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New research may help reveal why different parts of the brain can come under attack in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). According to a new study in mice with an MS-like disease, the brain's response to a protein produced by invading T cells dictates whether it's the spinal cord or cerebellum that comes under fire.
A McGill University researcher has found a mysterious stretch of DNA that can make men lose their hair.
The discovery could lead to new ways to prevent male pattern baldness or a quick genetic test to determine if a man is likely to hang on to his hair. But it also may help researchers better understand the human genome.
The section of chromosome 20 that Brent Richards and his colleagues have implicated in baldness isn't a gene.
It is in a gene desert, one of the many long stretches of DNA that fill the gaps between the roughly 20,000 genes in the human genome.
The discovery could lead to new ways to prevent male pattern baldness or a quick genetic test to determine if a man is likely to hang on to his hair. But it also may help researchers better understand the human genome.
The section of chromosome 20 that Brent Richards and his colleagues have implicated in baldness isn't a gene.
It is in a gene desert, one of the many long stretches of DNA that fill the gaps between the roughly 20,000 genes in the human genome.
© AP Photo / Yahya AhmedThis Iraqi family can point to social and cultural factors that define them as an Iraqi, but a genome mapping programme will try to get to the bottom of the genetic factors in the Arab identity
One hundred people who describe themselves as Arabs - half of them originating on the Arabian peninsula and the rest from the wider Arabic nations including Egypt, Syria and the Maghreb - will have their entire genetic makeup sequenced by the Arab Genome Project.
Impressive advances in our understanding of the genetic basis of disease were outlined at the 3rd ESF Functional Genomics Conference in Innsbruck, Austria.
The mysteries of the human genome are slowly being revealed -- but the more we uncover the more complicated the picture becomes. This was one key message to emerge from the European Science Foundation (ESF)'s 3rd Functional Genomics Conference held in Innsbruck, Austria, on 1-4 October.
The mysteries of the human genome are slowly being revealed -- but the more we uncover the more complicated the picture becomes. This was one key message to emerge from the European Science Foundation (ESF)'s 3rd Functional Genomics Conference held in Innsbruck, Austria, on 1-4 October.
Calgary - Astronomer Rob Cardinal didn't expect the time he spent installing new software at the University of Calgary's Baker-Nunn telescope earlier this month to change his life.
But days later, his computer was telling him there had been some unusual movement through the telescope - motion that Mr. Cardinal hadn't detected while gazing through it.
But after some sleepless nights peering through cloud cover and finally spying what he'd missed, Mr. Cardinal is now the confirmed finder of C2008 T2, a never-before-identified comet travelling through the solar system.
Or, as it will also be known, Comet Cardinal.
But days later, his computer was telling him there had been some unusual movement through the telescope - motion that Mr. Cardinal hadn't detected while gazing through it.
But after some sleepless nights peering through cloud cover and finally spying what he'd missed, Mr. Cardinal is now the confirmed finder of C2008 T2, a never-before-identified comet travelling through the solar system.
Or, as it will also be known, Comet Cardinal.
Since the discovery of nitroglycerin in 1846, the nitrate ester group of compounds has been known for its explosive properties. A whole series of other nitrate esters have been subsequently put to use as explosives and fuels.
A research team led by David E. Chavez at Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA) has now developed a novel tetranitrate ester. The compound has a particularly interesting characteristic profile: it is solid at room temperature, is a highly powerful explosive, and can be melt-cast into the desired shape.
Nitrate esters are organic nitric acid compounds that can contain enormous explosive force. However, their liquid physical state makes handling very difficult. By mixing in various other components, Alfred Nobel developed dynamite, a distinctly safer and easier to handle nitroglycerine-based explosive. The only solid nitrate ester used as an explosive before is nitropenta. Because of its high melting point of about 140 °C, nitropenta must be pressed into the desired form.
A research team led by David E. Chavez at Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA) has now developed a novel tetranitrate ester. The compound has a particularly interesting characteristic profile: it is solid at room temperature, is a highly powerful explosive, and can be melt-cast into the desired shape.
