http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. BOSTON--By combining the art of origami with nanotechnology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers have folded sheets of DNA into multilayered objects with dimensions thousands of times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. These tiny structures could be forerunners of custom-made biomedical nanodevices such as "smart" delivery vehicles that would sneak drugs into patients' cells, where they would dump their cargo on a specific molecular target. http://www.physorg.com/news162044509.html Chemistry Wed, 20 May 2009 13:26:06 EST news162044509 Scientists unveiled new DVD technology on Wednesday that stores data in five dimensions, making it possible to pack more than 2,000 movies onto a single disc. http://www.physorg.com/news162044616.html Nanotechnology Wed, 20 May 2009 13:24:10 EST news162044616 Most cancers are rare in people with Down syndrome, whose overall cancer mortality is below 10 percent of that in the general population. Since they have an extra copy of chromosome 21, it's been proposed that people with Down syndrome may be getting an extra dose of one or more cancer-protective genes. The late cancer researcher Judah Folkman, MD, founder of the Vascular Biology Program at Children's Hospital Boston, popularized the notion that they might be benefiting from a gene that blocks angiogenesis, the development of blood vessels essential for cancer's growth, since their incidence of other angiogenesis-related diseases like macular degeneration is also lower. A study from Children's confirms this idea in mice and human cells and identifies specific new therapeutic targets for treating cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news162043998.html Medicine & Health Wed, 20 May 2009 13:14:02 EST news162043998 For more than a decade, scientists have been frustrated in their attempts to create continuously emitting light sources from individual molecules because of an optical quirk called "blinking," but now scientists at the University of Rochester have uncovered the basic physics behind the phenomenon, and along with researchers at the Eastman Kodak Company, created a nanocrystal that constantly emits light. http://www.physorg.com/news161190228.html Nanotechnology Sun, 10 May 2009 16:05:04 EST news161190228 Parachute cords, climbing ropes, and smart coatings for bridges that change color when overstressed are several possible uses for force-sensitive polymers being developed by researchers at the University of Illinois. http://www.physorg.com/news160834918.html Chemistry Wed, 06 May 2009 13:22:39 EST news160834918 Meeting a widely-supported goal to tackle global warming means that humanity will be able to burn less than a quarter of the proven reserves of fossil fuels by 2050, a study released on Wednesday said. http://www.physorg.com/news160236449.html Space & Earth Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:08:00 EST news160236449 Spanish and U.S. physicists studying nanoelectronics have found that size really does matter when it comes to predicting the behavior of electrical contacts that are just one atom wide. http://www.physorg.com/news160235209.html Physics Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:47:33 EST news160235209 These days, chemical analysts are expected to track down even single molecules. To do this highly sensitive detective work, nano researchers have developed minute strings that resonate in characteristic fashion. If a molecule docks onto one of the strings, then it becomes heavier, and its oscillations become measurably slower. http://www.physorg.com/news159699566.html Nanotechnology Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:00:03 EST news159699566 A breakthrough study of fluctuations in sea levels the last time Earth was between ice ages, as it is now, shows that oceans rose some three meters in only decades due to collapsing ice sheets. http://www.physorg.com/news159025292.html Space & Earth Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:42:03 EST news159025292 In the first demonstration of its kind, researchers at the University of British Columbia have controlled the spin of electrons using a ballistic technique--bouncing electrons through a microscopic channel of precisely constructed, two-dimensional layer of semiconductor. http://www.physorg.com/news159022445.html Physics Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:54:39 EST news159022445 Scientists at Rice University have found a simple way to create basic elements for aircraft, flat-screen TVs, electronics and other products that incorporate sheets of tough, electrically conductive material. http://www.physorg.com/news159022294.html Nanotechnology Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:52:42 EST news159022294 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia have helped unveil the birthplaces of ancient stars using a two-tonne telescope carried by a balloon the size of a 33-storey building. http://www.physorg.com/news158416076.html Space & Earth Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:28:31 EST news158416076 European astronomers said on Wednesday that an anomalous energy signal detected by an orbiting satellite could be a telltale of the enigmatic substance known as dark matter. http://www.physorg.com/news157814632.html Physics Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:24:17 EST news157814632 (PhysOrg.com) -- Just before dawn on Oct. 7, 2008, an SUV-sized asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere and exploded harmlessly over the Nubian Desert of northern Sudan. Scientists expected the asteroid, called 2008 TC3, had blown to dust in the resulting high-altitude fireball. http://www.physorg.com/news157740396.html Space & Earth Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:47:00 EST news157740396 (PhysOrg.com) -- New results from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have made a major advance in explaining how a special class of black holes may shut