2010 News & Careers
Did you know that each year, 4.6 million tons of electronic waste finds its way to landfills? This includes tens of thousands of televisions, computers, cell phones, PDAs, and various other consumer electronics. These products frequently end up in landfills because the plastics that are used to make them cannot be remelted or reshaped, and therefore cannot be reused.
Mathematics has long been an advance branch of knowledge, even for humans, but recent research shows that rhesus monkeys can learn and apply basic mathematical concepts, such as the Greater-Than or Less-Than rules. Results from this study, done by researchers at the Institute of Neurobiology at University of Tubingen in Germany, was published in the online January 18 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Imagine being trapped in space with an enemy that grows stronger as you grow weaker. That's what astronauts on a long trip to Mars will have to face, concludes a report published in the November 2009 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. The authors found that spaceflight weakens the immune system while strengthening harmful microbes, increasing risk of serious infection and potentially preventing long-term manned missions.
Despite many efforts toward the eradication of mosquito-borne illnesses, they still afflict tens of millions of people each year. However, recent findings suggest that the introduction of a common insect bacterium into natural mosquito populations may help prevent the spread of such diseases. In a December 2009 Cell publication, scientists reported that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes infected with the bacterium Wolbachia have significantly shorter life spans.
In the December 22, 2008 special energy issue of Optics Express, the Optical Society of America's open-access journal, Professor Anastasios Melis and graduate student Mautusi Mitra of the University of California, Berkeley, described a new method for using microalgae to make biofuel. Such a method may make it possible to produce fuel at a rate of 30 times that of other biofuels, greatly reducing production costs and ultimately providing a cheaper, renewable source of fuel.
Nearly everyone uses plastic every day. But did you know that this seemingly innocuous material might be hurting our hearts at the same time? Bisphenol A, or BPA, is a major component of plastics and is found in many objects such as PVC pipes, food cans, and drink containers. Detectable in the bodies of 90% of the American population, it is one of the most widely produced and used chemicals. Recent studies have shown that there is a link between high levels of BPA and heart disease.
This past summer, researchers at Rice University published a paper that could revolutionize the way in which vaccines are manufactured, assisting thousands of people during the current H1N1 virus crisis. Rice Professor of Biochemical and Genetic Engineering Michael Deem came up with a new way of making vaccines, which may be applicable to researchers creating a vaccine for H1N1 "swine" flu. This paper was recently published in the journal Protein Engineering, Design, & Selection.
Fans of excessively loud music may soon be able to treat their noise-induced tinnitus with altered versions of the very songs that caused it. Tinnitus, or "ringing of the ears," is characterized by perception of a tone, often of a particular frequency, when no sound is externally present.
March 25, 2010, at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Tongxiang Fan, and his colleagues, Di zhang, and Han Zhou from State Key Lab of Matrix Composites at Shanghai Jiaotong University, reported a novel design to increase the efficiency of utilizing solar energy to catalyze water into hydrogen fuel. Inspired from the structure of leaves, Fan's group have made Artificial Inorganic Leaf (AIL) with TiO2 increasing the efficiency more than 30 times that of conventional TiO2 catalysis.
Previous debates of whether tuberculosis (TB)-HIV patients should receive treatment for both diseases simultaneously have been resolved. A clinical trial study recently published in the February 25th issue of The New England Journal of Medicine shows that mortality was significantly reduced in co-infected TB and HIV patients when they were treated for both diseases simultaneously. Medical physicians and researchers from participating institutions, including Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and University of KwaZulu-Natal, collaborated on a research study to find that treatment for HIV should be initiated during TB treatment therapy.
A recent study on diabetic mice showed that the pancreas can recreate insulin-producing cells through a cell conversion process. This process, as the scientists discovered, can effectively treat Type I diabetes. Researchers from the University of Geneva, Switzerland report this exciting result in the April 4 issue of Nature.
