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Cotsen researcher finds evidence of ‘unnatural selection’ in popular Panamanian seafood

By Guest PostApril 22, 2014Sciencearchaeologist, besiedlung europas, chenguang zheng, evolutionary change, forward, frank maixner, gott, ibm studio, isla colon, jozef niewiadomski, juliette pepperell, laura colgin, magenbakterium, oetzis, panama, popular, sexual maturity, thema religion, ucla

Caribbean fighting conch used to be harvested with more meat, but evolved to mature at smaller size

Like most residents of Panama’s Isla Colón, UCLA archaeologist Thomas Wake has enjoyed more than a few plates of Caribbean fighting conch in the 11 years he’s operated his field lab on the island’s north shore.

“They’re stigmatized as a poor people’s food, but they’re good,” said Wake, a lab director at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology in UCLA’s College of Letters and Science. “They taste a lot like abalone or calamari.” (more…)

Possible evidence for dark matter particle presented at UCLA physics symposium

By Guest PostApril 5, 2014Sciencebrad hayes, brian scassellati, current technology, dark matter particle, david cline, electron volts, fertility hormones, germanium, ivf, los angeles, lux zeplin, NASA, prescribing, symposium, ucla, womans chances

Dark matter, the mysterious substance estimated to make up approximately more than one-quarter of the mass of the universe, is crucial to the formation of galaxies, stars and even life but has so far eluded direct observation.

At a recent UCLA symposium attended by 190 scientists from around the world, physicists presented several analyses that participants interpreted to imply the existence of a dark matter particle. (more…)

Researchers create coating material to prevent blood clots associated with implanted devices

By Guest PostMarch 10, 2014Healthblood clots, blood vessels, conjugated catalytic systems, create coating material, flow, graphitic carbon, implanted biomedical devices, implanted devices, mark meyerhoff, nitric oxide, prevent, production of nitroxyl, sheets of graphene, ucla, university of michigan, yu huang

A team of researchers from UCLA and the University of Michigan has developed a material that could help prevent blood clots associated with catheters, heart valves, vascular grafts and other implanted biomedical devices.

Blood clots at or near implanted devices are thought to occur when the flow of nitric oxide, a naturally occurring clot-preventing agent generated in the blood vessels, is cut off. When this occurs, the devices can fail. (more…)

Understanding the basic biology of bipolar disorder

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2014Health3d image, basic biology, biological pathway, bipolar disorder, brain, carrie bearden, clinical symptoms, cognitive function, genetic causes, genetic component, human behavior, illness, nelson freimer, ucla

Scientists from UCLA, UC San Francisco, Costa Rica and Colombia take steps to identify genetic component to mental illness

Scientists know there is a strong genetic component to bipolar disorder, but they have had an extremely difficult time identifying the genes that cause it. So, in an effort to better understand the illness’s genetic causes, researchers at UCLA tried a new approach. (more…)

Hollywood failing to keep up with rapidly increasing diversity, UCLA study warns

By Guest PostFebruary 15, 2014Entertainment, Mediaafrican american, america, ana christina ramon, california, darnell hunt, diversity, diversity in hollywood, diversity of america, film, film industry, hollywood failing, oscar winning films, shonda rhimes, the iron lady, tv, tv comedies, ucla, zachary price

When it comes to influential positions in the entertainment industry, minorities and women are represented at rates far below what would be expected given their percentage of the general population, according to a new study done at UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies.

In fact, the report shows, the proportion of female and minority actors, writers, directors and producers in films and TV ranges from just one-twelfth to one-half of their actual population percentage. (more…)

New data compression method reduces big-data bottleneck; outperforms, enhances JPEG

By Guest PostDecember 30, 2013Technologyanamorphic stretch transform, applied optics, arts, ast, bahram jalali, big data, big problems, coarse feature, compression factor, data communication, data compression, data compression method, dispersive fourier transform, enhance, henry samueli school, ieee global conference, image quality, jpeg, mohammad asghari, new, physics, streaming fashion, stretch, time, ucla

New discovery is rooted in physics and the arts

In creating an entirely new way to compress data, a team of researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has drawn inspiration from physics and the arts. The result is a new data compression method that outperforms existing techniques, such as JPEG for images, and that could eventually be adopted for medical, scientific and video streaming applications.

In data communication, scientific research and medicine, an increasing number of today’s applications require the capture and analysis of massive amounts of data in real time. (more…)

Experimental drug shows encouraging results in treating most common form of lung cancer

By Guest PostNovember 15, 2013Healthamerican cancer society, australia, common form, drug related, edward garon, experimental drug, immunotherapy drug, kill cancer cell, lung cancer, merck, mk 3475, new drug, phase 1b study, protein pd1, side effects, sydney, treating, ucla, world conference

An experimental cancer drug that has shown promise in the treatment of melanoma has also shown early potential as an effective treatment for patients with non-small cell lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death among men and women worldwide.

Dr. Edward Garon, director of thoracic oncology at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, presented the preliminary results of a Phase 1B study of the new drug, called MK-3475, on Oct. 29 at the World Conference on Lung Cancer in Sydney, Australia. (more…)

‘Freakish’ asteroid discovered, resembles rotating lawn sprinkler

By Guest PostNovember 12, 2013Scienceasteroid belt, asteroid rotation rate, astrophysical journal letters, comet like tails, common phenomenon, david jewitt, dust radiating, episodic eruptions, freakish asteroid, Germany, harold weaver, hubble, jessica agarwal, jupiter, lindau, mars, massive, max mutchler, max planck institute, nucleus, pan starrs, rotational breakup, solar system research, stephen larson, ucla

Astronomers have discovered a “weird and freakish object” resembling a rotating lawn sprinkler in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The find, reported online in the Nov. 7 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters, has left them scratching their heads and searching for an explanation for the strange asteroid’s out-of-this-world appearance.

Normal asteroids appear simply as tiny points of light. This bizarre asteroid has six comet-like tails of dust radiating from it like spokes on a wheel. (more…)

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