A colloid is a substance spread out evenly inside another substance. Everyday examples include milk, styrofoam, hair sprays, paints, shaving foam, gels and even dust, mud and fog. One of the most interesting properties of colloids is their ability to self-assemble – to aggregate spontaneously into well-defined structures, driven by nothing but local interactions between the colloid's particles. Self-assembly has been of major interest in industry, since controlling it would open up a whole host of new technologies, such as smart drug-delivery patches or novel paints that ...

The University of Exeter recently contributed to a major international project to sequence the genome of Emiliania huxleyi, the microscopic plankton species whose chalky skeletons form the iconic white cliffs of Dover. The results of the project are published this week in the journal Nature. Emiliania huxleyi is one of the most abundant marine phytoplankton species and is a key player in the process of CO2 exchange between the atmosphere and the ocean. In some marine systems 20% of the total carbon is fixed by E. huxleyi. This microscopic alga has influenced the global ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A new University of Florida study suggests a promising brain-imaging technique has the potential to improve diagnoses for the millions of people with movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Utilizing the diffusion tensor imaging technique, as it is known, could allow clinicians to assess people earlier, leading to improved treatment interventions and therapies for patients. The three-year study looked at 72 patients, each with a clinically defined movement disorder diagnosis. Using a technique called diffusion tensor imaging, the researchers ...

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have found that a single gene poses a double threat to disease: Not only does it inhibit the growth and spread of breast tumors, but it also makes hearts healthier. In 2012, medical school researchers discovered the suppressive effects of the gene HEXIM1 on breast cancer in mouse models. Now they have demonstrated that it also enhances the number and density of blood vessels in the heart – a sure sign of cardiac fitness. Scientists re-expressed the HEXIM1 gene in the adult mouse heart and found that the hearts grew heavier ...

Arthritis is a debilitating disorder affecting one in 10 Canadians, with pain caused by inflammation and damage to joints. Yet the condition is poorly managed in most patients, since adequate treatments are lacking – and the therapies that do exist to ease arthritis pain often cause serious side effects, particularly when used long-term. Any hope for developing more-effective treatments for arthritis relies on understanding the processes driving this condition. A new study in the Journal of Neuroscience by researchers at McGill University adds to a growing body of ...

A structure called "the microtubule network" is a crucial part of our nervous system. It acts as a transportation system within nerve cells, carrying essential proteins and enabling cell-to-cell communications. But in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, ALS, and Parkinson's, this network breaks down, hindering motor abilities and cognitive function. Now Prof. Illana Gozes of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine has developed a new peptide in her lab, called NAP or Davunetide, that has the capacity to both protect and restore microtubule function. ...

Many disorders of the inner hear which affect both hearing and balance can be hugely debilitating and are currently largely incurable. Cochlear implants have been used for many years to replace lost hearing resulting from inner ear damage. However, to date, there has not been an analogous treatment for balance disorders resulting from inner ear disease. One potential new treatment is an implantable vestibular prosthesis which would directly activate the vestibular nerve by electrical stimulation. This prosthetic treatment is tested in a new study by Christopher Phillips ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — In order to keep pace with the burgeoning demand for renewable energy, forest management policy in the U.S. must change to address environmental sustainability issues, according to an article by a University of Illinois expert in bioenergy law. Unless the forestry sector can tailor sustainable forest management policies specifically to forest-to-energy feedstocks, its role in helping the country broaden its energy portfolio – and by extension, meeting ambitious bioenergy targets – may be limited in large part because of uncertainty about whether existing ...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – As the U.S. Supreme Court decides in a case involving racial preferences in higher education admissions (Fisher v. Texas), new University of Maryland-led research finds that socioeconomic diversity is no replacement for a direct consideration of race, as some have suggested. Still the research finds that a mix of students from differing socio-economic backgrounds has benefits. The peer-reviewed study appears in the June issue of the "American Educational Research Journal." It evaluates the use of "socio-economic status" as a racially blind way to build ...

A new study of the genetic origins of dyslexia and other learning disabilities could allow for earlier diagnoses and more successful interventions, according to researchers at Yale School of Medicine. Many students now are not diagnosed until high school, at which point treatments are less effective. The study is published online and in the July print issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics. Senior author Jeffrey R. Gruen, M.D., professor of pediatrics, genetics, and investigative medicine at Yale, and colleagues analyzed data from more than 10,000 children born ...

MINNEAPOLIS – Men who experience restless legs syndrome (RLS) may have a higher risk of dying earlier, according to research that appears in the June 12, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The disorder is characterized by an irresistible urge to move the legs and often causes leg sensations of burning, creeping, and tugging, which are usually worse at night. "RLS affects five to 10 percent of adults across the country," said study author Xiang Gao, MD, PhD, with Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School ...

In a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded clinical trial, researchers at Emory have discovered that specific patterns of brain activity may indicate whether a depressed patient will or will not respond to treatment with medication or psychotherapy. The study was published June 12, 2013, in JAMA Psychiatry Online First. The choice of medication versus psychotherapy is often based on the preference of the patient or clinician, rather than objective factors. On average, 35-40 percent of patients get well with whatever treatment they start with. "To be ill with ...

