Applications include nanotechnology, more

Defects such as cracks in a material are responsible for everything from malfunctioning microchips to earthquakes. Now MIT engineers have developed a model to predict a defect’s birthplace, its initial features and how it begins to advance through the material.
The model could be especially useful in nanotechnology. “As devices get smaller and smaller, understanding the phenomena of defect nucleation and growth becomes more and more

Whether 240 miles above in the International Space Station or firmly grounded on Earth, medical testing without needles wins everyone’s vote.

Refinements under way to current near infrared (NIR) spectroscopic techniques will expand the range of non-invasive blood and tissue chemistry measurements. These changes also will provide accurate readings unaffected by skin color or body fat.

“Once complete, this device will allow chemical analysis and diagnosis without removing samples f

Lasker recipient James E. Darnell contends drug developers should focus more on ’transcription factor’ proteins

Researchers may be looking for novel cancer drugs in the wrong places, says Rockefeller University Professor James E. Darnell, Jr., M.D., in an article in this month’s Nature Reviews Cancer.

Darnell, who received the 2002 Albert Lasker Award for Special Achievement in Medical Science, argues that drug development research should focus more on a speci

Chinese herbal medicine combined with standard therapy may be more effective than standard therapy alone for treatment of chronic hepatitis B, according to an analysis of randomized, controlled trials led by University of California, Berkeley, researchers.

Researchers analyzed 27 clinical trials in which chronic hepatitis B patients using Chinese herbal medicine alone, or with interferon alfa, were compared with a control group of patients that were taking only interferon alfa. The protein

Integral is the International Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory of the European Space Agency. It is a cooperative mission with Russia and is scheduled for launch on 17 October 2002 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on a Russian Proton rocket, the Russian contribution to the programme.

It is the world`s most advanced gamma-ray telescope and will provide first-hand observations of the celestial objects that release some of the most energetic radiation of the Universe. In particular, sc

The technology centre GAIKER of the Basque Country is working on a project whose aim is to develop intelligent polymers and discover their opportunities. Similarly, it will study the possibilities to introduce those polymers in the existing structures in order to promote their applicability and to create new enterprise initiatives.

GAIKER researches in polymers the elaboration and transformation of intelligent materials. For that aim, it develops its own technologies and then adjust them to