A defect in the mechanics of motors that build tiny cellular hairs is the basis of a serious genetic disorder, according to researchers at UC Davis and Simon Fraser University, Canada.
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Human teams aided by a software system can make decisions more accurately and quickly in time-stressed situations than teams of just people, according to the Penn State researchers who developed the new software.
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While navigation systems in automobiles are a fairly new (and still costly) innovation, monarch butterflies have managed for millennia to navigate their way for a distance of some 3000 miles (4800 kilometers) each fall from Canada to Mexico (and vice-versa in the spring) without losing their way. Now, the mystery of the mechanisms involved in this remarkable phenomenon has been resolved by a team of scientists.
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A team of engineers at the University of Liverpool has helped reproduce an ancient Iraqi harp — the Lyre of Ur. Engineers from the University’s Lairdside Laser Engineering Centre (LLEC) employed revolutionary laser technology to engrave authentic designs onto Gulf Shell (mother of pearl) — the original material used to decorate the body of the harp.
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Primary liver cancer is much more likely to take root when a naturally occurring enzyme is in short supply, a team of researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital’s Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute has found.
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A novel suitcase-sized telescope could revolutionise the way we see the Earth and other planets. ESA has supported the work of a group of students in developing the Dobson Space Telescope, being tested this month aboard ESA’s parabolic flight campaign aircraft.
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The mechanism in anti-Alzheimer’s disease drugs that inhibits the production of a destructive, inflammation-causing protein in the brain has been revealed by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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A highly powerful scanner combining two state-of-the-art technologies — computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) — may detect the spread of head and neck cancer more accurately than other widely used imaging examinations.
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When infested with parasites, tiger moth caterpillars develop a preferred taste for plant chemicals that are toxic to the parasites, researchers at the University of Arizona and Wesleyan University report in Nature. The change in feeding habits is the first known example of a parasite altering its host’s behavior to its own detriment.
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Chinese authorities order journalists to stay away from areas in Sichuan province, where an outbreak of pig-borne disease has killed 34 farmers, according to a Hong Kong newspaper. They are to use state dispatches in their reporting.
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