http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Researchers from the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat in Munich have shown that the ADAM10 protein can inhibit the formation of beta-amyloid, which is responsible for Alzheimer's disease. ADAM10 acts like a pair of molecular scissors to cut the protein from which beta-amyloid is formed, effectively preventing the formation of beta-amyloid. This makes ADAM10 a key molecule in Alzheimer's therapy. http://phys.org/news199708484.html Medicine & Health Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:50:03 EST news199708484 (PhysOrg.com) -- When waves -- regardless of whether light or sound -- collide, they overlap creating interferences. Austrian and Canadian quantum physicists have now been able to rule out the existence of higher-order interferences experimentally and thereby confirmed an axiom in quantum physics: Born's rule. They have published their findings in the scientific journal Science. http://phys.org/news199009831.html Physics Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:00:01 EST news199009831 One way of regulating protein levels in cells is to shorten the lifespan of messenger RNAs (mRNAs). These are intermediary molecules that are first copied from DNA in the cell's nucleus via a process called transcription and then transported into the cell's body to be translated into protein. http://phys.org/news196687864.html Biology Fri, 25 Jun 2010 12:31:16 EST news196687864 Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a new group of proteins involved in determining the life span of laboratory roundworms. Blocking the expression of one member of the group can extend the worm's life span by up to 30 percent. Because the proteins work in the worms' reproductive systems, the research represents yet another intriguing link between longevity and fertility. http://phys.org/news195910589.html Biology Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:00:31 EST news195910589 Scientists from four U.S. universities have created a way to use Rice University's light-activated nanoshells as building blocks for 2-D and 3-D structures that could find use in chemical sensors, nanolasers and bizarre light-absorbing metamaterials. Much as a child might use Lego blocks to build 3-D models of complex buildings or vehicles, the scientists are using the new chemical self-assembly method to build complex structures that can trap, store and bend light. http://phys.org/news194185863.html Nanotechnology Thu, 27 May 2010 14:00:35 EST news194185863 In a major cancer-research breakthrough, researchers at the McGill University, Department of Biochemistry have discovered that a small segment of a protein that interacts with RNA can control the normal expression of genes - including those that are active in cancer. http://phys.org/news194118017.html Medicine & Health Wed, 26 May 2010 22:10:02 EST news194118017 Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School report in the journal Nature Medicine on a cellular pathway in the deadly brain cancer malignant glioma, a pathway essential to the cancer's ability to grow - and a potential target for therapy that would stop the cancer's ability to thrive. http://phys.org/news194021257.html Medicine & Health Tue, 25 May 2010 15:49:42 EST news194021257 (PhysOrg.com) -- Laser interference lithography can produce very high-resolution nano-scale surface patterns at low cost, and now European researchers have made important breakthroughs in the area. http://phys.org/news192451027.html Nanotechnology Fri, 07 May 2010 11:50:02 EST news192451027 New research by scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center could make it easier for patients to use a family of promising experimental cancer therapeutics known as small interfering RNA (siRNA). http://phys.org/news192288772.html Medicine & Health Wed, 05 May 2010 15:20:03 EST news192288772 (PhysOrg.com) -- A multi-institutional team of researchers and clinicians has published the first proof that a targeted nanoparticle can traffic into tumors, deliver double-stranded small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), and turn off the production of an important cancer protein using a mechanism known as RNA interference (RNAi). Moreover, the team provided the first demonstration that this new type of therapy, infused into the bloodstream, can make its way to human tumors in a dose-dependent fashion, that is, a higher number of nanoparticles sent into the body leads to a higher number of nanoparticles in the tumor cells. These two findings were achieved in phase I clinical trials in which the investigators are testing a nanoparticle-siRNA construct as an anticancer therapy. http://phys.org/news191047320.html Nanotechnology Wed, 21 Apr 2010 05:42:33 EST news191047320 Envisioning a data traffic jam looming as consumers shuttle increasing amounts of information among their home PCs, televisions and other gadgets, Intel plans to introduce new technology in a few months that could keep everything racing along for years. http://phys.org/news189877082.html Technology Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:30:03 EST news189877082 A California Institute of Technology (Caltech)-led team of researchers and clinicians has published the first proof that a targeted nanoparticle -- used as an experimental therapeutic and injected directly into a patient's bloodstream -- can traffic into tumors, deliver double-stranded small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), and turn off an important cancer gene using a mechanism known as RNA interference (RNAi). Moreover, the team provided the first demonstration that this new type of therapy, infused into the bloodstream, can make its way to human tumors in a dose-dependent fashion -- i.e., a higher number of nanoparticles sent into the body leads to a higher number of nanoparticles in the tumor cells. http://phys.org/news188378267.html Nanotechnology Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:00:01 EST news188378267 An electronic device is an accurate technique for locating and avoiding nerves during spinal procedures, suggests a study by Henry Ford Hospital researchers. http://phys.org/news187877295.html Medicine & Health Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:10:01 EST news187877295 In reports of two new studies, researchers led by Johns Hopkins say they have identified the mechanisms rooted in two anatomical brain abnormalities that may explain the onset of schizophrenia and the reason symptoms don't develop until young adulthood. Both types of anatomical glitches are influenced by a gene known as DISC1, whose mutant form was first identified in a Scottish family with a strong history of schizophrenia and related mental disorders. The findings could lead to new ways to treat, prevent or modify the disorder or its symptoms. http://phys.org/news186383954.html Medicine & Health Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:19:38 EST news186383954 Working with worms may not be your average person’s idea of a good time, but for University of Toronto researcher Dr. Andrew Fraser, they