news 2012

Mechanical Engineering/Mechanics - 22.02
Less is more: Study of tiny droplets could have big impact on industrial applications
Under a microscope, a tiny droplet slides between two fine hairs like a roller coaster on a set of rails until — poof — it suddenly spreads along them, a droplet no more. That instant of change, like the popping of soap bubble, comes so suddenly that it seems almost magical.

Life Sciences - Medicine/Pharmacology - 21.02
Cocaine and the teen brain: Yale research offers insights into addiction
When first exposed to cocaine, the adolescent brain launches a strong defensive reaction designed to minimize the drug's effects, Yale and other scientists have found. Now two new studies by a Yale team identify key genes that regulate this response and show that interfering with this reaction dramatically increases a mouse's sensitivity to cocaine.

Medicine/Pharmacology - Life Sciences - 21.02
What cancer cells need to travel
Cancer cells must prepare for travel before invading new tissues, but new Cornell research has found a possible way to stop these cells from ever hitting the road. Researchers have identified two key proteins that are needed to get cells moving and have uncovered a new pathway that treatments could block to immobilize mutant cells and keep cancer from spreading, said Richard Cerione, Goldwin Smith Professor of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Arts and Design - 21.02
Crime rates unsettled in Marcellus Shale drilling areas, study finds
There are no definitive findings that Marcellus Shale drilling activity has affected crime rates in Pennsylvania, but more study is needed, according to a preliminary report conducted recently by the Justice Center for Research at Penn State.

Medicine/Pharmacology - Chemistry - 20.02
Yale Center for Molecular Discovery created at West Campus
The road from discovering a novel insight to turning it into a practical biomedical application is full of twists, turns, and dead ends, but a combined center at Yale's West Campus seeks to provide University faculty with the knowledge and tools to navigate from basic science to new breakthroughs in disease management.

Chemistry - Physics/Astronomy - 20.02
To make better fuel cells, study the defects
Engineers trying to improve fuel-cell catalysts may be looking in the wrong place, according to new research at Cornell. There is growing interest in forming the catalysts that break down fuel to generate electricity into nanoparticles.

Mathematics - 20.02
The beat goes on: the geometry that makes music pleasing
Researchers uncover mathematical formula for rhythm and suggest our brains may be hardwired to respond to it Whether it's Bach or Brubeck, a new study shows that composers repeat rhythmic patterns in their works in such a way that the part is a copy of the larger whole.

Medicine/Pharmacology - Life Sciences - 17.02
UCLA discovery that migrating cells ’turn right’ has implications for engineering tissues, organs
What if we could engineer a liver or kidney from a patient's own stem cells? How about helping regenerate tissue damaged by diseases such as osteoporosis and arthritis? A new UCLA study bring scientists a little closer to these possibilities by providing a better understanding how tissue is formed and organized in the body.

Medicine/Pharmacology - 17.02
Study Provides Roadmap for Improved Care of Epilepsy Emergencies by Paramedics
Injecting epilepsy patients with medication via an autoinjector - similar to the EpiPens used to treat serious allergic reactions - works more quickly to stop seizures than delivery of a drug via IV on board ambulances, according to a national study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine .

Medicine/Pharmacology - Chemistry - 16.02
Successful human tests for first wirelessly controlled drug-delivery chip
Clinical trial of the programmable, implantable device shows promise in treating osteoporosis. About 15 years ago, MIT professors Robert Langer and Michael Cima had the idea to develop a programmable, wirelessly controlled microchip that would deliver drugs after implantation in a patient's body.

Life Sciences - Medicine/Pharmacology - 16.02
How mitochondrial DNA defects cause inherited deafness
Yale scientists have discovered the molecular pathway by which maternally inherited deafness appears to occur: Mitochondrial DNA mutations trigger a signaling cascade, resulting in programmed cell death.

Medicine/Pharmacology - Administration/Government - 15.02
Tool assessing how community health centers deliver ’medical home’ care may be flawed
On the health front, the poor often have at least two things going against them: a lack of insurance and chronic illnesses, of which diabetes is among the most common. The federal Affordable Care Act would expand the capacity of the nation's 8,000 community health centers to provide care for low-income, largely minority patients — from the current 20 million to about 40 million by 2015.

Agronomy/Food Science - Medicine/Pharmacology - 15.02
Parent-training intervention curbs pediatric obesity rates, study shows
Researchers found that after one year, there was a 9 percent reduction in overweight and obese children in the parent-training intervention group, while a control group that did not receive the parent training had a 16 percent increase in overweight and obese children.

Physics/Astronomy - 15.02
Black Hole Came from a Shredded Galaxy
Cambridge, MA - Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found a cluster of young, blue stars encircling the first intermediate-mass black hole ever discovered. The presence of the star cluster suggests that the black hole was once at the core of a now-disintegrated dwarf galaxy.

Physics/Astronomy - 14.02
Quantum computing is a (qu)bit closer to reality
Physicists have taken another significant step in the development of quantum computing, a new frontier in computing that promises exponentially faster information processing than the most sophisticated computers of today.

- 18.01
Unusual ’tulip’ creature

- 18.01
How new melanoma drug accelerates secondary skin cancers

- 6.01
Back to the future: Supersoldier ants illuminate evolution