Diabetes and obesity are major leading causes of death and disability across the world, together afflicting over 450 million individuals. These diseases are similar in that both are characterized by disruptions of nutrient balance within the body: diabetes results in elevated sugar levels in the blood, while obesity leads to an accumulation of fat in body tissues.
Researchers at Columbia University recently developed a method of cell migration, which has the ability to successfully regenerate cartilage cells in rabbits' joints. This discovery is significant as it provides the potential to repair and customize entire segments of joint tissue. Jeremy Mao published his group's findings online in The Lancet this July.
In the July 28th issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, new information was released regarding the correlation between the brain, low-calorie diets, and a longer lifespan. The study, involving a protein called SIRT1, was conducted by Shin-ichiro Imai, a Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis.
A recent study showed that oral contraceptives (OC) and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) could protect against the formation of brain aneurysms and rupture of cerebral blood vessels in postmenopausal women. Researchers from Rush University presented their findings at the 7th annual meeting of the Society of Neurointerventional Surgery in California.
When the mating game begins, a peacock unfolds its tail, a lion touts its mane, and a deer struts its antlers - but women reach for that little black dress. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, humans are no exception to these nonconscious primal techniques, and ovulating women in particular buy more provocative clothing, especially upon encountering attractive, nearby female rivals.
The August 20th issue of Science released new information on a method used to accurately measure dark energy. This method, which was developed by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and the European Space Agency, essentially advances our understanding of what dark energy actually does.
In August, University of Michigan researchers released information regarding the effects of combining two drugs to combat the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The two drugs, decitabine and gemcitabine, have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for cancer treatment. Together they cause the virus to evolve so much that it dies.
Researchers from the University of Kansas recently developed a drug that may bring relief to millions of diabetics who suffer from diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), a painful neurodegenerative complication. DPN results in pain from even light touches and ends in nerve death, complete loss of sensation, and sometimes amputation. In their April 11th paper (published online in ASN Neuro), the researchers explained that increasing the production of a protein called Hsp-70 (heat-shock protein 70) reverses this neural degeneration.
Astrophysicists are one step closer to estimating the age of our galaxy by shrinking their margin of error to less than a billion years, according to a trio of papers released mid-July in the journal Physical Review C.
A super-hot planet in the constellation Pegasus has blurred the lines between planets and comets: it is the first planet observed to have a tail. A recent study, led by Jeffrey Linsky of the University of Colorado at Boulder, found that the super-hot HD 209458b (colloquially known as "Osiris") has an evaporating atmosphere that has formed a tail behind the planet. Astronomers used the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope to determine the chemical composition and atmosphere of the planet, located about 153 light years from Earth. The findings are detailed in the July 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
Chocolate is one of the top ten agricultural commodities in the world and provides income for 6.5 million farmers in Africa, South America, and Asia. However, pests and fungi have plagued chocolate production in the past, but scientists are beginning to get the upper hand. In September, researchers released a preliminary sequence of the cacao genome in hopes of developing disease-resistant strains.
Since Robert Koch's discovery of the tuberculosis (TB) bacterium in 1882, scientists have developed several effective diagnostic technologies, treatments, and vaccinations for the disease. Yet, more than a century later, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately one-third of the world's population is still infected with M. tuberculosis and nearly two million people die annually as a result. Given the rising prevalence of the disease and the emergence of multi-drug resistant strains, several research groups across the globe have been working towards developing more effective strategies to combat this epidemic.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic is arguably one of the worst health crises in recent history, accounting for the premature deaths and disabilities of millions of individuals across the globe. Since 1981, AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) has killed over 25 million people and remains among the top five leading causes of mortality worldwide.A recent finding reported in the Cell Press Journal of Chemistry & Biology offers hope for a novel strategy in preventing entry of the HIV virus into host cells, thereby halting disease progression.
Think your rambunctious, inattentive child might have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)? According to a new study, he might simply be acting his age.