Topic: SCIENCE - on June 17, 2004 at 12:31:00 PM CEST
Power implant aims to run on body heat
Life-saving medical implants like pacemakers and defibrillators face a big drawback: their batteries eventually run out. So every few years, patients need surgery to have the batteries replaced.
Now a company in New York state is planning to tackle the problem by providing patients with an implantable power source that recharges their implant's batteries using electricity generated by the patient's own body heat.
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Topic: SCIENCE - on June 17, 2004 at 11:48:00 AM CEST
Teleportation breakthrough made
Scientists have performed successful teleportation on atoms for the first time, the journal Nature reports.
The feat was achieved by two teams of researchers working independently on the problem in the US and Austria.
The ability to transfer key properties of one particle to another without using any physical link has until now only been achieved with laser light.
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Topic: SCIENCE - on June 17, 2004 at 8:18:00 AM CEST
A step closer to "Beam me up Scotty"
Scientists from the US and Australia have finally achieved what they called teleportation. The new breakthrough happened on massive particles (atoms) compared to Laser which was reported couple of years ago.
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Topic: SCIENCE - on June 10, 2004 at 4:49:00 PM CEST
Brain 'slows down after 40'
The human brain starts slowing down after the age of 40, according to new scientific research.
US scientists said genes start working less hard after 40, a discovery which may explain why mental functions deteriorate with age.
Researchers at The Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School studied brain tissue from 30 bodies ranging in age from 26 to 106. They studied 11,000 genes.
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Topic: SCIENCE - on June 7, 2004 at 9:33:00 PM CEST
Langzeit-Raumflüge machen unfruchtbar
Nach Meinung des russischen Mediziners und Raumfahrers Waleri Poljakow (62 Jahre), besteht die große Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass Kosmonauten bei längeren Aufenthalten im Weltraum, zum Beispiel einem Flug zum Mars, unfruchtbar werden.
Der Mediziner begründet dies mit der Weltraumstrahlung, Kalziummangel, sowie Muskelschwund. Diese Dinge würden sich äußerst negativ auf die Fruchtbarkeit auswirken.
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Topic: SCIENCE - on June 7, 2004 at 3:44:00 PM CEST
Zellen können "singen" und "murmeln" - Krankheiten sollen jetzt hörbar werden
Zwei Wissenschaftler der University of California in Los Angeles haben es mithilfe eines Rasterkraftmikroskops (AFM) geschafft die Vibrationen von Zellen zu erfassen und die resultierenden Töne am Computer zu verstärken.
Das AFM, dessen Spitze normalerweise zum Vermessen von Zellen benutzt wird, diente dabei als eine Art Plattenspieler. Auch wenn in der Fachwelt z.T. noch Skepsis herrscht, könnten die sphärischen Klänge der Zellen ein revolutionärer Durchbruch sein.
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Topic: SCIENCE - on June 6, 2004 at 11:02:00 PM CEST
Satellite images 'show Atlantis'
A scientist says he may have found remains of the lost city of Atlantis.
Satellite photos of southern Spain reveal features on the ground appearing to match descriptions made by Greek scholar Plato of the fabled utopia.
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Topic: SCIENCE - on June 4, 2004 at 6:21:00 PM CEST
"Junk-DNA": Perlen oder echter Abfall?
Regionen im Erbgut, denen man keine Funktion zuordnen kann, werden mitunter etwas despektierlich als "Junk-DNA" bezeichnet. Einer neuen Studie zufolge offenbar zurecht: Ein US-amerikanischer Genetiker hat Mäusen große Abschnitte solch genetischen Mülls aus dem Erbgut entfernt. Die Wirkung war gleich null.
Zu einem gegenteiligen Ergebnis kommt indes ein anderes Team von US-Forschern: Sie entdeckten im genetischen Müll eine wahre Perle - eine Region, die auf bisher völlig unbekannte Weise in die Regulation anderer Gene eingreift.
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Topic: SCIENCE - on June 2, 2004 at 2:44:00 AM CEST
Harnessing brain scans
Mobile device allows scientists to monitor brain activity while rats are still awake and free of anesthesia.
While you may not be able to give your pet rat a PET scan anytime soon, scientists are working on a miniature system to allow researchers to study the brain activity of awake laboratory animals.
The device is a compact positron emission tomography, or PET, scanner that can be slipped onto the head of a laboratory rat. Called the RatCAP, the device is being developed by a team at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University and the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada.
¬> newsday.com
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Topic: SCIENCE - on June 2, 2004 at 2:43:00 AM CEST
Japanese develop first cow immune to Mad Cow disease
Kirin Brewery Company, as part of its joint project with Hematech LLC to develop a cow that can produce human antibodies, has succeeded in producing a cow fetus in which neither bovine antibody gene1 nor the gene for the prions2 that are the cause of BSE are present. The process developed utilizes cells derived from bovine embryos that continuously destroy the bovine genes for antibodies and prions.
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Topic: SCIENCE - on May 30, 2004 at 5:06:00 PM CEST
Close encounters of the rhinoceros turd kind
Volker Grun's thesis project is crap - but reeks of sex appeal.
The University of Canterbury student is embarking on a world-first study of white rhinoceros poo and its smell's effect on behaviour.
His horny study is the butt of many jokes but it is deadly serious - it aims to boost the endangered species' captive breeding rate, which hovers at a low 8 per cent worldwide.
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Topic: SCIENCE - on May 28, 2004 at 9:48:00 PM CEST
Wer fürchtet sich vor'm schwarzen Loch?
Im Universum gibt es fünf Mal mehr riesenhafte Schwarze Löcher als bisher vermutet. Astronomen gelang die überraschende Entdeckung, als sie mehrere Teleskope im Weltraum und auf der Erde zusammenschalteten.
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