The famous astronomer Sir Patrick Moore, who brought the heavens to the people in his extremely popular British monthly 'Sky at Night' television programme, which has been on the air since 1957, celebrated his 83rd birthday recently. Read more…
Many hotels, cemeteries and prisons are said to be haunted. Places like Alcatraz, Stull Cemetery in Kansas City, Kansas and the Adams Mark hotel in Buffalo, New York are said to have ghost roaming around. Why do ghosts tend to stay in certain locations and keep far away from others? Read more…
Scientists explain.Channel: Science Tags: science video cricket suicide Read more…
HOUSTON, Texas (AFP) - Astronauts will undertake an unplanned fourth space walk Monday to try to dislodge a stuck solar array on the International Space Station after they failed to solve the problem Saturday.Channel: Science Tags: spacewalk space astronauts ISS NASA shuttle Read more…
The first Adelie penguin chicks of the season -- black fluffballs small enough to hold in the hand -- started hatching this month, and the simple fact that there are more of them in the south and fewer of them further north is a sign of global warming, scientists say.Channel: Science Tags: global warming penguins Read more…
One of the most tantalising studies in forensic science appears to have ended in disappointment. The preliminary conclusion by a team of experts trying to determine whether a rib bone and a piece of cloth were the remains of Joan of Arc is that the items are probably not connected to the 15th century French heroine.Channel: Science Tags: joan of arc forensic science mystery solved Read more…
Reuters - A Hindu wedding ceremony of 18 dogs has been called off in Jaipur after hardline religious groups and animal rights activists said it was a mockery of the religion and cruel to the canines, a newspaper reported on Sunday. Read more…
AP - The six largest automakers asked a federal judge to toss out a lawsuit by California that accuses them of harming human health and the environment by producing vehicles that contribute to global warming. Read more…
AP - A rib bone and a piece of cloth supposedly recovered after Joan of Arc was burned at the stake are probably not hers, according to experts trying to unravel one of the mysteries surrounding the 15th century French heroine. Read more…
Men with osteoarthritis in the knee experience more severe pain and more loss of cartilage if they smoke. Read more…
A remarkable micromotor will allow tiny robots to swim like an E. coli bacterium, which uses its flagella to move around. Read more…
The IUD might be one of the best-kept birth control secrets for young women, according to researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Read more…
A new insulation material with the lowest thermal conductivity ever measured for a fully dense solid has been created at the University of Oregon and tested by researchers at three other US institutions. Read more…
Based on experiments with worms similar to those that infest millions of children in the tropics, researchers see potential for a new way to treat asthma. Parasitic infections and asthma may cause the human immune system to react in some of the same ways, and may one day be cured by manipulating some of the same proteins, according to research published today in the journal Science. Read more…
A new process for chemical patterning combines molecular self-assembly with traditional lithography to create multifunctional surfaces in precise patterns at the molecular level. The process allows scientists to create surfaces with varied chemical functionalities and promises to extend lithography to applications beyond traditional semiconductors. The new technique, which could have a number of practical chemical and biochemical applications, will be described in the December 22, 2006 issue of the journal Advanced Materials. Read more…
More than a decade of searching for factors that make the common parasite Toxoplasma gondii dangerous to humans has pinned 90 percent of the blame on just one of the parasite's approximately 6,000 genes. The finding, presented in this week's issue of Science, should make it easier to identify the parasite's most virulent strains and treat them. Read more…
Scientific, technological and medical advances made in the past two decades are leading to more definitive diagnoses, earlier and more effective treatment options and better outcomes for patients suffering from a condition called acromegaly, according to an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine and authored by a specialist in endocrinology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Read more…
Toxoplasma is arguably the most successful animal parasite on earth: It infects hundreds of species of warm-blooded animals, most notably half of humanity. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified two of the proteins critical to its ability to thrive. Read more…
Expression of two different proteins taken from primary tumor biopsies is highly associated with spread of breast cancer to nearby lymph nodes, according to researchers who say this protein profile could help identify at an early stage those patients whose disease is likely to metastasize. Read more…
A solar outburst, which can play havoc with global positioning systems and cell phone reception, bombarded Earth, Dec. 6, 2006, with a record amount of radio noise, said solar physicist Dale Gary. Read more…
Nation-wide statistics indicate that while some types of cancer are occurring less frequently, the rates of others are still surging upward. According to a new study published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, incidence of skin cancer is climbing in both sexes -- more men are facing prostate cancer, while more women are diagnosed with breast cancer. Cancers showing a decrease in incidence in both sexes include lung, stomach and colon cancers. Read more…
Social stigma and feeling lifeless and/or alienated from one's peers are some of the reasons why children and adolescents stop taking prescription stimulant medications used to treat attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a new study published in the Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing. Read more…
A new five-year project headed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory is expected to lead to a more in-depth understanding of natural and other approaches to clean up contaminated sites around the nation. Read more…
When a person lies down, a small amount of fluid displaced from the legs to the base of the neck can narrow soft tissue around the throat and increase airflow resistance in the pharynx by more than 100 percent, predisposing the person to obstructive sleep apnea. Read more…
