Advances in detection devices and methods of analysis have allowed seismologists to identify virtually all events that might be nuclear explosions of possible military significance under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), according to Prof. Lynn R. Sykes of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Writing in the 29 October issue of Eos, published by the American Geophysical Union, Sykes analyzes 72 questionable events since 1960.

Verification was a major issue in

A company spun out from the UK’s University of Manchester has become the first in the world to produce and ship multi-gram quantities of quantum dots – and has launched a unique ‘Free Evaluation Samples’ program throughout the EU and UK.

Using a patented process, Nanoco Ltd is not only able to ship its standard ‘NanoDots’ in production-level quantities to meet growing market demand, but can easily configure NanoDots to meet custom performance specifications – previously a long process of t

A cheap, harmless chemical and sunlight could provide an environmentally friendly way of destroying micro-pollutants in the environment.

UK researchers are developing a new type of reactor to destroy persistent contaminants such as pesticides and pharmaceutical residues.

The technology, which breaks down the polluting molecules into carbon dioxide and water, could provide a breakthrough for a sustainable way of cleaning up fresh water supplies and industrial wastewater.

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People who find it hard to lose all the weight they want or that their doctors recommend should take heart, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientist says. New research suggests that losing even modest amounts of weight can pay off in better health.

The study showed for the first time that shedding excess pounds decreases activity of a key enzyme known to play a central role in high blood pressure, said Dr. Joyce Harp, associate professor of nutrition and medicine at the UNC s

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