An international team of astronomers today report the discovery of a huge distorted disk of cold dust surrounding Fomalhaut – one of the brightest stars in the sky. The most likely cause of the distortion is the gravitational influence of a Saturn-like planet at a large distance from the star tugging on the disk. This provides some of the strongest evidence so far that Solar Systems similar in size, or even bigger than our own, are likely to exist.
One hundred planets are already known to e
Two scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) led a collaborative effort involving 18 researchers at half a dozen laboratories in the United States and Great Britain to determine the “proteome” of the most deadly form of the malaria pathogen – Plasmodium falciparum .
This study, in the current issue of the journal Nature, accompanies an article detailing the completion of a major six-year $17.9-million genome-sequencing effort involving 185 researchers from the United Kingd
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 months 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
A common spermicide gel which has previously been proposed as a preventative agent against HIV-1 infection has been shown to be ineffective, according to authors of a study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET-and could actually increase HIV-1 transmission if used frequently.
Nonoxynol-9 is an inexpensive over-the-counter spermicide; laboratory studies have suggested that it could be a barrier to HIV-1 infection and other sexually transmitted diseases, although previous studies among women hav
A new study confirms what some job seekers may suspect: The more effort people put into a job search, the more likely they are to find employment even in difficult economic times.
The Georgia Institute of Technology study also reveals how certain personality traits affect job-search behavior. For example, people tend to look harder for jobs and consequently have more success if they are: Optimistic and view the job loss as an opportunity to improve their position.
Higher
An international team of physicists working at the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) facility at CERN has announced the first controlled production of large numbers of antihydrogen atoms at low energies. After mixing cold clouds of trapped positrons and antiprotons – the antiparticles of the familiar electron and proton – under closely monitored conditions, the ATHENA collaboration has identified antihydrogen atoms, formed when positrons bind together with antiprotons. The results are published online toda