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Researchers Create Flexible, Nanoscale ‘Bed of Nails’ for Possible Drug Delivery

By Guest PostJanuary 27, 2013Sciencealuminum substrate, anatoli melechko, balloon, bed of nails, brain, bryan anderson, carbon nanofibers, drug delivery systems, elastic membrane, elastic silicone membrane, embedding carbon nanofibers, joseph tracy, justin railsback, liquid silicone polymer, mehmet sarac, nanofibers, nanoscale, needle like, north Carolina, ryan pearce, state university, technique, timothy mcknight

Researchers at North Carolina State University have come up with a technique to embed needle-like carbon nanofibers in an elastic membrane, creating a flexible “bed of nails” on the nanoscale that opens the door to development of new drug-delivery systems.

The research community is interested in finding new ways to deliver precise doses of drugs to specific targets, such as regions of the brain. One idea is to create balloons embedded with nanoscale spikes that are coated with the relevant drug. Theoretically, the deflated balloon could be inserted into the target area and then inflated, allowing the spikes on the balloon’s surface to pierce the surrounding cell walls and deliver the drug. The balloon could then be deflated and withdrawn. (more…)

Thawing ‘Dry Ice’ Drives Groovy Action on Mars

By Guest PostJanuary 27, 2013Sciencearizona, candice hansen, carbon dioxide sublimation, crism, dark fans, driving factor, dry ice, dynamic process, dynamic world, earth, frozen carbon dioxide, ganna portyankina, groovy action, hirise camera, ice cap, mars, mars reconnaissance orbiter, mars south pole, mars today, martian sand dunes, martian years, NASA, north polar, planetary science institute, seasonal changes, switzerland, thawing, transient grooves, tucson, university, university of bern

PASADENA, Calif. — Researchers using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter see seasonal changes on far-northern Martian sand dunes caused by warming of a winter blanket of frozen carbon dioxide.

Earth has no naturally frozen carbon dioxide, though pieces of manufactured carbon-dioxide ice, called “dry ice,” sublime directly from solid to gas on Earth, just as the vast blankets of dry ice do on Mars. A driving factor in the springtime changes where seasonal coverings of dry ice form on Mars is that thawing occurs at the underside of the ice sheet, where it is in contact with dark ground being warmed by early-spring sunshine through translucent ice. The trapped gas builds up pressure and breaks out in various ways. (more…)

Facebook Activity Reveals Clues to Mental Illness, says MU Researcher

By Guest PostJanuary 26, 2013Health, Technologyclinical picture, elizabeth martin, experience, facebook activity, levels of paranoia, odd beliefs, participant, perceptual aberrations, pleasure, profile, psychological health, psychological state, psychologists, schizotypy, schizotypy symptoms, self reporting, social anhedonia, social media, social withdrawal, therapists, tool, university of missouri

Analysis of social media use could give therapists more complete view of patients’ health

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Facebook activity provided a window into the psychological health of participants in a study at the University of Missouri. Social media profiles could eventually be used as tools for psychologists and therapists, according to study leader Elizabeth Martin, doctoral student in MU’s psychological science department in the College of Arts and Science.

“Therapists could possibly use social media activity to create a more complete clinical picture of a patient,” Martin said. “The beauty of social media activity as a tool in psychological diagnosis is that it removes some of the problems associated with patients’ self-reporting. For example, questionnaires often depend on a person’s memory, which may or may not be accurate. By asking patients to share their Facebook activity, we were able to see how they expressed themselves naturally. Even the parts of their Facebook activities that they chose to conceal exposed information about their psychological state.” (more…)

New Key to Organism Complexity Identified

By Guest PostJanuary 26, 2013Sciencegene pool, genetic message, metazoan evolution, split personality, transcription factor

Berkeley Scientists Find that a Critical Transcription Factor Co-exists in Two Distinct States

The enormously diverse complexity seen amongst individual species within the animal kingdom evolved from a surprisingly small gene pool. For example, mice effectively serve as medical research models because humans and mice share 80-percent of the same protein-coding genes. The key to morphological and behavioral complexity, a growing body of scientific evidence suggests, is the regulation of gene expression by a family of DNA-binding proteins called “transcription factors.” Now, a team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley has discovered the secret behind how one these critical transcription factors is able to perform – a split personality. (more…)

UCLA Professor Leads Effort to Protect Africa’s Rainforests from Ravages of Climate Change

By Guest PostJanuary 26, 2013Environmentcentral african rainforests, climate change, habitat degradation, pire project, projected climate change

UCLA professor Thomas B. Smith will head an international research project investigating the effects of climate change on biodiversity in Central Africa’s rainforests, under a $4.95 million grant from the National Science Foundation. (more…)

Engineered Immune Cells Resist Infection from Hiv and Could Ultimately Replace Drug Therapy

By Guest PostJanuary 26, 2013Healthcocktail of drugs, engineered immune cells, gene therapy, genetic haart, hiv infection, hiv resistant genes

AUSTIN, Texas — Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the Stanford University School of Medicine have found a novel way to engineer key cells of the immune system so they remain resistant to infection from HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. (more…)

A Material that Most Liquids Won’t Wet

By Guest PostJanuary 25, 2013Scienceelectrospinning, nanoscale coating, nanoscale cube, non newtonian liquids, superomniphobic surface

ANN ARBOR — A nanoscale coating that’s at least 95 percent air repels the broadest range of liquids of any material in its class, causing them to bounce off the treated surface, according to the University of Michigan engineering researchers who developed it. (more…)

Technology in the Classroom

By Guest PostJanuary 25, 2013Educationcampaign ads, classroom, election campaign, facebook group, information, ipads, it transformation grant, karl rove, new york times, paul brewer, presidential election, public opinion polls, ralph begleiter, road to presidency, robert gibbs, rove gibbs debate, Technology, traditional media, university of delaware, washington post

UD students use iPads to study the presidential election

Ralph Begleiter and Paul Brewer, professors in the University of Delaware’s Department of Communication, wanted to see if students enrolled in their Road to the Presidency class would pay more attention to the presidential election if media were at their fingertips 24/7. Through a UD Information Technologies (IT) Transformation Grant, iPads were distributed to students enrolled in the course.

“There is something about a student laying their finger on the iPad and discovering what event occurred to make a jump in public opinion popularity occur. It’s that interactivity that makes it a personal experience for the student,” Begleiter observed. (more…)

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