Humans are genetically more diverse and the repercussions could be far-reaching for medical diagnosis, new drugs and the tale of human evolution itself, a new research, published in the British journal Nature, suggests. Scientists have shown that our genetic code varies between individuals far more than was previously thought.
A gene variant that increases the risk of developing the aggressive “wet” form of age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in people over age 50, is reported in two recent articles in Science by researchers at Yale School of Medicine.
Genetics play a major role in predisposing infants to retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a disease prevalent in premature infants that disrupts normal blood vessel development of the retina and can lead to blindness, researchers at Yale School of Medicine report in the November issue of Pediatrics.
Researchers at NIST and the University of Colorado at Boulder have designed a prototype carbon nanotube “knife” that would work like a tight-wire cheese slicer for cutting cells, allowing scientists to study them more precisely than they can today.
Reseearchers from NIST, the Chicago Fire Department and the Chicago Housing Authority recently set controlled fires in an abandoned Chicago apartment building to test a new fire-fighting technique — using powerful fans to force smoke and heat from corridors and stairwells so that they stay passable and safe for both escaping occupants and firefighters.
Researchers have found a gap between water and a water-repelling surface that can give new insight into the way water and oil separate. By using high-energy X-rays at the ESRF, an international team defined the size and characteristics of this gap. The knowledge of the structure of a hydrophobic interface is important because they are crucial in biological systems, and can give insight in protein folding and stability.
Geologists from the UK and US, led by the University of Leicester, have made an unusual discovery from over 425 million years ago … hard boiled eggs!
Scientists have discovered that autoimmunity can be triggered in the thymus, where the immune system’s T cells develop, if T cells fail to recognize just one of the body’s thousands of proteins as “self.”
“Black gold” is not just an expression anymore. Scientists at the University of Rochester have created a way to change the properties of almost any metal to render it, literally, black. The process, using an incredibly intense burst of laser light, holds the promise of making everything from fuel cells to a space telescope’s detectors more efficient — not to mention turning your car into the blackest black around.
Yi Lu and his team at the University of Illinois in Urbana has laid the foundation for a new generation of rapid diagnostic tests that are as easy to handle as a pregnancy test: just dunk them in the sample and see if a colored band appears.