The truffle, found mainly in France but also in Spain and Italy, is known by its Latin name of Tuber melanosporum. But to truffle fanatics in the southwestern French region of Perigord, the warty, golfball-sized fungus is known as the “black diamond.” It can reach 1,000 euros a kilo (605 dollars a pound) at local [...]
Archive for April, 2010
A mission to clear dangerous debris from space (w/ Video) March 28, 2010 CubeSail (PhysOrg.com) — New UK technology is set to play a major part in clearing dangerous clouds of debris hurtling around the Earth’s lower orbit. More than 5,500 tonnes of debris is believed to be cluttering space around the planet as a [...]
Digital billboards change images every four to 10 seconds, flashing multiple messages from one or more advertisers on the same sign. Opponents such as John Regesnbogen of Scenic Missouri deride them as “television on a stick.” Several communities have banned digital billboards outright, the most recent being Denver earlier this month. Other places have put [...]
Nanoparticles Unlock Tumor Identity March 28, 2010 (PhysOrg.com) — Using nanoparticles designed to recognize specific sugar-binding molecules on the surfaces of cells, a team of investigators at Michigan State University has developed a process that uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to unlock the sugar-based code that identifies different types of cancer and normal cells. This [...]
The myth may come closer to reality this summer than at any time in decades in several states in the West and the Plains. A federal survey of adult grasshoppers last fall indicated that parts of Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska and Idaho could face costly grasshopper infestations this summer. Ranchers and farmers [...]
The study — an observational analysis of the DART trial published by The Lancet in 2009 — was written by Dr A Sarah Walker, MRC Clinical Trials Unit, London, UK, and colleagues in Uganda, Zimbabwe and the UK. Co-trimoxazole (trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole) is a widely available, off-patent, low-cost antibiotic that is used in resource-limited settings to treat [...]
Microbial answer to plastic pollution? March 28, 2010 These are microbes from the coastal seabed attached to plastic, as seen through a microscope. Credit: Jesse Harrison Fragments of plastic in the ocean are not just unsightly but potentially lethal to marine life. Coastal microbes may offer a smart solution to clean up plastic contamination, according [...]
Fat clue to TB awakening March 28, 2010 Macrophages infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis that have been transformed to express the red fluorescent protein (constitutively), and the green fluorescent protein in response to stress from low pH. The macrophages are loaded with a lysosomal tracer (cyan) The picture was taken shortly after infection when the bacteria [...]
‘Hormone therapy’ for food poisoning bacteria March 28, 2010 Pathogenic bacteria in the gut recognise their surroundings by detecting hormone signals from the host, which can prompt them to express lethal toxins. Intercepting these hormonal messages could be a better way to treat serious food-borne infections where antibiotics do more harm than good, explains Vanessa [...]
Tiny gold probes give scientists a sense of how disease develops March 28, 2010 Tiny chemical sensors implanted into patients could help diagnose disease and track its progress, following a development by scientists. Researchers have developed tiny probes comprising gold-coated particles. These can be inserted into cells, enabling diseases to be detected and monitored remotely [...]