clhs sciblog

Musings on current happenings in science from our little slice of the world.

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Entries from February 24th, 2010

Researchers Believe Physics Can Overcome Viruses Such as HIV and the Flu

February 24th, 2010 · No Comments · Physics

The biggest problem with the Flu is that the viruses mutate and develop resitance to the medicine designed to treat them.  When a viral cell infects a healthy cell, it takes over the control system and multiplies quickly, creating more viral cells. ”The way many viruses transfer their genomes into host cells is by ejecting them [...]

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Mice With Human Livers Help Fight Disease

February 24th, 2010 · No Comments · Biology

A new study has been conducted on mice that involves changing a mouse’s liver. Scientists replace the mouse’s liver cells with the liver cells of humans to generate a testable environment for drugs. The drugs being tested on the mouse are those that scientists predict will help to treat liver disease. The “humanized” mouse not [...]

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Getting Faster at the Skeleton

February 24th, 2010 · No Comments · Physics

In a lab in New York, an aerospace engineer went to the U.S. Olympic Committee to help the skeleton team improve. He made a mock sled track so the riders could stay stationary while a wind tunnel fan blows at them at 60 miles an hour. A computer monitor beneath them can show them how [...]

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Brown Physicist Discovers Odd, Fluctuating Magnetic Waves

February 23rd, 2010 · No Comments · Physics

“At the quantum level, the forces of magnetism and superconductivity exist in an uneasy relationship. Superconducting materials repel a magnetic field, so to create a superconducting current, the magnetic forces must be strong enough to overcome the natural repulsion and penetrate the body of the superconductor. But there’s a limit: Apply too much magnetic force, [...]

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Physicists Use Ultra-Fast Lasers to Open Doors to New Technologies Unheard of Just Years Ago

February 23rd, 2010 · No Comments · Physics

For over 50 years scientists have been working hard to develop a super laser.  This x-ray laser is to be cost-efficient and a reasonable size, and would provide super-high resolution imaging.  All of these feats if accomplished could lead to major breakthroughs in the areas of medicine, biology and nanotechnology.  ”Our goal is to create [...]

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Scientist Watch as the Brains Vocal Learning Begins

February 22nd, 2010 · No Comments · Biology

At the Duke University Center scientist watched as a juvenile songbird’s brain,under a laser powered microscope, started to learn a song right after he heard an adult tutors’ song for the first time. Scientist ultimately wanted to see what would happen between the connections from the nerve cells to when the motor in the brain commands it to sing the [...]

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How Mosquitoes Survive Malaria

February 22nd, 2010 · No Comments · Biology

As we all know mosquitoes are one of  the insects that cause Malaria. However they have the ability to not be affected by Malaria. Scientist have been studying how they are able to do this. They have recently made a breakthrough in this study. They have done this by studying and analyzing the genes in [...]

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Low-Cost DNA Test to Pinpoint Risk of Inherited Diseases

February 22nd, 2010 · 1 Comment · Biology

An inexpensive, fast, DNA test that shows if a person is at risk of developing a certain diseases is soon becoming a reality,  thanks to technology developed at the University of Edinburgh. Scientists have found a way to pinpoint a persons genetic code on certain places on the DNA change.  A way they could do this is to collect [...]

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Threat to Monkey Numbers from Forest Decline

February 22nd, 2010 · 1 Comment · Biology

Monkey populations are far more sensitive to damage in there habitat than thought before. The health of monkeys is closely related to the types of habitat found between forest fragments. The impact of external factors such as human activity can affect forest as big as 40 square kilometers. The decline in population can be stopped by taking [...]

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Discovery of “Mining” Nutrient in Plants

February 21st, 2010 · No Comments · Biology

Roots hairs form on roots and burrow into the soil surrounding the plants in hopes of finding nutrients such as phosphate and iron. Those nutrients are crucial for plant growth. Plants such as wheat and barley have long root hairs and are grow in poor phosphate soil. Until now scientists have not known why that is so. Recently, [...]

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