UC Riverside physicists are able to see for the first time in the laboratory that positronium atoms (each of which is made up of an electron and its antimatter counterpart, called the positron), become more unstable than usual after colliding with one another, turning into gamma radiation.
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Writers who use long words needlessly and choose complicated font styles are seen as less intelligent than those who stick with basic vocabulary and plain text, according to new research from the Princeton University in New Jersey, to be published in the next edition of Applied Cognitive Psychology.
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John Federici, PhD, professor, department of physics, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and other physicists at NJIT recently received a U.S. Patent for a Teraherz imaging system and method. Since 1995, Terahertz imaging has grown in importance as new and sophisticated devices and equipment have empowered scientists to understand its potential.
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Researchers at Northwestern University have discovered a key signaling mechanism that may promote the ability of highly aggressive malignant melanoma cells to metastasize, or spread from a primary tumor to distant sites within the body. Results of their study, published in the November issue of Cancer Research, suggest that the signaling mechanism may be a potential target for prevention of metastatic melanoma.
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Getting a juicy cut of meat isn’t always the easiest of tasks. Juiciness is governed by how much fat–called marbling fat–is woven within the muscles. But the likelihood of getting a juicy steak or chop may increase in the future, thanks to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists who are studying a class of compounds that increase marbling fat in livestock.
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People who take high doses of ibuprofen on a regular basis are three times more likely to experience gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding than those who do not take painkillers. Results of a small, retrospective analysis published today in the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology show that significant GI bleeding can be observed as early as three days after starting an ibuprofen regimen in otherwise healthy people.
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For many years, regulatory agencies have used chemical standards to assess water quality. Now, researchers are discovering how biological criteria can complement chemical standards to assess the status of water bodies, including streams, rivers, lakes, and estuaries.
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Visual information can be processed unconsciously when the area of the brain that records what the eye sees is temporarily shut down, according to research at Rice University in Houston. The study suggests the brain has more than one pathway along which visual information can be sent.
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Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have set a new world’s record by performing the first million-atom computer simulation in biology. Using the “Q Machine” supercomputer, Los Alamos computer scientists have created a molecular simulation of the cell’s protein-making structure, the ribosome. The project, simulating 2.64 million atoms in motion, is more than six times larger than any biological simulations performed to date.
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Researchers examined the effect of combining two treatments, gene therapy and oral medication, in blind mice that did not have the LRAT enzyme. They report these treatments “provide highly effective and complementary means for restoring retinal function in this animal model of human hereditary blindness.”
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