A bright flash of gamma rays observed March 28 by the Swift satellite may have been the death rattle of a star falling into a massive black hole and being ripped apart, according to a team of astronomers led by the University of California, Berkeley. When the Swift Gamma Burst Mission spacecraft first detected the flash within the constellation Draco, astronomers thought it was a gamma-ray burst from a collapsing star. On March 31, however, UC Berkeley's Joshua Bloom sent out an email circular suggesting that it wasn't a typical gamma-ray burst at all, but a high-energy ...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. –- Comet Hartley 2, is in a hyperactive class of its own compared to other comets visited by spacecraft, says a University of Maryland-led study published in the June 17 issue of the journal Science. The comet was visited last fall by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft during its EPOXI mission. The EPOXI science team's new, in-depth analysis of the images and data taken during the flyby confirms its earlier finding that carbon dioxide is the volatile fuel for Hartley 2's ice-spewing jets. In-depth analysis of the images and data taken during the flyby ...

Cynthia Hennessey has recently won several million-dollar settlements from work-related injury cases. With over two decades of workers' compensation experience and six years of experience as a registered nurse, Cynthia brings her compassion and expertise to the niche area of workers' compensation cases. Before becoming an attorney, Cynthia spent six years as a registered nurse working in both the pediatric and adult intensive care areas. This experience led her to develop a compassion for defending those who have been injured at work and ensuring they receive the medical ...

Research led by astronomers at the University of Warwick has confirmed that the flash from one of the biggest and brightest bangs yet recorded by astronomers comes from a massive black hole at the centre of a distant galaxy. The black hole appears to have ripped apart a star that wandered too close, creating a powerful beam of energy that crossed the 3.8 billion light years to Earth. Their research is published today in the Journal Science in a paper entitled "An Extremely Luminous Panchromatic Outburst from the Nucleus of a Distant Galaxy" The high energy X-rays and ...

A highly rated phone that Unlock Advantage provides T-Mobile unlock codes for is the T-Mobile G2 with Google. Consumers rave about this mobile device, and they have plenty of reasons. The T-Mobile G2 with Google is T-Mobile's first Android-powered 4G smartphone. This fine-looking device has an excellent QWERTY keyboard and makes it possible to download apps and search the Internet at incredible speeds. The keyboard has three quick keys that are user-customizable and can each be set to launch any app; this is an awesome feature. When this mobile device is closed, there's ...

Washington, D.C.—Glasses differ from crystals. Crystals are organized in repeating patterns that extend in every direction. Glasses lack this strict organization, but do sometimes demonstrate order among neighboring atoms. New research from Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory reveals the possibility of creating a metallic glass that is organized on a larger scale. Their results are published June 17 in Science. Scientists have discovered glasses that demonstrate order among the nearest neighboring atoms, called short-range order, and a slightly wider range of atoms, called ...

Centaurus A, also known as NGC 5128, is well known for its dramatic dusty lanes of dark material. Hubble's observations, using its most advanced instrument, the Wide Field Camera 3, are the most detailed ever made of this galaxy. They have been combined here in a multi-wavelength image that reveals never-before-seen detail in the dusty portion of the galaxy. As well as features in the visible spectrum, this composite shows ultraviolet light from young stars, and near-infrared light, which lets us glimpse some of the detail otherwise obscured by the dust. The dark dust ...

Closets by Design provides innovative solutions to the challenge of home organization. Recognizing that unorganized bedroom closets are a problem faced by many, Closets by Design offers not only closet ideas but also tips for problem solving. Eliminating clutter in the home is sometimes a daunting task. One way to face the challenge is to view the issue as merely a problem to be solved. There are many ways to approach a problem. The following are a few suggestions that together could help you conquer your bedroom closets. If your bedroom closets are a disorganized ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have found that larger fungal spores can be more lethal. Their findings about two different spore sizes of the fungus Mucor circinelloides, a pathogen that kills half or more of its victims, could help to develop new treatments and fight other types of fungal infections. Mucor infection is in the news as an environmental fungus contracted by people who had trauma in the wake of tornadoes in Joplin, Mo. Three out of eight patients had died by June 11. This group of fungi can be common in the environment but only ...

Vision impairment is strongly associated with falls. Two of the vision limitations most commonly associated with falls are reduced visual field and impaired contrast sensitivity. The majority of falls occur in the bathroom. Grab bars can help you regain your balance and prevent these falls, but aren't helpful if visual impairment prevents you from grasping the bars quickly. That is why Andrea Tannenbaum, president of AdaptMy.com, highly recommends bathroom grab bars with a strong contrasting color to the walls. High contrast colors are much easier to see for people ...

Patients with Barrett's esophagus may have a lower risk of esophageal cancer than previously reported, according to a large, long-term study published online June 16 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Barrett's esophagus is a premalignant condition, and patients who have it are often advised to have regular endoscopies to watch for signs of esophageal adenocarcinoma, the most common kind of esophageal cancer in many parts of the world. But how often Barrett's esophagus progresses to cancer has not been clear. Previous estimates of the rate of progression ...

Stem cell technologies have been proposed for cell-based diagnostics and regenerative medicine therapies. However, being able to make stem cells efficiently develop into a desired cell type -- such as muscle, skin, blood vessels, bone or neurons -- limits the clinical potential of these technologies. New research presented on June 16, 2011 at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) shows that systematically controlling the local and global environments during stem cell development helps to effectively direct the process of differentiation. ...

