Plans to drill deep beneath the frozen wastes of the Antarctic, to investigate subglacial lakes where ancient life is thought to exist, may have to be reviewed following a discovery by a British team led by UCL (University College London) scientists.
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Everybody has experienced a sense of “losing oneself” in an activity — whether a movie, sport, sex, or meditation. Now, researchers have caught the brain in the act of losing “self” as it shuts down introspection during a demanding sensory task. The researchers — led by Rafael Malach and Ilan Goldberg of the Weizmann Institute of Science reporting in the April 20, 2006, issue of Neuron — say their findings show that self-related function actually shuts down during such intense sensory tasks.
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Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have used lasers to cool and trap erbium atoms, a “rare earth” heavy metal with unusual optical, electronic and magnetic properties. The element has such a complex energy structure that it was previously considered too wild to trap.
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Variations in a gene seem to be linked to brain (cerebral) aneurysms, suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
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Scientists have found evidence for parallel evolution of an alternate genetic code in arthropod mitochondria (AGG is translated into lysine rather than serine), and correlated co-evolution of the tRNA-Lys/Ser anticodons, according to a study published in PLoS Biology.
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A high dietary intake of polyunsaturated fat and vitamin E seems to halve the risk of developing motor neurone disease, suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
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A new Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center study shows that exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, even at extremely low levels, is associated with behavior problems in children and pre-teens.
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Vulnerability to measles infection has risen sharply among nursery school children in Scotland since 1998, despite recent increases in MMR uptake, reveals research published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
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This month’s fetish includes Scott’s super-shock-absorbing bike, LG’s anti-drunk-dialing phone and Excalibur’s ultra-buoyant barcalounger. By Brian Lam from Wired magazine.
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A fast, high-resolution, 3D mouse embryo visualization technique developed by collaborators at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and the University of Utah will revolutionize the way birth defects and cancer genes are studied in animal models. That’s the prediction of the researchers in an article to be published online in PLoS Genetics on April 28, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal from the Public Library of Science.
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