Culture | Science Codex

New method identifies meth hot spots

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A researcher at Oregon State University has used a new method of combining multiple sources of data to identify counties in Oregon with high numbers of methamphetamine-related problems per capita, giving officials a new tool in fighting the illegal drug.

The study, presented today at a toxicology conference in Canada, examined statistics from four sources then identified five counties with the most meth-linked incidents per capita, such as deaths, poisonings and places where meth is made.

Laminin builds the neuromuscular synapse

Like a plug and a socket, a nerve and a muscle fiber mesh at the neuromuscular junction. New work by Nishimune et al published in the Journal of Cell Biology reveals that an extracellular matrix protein called laminin shapes both sides of the junction to ensure they fit together type="rel"doi="10.1083/jcb.2008.

Revising and re-sizing history: New work shows Ohio site to be an ancient water works, not a fort

The site known as Miami Fort is no fort at all, and it is also much larger than previously believed – so large, in fact, that its berms stretch to almost six kilometers in length, making it twice as large as any other Native American earthworks in Ohio, and one of the largest in the nation.

Curbing coal emissions alone might avert climate danger, say researchers

An ongoing rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide from burning of fossil fuels might be kept below harmful levels if emissions from coal are phased out within the next few decades, say researchers. They say that less plentiful oil and gas should be used sparingly as well, but that far greater supplies of coal mean that it must be the main target of reductions. Their study appears in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles.

Particle physics, podcasts and pajama party

We all know about the event at CERN, but what else is happening to markthis event?

That is where LHC First Beam Events <http://www.uslhc.us/first_beam>comes in.

It has information about what several U.S. institutions, involved in theconstruction and startup of the LHC, are doing. Probably the mostentertaining is the First Beam Pajama Party, held in Illinois atFermilab's Remote Operations Center, where it was around 2:00 am CentralStandard Time at the moment of the first beam in Geneva, Switzerland.

Saltwater solution to save crops

Technology under development at the University of New South Wales could offer new hope to farmers in drought-affected and marginal areas by enabling crops to grow using salty groundwater.

Associate Professor Greg Leslie, a chemical engineer at UNSW's UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology, is working with the University of Sydney on technology which uses reverse-osmosis membranes to turn previously useless, brackish groundwater into a valuable agricultural resource.

First beam for Large Hadron Collider, world's mightiest particle accelerator

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – An international collaboration of scientists today sent the first beam of protons zooming at nearly the speed of light around the 17-mile-long underground circular path of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's most powerful particle accelerator, located at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland.

Aerobic exercise for the wheelchair-bound

Austin, TX Sept 10, 2008 — University of Texas at Austin alumnus, Chris Stanford (MSEE '91), and Electrical & Computer Engineering undergraduates are working on making exercise fun for wheelchair users. For the last year, Stanford has been partnering with engineering seniors to test his idea for a virtual reality treadmill for the disabled.

Individuals vary their immune response according to age, sex and the costs

Is it always good to respond maximally when pathogens or disease strike, or should individuals vary their immune response to balance immediate and future costs? This is the question evolutionary physiologists Oliver Love, Katrina Salvante, James Dale, and Tony Williams asked when they examined how a simple immune response varied at different life stages across the life-span of individual zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata), in a study published in the September issue of the American Naturalist.

UC Santa Barbara has key role in Large Hadron Collider project

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) -- Earlier today, some 300 feet below the Earth's surface, in a circular tunnel so extensive that it travels from Switzerland into France and back again, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva fired the first beams of protons that they hope will eventually produce history-making science.

'Dodgy dossier' partly to blame for failure of war against malaria in the tropics

The war against malaria in tropical countries was fought and lost in the 20th Century on the basis of faulty intelligence, a 'dodgy dossier' which argued that the same methods used to tackle the disease in temperate countries would also work in the tropics.

Eradication failed in almost every tropical and sub-tropical country, because tactics that had been proven to work in countries such as the USA, Greece and Italy were also deployed in tropical countries, despite the existence of evidence that they would they not work, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

U-M physicists' analysis leads to discovery of new particle

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---University of Michigan physicists played a leading role in the discovery of a new particle, the Omega b baryon, which is an exotic relative of the proton. It was detected for the first time in a particle accelerator at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Illinois, Fermilab has announced.

The heavy particle is scarce today, but scientists believe it was abundant soon after the Big Bang.

UC Davis researcher begins study of Osama bin Laden audio tapes

More than 1,500 audiocassette tapes taken in 2001 from Osama bin Laden's former residential compound in Qandahar, Afghanistan, are yielding new insights into the radical Islamic militant leader's intellectual development in the years leading up to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Maths aids mayonnaise production

The subject of 'gas bubbles in liquids' has many applications in industry. Examples include separating oil from water in the oil industry, how ink drops behave in printers and the manufacture of products in the food industry, such as mayonnaise. 'This subject of course also applies to natural processes such as rainfall and boiling water,' PhD student Jok Tang adds.

Experiments

Boston physicists celebrate first beam for Large Hadron Collider

Waltham, MA–Scientists today sent the first beam of protons zooming at nearly the speed of light around the 17-mile Large Hadron Collider. The LHC, located at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, is the world's most powerful particle accelerator.