birthplace of stars revealed
- by TripTangent 7/1/09
Using the APEX telescope in Chile, astronomers have completed a comprehensive "map" of the inner areas of the Milky Way galaxy, revealing dense clumps of cosmic dust that could someday become stars.
remember this: sleep on it
- by TripTangent 6/30/09
While sleep has long been thought to play a role in the establishment of long-term memories, recent work by MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory may have helped to solidify that understanding.
Using nanoparticles to stabilize proteins could advance therapeutic drug discovery
- by LabGrab 6/25/09
One-third of eukaryotic proteins are integrated within membranes, as are the targets of 40% of approved drugs. However, the lack of a general means of solubilizing, stabilizing and structurally characterizing these active membrane proteins has frustrated efforts to understand their mechanisms and exploit their potential value.
Home Appendicitis Test?
- by TripTangent 6/24/09
The recent discovery of a protein marker linked to appendicitis may drastically simplify the diagnosis of the painful and potentially fatal condition. With current methods of conclusive diagnosis generally limited to expensive CT scans, the arrival of a new urine-based test could be a huge breakthrough in safe, noninvasive methods of detecting appendicitis, possibly saving both money and lives.
Nanocrystals Reveal Activity Within Cells
- by LabGrab 6/20/09
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have created bright, stable and bio-friendly nanocrystals that act as individual investigators of activity within a cell. These ideal light emitting probes represent a significant step in scrutinizing the behaviors of proteins and other components in complex systems such as a living cell.
