In the new blockbuster Avatar, humans visit the habitable — and inhabited — alien moon called Pandora. Life-bearing moons like Pandora or the Star Wars forest moon of Endor are a staple of science fiction. With NASA’s Kepler mission showing the potential to detect Earth-sized objects, habitable moons may soon become science fact.
Continue reading about Avatar’s moon Pandora could be real, planet-hunters say
Scientists have used light and genetic trickery to trace out neurons’ ability to excite or inhibit one another, literally shedding new light on the question of how neurons interact with one another in live animals.
Continue reading about Scientists use light to map neurons’ effects on one another
Researchers have discovered that restricting consumption of glucose, the most common dietary sugar, can extend the life of healthy human-lung cells and speed the death of precancerous human-lung cells, reducing cancer’s spread and growth rate.
Continue reading about Calorie intake linked to cell lifespan, cancer development
Scientists have generated hundreds of new leads in the fight against the H1N1 flu pandemic, according to two new studies. Both research teams took comprehensive approaches to understanding the interaction of H1N1 strains with human cells, yielding results that point toward new targets for therapy and perhaps also new tools to speed vaccine production, the [...]
Continue reading about Hundreds of leads generated in fight against H1N1 pandemic
A team of chemists reports the ability to bend and reshape graphene, opening up the possibility of forming new and novel devices in the nanoscale. They use an everyday household ingredient to perform the work — a droplet of water.
Continue reading about Water droplets shape graphene nanostructures
Do your kids want a Wii, a PlayStation or an Xbox 360 this year? This holiday gift season is packed with popular gaming systems and adrenaline-pumping, sharpshooting games. What’s a parent to do? Is there any redeeming value in the hours that teens spend transfixed by these video games?
Continue reading about Video games: Racing, shooting and zapping your way to better visual skills
Scientists have developed synthetic particles that closely mimic the characteristics and key functions of natural red blood cells, including softness, flexibility, and the ability to carry oxygen.
Stem cells that could one day provide therapeutic options for muscle and bone disorders can be easily harvested from the tissue of the umbilical cord, just as the blood that goes through it provides precursor cells to treat some blood disorders, say researchers.
Continue reading about Umbilical cord could be new source of plentiful stem cells
Herschel has peered inside an unseen stellar nursery and revealed surprising amounts of activity. Some 700 newly-forming stars are estimated to be crowded into filaments of dust stretching through the image.
Continue reading about Stellar Nursery: Inside the dark heart of the Eagle
New research has found that an alternative therapy may be possible for treating some types of hypertension using an enzyme called ACE2.
Continue reading about Enzyme may create new approach to hypertension therapy