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. (PhysOrg.com) -- President Barack Obama's pursuit of energy independence promises to accelerate research and development for alternative energy sources -- solar, wind and geothermal power, biofuels, hydrogen and biomass, to name a few. http://www.physorg.com/news153928167.html Chemistry Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:50:23 EST news153928167 Researchers in the laboratory of Samuel I. Stupp at Northwestern University have an interesting approach for tackling some major health problems: gather raw materials and then let them self-assemble into structures that can address a multitude of medical needs. http://www.physorg.com/news153832994.html Nanotechnology Sat, 14 Feb 2009 11:23:55 EST news153832994 A simple, chemical materials model may lead to a better understanding of the structure and organization of the cell according to a Penn State researcher. http://www.physorg.com/news153830013.html Chemistry Sat, 14 Feb 2009 10:35:16 EST news153830013 Current treatments for diseases like cancer typically destroy nasty malignant cells, while also hammering the healthy ones. Using new advances in synthetic biology, researchers are designing molecules intelligent enough to recognize diseased cells, leaving the healthy cells alone. http://www.physorg.com/news153761508.html Medicine & Health Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:32:27 EST news153761508 (PhysOrg.com) -- Processes that laid the foundation for life on Earth -- star and planet formation and the production of complex organic molecules in interstellar space -- are yielding their secrets to astronomers armed with powerful new research tools, and even better tools soon will be available. Astronomers described three important developments at a symposium on the "Cosmic Cradle of Life" at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago, IL. http://www.physorg.com/news153679446.html Space & Earth Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:45:40 EST news153679446 (PhysOrg.com) -- Taking a chemical approach, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a two-step method to convert the cellulose in raw biomass into a promising biofuel. The process, which is described in the Wednesday, Feb. 11 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, is unprecedented in its use of untreated, inedible biomass as the starting material. http://www.physorg.com/news153508322.html Chemistry Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:12:42 EST news153508322 A recent discovery at Case Western Reserve University may help keep food and drugs safer and fresher longer and electronic equipment dryer and more secure than ever before - all at a lower cost. http://www.physorg.com/news153144756.html Nanotechnology Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:13:15 EST news153144756 An international team led by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory have translated the genetic code that explains the complex biochemical machinery making brown-rot fungi uniquely destructive to wood. The same processes that provide easier access to the energy-rich sugar molecules bound up in the plant's tenacious architecture are leading to innovations for the biofuels industry. The research, conducted by more than 50 authors, is reported in the February 4 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). http://www.physorg.com/news153070220.html Chemistry Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:30:48 EST news153070220 Instant pictures showing how the sun's energy moves inside plants have been taken for the first time, according to research out tomorrow (Friday 6 February) in Physical Review Letters. http://www.physorg.com/news153061658.html Physics Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:08:24 EST news153061658 Influenza is and remains a disease to reckon with. Seasonal epidemics around the world kill several hundred thousand people every year. In the light of looming pandemics if bird flu strains develop the ability to infect humans easily, new drugs and vaccines are desperately sought. Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the joint Unit of Virus Host-Cell Interaction (UVHCI) of EMBL, the University Joseph Fourier (UJF) and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), in Grenoble, France, have now precisely defined an important drug target in influenza. In this week's Nature they publish a high-resolution image of a crucial protein domain that allows the virus to hijack human cells and multiply in them. http://www.physorg.com/news152976647.html Biology Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:31:24 EST news152976647 Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered how a deadly microbe evades the human immune system and causes disease. http://www.physorg.com/news152905272.html Biology Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:41:47 EST news152905272 A research team at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has uncovered a vast new class of previously unrecognized mammalian genes that do not encode proteins, but instead function as long RNA molecules. Their findings, presented in the February 1st advance online issue of the journal Nature, demonstrate that this novel class of "large intervening non-coding RNAs" or "lincRNAs" plays critical roles in both health and disease, including cancer, immune signaling and stem cell biology. http://www.physorg.com/news152720940.html Biology Sun, 01 Feb 2009 14:29:29 EST news152720940 Combining the benefits of multiple drugs in a single pill may hold the key to treating neurodegenerative diseases, Medical College of Georgia researchers say. http://www.physorg.com/news152562151.html Medicine & Health Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:22:53 EST news152562151 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have created a precise biosensor for detecting blood glucose and potentially many other biological molecules by using hollow structures called single-wall carbon nanotubes anchored to gold-coated "nanocubes." http://www.physorg.com/news151854328.html Nanotechnology Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:46:15 EST news151854328 Scientists have always wanted to take a closer look at biological systems and materials. From the magnifying glass to the electron microscope, they have developed ever-increasingly sophisticated imaging devices. http://www.physorg.com/news151607928.html Biology Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:19:20 EST news151607928 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have achieved a feat drug developers had thought difficult, if not impossible, discovering a compound that blocks the functioning of a key developmental protein by binding to an `undruggable` target - an advance that may provide a new avenue to fight skin, pancreatic, prostate, and other