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• JILA Frequency Comb Helps Evaluate Novel Biomedical Decontamination Method
• Perfecting carbon nanotubes for highly energy-efficient computing
• Environmental Factors Spread Obesity, City College of New York Led Team Reports
• On the edge of time and space: Galaxy HDF850.1 can be seen as it was 12.5 billion years ago
• New action for ancient heart drug Foxglove
• Six new stem cell lines now publicly available to help researchers find treatments for disease

JILA Frequency Comb Helps Evaluate Novel Biomedical Decontamination Method Posted: 14 Jun 2012 02:07 PM PDT Like many new measurement tools, the laser frequency comb seemed at first a curiosity but has found more practical uses than originally imagined. The technique for making extraordinarily precise measurements of frequency has now moved beyond physics and optics to advance biomedicine by helping researchers evaluate a novel instrument that kills harmful bacteria without the use of liquid chemicals or high temperatures. read more

Perfecting carbon nanotubes for highly energy-efficient computing Posted: 14 Jun 2012 11:37 AM PDT Energy efficiency is the most significant challenge standing in the way of continued miniaturization of electronic systems, and miniaturization is the principal driver of the semiconductor industry. “As we approach the ultimate limits of Moore’s Law, however, silicon will have to be replaced in order to miniaturize further,” said Jeffrey Bokor, deputy director for science at the Molecular Foundry at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Professor at UC-Berkeley. read more

Environmental Factors Spread Obesity, City College of New York Led Team Reports Posted: 14 Jun 2012 10:45 AM PDT An international team of researchers’ study of the spatial patterns of the spread of obesity suggests America’s bulging waistlines may have more to do with collective behavior than genetics or individual choices. The team, led by City College of New York physicist Hernán Makse, found correlations between the epidemic’s geography and food marketing and distribution patterns. read more

On the edge of time and space: Galaxy HDF850.1 can be seen as it was 12.5 billion years ago Posted: 14 Jun 2012 08:29 AM PDT In observations with optical light telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, HDF850.1 is completely invisible. From other surveys, however, scientists knew that the object is one of the most productive star-forming galaxies in the observable universe – a Milky Way system with the extremely high stellar birth rate of 1,000 suns per year. A team of astronomers led by Fabian Walter of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy has now managed for the first time to determine the distance of the galaxy HDF850.1. read more

New action for ancient heart drug Foxglove Posted: 14 Jun 2012 08:14 AM PDT An ancient heart drug that’s inspired the work of herbalists and poets for centuries may treat a condition that plagues millions of overstressed and overweight Americans today. Since the 13th century, the herb Foxglove has been used to cleanse wounds and its dried leaves were brewed by Native Americans to treat leg swelling caused by heart problems. read more

Six new stem cell lines now publicly available to help researchers find treatments for disease Posted: 14 Jun 2012 08:00 AM PDT Six new human embryonic stem cell lines derived at the University of Michigan have just been placed on the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s registry, making the cells available for federally-funded research. University of Michigan now has a total of eight cell lines on the registry, including five that carry genetic mutations for serious diseases such as the severe bleeding disorder hemophilia B, the fatal brain disorder Huntington’s disease and the heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which causes sudden death in athletes and others. read more

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