Nitrate esters are organic nitric acid compounds that can contain enormous explosive force. However, their liquid physical state makes handling very difficult. By mixing in various other components, Alfred Nobel developed dynamite, a distinctly safer and easier to handle nitroglycerine-based explosive. The only solid nitrate ester used as an explosive before is nitropenta. Because of its high melting point of about 140 °C, nitropenta must be pressed into the desired form.
University of British Columbia archaeologists have dug up a mystery worthy of Indiana Jones, one that includes a tomb, skeletons and burial rites with both Christian and pagan elements.
This summer, Prof. Roger Wilson led excavations at Kaukana, an ancient Roman village located near Punta Secca, a small town in the south-eastern province of Ragusa in Sicily.
Combing through the sand-buried site, the 15-member team made a series of startling discoveries. Central to the mystery was finding a tomb inside a room in a house dating from the sixth century AD.
Wilson explains that tombs during this period are normally found only in cemeteries outside the built-up area of a town, or around the apse of a church. And since the building was substantial with mortared walls and internal plaster, this would have been likely a tomb for the wealthy.
This summer, Prof. Roger Wilson led excavations at Kaukana, an ancient Roman village located near Punta Secca, a small town in the south-eastern province of Ragusa in Sicily.
© Roger WilsonArcheologist Roger Wilson pulls out the clay amphora from its 1,500 year hiding place.
Combing through the sand-buried site, the 15-member team made a series of startling discoveries. Central to the mystery was finding a tomb inside a room in a house dating from the sixth century AD.
Wilson explains that tombs during this period are normally found only in cemeteries outside the built-up area of a town, or around the apse of a church. And since the building was substantial with mortared walls and internal plaster, this would have been likely a tomb for the wealthy.
The astronomy world buzzed in the Fall of 2007 when Comet Holmes - a normally humdrum, run-of-the-mill comet - unexpectedly flared and erupted. Its coma of gas and dust expanded away from the comet, extending to a volume larger than the Sun. Professional and amateur astronomers around the world turned their telescopes toward the spectacular event. Everyone wanted to know why the comet had suddenly exploded.
The Hubble Space Telescope observed the comet, but provided few clues. And now, observations taken of the comet after the explosion by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope deepen the mystery, showing oddly behaving streamers in the shell of dust surrounding the nucleus of the comet. The data also offer a rare look at the material liberated from within the nucleus. "The data we got from Spitzer do not look like anything we typically see when looking at comets," said Bill Reach of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at Caltech.
© NASA
The Hubble Space Telescope observed the comet, but provided few clues. And now, observations taken of the comet after the explosion by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope deepen the mystery, showing oddly behaving streamers in the shell of dust surrounding the nucleus of the comet. The data also offer a rare look at the material liberated from within the nucleus. "The data we got from Spitzer do not look like anything we typically see when looking at comets," said Bill Reach of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at Caltech.
A hand moves forward, but is it a friendly gesture or one meant to do harm? In an instant, we respond -- either extending our arm forward to shake hands or raising it higher to protect our face. But what are the subtle cues that allow us to interpret such movement so we can properly respond to others?
In research projects designed to assist the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and to provide deeper insight into how autistic individuals perceive others, Maggie Shiffrar, professor of psychology at Rutgers University in Newark, is examining how our visual system helps us to interpret the intent conveyed in subtle body movements.
While most autism research has focused on the difficulties in face perception, Shiffrar is one of the first researchers to examine autism as it relates to connections between visual analysis, body movement and our ability to interact with others.
In research projects designed to assist the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and to provide deeper insight into how autistic individuals perceive others, Maggie Shiffrar, professor of psychology at Rutgers University in Newark, is examining how our visual system helps us to interpret the intent conveyed in subtle body movements.
While most autism research has focused on the difficulties in face perception, Shiffrar is one of the first researchers to examine autism as it relates to connections between visual analysis, body movement and our ability to interact with others.
© Unknown
About 500 space scientists are working round-the-clock to launch India's maiden lunar mission next week.
The Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft will be launched on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C11 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikota, about 90 km from Chennai and off the Bay of Bengal.
