World's first X-ray free electron laser is on course to completion
... light-source, will be shorter and a billion times brighter than can be produced by any other X-ray source available now or in the near future. These advanced characteristics will aid scientists in discovering and probing new states of matter, understanding and following chemical reactions and biological p...Penn researchers report that gene therapy awakens the brain despite blindness from birth
... not respond to dim lights, the brains reaction to brighter lights was comparable to that of individuals with normal sight. "It seems these patients have the necessary brain pathways ready to go if their eyes start working again, Aguirre said. The results of the current study are critical to these human ...Giant magnetocaloric materials could have large impact on the environment
... magnetic refrigeration technology recently became brighter with the report of a giant magnetocaloric effect in gadolinium-silicon-germanium alloys. The addition of non-magnetic silicon and germanium ions brings about a giant entropy change when germanium-silicon chemical bonds connecting the magnetism-carryi...Low-energy LED lighting project is streets ahead
... by high-pressure sodium lamps. "While these are brighter and more aesthetically pleasing, and can help tackle street crime and anti-social behaviour, they are also less energy efficient. "With the environment at the top of the public and political agenda, energy saving has become a very important issue. ...New imaging approach promises insights into multiple sclerosis
...itation fluorescence, provides higher contrast and brighter images than conventional fluorescent imaging methods. Photons are the individual particles that make up light. In two-photon excitation fluorescence, two photons are used to illuminate a target. The researchers have used the imaging methods to obse...MIT particles pave way for new bedside diagnostics
...eraction can be detected by fluorescence, which is brighter when more of the target is present. To rapidly "read" the particles, the researchers designed a custom "flow cytometer" using a microfluidic device and standard microscope. In this flow-through system, the oblong, disk-like shape of the particles e...DNA gets new twist: Carnegie Mellon scientists develop unique 'DNA nanotags'
...lting dye-DNA complexes are approximately 15 times brighter than an individual dye molecule. And they can be made even brighter by simply increasing the number of base pairs in the DNA nanostructure. Multicolor experiments are...Paying attention sets off symphony of cell synchronization
...om the participants showed more brain activity for brighter stimuli, as expected, but responses also varied depending on attention. The patterns of these brain waves allowed the investigators to obtain a thorough description of how attention altered neural function. "For dynamic stimuli at the focus of atten...Chemical tests of cell growth enter third dimension
...um. The 3D glob of cells in the middle well glows brighter than a 2D film, due to a specific optical effect, Yang said. The surrounding empty cells provide a darker background that lets the fluorescence signal be measured even more easily. "You can use this as a device to monitor a drug's effect, whether y...Good times ahead for dinosaur hunters, according to U of Penn scientist's dinosaur census
...f discoverable dinosaurs upward by 50%, offering a brighter outlook about the number of dinosaurs waiting to be found. His findings also add evidence that dinosaur populations were stable, and not on the decline, in the time shortly before their extinction 65 million years ago. Dodson proposes that 1,850 gen...New light microscope sharpens scientists' focus
...s that must be collected, and making the molecules brighter would reduce the time needed to take each image. Either would help to speed the PALM process a high priority for the Hess and Betzig as they continue to refine the technique. The two inventors are eager to continue developing their technique into ...Ecological effects of Gulf Coast hurricanes
...ical storms and hurricanes," says Dufrechou. On a brighter note, however, the lake's water quality appears to have recovered to pre-Katrina conditions, in spite of being the recipient of nearly nine billion gallons of highly contaminated water pumped out of New Orleans and into the lake....Molecular censusing doubles estimate of key giant panda population
...cipated, and that this beautiful animal may have a brighter future.......ving the nest is dangerous. We have found that the brighter the individual wasp's future, the less likely it is to take risks by leaving the safety of its nest to forage for food." The defining feature of eusocial animals - including insects like bees, ants and wasps, and vertebrates like meerkats and the na...Nanotechnology may find disease before it starts
...s we're interested in." The ultrasound images grew brighter over the 90-minute period. The researchers compared these images to those from a group of control mice injected with a saline solution. There was no change in ultrasound image brightness in the control mice after that injection. While this research i......or the safety the sea, which in the wild is always brighter than the land. Now they may head inland towards lights from beachfront developments, where they are unlikely to survive. Night-migrating songbirds may fly into brightly lit buildings and radio towers, leading to deaths sometimes numbering in the tens...State agency funds stem cell grants, UCLA institute gets largest amount
...ic conditions," Shestack said. "We look forward to brighter days ahead. Still it's important to know that this is just the beginning. Those of us who have cast our vote and live with people we love who are suffering and cut off from the world wait the full funding of Proposition 71. I don't want my son's futu...Biggest physics meeting of the year
... can trap objects, but the smaller the object, the brighter the required laser beam, typically harming objects smaller than 200 nm. Adam Cohen of Stanford ( aecohen@stanford.edu ) will present the Anti-Brownian Electrokinetic (ABEL) trap. It eliminates the Brownian motion of one object in solution, allowing ...Science class experiment reveals vitamin B12 secret
...let light, just as the additive makes clothes look brighter in the sun. The teaching trick soon became a popul...eing dark spots on the glowing lab dish, were even brighter than their normal counterparts. His findings enabled Campbell and his co-authors to answer a questio...Astronomer announces shortlist of stellar candidates for habitable worlds
...id. Like the Sun, such stars tend to be toward the brighter range in luminosity and are more likely to live long enough for life-supporting planets to form. "These are places I'd want to live if God were to put our planet around another star," Turnbull said. The search for signals from extraterrestrial civil...