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Ancient enzymes the catalysts for new discoveries![]() Brisbane, Australia (SPX) Oct 23, 2018 University of Queensland-led research recreating 450 million-year-old enzymes has resulted in a biochemical engineering 'hack' which could lead to new drugs, flavours, fragrances and biofuels. Professor Elizabeth Gillam from UQ's School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences said the study showed ancient enzymes could survive high temperatures and that this could help create chemicals cheaply and at scale. "We looked at how we could use a biological agent, like enzymes, to accelerate chemica ... read more |
Nerve-on-a-chip platform makes neuroprosthetics more effectiveLausanne, Switzerland (SPX) Oct 24, 2018 Neuroprosthetics - implants containing multi-contact electrodes that can substitute certain nerve functionalities - have the potential to work wonders. They may be able to restore amputees' sense of ... more
Scientists grow functioning human neural networks in 3D from stem cellsBoston MA (SPX) Oct 19, 2018 A team of Tufts University-led researchers has developed three-dimensional (3D) human tissue culture models for the central nervous system that mimic structural and functional features of the brain ... more
New model helps define optimal temperature and pressure to forge nanoscale diamondsWashington DC (SPX) Oct 16, 2018 Nanodiamonds, bits of crystalline carbon hundreds of thousands of times smaller than a grain of sand, have intriguing surface and chemical properties with potential applications in medicine, optoele ... more
Russian Scientists Start Research on Impact of Zero-Gravity on HumansMoscow (Sputnik) Oct 11, 2018 The Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Biomedical Problems has initiated research on the influence of zero-G on the human body during flights to the Moon and back; around 20 people will engag ... more |
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Vaccinating humans to protect mosquitoes from malariaBuffalo NY (SPX) Oct 10, 2018 For decades, scientists have been trying to develop a vaccine that prevents mosquitoes from spreading malaria among humans. This unique approach - in which immunized humans transfer anti-malar ... more
100 years on, Spanish Flu holds lessons for next pandemicParis (AFP) Oct 8, 2018 It was the disease to end all others, infecting a third of humanity, killing tens of millions in their beds and prompting panicked talk of the end of days across continents still reeling from war. ... more
US calls ruling a defeat for Iran, ends treatyWashington (AFP) Oct 3, 2018 The United States on Wednesday called an international court ruling against its Iran sanctions a defeat for Tehran as it terminated a 1955 treaty on which the case was based. ... more
Animal study suggests deep space travel may significantly damage GI function in astronautsWashington DC (SPX) Oct 02, 2018 Simulations with animal models meant to mirror galactic cosmic radiation exposure to astronauts are raising red flags for investigators at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) about the healt ... more
Foreign drugs rare commodity in sanctions-hit IranTehran (AFP) Oct 4, 2018 "Talk of sanctions on Iran reemerged, and my essential medicine was no longer available," said Masoud Mir who suffers from thalassaemia, a genetic blood disease common in Iran. ... more |
![]() Researchers develop microbubble scrubber to destroy dangerous biofilms
With genetic tweak, mosquito population made extinctParis (AFP) Sept 24, 2018 Scientists said Monday they had succeeded for the first time in wiping out an entire population of malaria-carrying mosquitos in the lab using a gene editing tool to programme their extinction. ... more |
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China's doctor shortage prompts rush for AI health careShanghai (AFP) Sept 20, 2018 Qu Jianguo, 64, had a futuristic medical visit in Shanghai as he put his wrist through an automated pulse-taking machine and received the result within two minutes on a mobile phone - without a doctor present. ... more
Trump unveils revised US biodefense strategyWashington (AFP) Sept 18, 2018 US President Donald Trump unveiled a new strategy Tuesday aimed at reducing the risks of man-made and naturally occurring biological threats. ... more
UBC breakthrough opens door to $100 ultrasound machineVancouver, Canada (SPX) Sep 17, 2018 Engineers at the University of British Columbia have developed a new ultrasound transducer, or probe, that could dramatically lower the cost of ultrasound scanners to as little as $100. Their patent ... more
Indonesia's quake-hit Lombok battles with malaria, 137 infectedMataram, Indonesia (AFP) Sept 16, 2018 A malaria outbreak has infected at least 137 people in Indonesia's West Lombok after the island was rocked by a series of earthquakes in recent months, an official said Sunday. ... more
Artificial synaptic device simulating the function of human brainSeoul, South Korea (SPX) Sep 13, 2018 A research team led by Director Myoung-Jae Lee from the Intelligent Devices and Systems Research Group at DGIST has succeeded in developing an artificial synaptic device that mimics the function of ... more |
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India fireworks factory blast kills 7 New Delhi (AFP) Oct 26, 2018
An explosion at a firecracker factory in northern India Friday killed seven people just days before the big Hindu festival of Diwali, police said.
Firework use hits a peak across India during the festival, although the Supreme Court has been trying to restrict sales to tackle mounting pollution.
The explosion in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh destroyed the factory which had a license ... more |
China launches twin BeiDou-3 satellites Xichang (XNA) Oct 16, 2018
China sent twin BeiDou-3 navigation satellites into space on a Long March-3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, in Sichuan Province, at 12:23 p.m. Monday.
The satellites are the 39th and 40th of the BeiDou navigation system, and the 15th and 16th of the BeiDou-3 family.
The launch was the 287th mission of the Long March carrier rocket series.
