At over three thousand metres down in the north-west Indian Ocean, the Carlsberg Ridge is “probably the best ridge in the world”. So say excited scientists from Southampton Oceanography Centre who have just found the first evidence of hydrothermal activity in this previously unexplored area of a volcanic mid-ocean ridge.

The team aboard the research ship RRS Charles Darwin made the discovery on Wednesday 23 July 2003 when they detected a huge plume of smoky water. The plume is at lea

ESF wishes to introduce this Syllabus to help create a culture of scientifically knowledgeable physicians: physicians who, in view of the EU Clinical Trial Directive, would be able to critically evaluate study proposals, to conduct studies according to Good Clinical Practice (GCP), and to conclude and report valid data as rapid and safe as possible. The way to achieve this is through education and training, and ESF is now setting the scientific aim for this.

With the new countries entering t

A new PC-based radar system exploits the computer’s built-in networking capabilities to share radar images with other users over the Internet. This allows ships and coastguards to see each other’s radar images and should bring increased safety for vessels as their radar is tracked onshore.

In extreme circumstances, were a ship’s own antennae to break, it would still be able to look at another ship’s picture of the local situation on its own display. PC RADAR should also improve coord

A study by Princeton University scientists has shown that bacteria actively move around their environments to form social organizations. The researchers placed bacteria in minute mazes and found that they sought each other out using chemical signals.

Biologists have become increasingly aware of social interactions among bacteria, but previously believed that clusters formed only when bacteria randomly landed somewhere, then multiplied into dense populations. The discovery that they a

Wearing your necktie tight might look smart, but it could increase the risk of developing the serious eye disease glaucoma, reveals a study in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

The researchers tested the internal blood pressure (intraocular pressure) of one eye in each of 20 healthy men and 20 male patients with glaucoma. They did this when participants wore an open shirt collar, three minutes after donning a tight necktie, and three minutes after loosening their ties. The healthy

Northwestern University researchers have found that caspases, a family of protein-cutting enzymes involved in programmed cell death (apoptosis), may be a missing link in the chain of molecular events leading to Alzheimer´s disease.
Alzheimer´s disease is a neurodegenerative condition affecting an estimated 4 million Americans that causes memory loss and, ultimately, dementia. Patients with this disease have abnormal deposits (plaques) of protein fragments called amyloid-beta surrounding