are fascinating. http://phys.org/news185943571.html Medicine & Health Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:20:04 EST news185943571 Biologists at the University of Pennsylvania studying oocytes in mice, the immature egg cells necessary for sexual reproduction, have demonstrated an unusual behavior in microRNA, or miRNA, activity that may be the first event in reprogramming the differentiated oocyte into pluripotent blastomeres of the embryo. MicroRNAs are a member of the family of small RNAs, the so-called dark matter of the biological world. http://phys.org/news184422567.html Biology Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:31:21 EST news184422567 Taxanes, a group of cancer drugs that includes paclitaxel (Taxol®) and docetaxel (Taxotere®), have become front-line therapy for a variety of metastatic cancers. But as with many chemotherapy agents, resistance can develop, a frequent problem in breast, ovarian, prostate and other cancers. Now, cancer researchers at Children's Hospital Boston report a protein previously unknown to be involved in taxane resistance and that could potentially be targeted with drugs, making a cancer more susceptible to chemotherapy. http://phys.org/news183741054.html Medicine & Health Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:30:01 EST news183741054 In what amounted to a kind of census of sweet corn grown for processing, three years of data from 175 fields in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota shed light on what works and what doesn't. Along with identifying the most troublesome weeds, the results also revealed some of the more complicated relationships among factors influencing both weed control and sweet corn yield in the Midwest. http://phys.org/news181912330.html Biology Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:13:05 EST news181912330 A team of scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has determined a hierarchical set of criteria that explain how the molecular precursors of gene-regulating small RNAs are sorted by the cellular machinery. http://phys.org/news181820500.html Biology Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:42:14 EST news181820500 Researchers at MIT and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals report this week that they have successfully used RNA interference to turn off multiple genes in the livers of mice, an advance that could lead to new treatments for diseases of the liver and other organs. http://phys.org/news181225412.html Medicine & Health Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:00:03 EST news181225412 A new optical sensor developed by the American National Institute of Standards and Technology was successfully tested by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (Germany) in the "magnetically best shielded room on Earth." The sensor does not need advanced cooling and is very small. Its suitability was proven for biomagnetic measurements in the picotesla range. So, magnetocardiographic measurement devices -- to be used as a supplement or an alternative to the ECG -- could become simpler and less expensive. http://phys.org/news179751368.html Physics Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:56:58 EST news179751368 Previous studies have indicated that the heparanase (HPA) is correlated with histopathological parameters and poor prognosis of gastric cancers. Although their efficiencies in inhibiting the expression of HPA, the traditional HPA inhibitors may produce nonspecific and undesirable effects. In recent years, genetic approaches targeting HPA have been regarded as a promising alternative. http://phys.org/news178370965.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:00:01 EST news178370965 (PhysOrg.com) -- One of the drawbacks associated with using semiconductor lasers is that many of them can only produce a beam of a single wavelength, and can only send that beam in one direction at a time. There have been efforts to tune lasers so that different wavelengths can be achieved, but these lasers still emit light only in one direction, and one wavelength at a given time. All that could change, though. Harvard University scientists Federico Capasso and Nanfang Yu , in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have been working with an international team to develop a laser that offers multibeam emission. http://phys.org/news177582639.html Physics Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:50:01 EST news177582639 Every high school biology student learns the basics of how genes are expressed: DNA, the cell’s master information keeper, is copied into messenger RNA, which carries protein-building instructions to the ribosome, the part of the cell where proteins are assembled. http://phys.org/news177231115.html Biology Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:52:21 EST news177231115 (PhysOrg.com) -- NICTA, Australia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Research Centre of Excellence, has successfully demonstrated technology that reduces the amount of radio interference in 3G networks with femtocells. http://phys.org/news177060560.html Technology Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:00:02 EST news177060560 (PhysOrg.com) -- Aided by a genomic map of the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and university scientists are plotting a kind of genetic sabotage on the pest’s basic life functions -- from locomotion to digestion. http://phys.org/news176454709.html Biology Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:12:18 EST news176454709 Researchers from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have uncovered a large, new cache of genes that act as built-in barriers against cancer. Known as tumor suppressors, the newly identified genes and the insight that they provide into devising new therapeutic strategies against lymphoma are described in a paper published this week in Cancer Cell. http://phys.org/news174645486.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:38:30 EST news174645486 In new papers appearing this month in Science and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Illinois biochemistry professor Raven H. Huang and his colleagues describe the first RNA repair system to be discovered in bacteria. This is only the second RNA repair system discovered to date (with two proteins from T4 phage, a virus that attacks bacteria, as the first). http://phys.org/news174582545.html Biology Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:10:42 EST news174582545 (PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists at Yale University have made the first definitive measurements of "persistent current," a small but perpetual electric current that flows naturally through tiny rings of metal wire even without an external power source. http://phys.org/news174222765.html Physics Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:13:18 EST news174222765 Scientists have created a viable technology to improve the detection of leukemia cells in bone marrow. http://phys.org/news174058065.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:40:01 EST news174058065