VIDEO: This movie file shows the attacker chasing the victim and hit it seven times, violently attacking and crushing the victim at the end of the movie. Click here for more information. Infants as young as ten months old express sympathy for others in distress in non-verbal ways, according to research published June 12 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Yasuhiro Kanakogi and colleagues from Kyoto University and Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan. Infants at this ...

The sounds of different languages may have been shaped by the geography of the places where they are spoken, according to research published June 5 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Caleb Everett from the University of Miami. Everett compared the sounds used in about 600 languages across the world with the regions they were commonly spoken, and found a strong correlation between high altitude and spoken languages that included consonant sounds produced with an intense burst of air, called ejective consonants. Ejectives are absent in the English language, but were ...

The teeth of a kangaroo and other extinct marsupials reveal that southeastern Queensland 2.5-5-million-years ago was a mosaic of tropical forests, wetlands and grasslands and much less arid than previously thought. The chemical analysis of tooth enamel that suggests this diverse prehistoric habitat is published June 12 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Shaena Montanari from the American Museum of Natural History and colleagues from other institutions. The carbon isotope ratios present in these fossil teeth revealed that the extinct kangaroo ate plants similar to ...

VIDEO: A loggerhead turtle encounters a plastic bag while swimming in open water. Click here for more information. Loggerhead turtles use visual cues to find gelatinous prey to snack on as they swim in open waters, according to research published June 12 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Tomoko Narazaki and colleagues from the University of Tokyo, Japan. Tracking underwater movements with 3D loggers and National Geographic Crittercams, the researchers found the turtles ...

Weakly electric fish spend their lives bathed in their own internally generated mild electric field, interpreting perturbations in the field as objects pass through and when communicating with members of their own species through high frequency electric 'chirps'. Rüdiger Krahe, from McGill University, Canada, says, 'These fish are very cryptic and hard for us to understand because we don't have this electric sense'. Electric fish actively produce their weak electric fields; they are not a passive by-product of other physiological functions. In fact, these weak electric ...

OAKLAND, Calif., June 12 —Girls between 9 and 12 years of age with higher-than-average levels of bisphenol-A (BPA) in their urine had double the risk of being obese than girls with lower levels of BPA, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published today in the journal PLOS ONE. "This study provides evidence from a human population that confirms the findings from animal studies — that high BPA exposure levels could increase the risk of overweight or obesity," said De-Kun Li, MD, PhD, principal investigator of the study and a reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist ...

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have developed a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that detects the telltale signs of multiple sclerosis in finer detail than ever before – providing a more powerful tool for evaluating new treatments. The technique analyzes the frequency of electro-magnetic waves collected by an MRI scanner, instead of the size of those waves. Although analyzing the number of waves per second had long been considered a more sensitive way of detecting changes in tissue structure, the math needed to create usable images had ...

ANN ARBOR—In findings that could help overcome a major technological hurdle in the road toward smaller and more powerful electronics, an international research team involving University of Michigan engineering researchers, has shown the unique ways in which heat dissipates at the tiniest scales. A paper on the research is published in the June 13 edition of Nature. When a current passes through a material that conducts electricity, it generates heat. Understanding where the temperature will rise in an electronic system helps engineers design reliable, high-performing ...

Bremerhaven, 12 June 2013. In collaboration with an international team of researchers, scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, have sequenced the genome of the calcified alga Emiliania huxleyi and have found an explanation for the enormous adaptive potential and global distribution of this unicellular alga. As the researchers report in an online prepublication of the scientific journal Nature, the microalga's "trick" is genetic diversity. It has a particularly large so-called pan-genome which means that the unicellular ...

The researchers base their findings on over 1300 ten to 15 year old non-smokers whose exposure to tobacco advertising and subsequent behaviour were monitored over a period of 2.5 years. In 2008, the children, who were pupils at 21 public schools in three different regions of Germany, were asked how often they had seen particular ads. These included images for six of the most popular cigarette brands in Germany and eight other products, such as chocolate, clothes, mobile phones, and cars. In 2011, 30 months later, they were asked the same question, as well as how ...

But it also seems to boost the number of short journeys taken by bus, which might otherwise have been cycled or walked, the findings show. The researchers wanted to assess the public health impact of giving teens in London free bus travel. The scheme was introduced for 12 to 16 year olds in 2005, and for 17 year olds in 2006. They therefore used data from the London Area Transport Survey and London Travel Demand Surveys to calculate the number of journeys made in London—as well as distance and principal mode of travel—before (2001-4) and after (2005-9) the scheme ...

To World War II soldiers, "The White Cliffs of Dover" was a morale-boosting song that lifted spirits in dark times. To geographers, the white cliffs mark the point at which England is closest to continental Europe. To scientists, the white cliffs are towering structures made of the chalky, white shells that envelop the single-celled photosynthetic alga known as Emiliania huxleyi. "Ehux" is a coccolithophore, with an exoskeleton made of calcium carbonate. Even though the process by which the alga's "armor" forms releases carbon dioxide, Ehux can trap as much as 20 percent ...

The lack of hard data on the safety and effectiveness of a wide range of drugs in pregnancy has hindered the treatment of pregnant women, contributing to a doubling of deaths amongst mums-to-be with an underlying health problem over the past 20 years, argues an editorial in the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB). It's time to include pregnant women in drug trials so that they can get the medical treatment they need, says DTB. In the absence of reliable information on the pros and cons of treatment during pregnancy, and haunted by the spectre of thalidomide, doctors ...