Research quest aims to cure hearing loss at its root
The ultimate cause of hearing loss is usually found in the tiny hair cells that play the crucial role of converting sound waves into nerve impulses for delivery to the brain. “Whether hearing loss is...
View ArticleGoing negative: scientists explore new ways to remove atmospheric CO2
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions may not be enough to curb global warming, say Stanford University scientists. The solution could require carbon-negative technologies that actually remove large...
View ArticleA neural basis for benefits of meditation
Mindfulness meditation training in awareness of present moment experience, such as body and breath sensations, prevents depression and reduces distress in chronic pain. In a new paper, Brown University...
View ArticleFuture Evidence for Extraterrestrial Life Might Come from Dying Stars
Even dying stars could host planets with life – and if such life exists, we might be able to detect it within the next decade. This encouraging result comes from a new theoretical study of Earth-like...
View ArticleAlienosis: Alien Bugs
Extract from the book The Hidden Alpha by Alexander Popoff. The book can be found at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BESQH6S. The failure to detect alien microorganisms or alienoses (diseases transmitted...
View ArticleAsteroids no match for paint gun
There is research that is off the wall, some off the charts and some off the planet, such as what a Texas A&M University aerospace and physics professor is exploring. It’s a plan to deflect a...
View ArticlePensioners to go to Mars – why the old ones are the best
Tourist “astronaut” millionaire Dennis Tito wants to send an “older couple” to Mars. Would this be a stunt by an enthusiast or a meaningful breakthrough in space exploration? Being elderly myself, I...
View ArticleA Window Into Europa’s Ocean Lies Right at the Surface
If you could lick the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, you would actually be sampling a bit of the ocean beneath. So says Mike Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology...
View ArticleRussian Asteroid Explosion and Past Impactors Paint a Potentially Grim Future...
The recent meteor explosion over Chelyabinsk brought to the forefront a topic that has worried astronomers for years, namely that an impactor from space could cause widespread human fatalities....
View Article‘Metasurfaces’ to usher in new optical technologies
New optical technologies using “metasurfaces” capable of the ultra-efficient control of light are nearing commercialization, with potential applications including advanced solar cells, computers,...
View ArticleThe Science of Clouds—Why They Matter, and Why There May be Fewer of Them
The climate models that scientists use to understand and project climate change are improving constantly, with better representations of the oceans, ice, land surfaces and other factors in the...
View ArticleGreen super power grid for the world
If we want to obtain power on a large scale from renewable energy sources such as the sun or wind, there are certain natural constraints. Where most people live and need electricity, the potential for...
View ArticleWhat is a gene?
There’s a very confusing exchange in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass: “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more...
View ArticleStanford students present visions for the future of driving
The car of the future won’t have a steering wheel or gas and brake pedals. If that sounds weird, just wait until you drive it around the neighborhood without leaving the comfort of your couch. These...
View ArticleThrusters powered by ionic wind may be an efficient alternative to...
Reprinted with permission of MIT News, story by Jennifer Chu When a current passes between two electrodes — one thinner than the other — it creates a wind in the air between. If enough voltage is...
View ArticleTargeting cholesterol buildup in eye may slow age-related vision loss
Targeting cholesterol metabolism in the eye might help prevent a severe form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), one of the most common causes of blindness in older Americans, according to...
View ArticleWill cell therapy become a ‘third pillar’ of medicine?
Treating patients with cells may one day become as common as it is now to treat the sick with drugs made from engineered proteins, antibodies or smaller chemicals, according to UC San Francisco...
View ArticleGenetic Modifiers: Healthy Mutants Fuel Drug Discovery
I’m uneasy counseling a patient for mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 cancer susceptibility genes. Typically, she’ll have a “first degree relative” – usually a mother or sister – with a related cancer,...
View ArticleOpen source drug discovery
Using Wikipedia, Firefox and Linux as models for research collaboration, Matthew Todd’s team employs open source methods to create drugs for chronic illnesses. Dr Todd talks about the success of open...
View ArticleCO2 removal can lower costs of climate protection
Directly removing CO2 from the air has the potential to alter the costs of climate change mitigation. It could allow prolonging greenhouse-gas emissions from sectors like transport that are difficult,...
View ArticleInside Neuroscience: Scientists Work to Detect Alzheimer’s Disease Earlier
Long before a person shows signs of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the disease has begun changing the brain. By the time most therapies are offered the disease has quietly run rampant for years. “Right now,...
View ArticleCould We Move The Sun?
An idea that really captures my imagination is what kinds of future civilizations there might be. And I’m not the only one. In 1964, the Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev defined the future of...
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