What Bacteria Don’t Know Can Hurt Them
November 21, 2011
Many infections, even those caused by antibiotic-sensitive bacteria, resist treatment. This paradox has vexedphysicians for decades, and makes some infections impossible to cure.
A key cause of this resistance is that bacteria become starved for nutrients during infection. Starved bacteria resist killing by nearly every type of antibiotic, even ones they have never been exposed to before.
What produces starvation-induced antibiotic resistance, and how can it be overcome? In a paper appearing this week in Science, researchers report some surprising answers.
“Bacteria become starved when they exhaust nutrient supplies in the body, or if they live clustered together in groups known as biofilms,” said the lead author of the paper, Dr. Dao Nguyen, an assistant professor of medicine at McGill University.
Deforestation Causes Cooling in Northern U.S. and Canada
November 21, 2011
The impact of deforestation on global warming varies with latitude, according to new research from a team of scientists representing 20 institutions from around the world. The surprising finding, which researchers say calls for new climate-monitoring strategies, will be published in the Nov. 17 issue of the journal Nature.
“It depends where the deforestation is,” said UC Davis atmospheric science Professor Kyaw Tha Paw U, a study co-author. “It could have some cooling effects at the regional scale, at higher latitudes, but there’s no indication deforestation is cooling lower latitudes, and in fact may actually cause warming.”
Magnetic Fields Set Stage for Birth of New Stars
November 21, 2011
Astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy have, for the first time, measured the alignment of magnetic fields in gigantic clouds of gas and dust in a distant galaxy. Their results suggest that such magnetic fields play a key role in channeling matter to form denser clouds, and thus in setting the stage for the birth of new stars.
The work is being published in the journal Nature.
Stars and their planets are born when giant clouds of interstellar gas and dust collapse. You’ve probably seen the resulting stellar nurseries in beautiful astronomical images: Colorful nebulae, lit by the bright young stars they have brought forth.
Heart Attack Can Lead to Heart Rupture
November 19, 2011
For people who initially survive a heart attack, a significant cause of death in the next few days is cardiac rupture — literally, bursting of the heart wall.
A new study by University of Iowa researchers pinpoints a single protein as the key player in the biochemical cascade that leads to cardiac rupture. The findings, published Nov. 13 as an Advance Online Publication (AOP) of the journal Nature Medicine, suggest that blocking the action of this protein, known as CaM kinase, may help prevent cardiac rupture and reduce the risk of death.
After a heart attack, the body produces a range of chemicals that trigger biological processes involved in healing and repair. Unfortunately, many of these chemical signals can become “too much of a good thing” and end up causing further damage often leading to heart failure and sudden death.
Light Created from a Vacuum
November 19, 2011
Scientists at Chalmers have succeeded in creating light from vacuum — observing an effect first predicted over 40 years ago. In an innovative experiment, the scientists have managed to capture some of the photons that are constantly appearing and disappearing in the vacuum.
The results have been published in the journal Nature.
The experiment is based on one of the most counterintuitive, yet, one of the most important principles in quantum mechanics: that vacuum is by no means empty nothingness. In fact, the vacuum is full of various particles that are continuously fluctuating in and out of existence. They appear, exist for a brief moment and then disappear again. Since their existence is so fleeting, they are usually referred to as virtual particles.
New ‘Smart’ Material Could Help Tap Medical Potential of Tissue-Penetrating Light
November 19, 2011
Scientists are reporting development and successful initial testing of the first practical “smart” material that may supply the missing link in efforts to use in medicine a form of light that can penetrate four inches into the human body. Their report on the new polymer or plastic-like material, which has potential for use in diagnosing diseases and engineer new human tissues in the lab, appears in ACS’ journal Macromolecules.
Adah Almutairi and colleagues explain that near-infrared (NIR) light (which is just beyond what human can see) penetrates through the skin and almost four inches into the body, with great potential for diagnosing and treating diseases. Low-power NIR does not damage body tissues as it passes. Missing, however, are materials that respond effectively to low-power NIR. Plastics that disintegrate when hit with NIR, for instance, could be filled with anti-cancer medicine, injected into tumors, and release the medicine when hit with NIR. Current NIR-responsive smart materials require high-power NIR light, which could damage cells and tissues. That’s why Almutairi’s team began research on development of a new smart polymer that responds to low-power NIR light.
Longstanding Mysteries About Cygnus X-1 Unraveled
November 19, 2011
For the first time, astronomers have produced a complete description of a black hole, a concentration of mass so dense that not even light can escape its powerful gravitational pull. Their precise measurements have allowed them to reconstruct the history of the object from its birth some six million years ago.
Using several telescopes, both ground-based and in orbit, the scientists unravelled longstanding mysteries about the object called Cygnus X-1, a famous binary-star system discovered to be strongly emitting X-rays nearly a half-century ago. The system consists of a black hole and a companion star from which the black hole is drawing material. The scientists’ efforts yielded the most accurate measurements ever of the black hole’s mass and spin rate.
HRL Researchers Develop World’s Lightest Material
November 18, 2011
Researchers at HRL Laboratories, LLC, announced today they have developed the world’s lightest material with a density of 0.9 mg/cc, approximately one hundred times lighter than Styrofoam™. The results of their research?a collaborative effort between HRL, The California Institute of Technology and the University of California, Irvine?are published in the November 18 issue of Science.
A2LA Accredits First Forensic Examination Testing Laboratory
November 17, 2011
The American Association for Laboratory Accreditation is proud to announce the accreditation of its first Scope in the field of Forensic Testing. The first of many to come, this occasion follows A2LA’s announcement of the launch of its Forensic Examination Accreditation Program and is the result of diligent work by our staff and A2LA contracted assessors, with assistance from our member organizations and supporters.
This first accreditation was granted on November 11, 2011 to Forensic Testing Laboratories, Inc located in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The location is a branch facility of Genetics Testing Laboratory, Inc., an A2LA-accredited testing laboratory, and was assessed to ISO/IEC 17025 and the A2LA supplemental document, R221 – Specific Requirements: Forensic Examination Accreditation Program-Testing.
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