When we feel pain in response to harmful stimuli it is the result of messages sent from pain sensors in the periphery of the body to the brain. These pain sensors – or nociceptors – often lie beneath the skin and detect and signal the presence of tissue-damaging stimuli or the existence of tissue damage. One particular nociceptor, vanilloid receptor-1 (VR1), relays sensory messages to the brain in response to thermal and painful chemical stimuli and is generally regarded as the major pain sensor.

Blood from human umbilical cords is a rich source of hematopoeitic stem cells, the progenitors that can reconstitute all of the different cell types in our blood, including oxygen-carrying red blood cells and white blood cells that are our major defense against infections. Cord blood contains a higher percentage of stem cells than adult bone marrow (another source of blood stem cells), and has several additional advantages: cord blood stem cells divide faster than stem cells from bone marrow and have

Researchers have developed a new way to use a decade-old imaging method to directly compare the brains of monkeys with those of humans. Their report appeared in the journal Science.

The method uses functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) – a technique that measures blood volume and flow and blood-oxygen levels in the brain. It also provides an indirect measure of neuronal activity in different regions of the brain.

Neurons need oxygen and glucose to work. Blood carries

Antennas for the next generation of cellphones and other wireless communications devices may bear a striking resemblance to the Santa Monica Mountains or possibly the California coastline.

That is because UCLA researchers are using fractals — mathematical models of mountains, trees and coastlines — to develop antennas that meet the challenging requirements presented by the more sophisticated technology in new cellphones, automobiles and mobile communications devices. These antennas must b

Structural studies of a key enzyme have revealed how dangerous strains of the bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus , become resistant to antibiotics.

Resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus , which are also called “hospital staph” because of their prevalence in hospitals, constitute 34 percent of the clinical isolates in the United States, more than 60 percent in Japan, Singapore and Taiwan, and more than 50 percent in Italy and Portugal. And the emergence of strains of

In unprecedented space research, DuPont scientists have attained a significant scientific accomplishment regarding the future development of soybeans – one of the most consumed crops in the world today.

During a research mission that concluded with the return of Space Shuttle Atlantis Friday, soybean seeds planted and nurtured by DuPont scientists germinated, developed into plants, flowered, and produced new seedpods in space. The 97-day growth research initiative is the first-ever to compl