Located half a billion light-years from Earth, ESO 306-17, is a large, bright elliptical galaxy in the southern sky of a type known as a fossil group. Astronomers use this term to emphasise the isolated nature of these galaxies. However, are they like fossils — the last remnants of a once active community — or is it more sinister than that? Did ESO 306-17 gobble up its next-door neighbours?
Heavens
CINCINNATI – The first comprehensive comparative effectiveness clinical trial of three widely used anti-seizure drugs for childhood absence epilepsy – the most common form of epilepsy in kids – has established an evidence-based approach for initial drug therapy.
Astronomers have discovered a relic from the early universe - a star that may have been among the second generation of stars to form after the Big Bang. Located in the dwarf galaxy Sculptor some 290,000 light-years away, the star has a remarkably similar chemical make-up to the Milky Way's oldest stars. Its presence supports the theory that our galaxy underwent a "cannibal" phase, growing to its current size by swallowing dwarf galaxies and other galactic building blocks.
Propofol is safe for advanced endoscopic procedures with a low rate of sedation-related adverse events when administered by a trained professional, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.
BOSTON--Older women who have had breast cancer surgery have a greater risk of the cancer returning if they delay their post-surgical radiation treatment, report Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists.
Stargazers all over the world are familiar with the distinctive profile of the constellation of Orion (the Hunter). Fewer know about the nebula NGC 1788, a subtle, hidden treasure just a few degrees away from the bright stars in Orion's belt.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Freezing a cancer kills it in its place, and also appears to generate an immune response that helps stop the cancer's spread, leading to improved survival rates over surgery, according to a new study in mice from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The longer women wait for radiotherapy after breast cancer surgery, the more chance there is of local recurrence, concludes a study published on bmj.com today.
The authors suggest that starting radiotherapy as soon as possible will minimise this risk.
Four to six weeks is generally accepted as a reasonable interval between cancer surgery and radiotherapy, but evidence on the effect of waiting times in patients with breast cancer is mixed.
One of the pleasures of perusing ancient maps is locating regions so poorly explored that mapmakers warned of dragons and sea monsters. Now, astronomers using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope find themselves in the same situation as cartographers of old. A new study of the ever-present fog of gamma rays from sources outside our galaxy shows that less than a third of the emission arises from what astronomers once considered the most likely suspects -- black-hole-powered jets from active galaxies.
"The completion of cryogenic polishing of the engineering development unit primary mirror segment is a hugely significant milestone for the Webb telescope project that demonstrates that our primary mirror segments can be completed on schedule while meeting the performance necessary for science," said Lee Feinberg, NASA Webb Optical Telescope Element Manager at NASA Goddard.
FAIRFAX, Va.—Can a drug that has been used to treat malaria for years possibly be used to treat breast cancer before it becomes invasive? That's what researchers at George Mason University's Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM) and Inova Breast Care Institute (IBCI) are trying to prove.
The US is facing many challenges in controlling the childhood obesity epidemic. Despite recent efforts and some progress, one third of US children are still overweight or obese. Yet research has shown that the road to obesity begins early in life, and it is more common and difficult to address for low-income children.
Following an intense study of agricultural ecosystems near Montreal, a new tool that enables the simultaneous analysis and management of a wide range of ecological services has been developed by Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne of McGill University's Department of Geography, Elena Bennett of the McGill School of Environment, and Garry Peterson of the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University.
A new report launched by the Institute of Physics (IOP) Exoplanets – The search for planets beyond our solar system explains how new technological advances have seen the discovery of more than 400 exoplanets to date, a number expected to rise to thousands in the next few years.
The report details how new techniques and instruments are providing growing observational evidence that our home galaxy – the Milky Way with its 100 billion stars – could contain millions of solar systems.
Blacksburg, Va. – A scientific paper that describes a file format used by scientists to represent models of biological processes has exceeded 500 citations in the ISI Web of Knowledge, an online academic database that documents the impact of scientific publications. The Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) is designed to enable the exchange of quantitative models of biochemical networks between different computer software packages, allowing the models to be shared and published in a form other researchers can use in various software environments.