Students build submarine to track Octopuses
...s area so it wouldn't run into a big rock or other obstacle while following the octopus," Vincent said. The advantage of fully autonomous tracking is that octopuses spend a lot of time in their dens vegging out, which is pretty boring for researchers. Instead of waiting for hours on the surface, biologists co...Growing pains: T. Rex was teenage giant
...one developing every year. But there was one giant obstacle to counting the rings: Most of the big, meat-eating dinosaurs' bones remodeled themselves as they grew and become hollow, erasing much of the growth record. A possible solution to this dilemma came to Erickson about four years ago while e...Gene therapy reaches muscles throughout the body and reverses muscular dystrophy in animal model
...elivery method for the whole body has been a major obstacle limiting the development of gene therapy for the muscular dystrophies. Our new work identifies for the first time a method where a new dystrophin gene can be delivered, using a safe and simple method, to all of the affected muscles of a mouse with m...Tiny tango: Device sorts microscopic particles with speed and precision
... in a tango-like dance forward or sideways at each obstacle depending precisely on the particle's size. "To suddenly say that there is a deterministic (non-random) way to do this really flies in the face of conventional wisdom," said Austin. "It's something I never would have thought of." ...Clemson University researcher reaches for the stars to prevent osteoporosis
...tion mission. This accelerated rate of loss is an obstacle to long-term space missions, such as moon exploration and a two-and-a-half-year roundtrip to Mars. In order to maintain health, astronauts need a treatment that will prevent bone loss in space and accelerate recovery afterwards. Recovery of bone m...Testing soil for contamination
...e economic viability of adjoining properties. One obstacle to their re-use is the uncertainty over how blighted the land is, and stakeholders such as local government agencies, industrial owners and developers often hesitate to check this, as current testing methods are time-consuming, inconclusive and expen...Scientists question reports of massive ant supercolonies in California and Europe
... tall and 45 feet deep - a particularly formidable obstacle for an insect only an eighth of an inch long. Using microsatellite data, Ingram and Gordon found obvious genetic differences between nests located inside the preserve and those on the opposite side of SLAC and Sand Hill Road, less than 300 fee...Paleofire database puts fire-scar and charcoal data online
...e, according to database organizers. The greatest obstacle is just to get people to submit their published data, Swetnam said. "I think 99.9 percent of fire research is funded with public money," he said. "People need to have the ethic that once they have published, they should submit their data so they are ...Rb protein's role in retina development is key to understanding devastating eye cancer
...study of retinal development by overcoming a major obstacle blocking earlier researchers from studying the role of Rb in mice lacking this gene. Normally, such studies would be done in Rb "knockout" mice, in which the Rb gene had been artificially eliminated by researchers. But Rb knockout mice die while stil...Embryonic pig cell transplants halt rat diabetes
...will defeat or greatly diminish a final formidable obstacle to treating diabetes with transplants. "Immunosuppressing a patient introduces a whole new set of dangers and side effects," says Hammerman. "Patients with type 1 diabetes have to ask themselves, would I rather take insulin, or would I rather ...Seeing the forest for the trees: The future of environmental policy lies in interaction
...ns between Human and Natural Systems" that a major obstacle to effective environmental policy is myopia. The environment, he said, is all about big picture not only about how humans have an impact on natural systems, but on how changes to natural systems affect humans, and especially how policies affect eac...Why results from genetic tests should be available to medical insurance companies
...t.' Dr. Raithatha concludes: "Perhaps the biggest obstacle remains public perception of genetic testing. The primary task facing the medical community is to acknowledge and seek to reassure patients that, in terms of fairness, this novel medical (genetic) test needs to be dealt with in a similar manner to ot...Fish, FRAMES and sticky chemicals net technology award for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
... culvert test bed Roadway culverts present a major obstacle to juvenile salmon trying to reach prime habitat. To find more fish friendly designs, the Washington State Department of Transportation, representing a consortium of West Coast transportation agencies, engaged PNNL to create a full-scale culvert test...Endurance of plants under quartz rocks possible model for life on early Earth, Mars
... the ground. The lack of soil nitrogen provided no obstacle for the plant colonies living under the quartz rocks. Hofmockel, another of Schlesinger's graduate students, found those algae obtain the nitrogen they needed for growth directly from the air like some less primitive plants are also able to do. The ...Gastrointestinal specialists comment on new study on 'Virtual' colonoscopy
...lorectal cancer screening strategy. The principle obstacle to endorsement thus far has been the wide range and frequent lack of effectiveness in clinical trials. The American College of Gastroenterology congratulates the investigators of a new study on virtual colonoscopy that will appear in the New England ...Global wetlands surveyed from space
...portance, but its uncharted nature is currently an obstacle to achieving this. This Southern Ocean site is also being nominated next year as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Why are wetlands so valuable? Studies of wetlands show they store and purify water for domestic use, recharge natural aquifers as they ...Chronic pain: treatment, rehabilitation, and quality of life
...ility Aid (VA-PAMAID), a walker that provides both obstacle avoidance and navigational assistance. The VA-PAMAID underwent vigorous testing to determine the stability of the walker, the energy consumption of the electronics, the strength of the frame and components, the robustness of the sensors and control s...New research technique provides unique glimpse into Alzheimer's disease
...y freely mobile molecules are collected. The main obstacle to studying ABeta in interstitial fluid is that the molecule is much larger than those typically measured with microdialysis. ABeta molecules also tend to stick to each other and to other particles, making it even more difficult to lure them into a t...First production of a human protein with complex glycosylation in genetically modified yeast
... process known as glycosylation has been the main obstacle that has prevented the use of fungal hosts for the expression of human therapeutics. Today a team of scientists at GlycoFi, Inc. and Dartmouth College report the successful reengineering of the glycosylation pathway in the yeast Pichia pastoris. Pub......etecting great white sharks, WCS says that a major obstacle to obtain increased protection under CITES has now been removed. Scientists estimate that great whites have declined by as much as 79 percent in the northwestern Atlantic. Ironically, they are among the world's most legally protected shark species, ...