A British physicist has come up with a way to reveal the shifting and shining colours that form in the dark spots where light waves interfere with each other. The patterns await experimental demonstration but computer-generated images are already illuminating new aspects of light that had until now remained in the shadows.
When two waves meet their peaks and troughs interfere. If the peaks are in phase you get a higher peak as the energies of each wave add together, two troughs take away from eac

One of the world’s largest and most successful experimental fusion machines has been safely disassembled and cleared away. In September, staff at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) completed the dismantling and removal of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR), which shut down in 1997 following 15 years of operation. During its experimental life, TFTR set records for fusion performance and made major contributions to the development of fusion as

The use of a small wireless capsule video device to detect bleeding in the small intestine is safe, well-tolerated, and more accurate than another common diagnostic approach according to a study presented at the 67th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology.

“The investigation of obscure gastrointestinal bleeding is often difficult due to limitations of conventional endoscopic studies in the detection of disorders in the small intestine,” said Ramona M. Lim, M.D

Researchers recommend testing symptomatic patients for the condition

Researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center (Kansas City) urge physicians to consider adding fructose breath testing to their diagnostic strategy for patients with unexplained abdominal pain, gas, diarrhea, and intestinal rumbling or gurgling. The recent study’s results, presented at the 67th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology, indicate that fructose malabsorption oc

Broad community initiatives that use local coalitions to reduce alcohol and drug abuse are largely ineffective and may even have a negative effect for some goals, according to a new study of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Fighting Back campaign.

“Supporting the activities of local coalitions is both intuitively attractive (bringing the community together to address local problems) and politically popular (spreading the money around),” says Denise Hallfors, Ph.D., of the Pacific Instit

UCSF-led researchers have developed a highly sensitive, automated test for detecting prions (PREE-on) that they report significantly improves the accuracy and speed of detecting the various forms of the infectious agent, which causes a set of neurodegenerative diseases, in cattle, sheep, deer and elk.

Because the test is automated, the researchers say, it could be used for high-throughput testing of brain samples of cattle with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or “mad cow” disease, a