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Why do Scots Die Younger?
New method for the treatment of visual field defects
Researchers restore neuron function to brains damaged by Huntington’s disease
Scientists found a method to lock single gold atoms on a surface
Ketamine Improved Bipolar Depression within Minutes
Mathematicians can conjure matter waves inside an invisible hat
Short movies stored in an atomic vapor
Discovery of historical photos sheds light on greenland ice loss
16th-century Korean mummy provides clue to hepatitis B virus genetic code

Posted: 30 May 2012 06:05 AM PDT

Life expectancy in Scotland is markedly lower compared to other European nations and the UK as a whole. But what are the reasons for this higher mortality? An explanatory framework, synthesising the evidence is published this month in Public Health.

New method for the treatment of visual field defects

Posted: 30 May 2012 05:27 AM PDT

Patients who are blind in one side of their visual field benefit from presentation of sounds on the affected side. After passively hearing sounds for an hour, their visual detection of light stimuli in the blind half of their visual field improved significantly. Neural pathways that simultaneously process information from different senses are responsible for this effect. “We have embarked on a whole new therapy approach” says PD Dr. Jörg Lewald from the RUB’s Cognitive Psychology Unit.

Researchers restore neuron function to brains damaged by Huntington’s disease

Posted: 30 May 2012 05:22 AM PDT

Researchers from Sweden , South Korea and the United States have collaborated on a project to restore neuron function to parts of the brain damaged by Huntington’s disease (HD) by successfully transplanting HD-induced pluripotent stem cells into animal models.

Scientists found a method to lock single gold atoms on a surface

Posted: 30 May 2012 04:30 AM PDT

Most people value large chunks of gold – but scientists at the Vienna University of Technology are interested in gold at the smallest possible scale, because single gold atoms are potentially the most reactive catalysts for chemical reactions. However, when gold atoms are placed on a surface they tend to ball up into tiny nuggets consisting of several atoms. A team of surface scientists now managed to fix single gold atoms on special sites of an iron-oxide surface. This could open the door to more efficient catalysts, requiring less of the precious material.

Ketamine Improved Bipolar Depression within Minutes

Posted: 30 May 2012 04:12 AM PDT

Bipolar disorder is a serious and debilitating condition where individuals experience severe swings in mood between mania and depression. The episodes of low or elevated mood can last days or months, and the risk of suicide is high.

Mathematicians can conjure matter waves inside an invisible hat

Posted: 29 May 2012 01:18 PM PDT

Invisibility, once the subject of magic or legend, is slowly becoming reality. Over the past five years mathematicians and other scientists have been working on devices that enable invisibility cloaks – perhaps not yet concealing Harry Potter, but at least shielding small objects from detection by microwaves or sound waves.

Short movies stored in an atomic vapor

Posted: 29 May 2012 12:59 PM PDT

The storage of light-encoded messages on film and compact disks and as holograms is ubiquitous---grocery scanners, Netflix disks, credit-card images are just a few examples. And now light signals can be stored as patterns in a room-temperature vapor of atoms. Scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute have stored not one but two letters of the alphabet in a tiny cell filled with rubidium (Rb) atoms which are tailored to absorb and later re-emit messages on demand.

Discovery of historical photos sheds light on greenland ice loss

Posted: 29 May 2012 12:28 PM PDT

A chance discovery of 80-year-old photo plates in a Danish basement is providing new insight into how Greenland glaciers are melting today.

Researchers at the National Survey and Cadastre of Denmark - that country's federal agency responsible for surveys and mapping - had been storing the glass plates since explorer Knud Rasmussen's expedition to the southeast coast of Greenland in the early 1930s.

16th-century Korean mummy provides clue to hepatitis B virus genetic code

Posted: 29 May 2012 07:32 AM PDT

The discovery of a mummified Korean child with relatively preserved organs enabled an Israeli-South Korean scientific team to conduct a genetic analysis on a liver biopsy which revealed a unique hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype C2 sequence common in Southeast Asia.