Moscow engineers have invented and produced a black box the size of a meccano brick which is able to record and memorise all details of movement of the object carrying the device. In fact, the device does not do it during its entire life-cycle but only within the last 15 seconds. However, these last seconds in particular are often the most important ones.
This device has been invented, produced and is being tested by engineers of the Moscow CONUS Company, specialisi
A place so barren that NASA uses it as a model for the Martian environment, Chiles Atacama desert gets rain maybe once a decade. In 2003, scientists reported that the driest Atacama soils were sterile.
Not so, reports a team of Arizona scientists. Bleak though it may be, microbial life lurks beneath the arid surface of the Atacamas absolute desert. “We found life, we can culture it, and we can extract and look at its DNA,” said Raina Maier, a professor of soil, water a
Medical scientists at the University of Leicester have announced they have narrowed the search for the death clock gene in humans. Their study relates to a hunt for a gene that has important implications for aging and cancer as well as other age-related diseases.
The gene controls the length of human telomeres – repeat DNA sequences that cap a chromosome. Each time a human cell divides, the cap shortens. When it gets too short, cells die. Telomere length therefore acts
The Minimally Invasive Surgical Therapies (MIST) Consortium for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) has launched a new study to compare long-term benefits and risks of transurethral needle ablation (TUNA) and transurethral microwave thermotherapy (TUMT) to a regimen of the alpha-1 inhibitor alfuzosin and the 5-alpha reductase inhibitor finasteride. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at NIH, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is investing more tha
A gene hunt being carried out at the University of Leicester for a skin disorder that affects over one million people in the UK alone has made a new breakthrough which could lead to the design of new and more targeted drugs.
The research team in the University of Leicester Division of Medical Genetics, led by Professor Richard Trembath, has been investigating Psoriasis – an inflammatory skin condition – for a number of years. Now Professor Trembath believes the research has made
Could boost surveillance in public places
A new three-dimensional multi-camera system that allows viewers to search areas from various vantage points could one day boost surveillance in public places such as airports and train stations, say University of Toronto researchers. The system – based on ideas published in the October proceedings of the 2004 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics – allows users to capture images of a scene from multiple angles and