Posted by Vicrram Theipanaathan on Friday, November 23, 2012 In : Science
Grid of electrons directly implanted on the retina. (Credit: Second Sight) For the very first time researchers have streamed braille patterns directly into a blind patient's retina, allowing him to read four-letter words accurately and quickly with an ocular neuroprosthetic device. The device, the Argus II, has been implanted in over 50 patients, many of who can now see color, movement and objects. It uses a small camera mounted on a pair of glasses, a portable processor to translate the sign... Continue reading...
Posted by Vicrram Theipanaathan on Thursday, November 22, 2012 In : Science
The fossil, found in Turkey, is thought to be that of a large two-horned rhino common in the Eastern Mediterranean region during that period. (Credit: Reconstruction by Maëva J. Orliac; Antoine et al. (2012) A Rhinocerotid Skull Cooked-to-Death in a 9.2 Ma-Old Ignimbrite Flow of Turkey. PLoS ONE doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0049997) Less than 2% of Earth's fossils are preserved in volcanic rock, but researchers have identified a new one: the skull of a rhino that perished in a volcanic eruption ... Continue reading...
Posted by Vicrram Theipanaathan on Tuesday, November 20, 2012 In : Science
Galaxy clusters connected by gas bridge. (Credit: Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect: ESA Planck Collaboration; optical image: STScI Digitized Sky Survey) ESA's Planck space telescope has made the first conclusive detection of a bridge of hot gas connecting a pair of galaxy clusters across 10 million light-years of intergalactic space.
Planck's primary task is to capture the most ancient light of the cosmos, the Cosmic Microwave Background, or CMB. As this faint light traverses the Universe, it en... Continue reading...
Posted by Vicrram Theipanaathan on Monday, November 19, 2012 In : Science
A biodegradable nanoparticle turns out to be the perfect vehicle to stealthily deliver an antigen that tricks the immune system into stopping its attack on myelin and halt a model of relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) in mice, researchers report. (Credit: © mgkuijpers / Fotolia) In a breakthrough for nanotechnology and multiple sclerosis, a biodegradable nanoparticle turns out to be the perfect vehicle to stealthily deliver an antigen that tricks the immune system into stopping its ... Continue reading...
Posted by Vicrram Theipanaathan on Saturday, November 17, 2012 In : Science
The Lunana region of Bhutan. (Credit: Image courtesy of Brigham Young University) Come rain or shine, or even snow, some glaciers of the Himalayas will continue shrinking for many years to come.
The forecast by Brigham Young University geology professor Summer Rupper comes after her research on Bhutan, a region in the bull's-eye of the monsoonal Himalayas. Published in Geophysical Research Letters, Rupper's most conservative findings indicate that even if climate remained steady, almost 10 per... Continue reading...
Posted by Vicrram Theipanaathan on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 In : Science
Can we actually read words and phrases and solve multi-step mathematical problems without our having consciously been aware of them? A team in the Psychology Department at the Hebrew University has conducted a series of experiments that give a positive answer: people can read and do math nonconsciously.
The results constitute a challenge to existing theories of unconscious processes, that maintain that reading and solving math problems -- two prime examples of complex, rule-based operations -... Continue reading...
Posted by Vicrram Theipanaathan on Monday, November 12, 2012 In : Science
The first functional "cloaking" device reported by Duke University electrical engineers in 2006 worked like a charm, but it wasn't perfect. Now a member of that laboratory has developed a new design that ties up one of the major loose ends from the original device.
These new findings could be important in transforming how light or other waves can be controlled or transmitted. Just as traditional wires gave way to fiber optics, the new meta-material could revolutionize the transmission of light... Continue reading...
Posted by Vicrram Theipanaathan on Thursday, November 8, 2012 In : Science
A new super-Earth planet that may have an Earth-like climate and be just right to support life has been discovered around a nearby star by an international team of astronomers, led by Mikko Tuomi, University of Hertfordshire, and Guillem Anglada-Escude, University of Goettingen.
The new super-Earth planet exists in the habitable zone of a nearby star and is part of a six-planet system. The system was previously thought to contain three planets in orbits too close to the star to support liquid ... Continue reading...
Posted by Vicrram Theipanaathan on Wednesday, November 7, 2012 In : Science
This diagram indicates the changing ‘GDP’ of the Universe over time. The new results indicate that, measured by mass, the production rate of stars has dropped by 97% since its peak 11 billion years ago. (Credit: D. Sobral) While parts of the world experience economic hardship, a team of Portuguese, UK, Japanese, Italian and Dutch astronomers has found an even bigger slump happening on a cosmic scale. In the largest ever study of its kind, the international team of astronomers has establis... Continue reading...
Posted by Vicrram Theipanaathan on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 In : Science
Biologists at the University of Rochester have determined how blind mole rats fight off cancer -- and the mechanism differs from what they discovered three years ago in another long-lived and cancer-resistant mole rat species, the naked mole rat.
The team of researchers, led by Professor Vera Gorbunova and Assistant Professor Andrei Seluanov, found that abnormally growing cells in blind mole rats secrete the interferon beta protein, which causes those cells to rapidly die. Seluanov and Gorbuno... Continue reading...
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