweet Moccachino...). I would like to blame my current baby-induced insomnia and resulting massive accumulated sleep debt, or my wife's enabling addiction to Arnold Palmers (half lemonade, half iced-tea) from the new coffee shop down the street, but really these are just lame excuses for my own weakness. And so I'm back to living life by the drop, or more precisely, by the shot of Cafe Estima Blend.