The long-sought ability to control the movement of prosthetic limbs with brain waves has edged a little closer to reality.

In experiments published in the June 7 issue of the journal Science, monkeys were able to move balls around in 3D space on a computer screen just by thinking about it. With a little practice, they got even better at it.

“They achieved nearly the same accuracy and speed as normal arm movements,” said senior author Andrew Schwartz, Ph.D., of the Departme

Finding may help explain related conditions in people

Inactivating just one of more than two dozen similar genes can cause temporary but profound hair loss, known as alopecia, in mice, researchers from Johns Hopkins and the Pasteur Institute in France report in the June issue of Genes & Development.
Surprisingly, the impact of loss of this keratin 17 gene (K17) depended on an animal’s genetic make-up: its loss caused no effect in one strain of mice and complete alopecia in an

Study has implications for lowering heart-disease risk in Type 2 diabetes patients

A drug used widely as an insulin sensitizer appears also to have a significant anti-inflammatory effect in diabetics, a property that could make it useful in helping to prevent heart disease in these patients, a study by endocrinologists at the University at Buffalo has found.

Results of the research, involving the drug rosiglitazone, were presented here today (June 15, 2002) at the annual mee

Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (HSC), the University Health Network (UHN), and the University of Toronto (U of T) have identified a novel gene that when mutated results in medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumour found in children. This research is reported in the July issue of the scientific journal Nature Genetics.

Brain tumours are the second most common cancer in children after leukemia, with the incidence increasing at a rate of five to 10 per cent per yea

Investigators reporting at the 49th Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) have determined that a noninvasive nuclear medicine technique can accurately and safely detect the extent of persistent heart muscle damage after a heart attack. In two studies, researchers reported on the safety and efficacy 201Tl/99mTc Annexin (ApomateTM) SPECT in detecting and localizing myocardial tissue damage and revealing areas of persistent cellular injury. SPECT (single-photon emission computed tomogr

Farmers growing corn in the mid-Atlantic region will have a new tool to help them identify appropriate cultural practices for the types of soils in their fields, thanks to research conducted by researchers from Virginia Tech and Colorado State University.
“Soils vary in their ability to hold water,” said Mark Alley, professor of crop and soil environmental sciences at Virginia Tech. “If a farmer knows the water-use efficiency of the soils in his field, he has a very important clue on how to mana