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Bonobos make themselves appear smaller than they actually are Leipzig, Germany (SPX) Oct 24, 2018
We can easily see whether someone is large or small, but we can also hear it in the pitch of their voice. For a long time, research on the accoustic communication in humans and animals has accepted the paradigm predicting a causal relationship between body size and voice pitch.
Meanwhile, evidence from a large number of animal species has revealed that this relation does not always apply. ... more |
Tigers dwindling: just six sub-species remain, says study Tampa (AFP) Oct 25, 2018
Six different sub-species of tigers exist today, scientists confirmed Thursday, amid hopes the findings will boost efforts to save the fewer than 4,000 free-range big cats that remain in the world.
The six include the Bengal tiger, Amur tiger, South China tiger, Sumatran tiger, Indochinese tiger and Malayan tiger, said the report in the journal Current Biology.
Three other tiger subspeci ... more |
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15 emerging technologies that could reduce global catastrophic biological risks Baltimore MD (SPX) Oct 10, 2018
Strategic investment in 15 promising technologies could help make the world better prepared and equipped to prevent future infectious disease outbreaks from becoming catastrophic events.
This subset of emerging technologies and their potential application are the focus of a new report, Technologies to Address Global Catastrophic Biological Risks, by a team of researchers at the Johns Hopki ... more |
Who am I? Hunt for heritage drives Chinese to DNA tests Beijing (AFP) Oct 26, 2018
Chinese executive Miao Qing spits into a specially designed container, destined for a lab where her saliva will be analysed and sequenced, offering an insight into her genetic make-up and - more importantly - her ancestry.
A combination of factors - a lack of formal records or destruction during China's wars and the Cultural Revolution - have meant there are few ways for Chinese to trace ... more |
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New president to inherit a Mexico plagued with grisly violence Mexico City (AFP) Aug 7, 2018
In the middle of the street, corpses riddled with bullets. Underground, thousands of bodies heaped in clandestine graves. And in the mountains, drug gangs locked in armed conflict with the military.
These grim scenes have increasingly become the norm in Mexico, a country gripped by violence stemming from its war on drugs which since 2006 has seen more than 200,000 murders and 30,000 people g ... more |
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Japan's Abe to make rare China visit as relations thaw Beijing (AFP) Oct 24, 2018
Japan's Shinzo Abe is due to arrive in China Thursday, the first visit to the Asian giant by a Japanese prime minister since relations between the two countries soured six years ago over a territorial row.
Abe and Chinese president Xi Jinping are expected to discuss how to improve economic cooperation as the world's second and third largest economies prepare to weather a US onslaught of trad ... more |
In five -10 years, gravitational waves could accurately measure universe's expansion Chicago IL (SPX) Oct 24, 2018
Twenty years ago, scientists were shocked to realize that our universe is not only expanding, but that it's expanding fasterover time.
Pinning down the exact rate of expansion, called the Hubble constant after famed astronomer and UChicago alumnus Edwin Hubble, has been surprisingly difficult. Since then scientists have used two methods to calculate the value, and they spit out distressing ... more |
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Africa needs to beef up cyber security urgently: experts Abidjan (AFP) Oct 26, 2018
Africa is being increasingly targeted by hackers and must invest in cyber security, industry leaders said at the third Africa Cyber Security Conference closing Friday in Ivory Coast.
Although Africa is not a prime target, "cyber threats have no more borders" and data pirates "attack anything that moves", said Michel Bobillier, a leader of IBM's elite security unit, the Tiger Team.
"The c ... more |
France to take in 100 Yazidi women stranded in Iraqi Kurdistan Paris (AFP) Oct 25, 2018
French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to bring to France 100 Yazidi women who were victims of assault by Islamic State fighters in northern Iraq beginning in 2014, his office said Thursday.
Macron's offer came after a meeting in Paris with Nadia Murad, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this month for her campaign to end sexual violence as a weapon of war.
Murad was one of thou ... more |
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Pakistan frees Taliban leader after US talks with militants Islamabad (AFP) Oct 25, 2018
A top Taliban commander held in Pakistani detention for more than eight years has been freed, sources said Thursday, in an apparent move to aid tentative talks between the United States and the militant group.
The release of Abdul Ghani Baradar - the former right-hand man of Taliban founder Mullah Omar, who died in 2013 - came less than two weeks after US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with th ... more |
Thousands join German forest demo after court reprieve Buir, Germany (AFP) Oct 6, 2018
Thousands of anti-coal demonstrators descended on Germany's Hambach forest Saturday, celebrating an unexpected court victory that suspended an energy company's planned razing of the woodland for a growing open-cast mine.
The ancient forest near Cologne has been occupied by activists for the past six years, becoming a symbol of resistance against coal mining in Germany, a country that despite ... more |
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France suspends use of popular pesticide after dozens sickened Paris (AFP) Oct 26, 2018
The French government on Friday ordered a three-month ban of a widely used pesticide after dozens of people, many of them farm workers, fell ill in western France in recent weeks.
The move came after metam sodium was suspected when victims reported burning eyes and respiratory difficulties near Angers, an area which produces huge amounts of lamb's lettuce, also known as cornsalad.
The sa ... more |
Earth's Dust Cloud Satellites Confirmed London, UK (SPX) Oct 26, 2018
A team of Hungarian astronomers and physicists may have confirmed two elusive clouds of dust, in semi-stable points just 400,000 kilometres from Earth.
The clouds, first reported by and named for Polish astronomer Kazimierz Kordylewski in 1961, are exceptionally faint, so their existence is controversial. The new work appears in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ... more |
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