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. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a powerful tool for chemical analysis and, in the form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), an indispensable technique for medical diagnosis. But its uses have been limited by the need for strong magnetic fields and big, expensive, superconducting magnets. Now Berkeley Lab scientists and their colleagues have demonstrated that they can do NMR in a zero magnetic field without using any magnets at all. http://phys.org/news224916059.html Physics Wed, 18 May 2011 05:42:31 EST news224916059 The carnivorous reptiles (Varanus komodoensis) are known to bite prey and release them, leaving them to bleed to death from their wounds: the victims are reported to go into shock before the dragons kill and eat them. http://phys.org/news161885734.html Biology Mon, 18 May 2009 17:16:10 EST news161885734 By observing the pattern of activity in the brain, scientists have discovered they can "read" whether a person just heard words spoken in anger, joy, relief, or sadness. The discovery, reported online on May 14th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, is the first to show that emotional information is represented by distinct spatial signatures in the brain that can be generalized across speakers. http://phys.org/news161528185.html Medicine & Health Thu, 14 May 2009 13:57:01 EST news161528185 (PhysOrg.com) -- The technique well known from its use in MRI scanning - actually based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) - can now also be applied to extremely small samples thanks to an ingenious combination of a compact coil and micro-scale fluidic channels. The sensitivity of this technique had hitherto been insufficient. http://phys.org/news161359221.html Chemistry Tue, 12 May 2009 15:00:55 EST news161359221 Magnetization Transfer Imaging, MTI, has been used to visualize previously unknown alterations in the cerebral architecture of patients with Tourette's syndrome. The researchers, writing in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience, also found a correlation between the extent of some of the structural changes and symptom severity. http://phys.org/news161316003.html Medicine & Health Tue, 12 May 2009 03:01:11 EST news161316003 Alcohol-use disorders (AUDs) can damage the brain, particularly the frontal and parietal cortices, although this damage is at least partially reversible with sustained abstinence from alcohol. Chronic smoking is extremely common among individuals with AUDs. A new study has used longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of brain blood flow to show that smoking makes it harder for brain blood flow to recover from long-term heavy drinking. http://phys.org/news161278978.html Medicine & Health Mon, 11 May 2009 16:43:14 EST news161278978 The responses of older adults who are asked whether they had a stroke frequently do not agree with diagnoses obtained by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the July print issue of Archives of Neurology. http://phys.org/news161278599.html Medicine & Health Mon, 11 May 2009 16:37:12 EST news161278599 Toddlers with autism appear more likely to have an enlarged amygdala, a brain area associated with numerous functions, including the processing of faces and emotion, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In addition, this brain abnormality appears to be associated with the ability to share attention with others, a fundamental ability thought to predict later social and language function in children with autism. http://phys.org/news160675501.html Medicine & Health Mon, 04 May 2009 17:05:24 EST news160675501 So-called "silent" heart attacks may be much more common than previously believed, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center. http://phys.org/news159516423.html Medicine & Health Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:07:41 EST news159516423 Donald O'Rourke, MD, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and colleagues, were able to accurately predict the specific genetic mutation that caused brain cancer in a group of patients studied using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The researchers presented their findings this week at the American Association for Cancer Research 100th Annual Meeting 2009. http://phys.org/news159461589.html Medicine & Health Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:53:34 EST news159461589 As early as one week after beginning treatment for brain tumors, a new imaging analysis method was able to predict which patients would live longer, researchers from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found. http://phys.org/news159371458.html Medicine & Health Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:51:55 EST news159371458 A multi-disciplinary team of scientists from the University of Leicester could be potentially paving the way for the development of a powerful new strategy for both the early diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. http://phys.org/news159191419.html Nanotechnology Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:50:44 EST news159191419 Individuals who take aspirin or other medications that prevent blood clotting by inhibiting the accumulation of platelets appear more likely to have tiny, asymptomatic areas of bleeding in the brain, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the June print issue of Archives of Neurology. http://phys.org/news158863412.html Medicine & Health Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:52:52 EST news158863412 (PhysOrg.com) -- Young adults with a genetic variant that raises their risk of developing Alzheimer's Disease show changes in their brain activity decades before any symptoms might arise, according to a new brain imaging study by scientists from the University of Oxford and Imperial College London. The results may support the idea that the brain's memory function may gradually wear itself out in those who go on to develop Alzheimer's. http://phys.org/news158258795.html Medicine & Health Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:49:45 EST news158258795 Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet (KI) have constructed a mathematical activity model of the brain's frontal and parietal parts, to increase the understanding of the capacity of the working memory and of how the billions of neurons in the brain interact. One of the findings they have made with this 'model brain' is a mechanism in the brain's neuronal network that restricts the number of items we can normally store in our working memories at any one time to around two to seven. http://phys.org/news157720102.html Medicine & Health Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:10:17 EST news157720102 Where different ethnic groups store fat in their bodies may account for differences in the likelihood