The chemistry of gender transitions (video)

WASHINGTON -- A new way of rapidly identifying bacteria, which requires a slight modification to a simple microscope, may change the way doctors approach treatment for patients who develop potentially deadly infections and may also help the food industry screen against contamination with harmful pathogens, according to researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon, South Korea. Described this week in The Optical Society (OSA) journal, Optics Express, the new approach involves bouncing laser light off individual bacteria under ...

SAN FRANCISCO (June 8, 2015) -- Scientists from the California Academy of Sciences are celebrating World Ocean's Day with a slew of brand new marine discoveries--more than 100 species that are likely new to science. The Philippines is home to the most biologically diverse waters on Earth, and remains the centerpiece of the Academy's multi-year exploration of the Coral Triangle's biological treasures. Over the course of this seven-week undertaking, funded by the National Science Foundation, scientists collected countless marine specimens, including rare and new species of ...

Bistatic/multistatic SAR has attracted global attention and made remarkable progress recently. Many key techniques have been overcome. Aiming to grasp the developing trend of the bistatic/multistatic SAR, the corresponding special issue has been compiled and published on SCIENCE CHINA Information Sciences, no. 6, 2015, which is devoted to integrate the key techniques together such as bistatic imaging, interferometry, change detection and the experiment with high quality etc. The modified Stolt map in the frequency domain was introduced in the bistatic imaging algorithm ...

The train control system is the heart of Chinese high-speed railways, which is a core technology to ensure safe operation as well as high throughput of trains (see Figure 1). The correctness of the train control system is closely related to people's life and property. How to guarantee the correctness of train control system is a grand challenge in both software engineering and control theory. Recently, a group of Chinese researchers proposed an approach to verify the correctness of train control system by combining simulation and formal verification, which was published ...

New research from Uppsala University shows promising progress in the use of stem cells for treatment of spinal cord injury. The results, which are published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports, show that human stem cells that are transplanted to the injured spinal cord contribute to restoration of some sensory functions. Traffic accidents and severe falls can cause ruptures of nerve fibers that enter/exit the spinal cord. Most commonly, these avulsion injuries affect the innervation of the arm and hand, and lead to paralysis, loss of sensation and cause chronic ...

A fully renewable energy system, including all energy consuming sectors, is not only a possible but a viable solution for Finland, according to a new research. Researchers from Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) have investigated renewable energy system options for Finland in 2050. Results indicate that a fully renewable energy system is possible, and represents a competitive solution for Finland with careful planning. In order to achieve the national greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2050, all sectors of the energy system need to be nearly emission free ...

Scientists in the STAR collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC, http://www.bnl.gov/rhic/), a particle accelerator exploring nuclear physics and the building blocks of matter at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, have new evidence for what's called a "chiral magnetic wave" rippling through the soup of quark-gluon plasma created in RHIC's energetic particle smashups. The presence of this wave is one of the consequences scientists were expecting to observe in the quark-gluon plasma--a state of matter that existed in the early ...

Researchers at the KU Leuven Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis have found a more eco-friendly way to derive lignin - a paper industry waste product - from wood and convert it into chemical building blocks. The resulting chemicals can be used in paint, insulation foam, and several other products. The researchers published their findings in the journal Energy & Environmental Science. Lignin is a substance in the cell walls of plants that strengthens their structure. When wood is processed into paper pulp, lignin is produced as a waste product. Researchers have ...

CINCINNATI - Children who received general anesthesia for surgery before age 4 had diminished language comprehension, lower IQ and decreased gray matter density in posterior regions of their brain, according to a new study in the journal Pediatrics. Researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center report their findings in the journal's June 8 online edition. The authors recommend additional studies to determine anesthesia's precise molecular effects on the brain and contribution to diminished brain function and composition. Researchers say this knowledge ...

Philadelphia, PA, June 8, 2015 - Barrett's esophagus (BE) develops in a subset of patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and can increase the risk of developing cancer of the esophagus. Although periodic surveillance for cancer is recommended for BE patients, these examinations may fail to identify pre-cancerous dysplasia and early cancers. A report in the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics describes a test using next-generation sequencing (NGS) to detect genomic mutations in precancerous esophageal tissue, which may improve cancer surveillance and early detection ...