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Master Controller of Memory Identified (The Brain)
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When you experience a new event, your brain encodes a memory of it by altering the connections between neurons. This requires turning on many genes in those neurons. Now, MIT neuroscientists have identified what may be a master gene that controls this complex process.
posted: 31/01/2012
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Alzheimer's Damage Occurs Early (The Brain)
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The first changes in the brain of a person with Alzheimer's disease can be observed as much as ten years in advance -- ten years before the person in question has become so ill that he or she can be diagnosed with the disease. This is what a new study from Lund University in Sweden has found.
posted: 31/01/2012
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Prototype Device Measures Absolute Optical Power in Fiber at Nanowatt Levels (Computing Power)
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Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a prototype device capable of absolute measurements of optical power delivered through an optical fiber.
posted: 31/01/2012
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Kitchen Gadget Inspires Scientist to Make More Effective Plastic Electronics (Computing Power)
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One day in 2010, Rutgers physicist Vitaly Podzorov watched a store employee showcase a kitchen gadget that vacuum-seals food in plastic. The demo stuck with him. The simple concept -- an airtight seal around pieces of food -- just might apply to his research: developing flexible electronics using lightweight organic semiconductors for products such as video displays or solar cells.
posted: 30/01/2012
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New Method of Infant Pain Assessment (The Brain)
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Recently, the accuracy of current methods of pain assessment in babies have been called into question. New research from London-area hospitals and the University of Oxford measures brain activity in infants to better understand their pain response.
posted: 30/01/2012
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Shoulder Pain from Using Your iPad? Don't Use It On Your Lap (Health)
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The sudden popularity of tablet computers such as the Apple iPad® has not allowed for the development of guidelines to optimize users' comfort and well-being. In a new study published in Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment, and Rehabilitation, researchers from Harvard School of Public Health, Microsoft Corporation, and Brigham and Women's Hospital report that head and neck posture during tablet computer use can be improved by placing the tablet higher to avoid low gaze angles, and through the use of a case that provides optimal viewing angles.
posted: 30/01/2012
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Researchers Quantify Muscle Soreness (Display Technology)
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Quantifying how sore a person is after a long workout is a challenge for doctors and researchers, but scientists from Loma Linda and Asuza Pacific Universities think they may have figured it out. Their research article describing a new technique to measure muscle soreness will be published in the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE).
posted: 30/01/2012
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Under the Electron Microscope: 3-D Image of an Individual Protein Showing Structure (Display Technology)
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When Gang Ren whirls the controls of his cryo-electron microscope, he compares it to fine-tuning the gearshift and brakes of a racing bicycle. But this machine at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is a bit more complex. It costs nearly $1.5 million, operates at the frigid temperature of liquid nitrogen, and it is allowing scientists to see what no one has seen before.
posted: 30/01/2012
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Scientists Use Silk from the Tasar Silkworm as a Scaffold for Heart Tissue (Augmenting Organics)
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Damaged human heart muscle cannot be regenerated. Scar tissue grows in place of the damaged muscle cells. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim are seeking to restore complete cardiac function with the help of artificial cardiac tissue. They have succeeded in loading cardiac muscle cells onto a three-dimensional scaffold, created using the silk produced by a tropical silkworm.
posted: 30/01/2012
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Alzheimer's Neurons from Pluripotent Stem Cells: First-Ever Feat Provides New Method to Understand Cause of Disease (The Brain)
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Led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, scientists have, for the first time, created stem cell-derived, in vitro models of sporadic and hereditary Alzheimer's disease (AD), using induced pluripotent stem cells from patients with the much-dreaded neurodegenerative disorder.
posted: 30/01/2012
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