cancers. http://www.physorg.com/news151594160.html Biology Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:29:57 EST news151594160 Bacteria hunker down and survive antibiotic attack when a protein flips a chemical switch that throws them into a dormant state until treatment abates, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the Jan.16 edition of Science. http://www.physorg.com/news151252537.html Medicine & Health Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:35:37 EST news151252537 (PhysOrg.com) -- A handheld, ultra-portable device that can recognize and immediately report on a wide variety of environmental or medical compounds may eventually be possible, using a method that incorporates a mixture of biologically tagged nanowires onto integrated circuit chips, according to Penn State researchers. http://www.physorg.com/news151252040.html Nanotechnology Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:27:20 EST news151252040 The ability of biomolecules to flex and bend is important for the performance of many functions within living cells. However, researchers interested in how biomolecules such as amino acids and proteins function have long had to make inferences from a series of X-ray-like `still pictures` of pure crystalline samples. http://www.physorg.com/news151088065.html Physics Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:54:25 EST news151088065 (PhysOrg.com) -- In 1913 Theodore Roosevelt added cartographer to his resume when he and his crew ventured up an unspeakably dangerous and uncharted tributary named the River of Doubt. Now, on a charting expedition of their own, Rockefeller University scientists have completed a journey that has also defied expectation. In work to be published in the January 9 issue of Cell, the team reports the discovery of a new family of receptors in the fly nose, a finding that not only fills in a missing piece in the organizational logic of the insect olfactory system but also unearths one of the most ancient mechanisms that organisms have evolved to smell. http://www.physorg.com/news150640317.html Biology Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:31:57 EST news150640317 (PhysOrg.com) -- A major goal of nanotechnology research is to create a "lab on a chip," in which a tiny biological sample would be carried through microscopic channels for processing. This could make possible portable, fast-acting detectors for disease organisms or food-borne pathogens, rapid DNA sequencing and other tests that now take hours or days. http://www.physorg.com/news150129386.html Nanotechnology Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:36:26 EST news150129386 Shakespeare wrote "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." But would it if the molecules that generate its fragrance were to change their shape? http://www.physorg.com/news149185891.html Chemistry Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:31:31 EST news149185891 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have found the most distant water yet seen in the Universe, in a galaxy more than 11 billion light-years from Earth. Previously, the most distant water had been seen in a galaxy less than 7 billion light-years from Earth. http://www.physorg.com/news148753546.html Space & Earth Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:25:46 EST news148753546 Aging yeast cells accumulate damage over time, but they do so by following a pattern laid down earlier in their life by diet as well as the genes that control metabolism and the dynamics of cell structures such as mitochondria, the power plants of cells. http://www.physorg.com/news148658925.html Biology Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:08:45 EST news148658925 Evolving HIV viral strains and the adverse side effects associated with long-term exposure to current treatments propel scientists to continue exploring alternative HIV treatments. In a new study, a University of Missouri researcher has identified broad-spectrum aptamers. Aptamers are synthetic molecules that prevent the HIV virus from reproducing. In lab tests, aptamers known as RT5, RT6, RT47 and some variants of those were recently identified to be broad-spectrum, which would allow them to treat many subtypes of HIV-1. Now, researchers are gaining a better understanding of the biochemical characteristics that make aptamers broad-spectrum. http://www.physorg.com/news148654690.html Medicine & Health Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:58:10 EST news148654690 (PhysOrg.com) -- The Martian arctic soil that NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander dug into this year is very cold and very dry. However, when long-term climate cycles make the site warmer, the soil may get moist enough to modify the chemistry, producing effects that persist through the colder times. http://www.physorg.com/news148581442.html Space & Earth Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:37:22 EST news148581442 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from Purdue and Stony Brook universities have determined the precise atomic-scale structure of the poliovirus attached to key receptor molecules in human host cells and also have taken a vital snapshot of processes leading to infection. http://www.physorg.com/news147968790.html Biology Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:26:30 EST news147968790 (PhysOrg.com) --The basic molecules that make up all living things have a predetermined chirality or "handedness,` similar to the way people are right- or left-handed. This chirality has a profound influence on the chemistry and molecular interactions of living organisms. The creation of chirality from the elementary building blocks of matter is one of the great mysteries of the origin of life. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have discovered a way to induce this handedness in pre-biological molecules. http://www.physorg.com/news147363159.html Physics Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:12:39 EST news147363159 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have discovered that a type of hard mineral called zeolite can provide a high rate of gas flow in a micro-scale gas pump. Because the pump is based simply on temperature differences and has no moving parts, it could provide reliable and precise control of gas flow for a variety of applications, such as gas-sensing breath analyzers and warfare agent detectors. http://www.physorg.com/news147094299.html Physics Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:31:39 EST news147094299 Rice University scientists on the hunt for a better way to clean up the stubborn pollutant TCE have created a method that lets them watch molecules break down on the surface of a catalyst as individual chemical bonds are formed and broken. http://www.physorg.com/news146328613.html Chemistry Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:50:13 EST news146328613