From the daily archives:

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

A recently devised method of imaging the chemical communication and warfare between microorganisms could lead to new antibiotics, antifungal, antiviral and anti-cancer drugs, said a Texas AgriLife Research scientist.
The new article was published Nov. 8 in Nature Chemical Biology. It describes a technique developed by a collaborative team that includes Dr. Paul Straight, AgriLife Research [...]

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The first human embryonic stem cell treatment approved by the FDA for human testing has been shown to restore limb function in rats with neck spinal cord injuries — a finding that could expand the clinical trial to include people with cervical damage.
In January, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration gave Geron Corp. of Menlo [...]

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NASA scientists studying the origin of life have reproduced uracil, a key component of our hereditary material, in the laboratory. They discovered that an ice sample containing pyrimidine exposed to ultraviolet radiation under space-like conditions produces this essential ingredient of life.
Pyrimidine is a ring-shaped molecule made up of carbon and nitrogen and is the basic [...]

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A group of engineers working on a novel manufacturing technique at NASA`s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., have come up with a new twist on the popular old saying about dreaming and doing: "If you can slice it, we can build it."
That`s because layers mean everything to the environmentally-friendly construction process called Electron Beam [...]

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Sneezing In Times Of A Flu Pandemic

by mokosam on November 10, 2009

The swine flu (H1N1) pandemic has received extensive media coverage this year. The World Health Organization, in addition to providing frequent updates about cases of infection and death tolls, recommends hyper vigilance in daily hygiene such as frequent hand washing or sneezing into the crook of our arms. News reports at all levels, from local [...]

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Good news for heterogeneous catalysis and the hydrogen economy: computers can now be used to make accurate predictions of the reactions of (hydrogen) molecules with surfaces. An international team of researchers, headed by Leiden theoretical chemist Geert-Jan Kroes, published on this subject this week in the journal Science.
Hydrogen on copper
The team developed a new method [...]

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Heart attacks appear to have become more common in middle-aged women over the past two decades, but all women and especially those younger than 55 have recently experienced a greater increase than men in their chances of survival following such a heart event, according to two reports in the October 26 issue of Archives of [...]

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Ants Are Friendly To Some Trees, But Not Others

by mokosam on November 10, 2009

Tree-dwelling ants generally live in harmony with their arboreal hosts. But new research suggests that when they run out of space in their trees of choice, the ants can get destructive to neighboring trees.
The research, published in the November issue of the American Naturalist, is the first to document that ants bore into live trees, [...]

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Simvastatin, a commonly used, cholesterol-lowering drug, may prevent Parkinson`s disease from progressing further. Neurological researchers at Rush University Medical Center conducted a study examining the use of the FDA-approved medication in mice with Parkinson`s disease and found that the drug successfully reverses the biochemical, cellular and anatomical changes caused by the disease.
"Statins are one of [...]

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In addition to building muscle, weight-lifting is also a prescription for self-esteem among breast cancer survivors, according to new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine research. Breast cancer survivors who lift weights regularly feel better about bodies and their appearance and are more satisfied with their intimate relationships compared with survivors who do not lift [...]

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