off the high-speed jets they produce. These results suggest that these black holes have a mechanism for regulating the rate at which they grow. http://www.physorg.com/news157212704.html Space & Earth Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:12:29 EST news157212704 (PhysOrg.com) -- The car-sized asteroid that exploded above the Nubian Desert last October was small compared to the dinosaur-killing, civilization-ending objects that still orbit the sun. But that didn't stop it from having a huge impact among scientists. This was the first instance of an asteroid spotted in space before falling to Earth. Researchers rushed to collect the resulting meteorite debris, and a new paper in Nature reports on this first-ever opportunity to calibrate telescopic observations of a known asteroid with laboratory analyses of its fragments. http://www.physorg.com/news157211890.html Space & Earth Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:58:46 EST news157211890 Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) have identified a signaling pathway that helps regulate the movement of blood-forming stem cells in the body -a finding that provides important new insight into how stem cells move around the body and which may lead to improvements in the efficiency of bone marrow transplants. http://www.physorg.com/news157211633.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:54:27 EST news157211633 Diabetes and eczema may appear to be two completely unrelated diseases. But UC San Diego biologists have uncovered what appears to be a crucial biochemical link between the two. http://www.physorg.com/news157136762.html Chemistry Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:06:42 EST news157136762 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have created a molecular device which could act as a building block for future generations of superfast computers. http://www.physorg.com/news156710301.html Physics Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:38:57 EST news156710301 The discovery of a petite, plant-eating dinosaur with primitive plumage could mean that the dinosaur from which all others evolved had feather-like protrusions, said a study released Wednesday. http://www.physorg.com/news156610378.html Other Sciences Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:53:20 EST news156610378 Tiny, lightweight fruit flies need to know when it's windy out so they can steady themselves and avoid being knocked off their feet or blown off course. But how do they figure out that it's time to hunker down? According to a team led by California Institute of Technology (Caltech) scientists reporting in this week's issue of the journal Nature, the flies have evolved a specialized population of neurons in their antennae that let them know not only when the wind is blowing, but also the direction from which it is coming. http://www.physorg.com/news156088179.html Biology Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:50:19 EST news156088179 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new dating method has found that "Peking Man" is around 200,000 years older than previously thought, suggesting he somehow adapted to the cold of a mild glacial period. http://www.physorg.com/news156001133.html Other Sciences Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:39:52 EST news156001133 A major breakthrough about the potentially deadly superbug Clostridium difficile (C-diff) could lead to new ways to combat the bacterium, according to a study to be published March 1 in the journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news155137843.html Medicine & Health Sun, 01 Mar 2009 13:51:31 EST news155137843 In 1940, a Dutch goat born without front legs learned to walk upright. So did Faith, a two-legged dog in Oklahoma. Johnny Eck, a "half-man" born without legs, grew naturally into a graceful hand-walker. http://www.physorg.com/news154876613.html Biology Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:18:09 EST news154876613 (PhysOrg.com) -- HIV is evolving rapidly to escape the human immune system, an international study led by Oxford University has shown. The findings, published in Nature, demonstrate the challenge involved in developing a vaccine for HIV that keeps pace with the changing nature of the virus. http://www.physorg.com/news154875241.html Medicine & Health Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:55:24 EST news154875241 (PhysOrg.com) -- The patterns of missing asteroids are like the footprints of wandering giant planets preserved in the asteroid belt. http://www.physorg.com/news154802620.html Space & Earth Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:44:17 EST news154802620 (PhysOrg.com) -- A 380-million-year-old fossil fish that shows an unborn embryo and umbilical cord has been discovered, scientists report in the journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news154796016.html Biology Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:54:04 EST news154796016 Very large and abrupt changes in temperature recorded over Greenland and across the North Atlantic during the last Ice Age were actually global in extent, according to an international team of researchers led by Cardiff University. http://www.physorg.com/news154790888.html Space & Earth Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:28:52 EST news154790888 (PhysOrg.com) -- To understand friction on a very small scale, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers had to think big. http://www.physorg.com/news154790620.html Nanotechnology Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:24:33 EST news154790620 Yale researchers have filled in a missing gap on the molecular road map of Alzheimer's disease. In the Feb. 26 issue of the journal Nature, the Yale team reports that cellular prion proteins trigger the process by which amyloid-beta peptides block brain function in Alzheimer's patients. http://www.physorg.com/news154790497.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:22:13 EST news154790497