Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that primitive human embryonic stem (ES) cells, temperamental in the lab, can be grown with the help of special cells from bone marrow, offering an easily obtained and well-studied source of human cells to nurture the human ES cells as they divide.

First announced in 1998, human embryonic stem cells are usually grown in the lab on a “feeder layer” of mouse cells. Feeder cells send as yet unknown signals to the primitive human ES cells, preventing the

Technical Insights’ materials and chemicals research service: Advanced materials technology

Advanced materials look set to revolutionize numerous applications in the 21st century. Scientists and engineers are undertaking extensive research activities in their quest to develop sophisticated new materials that are more durable, environmentally friendly, and energy efficient.

“Advanced materials and chemicals are the enabling building blocks for future devices and systems,

The popular stimulant blocks adenosine receptors, and is the most likely mechanism of central nervous actions that delay exercise-related fatigue, a new study finds

Consuming caffeine, whether in coffee of soft drinks, has been shown to delay fatigue during prolonged exercise. Studies have shown, for example, that ingesting three to nine mg/kg of caffeine can increase the amount of exercise time to achieve by as much as 50 percent. How caffeine achieves this effect has not been ful

Our planet is bombarded every second with a large number of chargeless, seemingly massless, particles that originate in nuclear fusion reactions that power the sun. They’re called neutrinos.

According to The Standard Solar Model – the most substantiated model of the sun – the sun should emit around three times more neutrinos than are actually measured on Earth. They are a source of great interest for scientists who seek to better understand elementary particles and the physics of the s

Proteins, it appears, have taken Frank Sinatra’s “I Did It My Way” close to heart. A new study published in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reveals how single proteins, each a few nanometers (billionths of a meter) long, fold to assume their final shape. It shows that even proteins having the same final shape achieve it by taking different routes.

Proteins are the fundamental components of all living cells. They start out as randomly shaped c

In at least one type of endeavor, humans can’t even begin to compete with their best friends. Dogs can be trained to sniff out drugs and explosives or to track down a crime suspect by smell. Why can’t we do the same? Scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology propose an explanation for this ancient quandary.

All mammals, including humans, have about 1,000 genes encoding smell-detecting proteins, or olfactory recepto