Being Human

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -Purdue University researchers have created magnetically responsive gold nanostars that may offer a new approach to biomedical imaging.

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Healthy, normal-weight women pregnant with twins should gain between 37 and 54 pounds, according to research from a Michigan State University professor who helped shape the recently released national guidelines on gestational weight gain.

Berkeley -- How do you recognize a new species?

A thorough study of the million-year evolution of California's horned lizards, sometimes referred to as "horny toads," shows that when it comes to distinguishing such recently diverged species, the most powerful method integrates genetic, anatomical and ecological information.

Researchers at Rice University and their international colleagues have for the first time described the atomic structure of the protein shell that carries the genetic code of hepatitis E (HEV). Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could mean that new ways to stop the virus may come in the not-too-distant future.

Geoengineering - deliberately manipulating physical, chemical, or biological aspects of the Earth system to confront climate change -- could contribute to a comprehensive risk management strategy to slow climate change but could also create considerable new risks, according to a policy statement released by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) today.

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The party was over more than 4,000 years ago, but the remnants still remain in the gourds and squashes that served as dishware. For the first time, University of Missouri researchers have studied the residues from gourds and squash artifacts that date back to 2200 B.C. and recovered starch grains from manioc, potato, chili pepper, arrowroot and algarrobo.

Stuart Basefsky, Senior Reference Librarian at Cornell, writes, in The End of Institutional Repositories & the Beginning of Social Academic Research Service: An Enhanced Role For Libraries:

Berkeley -- "Practice makes perfect" is the maxim drummed into students struggling to learn a new motor skill - be it riding a bike or developing a killer backhand in tennis.

CHAPEL HILL -- Scientists have worked for 20 years to perfect gene therapy for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, which causes the body to produce dehydrated, thicker-than-normal mucus that clogs the lungs and leads to life threatening infections.

TUCSON, ARIZ. -- It is an amazing sight: What looks like a tiny beating heart is actually a piece of synthetic, gauze-like mesh, barely the size of a fingernail, floating in a Petri dish. And yet it keeps squeezing away, nice and rhythmically.

Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering students have demonstrated a practical way to embed a patient's own adult stem cells in the surgical thread that doctors use to repair serious orthopedic injuries such as ruptured tendons. The goal, the students said, is to enhance healing and reduce the likelihood of re-injury without changing the surgical procedure itself.

Placebos are a sham -- usually mere sugar pills designed to represent "no treatment" in a clinical treatment study. The effectiveness of the actual medication is compared with the placebo to determine if the medication works.

HIV Susceptibility Testing Increases Patient Survival

A switch from annual to multiyear colonies and a willingness to feed just about any prey to their young have allowed invasive yellowjacket wasps to disrupt native populations of insects and spiders on two Hawaiian islands, a new study has found.

Scientists at MIT have figured out a key step toward the design of quantum information networks. The results are reported in the July 20th issue of Physical Review Letters and highlighted in APS's on-line journal Physics (physics.aps.org).

Are relaxation and leisure arts or sciences? This is about the art and science of sailing. Walter Cronkite, the retired CBS Television newsman and world-class leisure sailor, clearly thought sailing is an art – and a science. He reflected on sailing as an artful, skillful, scientific approach to living. He was a lifetime cruising yachtsman who reflected on the science of designing sailboats, the art of sailing, the pleasures of the seashore and the coasts; the joys of women, the outdoors, relaxation and world adventure; the challenge of leadership, teamwork and youthful careers. I interviewed Walter Cronkite when I wrote about world-class yacht racing for Sailing Magazine.

1, 2 & 3: Three critiques of Evans & Reimer 's

Sometimes its easier to smash what exists and start from scratch than to try to fix every socio-economical problem. So, to heck with it, instead of saving the Earth, lets just make spindizzies and move on already..

PS..sorry if this isn't exactly a science based blog..I'm just in a foul mood and feel like venting.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- A protein in influenza virus that helps it multiply also damages lung epithelial cells, causing fluid buildup in the lungs, according to new research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and Southern Research Institute .

It's not too often that two tropical cyclones are close enough to each other to be within a satellite's view as it tracks far above the Earth, but it happened this week with Carlos and Dolores in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.