Avoiding germs to prevent sickness is commonplace for people. Wash hands often. Sneeze into your elbow. Those are among the tips humans learn. But plants, which are also vulnerable to pathogens, have to fend it alone. They grow where planted, in an environment teeming with microbes and other substances ready to attack, scientists note. Now, researchers are learning from plants' immune response new information that could help them understand more about humans' ability to ward off sickness and avoid autoimmune diseases. This week's journal Science reports findings by ...

Researchers may have found the key to developing a method to rid the body of stem cells responsible for driving fat expansion. According to a report in the June 16 Cell Stem Cell, a Cell Press publication, they've landed the first protein marker on the surface of those so-called adipose stromal cells (ASCs), which serve as progenitors of the cells that make up fat tissue. "Our long-term goal is to identify an approach to inactivate these cells in disease," said Mikhail Kolonin of University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. "By administering a peptide with a ...

By taking advantage of a "body swap" illusion, researchers have captured the brain regions involved in one of the most fundamental aspects of self-awareness: how we recognize our bodies as our own, distinct from others and from the outside world. That self-perception is traced to specialized multisensory neurons in various parts of the brain that integrate different sensory inputs across all body parts into a unified view of the body. The findings, reported online on June 16 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, may have important medical and industrial applications, ...

FrontDoorSoftware Corporation has been nominated for a 2011 Apex Award in the category of Technology Company of the Year. The Apex Awards are awarded annually to the top technology companies by the Colorado Software and Internet Association (CSIA), or "Colorado's Technology Association." "We are thrilled to be nominated for the Apex Awards' Technology Company of the Year," said Carrie Hafeman, president of FrontDoorSoftware Corporation. "The CSIA and its members represent outstanding achievements and progress in software, technology, and the ...

During the winter of 2009-2010 the average temperature for the UK was 1.6 degrees centigrade (°C), making it the coldest recorded winter in the last 30 years. Using winter data from 2005 to 2010, new research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Environmental Health demonstrates an inverse relationship between temperature and the number of falls on snow and ice, which result in emergency admission to hospital, and looks at the cost of these falls. Researchers from the North West Public Health Observatory, based at the Centre of Public Health, Liverpool John ...

After being hit in the eye by a stone, a detached retina left a man blind in his right eye. Despite surgery to remove a cataract when the man was 23, which temporarily restored light perception, the patient was completely blind in that eye. Doctors at The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary have reported a case, published in BioMed Central's open access Journal of Medical Case Reports, describing how this patient had functional vision restored 55 years after the childhood accident which left him blind. Whilst it is unusual for a retina to become detached, common causes include ...

Combining information from hospitals and police can prevent violence and make communities safer, according to a study published on bmj.com today. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified interpersonal violence as a global public health issue. In 2008-9, police recorded over 900,000 violent incidents in England and Wales, yet a substantial proportion of violence which results in treatment by doctors is not known to the police. Targeted police work prevents violence, but depends on knowledge of when and precisely where violence occurs. So a team led by Professor ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---A brain implant developed at the University of Michigan uses the body's skin like a conductor to wirelessly transmit the brain's neural signals to control a computer, and may eventually be used to reactivate paralyzed limbs. The implant is called the BioBolt, and unlike other neural interface technologies that establish a connection from the brain to an external device such as a computer, it's minimally invasive and low power, said principal investigator Euisik Yoon, a professor in the U-M College of Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering ...

New research by faculty at Rice University, the University of Texas-San Antonio (UTSA) and the University of Minnesota finds that men's conspicuous spending is driven by the desire to have uncommitted romantic flings. And, gentlemen, women can see right through it. The series of studies, "Peacocks, Porsches and Thorstein Veblen: Conspicuous Consumption as a Sexual Signaling System," was conducted with nearly 1,000 test subjects and published recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. "This research suggests that conspicuous products, such as Porsches, ...

People often talk about "boosting" their immunity to prevent and fight colds. Nutritional supplements, cold remedies and fortified foods claim to stave off colds by augmenting the immune system. A new University of Michigan study shows this strategy might actually be flawed. The results may hold important implications for individuals with asthma, who often experience life-threatening flare-ups due to infections with cold viruses. The study, using a novel mouse model, shows that, in the airways, the immune response to the common cold is actually maladaptive. Mice ...

Cells in the human body are constantly being exposed to stress from environmental chemicals or errors in routine cellular processes. While stress can cause damage, it can also provide the stimulus for undoing the damage. New research by a team of scientists at the University of Rochester has unveiled an important new mechanism that allows cells to recognize when they are under stress and prime the DNA repair machinery to respond to the threat of damage. Their findings are published in the current issue of Science. The scientists, led by biologists Vera Gorbunova and Andrei ...

EDMONTON (National Access & Privacy Conference 2011) – June 16, 2011 – Canadian privacy experts have issued a new report (link will go live after embargo lift) today that strongly backs the practice of de-identification as a key element in the protection of personal information. The joint paper from Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner, Dr. Ann Cavoukian, and Dr. Khaled El Emam, the Canada Research Chair in Electronic Health Information at the University of Ottawa and the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, comes as some privacy policy makers ...

HOUSTON--Patients with thoracic aortic aneurysms that lead to acute aortic dissections are 12 times more likely to have duplications in the DNA in a region of chromosome 16 (16p13.1) than those without the disease, according to a study led by genetic researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The results of the innovative study, which included researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, are published in the June 16 issue of the open-access journal PLoS Genetics. In human DNA, there are regions of the DNA that are deleted or ...