Report: How 10 top new technologies will help world reach globally-agreed goals by 2015
New medical tools that quickly and accurately diagnose diseases like AIDS and malaria top a list of 10 biotech breakthroughs deemed most important for improving health in developing countries within the decade, science that will dramatically move the world towards its Millennium Development Goal...New method identifies chromosome changes in malignant cells
...ed statistical techniques to analyze this data and accurately detect deletions and additions -- some as small as four or five genes -- among tens of thousands of genes. The achievement illustrates the value of the interdisciplinary environment fostered by the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, sai...Award-winning INEEL probe to help safely monitor hazardous waste sites
...nmental Laboratory, scientists can safely and more accurately sample and monitor soil in and below hazardous waste sites. R&D Magazine declared INEEL's Geologic and Environmental Probe System (GEOPS) to be one of the 100 most significant technological achievements of 2004. Project leader Richard L. Jones, along...Amphibians in dramatic decline; Up to 122 extinct since 1980
...ction. In addition, sufficient data are lacking to accurately assess the status of nearly 1,300 other species, most of which scientists believe are also threatened. Amphibians are widely regarded as "canaries in the coal mine," since their highly permeable skin is more immediately sensitive to changes in th...For inferring the biological tree of life, simple is better
...the wrong tree because it assumes evolution can be accurately captured in a statistical model, but the assumptions of those models are usually wrong," Thornton said. "Parsimony makes fewer assumptions, so it can cope with a complex reality better." The results published in Nature suggest that scientists should ...New genomic method can identify disease-causing genes
...mputational method to detect disease-causing genes accurately and rapidly was announced by Roche scientists in t... methodology to identify causative genetic factors accurately for a wide range of trait data. The technique also has the potential to uncover currently unknown ge......, fast-moving human speech stream. For example, to accurately decode speech, we need to be able to tell the difference between sounds such as the 'b' in beach and the 'p' in peach. We do this without conscious effort, even though the distinction occurs within only 20 to 40 thousandths of a second." ...GENEPI: a tool to refine and fine-tune radiotherapy treatment for cancer
...t their chances of survival when using methods for accurately assessing individual radio-sensitivity", said Dr. Hlscher. "The data provided by GENEPI will contribute to a significant benefit in terms of reducing the incidence of late effects of radiotherapy, with associated important socio-economic benefits, wh...Stimulating nerve cells with laser precision
...ed as the scientists questioned whether they could accurately detect the movement through the brain of an electrical impulse from a nerve cell. Konrad suggested using light to trace the activity, and Mahadevan-Jansen thought of using laser light to stimulate nerves and to actually generate this activity. ...Evidence that learning is consolidated during sleep
...ins were scanned as they pressed a key as fast and accurately as possible corresponding to the location of a dot on a computer screen. Thus, the data from the fourth group allowed the researchers to distinguish brain activity changes due to spatial processing from those due to general mental processing. The res...Research to explore revolutionary gene sequencing: Threading the molecular needle
...edicine, but that doesn't mean current science can accurately read your personal genetic code. The sequencing of the DNA comprising the code is still far too slow, costly and inaccurate to allow the kind of accurate sequencing of specific tissues that is necessary to understand many of particular genetic proble...Illegal tuna fishing and farming leads to demise of species
...the transfer of live fish, where the catch size is accurately assessed using video recording and acoustic methods, or immediately after the fishing operation of the fish are harvested dead. "This monitoring of catches, by independent observers during the fishing and farming high season, would allow ICCAT to clo...Study in Royal Society journal on evidence for impact of global warming on bird populations
...is study shows that the force distributions can be accurately described by an analogue of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which governs the directions of changes in thermal systems such as chemical reactions. In thermal systems the balance between the two fundamental driving forces of energy and entropy gover......figured computer system (a "directional analyzer") accurately calculates any authenticated gunshot's location - using the difference in the time the sound arrives at the different microphones on a SENTRI acoustic units unit. It then points a camera, turns on lights, sounds an alarm, and alerts police units. ...Efforts to clone primates move forward
... advance the preclinical and fundamental knowledge accurately and swiftly so that perhaps clinical trials on stem cell donations might be responsibly considered within this decade." The study also further illuminates the science of cloning. "While it would be very important to be able to develop genetically ide...The Molecular Profiling Institute named US provider of genetic breast cancer test
... prognostic information enables physicians to more accurately define patients who will benefit from therapy. "We believe that the MammaPrint test will provide an important first step for physicians to ultimately bring personalized medicine to the nation's breast cancer patients," said Robert J. Penny MD, PhD,...Researchers improve predictions of cloud formation for better global climate modeling
...re climate." Current computer climate models can't accurately predict cloud formation, which, in turn, hinders t... somehow we still need to describe cloud formation accurately if we want to understand how humans are affecting climate." To address the lack of computer power a...Cigarette smoking exacerbates alcohol-induced brain damage
...ute more challenging activities of daily living or accurately judging or anticipating the consequences of their actions, particularly with increasing age," he said. Cigarette smoking, independent of alcohol consumption, was also found to have adverse effects on neuronal viability and cell membranes in the midbr...50,000-year-old plant may warn of the death of tropical ice caps
...for samples older than 50,000 years, so all he can accurately say at this point is that they are at least that old. He cautiously admits that they might be older but adds that there are no good methods to confirm that. "I want to stay conservative in my estimates as we continue to investigate this find," he exp......fied type of "gene chip" and a computer program to accurately monitor alternative splicing, a cellular process through which basic genetic material becomes more complex and acquires the ability to control genetic messages (mRNAs) that are required for the development of complex organisms. "Now that we can look ...