science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Τετάρτη 18 Ιουλίου 2012

Science News SciGuru.com

Improved survival for patients with chronic blood diseases
A magnification of two million: Telescope network zooms in on the heart of a distant quasar
Genetic Test May Reduce Need for Repeat Biopsy for Prostate Cancer
UCLA bioengineers find objects moving in a stream create constructive wakes
Caltech Researchers Find Evidence of Link between Immune Irregularities and Autism
Autonomous robot maps ship hulls for mines

Improved survival for patients with chronic blood diseases

Posted: 18 Jul 2012 07:19 AM PDT

New research from Karolinska Institutet shows that the survival for patients with chronic myeloproliferative diseases has improved in recent decades. This is despite the fact that no targeted drugs have yet been registered for this group of diseases. More than 9,000 patients have been included in a unique population-based study which has been published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

A magnification of two million: Telescope network zooms in on the heart of a distant quasar

Posted: 18 Jul 2012 07:12 AM PDT

An international team led by scientists from the Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy has succeeded in observing the heart of a distant quasar with unprecedented sharpness, or angular resolution. The observations, made by connecting radio telescopes on different continents, are a crucial step towards a dramatic scientific goal: to depict the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own galaxy and also the central black holes in other nearby galaxies.

Genetic Test May Reduce Need for Repeat Biopsy for Prostate Cancer

Posted: 17 Jul 2012 08:03 PM PDT

Karim Kader, MD, PhD, associate clinical professor at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, together with a team of researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, have developed a genetic test to predict a man’s risk for prostate cancer. Use of the test could reduce the need for repeat biopsies in men who have had a negative biopsy. Results of the multicenter study were recently published online in the journal of European Urology.

UCLA bioengineers find objects moving in a stream create constructive wakes

Posted: 17 Jul 2012 12:05 PM PDT

From driftwood traveling down a river to a blood cell flowing through your artery, objects moving in a stream of fluid are mostly thought to passively go with the flow but not disturb it in controllable ways.

Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have recently found that objects within a confined stream create controllable disturbances that can be used to move mass or heat at high rates, potentially providing simple solutions to performing chemical reactions on particles or cooling microelectronic chips.

Caltech Researchers Find Evidence of Link between Immune Irregularities and Autism

Posted: 17 Jul 2012 11:52 AM PDT

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) pioneered the study of the link between irregularities in the immune system and neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism a decade ago. Since then, studies of postmortem brains and of individuals with autism, as well as epidemiological studies, have supported the correlation between alterations in the immune system and autism spectrum disorder.

Autonomous robot maps ship hulls for mines

Posted: 17 Jul 2012 08:13 AM PDT

For years, the U.S. Navy has employed human divers, equipped with sonar cameras, to search for underwater mines attached to ship hulls. The Navy has also trained dolphins and sea lions to search for bombs on and around vessels. While animals can cover a large area in a short amount of time, they are costly to train and care for, and don’t always perform as expected.