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(01/18/12 6:27am)
2011 was an important year in science. In January, scientists used the Kepler space telescope to find the smallest planet ever discovered until that point, while in March scientists in Fukushima attempted to contain the nuclear meltdown following the tsunami. Furthermore, the U.S. government said its last hurrah to its space program with the shuttle Atlantis. Even more interestingly, at the end of the year, OPERA scientists furiously scratched their heads about the possibilities posed by the speed of neutrinos.
(11/09/11 9:12am)
Contact lenses have empowered those who wished to change their eye color during the past few years. However, for others this temporary change is not enough. Dr. Gregg Homer hopes to take the "art" of eye color changing technology another step. Homer, who received his doctorate from Stanford University, is developing a laser which when pointed at the eye for 20 seconds can change the color in two weeks. Currently the procedure only works to change brown eyes blue through oblation of the melanin pigment and cannot turn blue eyes brown.
(10/05/11 4:00am)
During my adventures as a 4-year old, one of my favorite games played out as follows: 1) Standing at the doorway; 2) Turning the light switch on; 3) Beating the light to the center of the room.
(08/31/11 5:17am)
The University opened its doors April 4 to a new developmental saga - the Emily Couric Cancer Center. With the intention of providing better care to its patients, the center has been committed to studying the disease from a clinical perspective. To do so, the center has revolutionized how it has approached the study and treatment of cancer.
(08/24/11 4:34am)
Surgeons are using a new incisionless form of surgery called PerOral Endoscopic Myotomy to treat esophageal disorders.
(03/02/11 6:45am)
What: International FRET Symposium and Workshop on FRET Microscopy, both hosted by the Keck Center for Cellular Imaging
(10/20/10 5:00am)
Genetics as a field has affected many aspects of daily life, but its implications for the business world remain controversial.
(09/08/10 5:48am)
In Cavendish, Vt., a 25-year-old railway worker's left frontal lobe was severed by a 43-inch-long cylindrical tamping iron, propelled by a railway construction explosion.
(08/25/10 4:53am)
Yoga has conventionally been accepted as a meditative practice that simply promotes personal serenity and health. Now, however, researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine, in collaboration with McLean Hospital, believe yoga also can be used to treat depression. The researchers' findings, published in the May issue of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, claimed that practicing yoga boosts the brain's levels of the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA. Depression is typically characterized by low levels of GABA. The researchers separated individuals into two groups: those who practiced yoga for an hour and those who read for an hour. Using Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic imaging, or MRS, the researchers measured GABA levels before and after the hour-long trials. The results found not only that the yoga group's members had higher GABA levels but that they also had less anxiety and better moods. As a result, the researchers believe yoga could be used as treatment for a wide range of anxiety disorders, which might be particularly appealing to individuals because it is "inexpensive, and widely applicable," said Perry Renshaw, the study's senior author.
(08/25/10 4:52am)
Who: The Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment satellites developed by Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, Iridium Communications Inc. and The Boeing Company
(08/25/10 4:51am)
Out of the entire human genome, only 2 percent is known to code for functional genes. The remaining 98 percent - known as "junk DNA." - has generally been thought to be unused by the body. A study recently published in "Science," however, has shown that certain sequences of junk DNA may have the ability to come back to life. This movie-like "Zombie DNA" has severe - and, perhaps, frightening - implications, as researchers have discovered a particular set of junk DNA that, once active, causes facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, or FSHD, an inherited disease that causes weakening of the muscles of the face and shoulder. The study pinpointed a repeating set of "zombie DNA," with a certain mutation causing it to become activated. Researchers are now looking for different treatments to avoid activating the set of DNA, thwarting cases of FSHD. Researchers are keen to continue "zombie" DNA research, as its success with explaining FSHD will hopefully help find treatments to other diseases as well.
(04/28/10 4:18am)
Who: Slovenian electric airplane company Pipestrel, which has already taken orders for a two-seater plane.
