EurekAlert! - Chemistry, Physics and Materials Sciences

Society of Interventional Radiology hosts oncology therapies Webinar, offers resources

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Society of Interventional Radiology) Registration is now open for the Society of Interventional Radiology's "Image-guided Interventional Oncology Therapies" Webinar, which will provide the latest updates on percutaneous and transcatheter treatment of liver tumors, kidney tumor ablation and lung tumor ablation. SIR is a national organization of physicians, scientists and allied health professionals dedicated to improving public health through pioneering advances in image-guided therapy.

Monell Center joins with CAS to host Beijing meeting on taste and smell research

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Monell Chemical Senses Center) The Monell Center and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) are co-hosts of the Beijing International Meeting on Taste and Smell Research. Organized by Monell in collaboration with the CAS, the meeting will be the first international meeting on taste and smell to be held in China. The historic meeting will be held Nov. 15-17 at the Beijing Marriot Hotel City Wall.

Researchers find new way to attack inflammation in Graves' eye disease

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Michigan Health System) A small group of patients with severe Graves' eye disease experienced rapid improvement of their symptoms -- and improved vision -- following treatment with the drug rituximab. Inflammation around their eyes and damage to the optic nerve were significantly reduced. The same patients had not previously responded to steroids, a common treatment for Graves' eye disease.

Possible help in fight against muscle-wasting disease

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(University of Oregon) A compound already used to treat pneumonia could become a new therapy for an inherited muscular wasting disease. A five-member team of researchers from University of Oregon and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry report that pentamidine might be adapted to counter genetic splicing defects in RNA that lead to type 1 myotonic dystrophy.

Computer predicts reactions between molecules and surfaces, with ‘chemical precision’

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Leiden University) An international team of scientists from the Netherlands, Spain, Norway, Argentina and the United States has shown in a paper to be published in Science shortly how the chemistry of surface reactions underpinning catalysis can be modeled accurately with computers.

Past climate of the northern Antarctic Peninsular informs global warming debate

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK)) The seriousness of current global warming is underlined by a reconstruction of climate at Maxwell Bay in the South Shetland Islands of the Antarctic Peninsula over approximately the last 14,000 years, which appears to show that the current warming and widespread loss of glacial ice are unprecedented.

'Dropouts' pinpoint earliest galaxies

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Carnegie Institution) Astronomers, conducting the broadest survey to date of galaxies from about 800 million years after the Big Bang, have found 22 early galaxies and confirmed the age of one by its characteristic hydrogen signature at 787 million years post Big Bang. The finding is the first age-confirmation of a so-called dropout galaxy at that distant time and pinpoints when an era called the reionization epoch likely began.

Magnetic nanoparticles to simultaneously diagnose, monitor and treat

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Institute of Physics) The future for magentic nanoparticles (mNPs) appears bright With the design of "theranostic" molecules. mNPs could play a crucial role in developing one-stop tools to simultaneously diagnose, monitor and treat a wide range of common diseases and injuries.

Keystone Symposia announces new three-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Keystone Symposia on Molecular & Cellular Biology) Keystone Symposia is pleased to announce that it has received a second grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation worth $2.7 million over three years to fund meetings and Global Health Travel Awards in the Keystone Symposia Global Health Series. Currently, five 2010 scheduled conferences will fall within this grant. Keystone Symposia is offering a total of 52 conferences in its 2010 season in a diverse array of life science disciplines.

New synthetic molecules trigger immune response to HIV and prostate cancer

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Yale University) Researchers at Yale University have developed synthetic molecules capable of enhancing the body's immune response to HIV and HIV-infected cells, as well as to prostate cancer cells. Their findings, published online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, could lead to novel therapeutic approaches for these diseases.

Chemists describe solar energy progress and challenges, including the 'artificial leaf'

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(American Chemical Society) Scientists are making progress toward development of an "artificial leaf" that mimics a real leaf's chemical magic with photosynthesis -- but instead converts sunlight and water into a liquid fuel such as methanol for cars and trucks. That is among the conclusions in a newly-available report from top authorities on solar energy who met at the 1st Annual Chemical Sciences and Society Symposium. The symposium was organized by the American Chemical Society and other scientific societies.

DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory names 6 scientists as 2009 Fellows

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory) Antoinette "Toni" Taylor, Stephen Becker, Joachim Birn, Lowell Brown, Patrick Colestock and Samuel "Tom" Picraux have been designated 2009 Los Alamos National Laboratory Fellows in recognition of sustained, outstanding scientific contributions and exceptional promise for continued professional achievement.

Crossing the line: how aggressive cells invade the brain

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) Real-time observation sheds new light on multiple sclerosis.

Rice wins NIH funding for oral-cancer test

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Rice University) Rice University has won a $2 million NIH stimulus grant to develop an inexpensive test for oral cancer that a dentist or oral surgeon could perform by passing a brush over a suspicious lesion. Oral cancers have a five-year survival rate around 50 percent, largely because of late diagnoses. Rice's test would take less than 30 minutes, require no scalpels or off-site lab tests and could be ready for clinical tests within two years.

Massive Antarctic project takes Montana State University to one of Earth's final frontiers

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Montana State University) An "unparalleled opportunity" to drill through the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica and explore the world underneath it will involve Montana State University faculty and current and former students over the next five years.

Researchers explore new ways to prevent spinal cord damage using a vitamin B3 precursor

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medical College) Substances naturally produced by the human body may one day help prevent paralysis following a spinal cord injury, according to researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College. A recent $2.5 million grant from the New York State Spinal Cord Injury Research Board will fund their research investigating this possibility.

Stimulus grant to help MSU team improve drug development from plants

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Michigan State University) Scientists at Michigan State University are receiving nearly $3 million from the National Institutes of Health to uncover how several popular plants make medicinal compounds.

Are the Alps growing or shrinking?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres) The Alps are growing just as quickly in height, as they are shrinking. This paradoxical result could be proven by a group of German and Swiss geoscientists.

Does prostate-specific antigen velocity help in early detection prostate cancer?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(European Association of Urology) The November issue of European Urology, the official journal of the European Association of Urology, features an article focusing on prostate specific antigen velocity and early cancer detection. It has been suggested that changes in PSA over time aid prostate cancer detection.

November 2009 story tips from the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory) Fuel economy ratings for the new 2010 model year automobiles are posted at www.fueleconomy.gov, which ORNL maintains for the US Department of Energy and the US Environmental Protection Agency. A team led by ORNL's Nina Balke has moved closer to developing more rugged memory and logic devices. Heavy trucks are less heavy but just as safe and rugged because of steel rail frames. A new approach to crunching massive volumes of data uses neural networks like an artificial brain.

Boat tail reduces truck fuel consumption by 7.5 percent

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Delft University of Technology) A boat tail, a tapering protrusion mounted on the rear of a truck, leads to fuel savings of 7.5 percent. This is due to dramatically improved aerodynamics, as shown by road tests conducted by the Dutch PART (Platform for Aerodynamic Road Transport) public-private partnership platform.

Nanyang Technological University joins leading US innovation transfer network, the iBridge Network

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Nanyang Technological University) The iBridge (SM) Network, a program of the not-for-profit Kauffman Innovation Network, Inc., today announced that it has expanded internationally by signing the acclaimed Nanyang Technological University as its 100th member organization. The addition of Singapore's leading science and technology university clearly demonstrates the Network's commitment to providing industry leaders battling the global economic downturn with access to university-developed innovations, leading to further advances and next-generation products and services.

Jülich neutron scientists inaugurate unique device in the US

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres) A unique large-scale research device from Jülich went into operation in the US yesterday. At the strongest neutron source in the world, the spallation source SNS in Oak Ridge, Tenn., Forschungszentrum Jülich inaugurated a so-called neutron spin echo spectrometer. The NSE spectrometer enables detailed observations to be made of the motion of proteins and polymers. It will thus help to develop improved plastics or to understand metabolic processes in cells.

German high-school students involved in an astronomical research project

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Astronomy & Astrophysics) Astronomy & Astrophysics publishes the results of an unusual research project, by a team involving German high-school students. They present an accurate, long-term ephemeris of the cataclysmic variable EK Ursae Majoris, obtained using a professional remotely-controlled telescope.

PTB Terahertz calibration satisfies US laser manufacturer

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

(Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)) Terahertz radiation still lies in a metrological no man's land -- a metrology gap. The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt can now close this gap. For the first time, a commercial Terahertz laser was traced back to the international system of units by measuring its output power absolutely. Therefore, this laser is the first THz laser in the field with a reliably proven output power enabled by a novel calibration capability set up at the PTB.