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Protein Strongest Just Before Death

By Guest PostDecember 13, 2012Health, Sciencecell death, cell growth, david arnosti, degradation, destruction, drosophila, fruit fly, genetic similarity, grave, humans, liang zhang, lifecycle, mechanism, michigan state university, molecular details, nontraditional lifestyle, one foot, protein, proteins, retinoblastoma, retinoblastoma proteins, treat cancer, tumor suppressor, wings

Researchers at Michigan State University have discovered a protein that does its best work with one foot in the grave.

The study, which appears in the current issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, focuses on the nontraditional lifestyle of Retinoblastoma tumor suppressor proteins, which could lead to new ways to treat cancer.

“Retinoblastoma proteins are unique in that they use controlled destruction to do their jobs in a timely but restrained fashion,” said Liang Zhang, a lead author and MSU cell and molecular biology graduate student. “This is an unusual way for proteins to act.” (more…)

Cassini Spots Mini Nile River on Saturn Moon

By Guest PostDecember 12, 2012Sciencebedrock, fractures, mini nile river, moon titan, plate tectonics, saturn moon, titan

PASADENA, Calif. – Scientists with NASA’s Cassini mission have spotted what appears to be a miniature, extraterrestrial likeness of Earth’s Nile River: a river valley on Saturn’s moon Titan that stretches more than 200 miles (400 kilometers) from its “headwaters” to a large sea. It is the first time images have revealed a river system this vast and in such high resolution anywhere other than Earth. (more…)

Do We Live in a Computer Simulation? UW Researchers Say Idea Can be Tested

By Guest PostDecember 12, 2012Sciencecomputer simulation, living in simulation, parallel universes, posthuman civilization, posthuman stage

A decade ago, a British philosopher put forth the notion that the universe we live in might in fact be a computer simulation run by our descendants. While that seems far-fetched, perhaps even incomprehensible, a team of physicists at the University of Washington has come up with a potential test to see if the idea holds water. (more…)

Seeing in Color at the Nanoscale

By Guest PostDecember 12, 2012Scienceafm, alex weber bargioni, atomic force microscope, atomic microscopy, berkeley lab, color, conversion, data, diederik wiersma, electric energy, electrons, fabrication, far field light, francesca intonti, frank ogletree, geometries, imagery, indium phosphide nanowires, james schuck, jeffrey bokor, mauro meli, multidimensional, nano optics, nanoscale, nanoscale objects, nanoscience, nanospectroscopic imaging, optical fiber, optical spectroscopy, optoelectronic properties, photons, plasmons, shaul aloni, solar, stephano cabrini, sub nanoscale resolution, topological map, wei bao

Berkeley Lab scientists develop a new nanotech tool to probe solar-energy conversion

If nanoscience were television, we’d be in the 1950s. Although scientists can make and manipulate nanoscale objects with increasingly awesome control, they are limited to black-and-white imagery for examining those objects. Information about nanoscale chemistry and interactions with light—the atomic-microscopy equivalent to color—is tantalizingly out of reach to all but the most persistent researchers.

But that may all change with the introduction of a new microscopy tool from researchers at the Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) that delivers exquisite chemical details with a resolution once thought impossible. The team developed their tool to investigate solar-to-electric energy conversion at its most fundamental level, but their invention promises to reveal new worlds of data to researchers in all walks of nanoscience. (more…)

Researchers Reveal Structure of Carbon’s ‘Hoyle State’

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2012Sciencealpha clusters, hoyle state, numerical lattice, states of carbon

A North Carolina State University researcher has taken a “snapshot” of the way particles combine to form carbon-12, the element that makes all life on Earth possible. And the picture looks like a bent arm. (more…)

Asteroid that Killed the Dinosaurs also Wiped out the ‘Obamadon’

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2012Nature, Scienceage of dinosaurs, alberta, asteroid collision, asteroid strike, bhart anjan bhullar, boundary, canada, carnivorous lizards, cerberophis, cretaceous, dinosaur species, dinosaurs, diversification, ecosystem, edmontosaurus, evolution, extinct lizard, flood, fossils, gracilis, harvard, jacques a gauthier, kill, lizard, mammals, mass extinction, montana, new mexico, nicholas r longrich, North America, obamadon, obamadon gracilis, odon, palaeosaniwa, paleogene, political significance, polyglyphanodontia, slender, snake, species, survivor, swamps, t rex, taxonomy, tooth, triceratops, united states, us president, yale, yucatan peninsula

The asteroid collision widely thought to have killed the dinosaurs also led to extreme devastation among snake and lizard species, according to new research — including the extinction of a newly identified lizard Yale and Harvard scientists have named Obamadon gracilis.

“The asteroid event is typically thought of as affecting the dinosaurs primarily,” said Nicholas R. Longrich, a postdoctoral associate with Yale’s Department of Geology and Geophysics and lead author of the study. “But it basically cut this broad swath across the entire ecosystem, taking out everything. Snakes and lizards were hit extremely hard.” (more…)

Crowdsourcing Site Compiles New Sign Language for Math and Science

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2012Education, Scienceamerican sign language, asl, asl stem forum, byte, caroline solomon, crowdsourcing, dictionary, eukaryote, Europe, google corp, harry lang, kyle rector, lexicon of science, light year, multimedia feature, national science foundation, new york times, organism, photosynthesis, raja kushalnagar, richard ladner, science signs lexicon, sign language, united states, university, urban dictionary, Washington, Wikipedia

A multimedia feature published this week in the New York Times, “Pushing Science’s Limits in Sign Language Lexicon,” outlines efforts in the United States and Europe to develop sign language versions of specialized terms used in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The article shares newly defined signs for terms like “light-year,” “organism” and “photosynthesis.” It also describes a successful crowdsourcing effort started at the University of Washington in 2008 that lets members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community build their own guide to the evolving lexicon of science.

“It’s not a dictionary,” explained Richard Ladner, a UW professor of computer science and engineering. “The goal of the forum is to be constantly changing, a reflection of the current use.” (more…)

UCLA Doctors Remove Man’s Heart, Replace it with Total Artificial Heart

By Guest PostDecember 10, 2012Health, Scienceadvanced technology, ali nsair, artificial heart, backpack, bridge, cardiothoracic surgery, chad washington, defibrillator implanted, diseased heart, donor heart, exercise, freedom portable driver, heart disease, heart transplant program, immunosuppressant medications, living without heart, mario deng, nutrition plan, pacemaker, richard j shemin, syncardia, temporary, temporary pump, tick tock, total artificial heart, transplant surgery, transplantation, ucla

Portable power supply allows patient to go home while he awaits new heart

Imagine living without a heart. It is possible — if you have a new artificial heart pumping blood through your body. You can even go to the supermarket, watch your kid’s soccer game or go on a hike.

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center has performed its first procedure to remove a patient’s diseased heart and replace it with a SynCardia Temporary Total Artificial Heart.

Chad Washington, 35, underwent the seven-hour transplant surgery at UCLA on Oct. 29, led by Dr. Murray Kwon, an assistant professor of cardiothoracic surgery. (more…)

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