(04/28/10 4:16am)
Titan, Saturn's biggest moon, has long been known to contain a dense atmosphere and a frigid environment. Because of these conditions, scientists believed sustaining life on this moon would be difficult, perhaps to the point of being almost impossible. Later on, the Cassini-Huygens Mission, which launched in 1997 and reached Saturn in 2004, revealed concentrations of liquid hydrocarbon lakes covering about 10 percent of Titan's surface. It was this attribute of Titan that excited researcher Dirk Schulze-Makuch when he and his colleagues found an abundance - about 10
(04/28/10 4:14am)
An apology to end an argument with a female friend has twice the number of benefits: the argument is over, and it also could decrease her chances of a heart attack. Recent studies coming out of the University of Massachusetts' medical school have claimed that a well-timed "sorry" could help a woman's blood pressure return to its normal level 20 percent faster than usual. Men do not seem to respond as positively, however, because the study suggests that their blood pressure takes 20 percent longer to return to normal after hearing an apology. Results were measured by having male and female subjects take a math test, during which researchers impatiently interrupted the test takers three times, telling them to "hurry up." After the test, subjects were told they were "obviously not good enough." Researchers later apologized for this behavior, but only to half of the participants. Women who received an apology seemed to calm down much faster, even as men who received apologies showed the exact opposite reaction. If those elevated blood pressure levels persist into the long term, though, they greatly enhance the chances for stroke and heart attack.
(04/14/10 4:32am)
Who: The female "Robo-Clone" Geminoid F, developed by designer Kokoro with Intelligent Robotics Laboratory
(04/14/10 4:31am)
What has four legs, warts and the ability to sense earthquakes days before they occur? The TOAD! A recent study has shown that a population of common European toads, Bufo bufo, may be able to sense seismic activity days before an earthquake occurs. A breeding study in 2009 in L' Aquila, Italy, by the United Kingdom's The Open University researcher Rachel Grant observed a sharp decline in toad population five days before a 6.3-magnitude earthquake occurred 74 kilometers away. The breeding toads left the area three days before the earthquake, only to return five days after the post-aftershock to resume breeding. No mechanism for the toads' detection has been confirmed, however, although Grant has postulated this detection is the result of an increase in the atmosphere's radon gas levels emitted from the soil because of pressure buildup preceding an earthquake. She also surmised that breeding toads fled because of detection of slight tremors before the earthquake undetected by humans. Other hypotheses include a toad's ability to detect very low frequency radio sounds. The findings do not go without criticism, however, as sciences such as seismologist Roger Musson attribute the phenomenon to coincidence rather than a scientific breakthrough.
(04/14/10 4:30am)
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believe they found a way to alter morality. Applying a strong magnetic field to the right tempero-parietal junction, thought to be the moral center of the brain, MIT Scientist Liane Young and her colleagues demonstrated that a magnetic field separates intentions from expected outcomes. For example, the group used a scenario where a boyfriend walked his girlfriend across a bridge with two different intentions: one, no harm intended; or two, to break her ankle. They found that the magnetic field made it harder for the subject to determine the boyfriend's intention and instead made judgments based on the outcome. Hence, if a situation had good intentions but bad outcomes, then a test subject would focus more on the situation's bad outcome. To quantify their data, test subjects ranked the "moral acceptability" of the scenario on a seven-point scale. Relative to control subjects, differences came down to one point, indicating that the experiment did not completely remove the sense of morality. In addition to providing insight into how morality is organized in the brain, Young believes the finding could have other implications. The magnetic field can lead juries to determine guilt based on the outcome rather than a criminal's intentions. Although far more research must be conducted before discovering the full extent of its applications, the finding nevertheless provides a powerful link between the moral mind and physical brain.
(03/31/10 5:40am)
December 1998: The year Pet Assisted Therapy began at St. Mary's Hospital for children as a pilot program