NewScITech

Oxford scientists have for the first time revealed a link between a gene and the activity of human stem cells, giving hope that stem cell transplant success for blood cancer patients may be significantly improved. Read the rest of this entry »

A protein acting as a long-distance signal from leaf to shoot-tip tells plants when to flower, says new research published in Science Express on Thursday 19 April 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

In a breakthrough that could free nanomachines from the bulk of batteries, researchers have developed a novel nanogenerator–an array of tiny filaments that converts the smallest motions into electrical current. Read the rest of this entry »

When it comes to research at the nanoscale, vision is not necessarily an advantage. The subjects are so small, no one can see them. To encourage people with visual impairments to pursue fields in nanotechnology, educators have developed a way to craft accurate, detailed and touch-friendly models of nanoscale objects like carbon nanofibers, allowing the students to “see” those objects for the first time. Read the rest of this entry »

Solving a mystery that has puzzled scientists for decades, MIT and Harvard researchers have discovered the final piece of the synthesis pathway of vitamin B12–the only vitamin synthesized exclusively by microorganisms. Read the rest of this entry »

MIT researchers have created an inexpensive method to screen for millions of different biomolecules (DNA, proteins, etc.) in a single sample–a technology that could make possible the development of low-cost clinical bedside diagnostics. Read the rest of this entry »

A new understanding of how plants manage their internal calcium levels could lead to modifying plants to avoid damage from acid rain. The pollutant disrupts calcium balance in plants by leaching significant amounts of the mineral from leaves as well as the agricultural and forest soils the plants live in. Read the rest of this entry »

Frog skin and human lungs hold secrets to developing new antibiotics, and a technique called solid-state NMR spectroscopy is a key to unlocking those secrets. Read the rest of this entry »

New drugs could be discovered much faster thanks to a screening process developed by scientists at the University of Oxford. The process is over 1500 times faster than current techniques. It works by searching a database of molecules for those with a similar shape to known drugs; as molecules with similar shapes are likely to have similar properties. The new method could bring huge benefits for the pharmaceutical industry and have many other uses including creating a new breed of Internet search engine. Read the rest of this entry »

For as many as 200 million people worldwide infected with hepatitis C, a leading cause of chronic liver disease, treatment options are only partially effective. But new research by Rockefeller University scientists points to a potential new target for better drugs: a key protein that resides in human liver cells that hepatitis C requires for entry. Read the rest of this entry »

A big problem facing Americans and Europeans is the dangerous rise in blood pressure with age, increasing their risk of heart disease and diabetes. Kuna Indians living off the Caribbean coast of Panama don’t have that problem. Norman Hollenberg, a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School, is convinced that it’s because they drink more than five cups of cocoa a day. Read the rest of this entry »

Two enzymes in meningitis bacteria which prevent the body from successfully fighting off the disease, and make the infection extremely virulent, have been identified in new research published today. Read the rest of this entry »

Longer-lasting laptop and mobile phone batteries could be a step closer thanks to research by scientists at the University of Oxford. Researchers from Oxford’s Department of Physics are part of an international team investigating sodium cobaltate: a material similar in structure to the lithium cobaltate used in rechargeable batteries for many electronic devices. Read the rest of this entry »

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have successfully generated electricity from heat by trapping organic molecules between metal nanoparticles, an achievement that could pave the way toward the development of a new source for energy. Read the rest of this entry »

Using corncob waste as a starting material, researchers have created carbon briquettes with complex nanopores capable of storing natural gas at an unprecedented density of 180 times their own volume and at one seventh the pressure of conventional natural gas tanks. Read the rest of this entry »