Technology May Help Remove Contaminants from Drinking Water Supplies

Membrane filter technology is helping to remove barriers to cleaner drinking water.

University of Houston researchers are studying how membrane filters, such as those currently used in some home water purification systems, might someday be used on a large scale to remove contaminants and organic compounds that can affect the purity and color of municipal water supplies.

Understanding how such filte

Few of the women who undergo tubal sterilization or whose husbands undergo vasectomy later go on to regret either procedure, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study appears in the June issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

The study found the proportion of women who experience regret was essentially the same -about 6 to 7 percent-five years after their hus

A team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the University of Oslo in Norway has provided new insight into the superconductivity of magnesium diboride (MgB2), an unusual superconductor discovered only last year. The new result appears in the June 17, 2002 issue of Physical Review Letters.

Understanding the origin of superconductivity — the ability of som

University of California, Santa Barbara scientists and U.S. Army researchers are making progress in the study of spider dragline silk, according to recently published proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The protein that lets spiders drop and helps the web to catch prey is what interests the researchers. The molecules are designed to be pulled; they are elastic and very strong. The silk can be extended 30 to 50 percent of its length before it breaks. It is stronger than steel a

A new study of migraine headaches suggests behavioral therapy “not medication — may be the most effective weapon against migraine pain for teen-agers.

Researchers with the Ohio University Headache Treatment & Research Project enrolled 30 teens ages 12 to 17 in the pilot project. Half were treated with triptans — a fairly new class of drugs widely used for migraine in adults — and half were assigned to a phone-administered behavioral therapy program that included instruction in biofeedbac

‘Golden approach’ human proteine classification
Proteomics on a chip

Knowledge of the human proteome may provide us with even more insight than knowledge of DNA. This ‘protein blueprint’ of a human contains valuable information about cell properties and disease causes. A single cell, however, already consists of several thousands of proteines. To be able to classify them, dr. Richard Schasfoort of the University of Twente is developing a special chip, able to make hundreds or tho