SciTech Daily

May 10, 2012

Pentaradially Symmetrical Brittle Stars Move Bilaterally, Like People

By defining a “front” for directional control, pentaradially symmetrical brittle stars are using locomotion in a manner that is usually accomplished by bilaterally symmetrical animals. Providence, Rhode Island – Brown University – It appears that the brittle star, the humble, five-limbed dragnet of the seabed, moves very similarly to us. In a series of first-time [...]

May 10, 2012

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NASA Detects Movement in Martian Sand Dunes

Over the last two years researchers have been monitoring the sand movement on Mars with the HiRISE camera. They found that even with a thinner atmosphere and less high-speed wind, movement in sand dune fields occurs at about the same rate as in dune fields on Earth. Pasadena, California — NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has [...]

May 10, 2012

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Flavonoid Compound Shown to Prevent Blood Clots

therapeutic agent to prevent stroke, heart attack

Newly published findings from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center describe how rutin was shown to inhibit the formation of blood clots in an animal model of thrombosis. Found in fruit, vegetables and over the counter supplements, this flavonoid proved to be a potent anti-thrombotic compound, inhibiting both platelet accumulation and fibrin generation during thrombus [...]

May 9, 2012

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Support for Climate Change Policies Dwindling

A new Stanford survey suggests that support for policies intended to reduce future climate change has dropped by 10 percent over the last two years. Americans’ support for government action on global warming remains high but has dropped during the past two years, according to a new survey by Stanford researchers in collaboration with Ipsos [...]

May 9, 2012

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Portable Diagnostics Use Vibration to Move Drops of Liquid

Scientists at the University of Washington are using nanotechnology manufacturing techniques to build and refine portable diagnostics that have surfaces with tiny posts of varying height and spacing. When shaken, the surface moves drops along certain paths to conduct medical or environmental tests. As medical researchers and engineers try to shrink diagnostics to fit in [...]

May 9, 2012

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Tidal Heating Suggests Less Habitable Planets

Tidal heating, which is basically gravitational heating of a planet via tides, suggests that the number of habitable planets could be roughly half of what was previously thought. Tidal heating could shrink the habitable zone around the Milky Way’s most numerous stars, red dwarfs. Rory Barnes, an astrobiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, [...]

May 9, 2012

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HDL Cholesterol Isn’t Always Good for Your Heart

Some HDL may not protect against heart disease

Contrary to popular belief, HDL cholesterol isn’t always good for your heart. A new study published by Harvard researchers describes how some high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterols may contain a small protein, apolipoprotein C-III, which increases the risk of heart disease. A new study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers has found that a [...]

May 9, 2012

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Diminutive Mammoth Roamed Crete in the Pleistocene

Researchers have discovered by studying fossils on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea that an extinct species of dwarf elephant was actually the smallest mammoth known to have existed. As an adult, Mammuthus creticus would stand no taller than a modern newborn elephant. M. creticus is supposed to be an extreme form of island [...]

May 9, 2012

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New Drug Fights Cancer by ‘Hijacking’ Existing T Cells

killing of three melanoma cells by a single non-cancer-specific Tcell

A new study describes how a team of researchers are exploring ways to manipulate the body’s existing T cells that normally kill viruses and redirect them to kill cancer cells instead. By engineering a new class of drugs called ImmTACs, they were able to show that ImmTAC could, potentially, result in the regression of established [...]

May 9, 2012

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Entropy and Particle Shape Cause Chirality in Dense Systems

Achiral triangles form chiral super-structures

To better understand why functional molecules in our bodies almost always occur in just one chiral form, UCLA scientists sought to discover how chirality occurs. By using lithography to create microscale particles, the researchers found that entropy and particle shape are enough to cause chirality to appear spontaneously in dense systems. The overwhelming majority of [...]

May 9, 2012

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Balancing Between Life and Research

Focusing on balance between her family, religion and work with carbon nanomaterials, Jing Kong has found a home at MIT and has pioneered a new method of producing large sheets of graphene. A life in academia was a natural career path for Jing Kong, the daughter of two Chinese academics at Tianjin Finance and Economics [...]

May 9, 2012

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Revealing Data from Super-Earth 55 Cancri e

Sitting 40 million light-years away, researchers were able to gain a better understand of 55 Cancri e and its environment. Using observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the team found that its temperature is roughly 2,360 degrees Kelvin and that 55 Cancri e orbits its star much like the moon circles Earth. Scientists on a [...]