they'll develop insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. http://phys.org/news157352386.html Medicine & Health Fri, 27 Mar 2009 06:00:48 EST news157352386 (PhysOrg.com) -- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can serve as a very sensitive technique for detecting small tumors in the body, but it is not as good at identifying the edges of a tumor. Photoacoustic imaging tomography (PAT) is not as sensitive as MRI, but it excels at pinpointing the location of subsurface tissue structures, presumably including the edges of tumors. To take advantage of the best of both of these imaging techniques, a team of investigators led by Fanqing Frank Chen, Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco, has developed a “nanowonton” of cobalt and gold to create an imaging contrast agent for use with both MRI and PAT. http://phys.org/news157309129.html Nanotechnology Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:59:44 EST news157309129 Duke University chemists are using modified magnetic resonance imaging to see molecular changes inside people's bodies that could signal health problems such as cancer. http://phys.org/news157297184.html Chemistry Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:40:18 EST news157297184 A new technology which dramatically improves the sensitivity of Magnetic Resonance techniques including those used in hospital scanners and chemistry laboratories has been developed by scientists at the University of York. http://phys.org/news157296235.html Medicine & Health Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:24:20 EST news157296235 Geneva, Switzerland - March 25, 2009 - Phantom limbs, often described after amputation, are also experienced as an extra limb in patients who are paralyzed on one side following a stroke. Referred to as supernumerary phantom limb (SPL), patients can usually perceive these limbs as a vivid somatosensory presence of an extra limb, but generally cannot see or intentionally move them. In some unusual cases, however, patients have reported seeing their phantom limb or feeling objects or body parts with it, which indicates that multiple areas of the brain may be involved in SPLs. http://phys.org/news157214905.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:49:00 EST news157214905 A University of Pennsylvania psychology study, using functional magnetic resonance imaging technology to scan the brain, reveals that people who consider themselves visual learners, as opposed to verbal learners, have a tendency to convert linguistically presented information into a visual mental representation. The more strongly an individual identified with the visual cognitive style, the more that individual activated the visual cortex when reading words. http://phys.org/news157202233.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:25:05 EST news157202233 A study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows that expert advice may shut down areas of the brain responsible for decision-making processes, particularly when individuals are trying to evaluate a situation where risk is involved. The study was published in the March 2009 issue of the Public Library of Science (PLOS One). http://phys.org/news157098577.html Medicine & Health Tue, 24 Mar 2009 07:30:06 EST news157098577 (PhysOrg.com) -- Most people can easily tell the difference between reality and fantasy. We know that characters in novels and movies are fictitious, and we also understand that historical figures - even if we’ve never met them personally - were real people. As obvious as this distinction may seem, however, scientists know very little about the specific brain mechanisms that are responsible for our ability to distinguish between real and fictional events. http://phys.org/news157029052.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:11:39 EST news157029052 Scientists at the University of Liverpool and Durham University have developed a new material to further understanding of how superconductors could be used to transmit electricity to built-up areas and reduce global energy losses. http://phys.org/news156695024.html Physics Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:24:34 EST news156695024 Researchers trying to uncover the mechanisms that cause attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder have found an abnormality in the brains of adolescent boys suffering from the conditions, but not where they expected to find it. http://phys.org/news156519731.html Medicine & Health Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:43:04 EST news156519731 Researchers announced today that a high-density genome wide analysis of participants in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI; www.adni-info.org) is more than 95% complete and that data will be shared with scientists around the world for further analysis. http://phys.org/news156439115.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:19:26 EST news156439115 By peering into the brains of people with dyslexia compared to normal readers, a study published online on March 12th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, has shed new light on the roots of the learning disability, which affects four to ten percent of the population. The findings support the notion that the reading and spelling deficit—characterized by an inability to break words down into the separate sounds that comprise them—stems in part from a failure to properly integrate letters with their speech sounds. http://phys.org/news156084126.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:42:47 EST news156084126 In a first-of-its-kind discovery that overturns conventional wisdom, scientists in Florida are reporting that certain plants — including the exotic “White Bird of Paradise Tree” -- make bilirubin. Until now, scientists thought that pigment existed only in animals. The finding may change scientific understanding of how the ability to make bilirubin evolved, they say in a report in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. http://phys.org/news156017207.html Chemistry Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:07:21 EST news156017207 A handful of proteins, detected in incredibly tiny amounts, may one day help doctors distinguish between a harmless lesion in the pancreas and a potentially deadly one, say researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center. http://phys.org/news155921088.html Medicine & Health Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:25:21 EST news155921088 Two Japanese scientists will arrive at the University of Houston next month to help develop a unique brain-mapping device that promises to deliver more comprehensive and accurate insights into the mind at a fraction of the cost of current technologies. http://phys.org/news155817925.html Medicine & Health Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:46:18 EST news155817925