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Science / Methods & Tools
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Science -
Methods & Tools
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TS-Si News Service
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Monday, 24 November 2008 15:00 |
 Pasadena, CA, USA. A new development may push molecular biology to new heights of precision and completeness. Molecular Biology includes the interactions between DNA, RNA and protein biosynthesis, while tracking the regulatory mechanisms that guide these interactions.
Another emerging field, called femtochemistry, is the area of physical chemistry that studies chemical reactions on extremely short timescales. One femtosecond is one billionth of one millionth of a second (approx. 10 to the –15 second). For comparison, a femtosecond is to a second, what a second is to about 32 million years. Using the techniques of femtochemistry, scientists can study why some reactions occur but not others.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 November 2008 09:47 |
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Science -
Methods & Tools
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TS-Si News Service
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Wednesday, 29 October 2008 00:00 |
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 Providence, RI, USA. Computer scientists have created a computer program that analyzes digital images or video to prepare an accurate estimate of the human body's shape. “If you see a person wearing clothing, can the computer figure out what they look like underneath?” asked Michael Black, professor of computer science at Brown University.
In turn, this kind of question requires a deeper understanding of human body types and a sufficient sample to obtain data and verify the validity of the computations. Black and graduate student Alexandru Balan developed an approach to get it done. They created a computer program that uses digital images or video to accurately map the human body’s shape. This is an advance over current body scanning technology, which requires people to stand still without clothing in order to produce the 3D rendering.
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Last Updated on Monday, 24 November 2008 15:16 |
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Science -
Methods & Tools
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TS-Si News Service
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Tuesday, 03 June 2008 17:00 |
 Durham, NC, USA. Little things that go awry in the brain can have large consequences. What if we could insert tiny electrodes (nanotubes) into neural cells? And how could we get them there? We may be a step closer to answers with the emergence of maneuverable microrobots measured in the mere billionths-of-a-meter. Scientists at Duke University craft microscopic robots that assemble into self-organized structures to maneuver as separate entities without any obvious guidance.
Each microrobot is shaped something like a spatula but with dimensions measuring just microns, or millionths of a meter. They are almost 100 times smaller than any previous robotic designs of their kind and weigh even less.
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Last Updated on Monday, 24 November 2008 15:02 |
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Science -
Methods & Tools
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TS-Si News Service
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Wednesday, 14 May 2008 17:00 |
 Berkeley, CA, USA. Standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has found increasing usefulness for research and acceptance as a diagnostic tool, but it cannot meet the more stringent requirements of current needs. The relatively low sensitivity of standard MRI limits image resolution and patients must remain motionless for long periods of time inside noisy, claustrophobic machines. However, a promising new MRI advance is in the laboratory and nearly ready for wider use.
Researchers in the neurosciences — and neurobiology in general — are likely to have first access to the significant new capabilities within the next few years. Clinical settings would benefit thereafter, providing diagnosticians with detection tools that far surpass the standard MRI technology of today.
The new technique builds on a series of previous MRI developments and incorporates findings from the closely related field of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Instead of an image, NMR yields a spectrum of molecular information. Combining MRI and NMR makes for a powerful method that is much faster, more selective — able to distinguish even among specific target molecules — and many thousands of times more sensitive than current MRI techniques.
"The new method holds the promise of combining a set of proven NMR tools for the first time into a practical, supersensitive diagnostic system for imaging the distribution of specific molecules, examining targets such as tumors in human subjects," says Leif Schröder, "or even on individual cancer cells." Leif Schröder, of Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division, was the team leader and lead author of the findings in the chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie (International Edition).
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Last Updated on Monday, 24 November 2008 15:12 |
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Science -
Methods & Tools
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TS-Si News Service
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Monday, 12 May 2008 17:00 |
 Seattle, WA, USA. With enough hindsight, the greatest scientific achievement of this century may well be our decoding of the human genome. However, this knowledge has limited utility unless scientists take the next step and understand how our DNA is used to build the proteins that make up the machinery of living cells. The human body has over 100,000 different kinds of proteins. They form every cell, make up the immune system, and establish the speed of chemical reactions.
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Last Updated on Monday, 24 November 2008 15:31 |
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Science -
Methods & Tools
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TS-Si News Service
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Tuesday, 18 March 2008 17:00 |
 St. Louis, MO, USA. At first glance, there seems to be little in common among the human genome, birth conditions, diseases and social networks seem to have little in common. However, at their crux lies a network, communities within the network, and even farther down, detailed substructures of the communities. A recent paper presents an algorithm (a recipe of computer instructions) to automatically identify communities and their subtle structures in various networks.
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Last Updated on Monday, 24 November 2008 15:55 |
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Science -
Methods & Tools
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TS-Si News Service
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Friday, 09 November 2007 19:00 |
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"Nature is smart enough to do the job."
 Columbia, MO, USA. Each year, pharmaceutical companies invest millions of dollars to test drugs, many of which will never reach the market because of side effects found only during human clinical trials.
At the same time, the number of patients waiting for organ transplants continues to increase.
This number has nearly doubled in the past 10 years.
The field of tissue engineering applies the principles of engineering and life sciences. It seeks a fundamental understanding of the structure-function relationships in normal and pathologic tissues with the ultimate goal of developing biological substitutes.
A new study led by a University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) physics researcher might present new solutions to both problems with the help of a very special printer. For the past four years, Gabor Forgacs worked to refine the process of "printing" tissue structures of complex shape with the aim of eventually building human organs.
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Last Updated on Monday, 24 November 2008 15:57 |
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