Power in Biological News

The hepatitis healing power of blueberry leaves

A chemical found in blueberry leaves has shown a strong effect in blocking the replication of the Hepatitis C virus, opening up a new avenue for treating chronic HCV infections, which affect 200 million people worldwide and can eventually lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Among the areas of ...

Plankton Power and RTDC announce proposed algae-to-biofuels pilot facility on Cape Cod

Wellfleet, Mass. and Woods Hole, Mass., August 4, 2009 Plankton Power and the Regional Technology Development Corp. (RTDC) of Cape Cod announced today the establishment of a public-private consortium focused on building a leading-edge facility to produce renewable biofuels from algae. Under the le...

Healing power of aloe vera proves beneficial for teeth and gums, too

CHICAGO (July 17, 2009) - The aloe vera plant has a long history of healing power. Its ability to heal burns and cuts and soothe pain has been documented as far back as the 10th century. Legend has it that Cleopatra used aloe vera to keep her skin soft. The modern use of aloe vera was first recogn...

Report shows the power of US cities to mitigate climate change and steps they need to take to adapt

U.S. municipal governments are showing leadership by voluntarily accounting for and reducing greenhouse gas emissions resulting from their operations. They also recognize the huge potential to influence long-term reductions from the residents and businesses in their communities, according to a ne...

New renewables to power 40 per cent of global electricity demand by 2050

With adequate financial and political support, renewable energy technologies like wind and photovoltaics could supply 40 percent of the world's electricity by 2050, according to findings from the International Scientific Congress "Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges & Decisions." However, if ...

Honest crabs, power to the hungry, nice mice and clever meerkats: News from the American Naturalist

For copies of any of these articles, please contact Kevin Stacey at 773-834-0386 or kstacey@press.uchicago.edu . HOW OFTEN DO ANIMALS LIE ABOUT THEIR INTENTIONS? An article by Princeton Biologist Mark Laidre suggests that when an animal signals an intent to attack, chances are it's not bl...

Iowa Power Fund advances researcher’s long quest for efficient solar power

AMES, Iowa In Vikram Dalal's 37 years of researching solar technology, the efficiency of thin film solar cells for homes and buildings has improved from 1 percent to about 7 percent. Dalal, the Thomas M. Whitney Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University and dire...

City of Newark first in nation using cars to power grid

This month, the City of Newark, Delaware became the first electric utility in the US to use a car to store and provide power for the local electric grid. The vehicle, which runs on electricity alone, is specifically designed to store energy and improve grid reliability. University of Delaware ...

Researchers design artificial cells that could power medical implants

Researchers at Yale University have created a blueprint for artificial cells that are more powerful and efficient than the natural cells they mimic and could one day be used to power tiny medical implants. The scientists began with the question of whether an artificial version of the electrocy...

Anabolic steroids provide a competitive edge in power lifting years after doping has ended

HILTON HEAD, SCAnabolic steroids are synthetic hormones derived from the human male hormone testosterone. The use of steroids has been suspected in professional baseball and other sports where building muscle strength, rather than endurance, is paramount. Power lifting is such a sport. A team of r...

FSU joins coalition working to improve nation's power grid

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida State University's Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS) has joined a prominent national coalition that seeks to transform the nation's electric power systems. CAPs is now a member of the GridWise Alliance, a group of 69 leading companies and academic institutions w...

Better understanding of blood vessel constrictor needed to harness its power for patients

To harness endothelin-1's power to constrict blood vessels and help patients manage high blood pressure or heart failure, scientists must learn more about how endothelin functions naturally and in disease states, says a Medical College of Georgia researcher. Despite strong laboratory evidence t...

Slicing solar power costs

SALT LAKE CITY University of Utah engineers devised a new way to slice thin wafers of the chemical element germanium for use in the most efficient type of solar power cells. They say the new method should lower the cost of such cells by reducing the waste and breakage of the brittle semiconducto...

Remote technology sees through ice, snow and hot air to monitor power plants

On Aug. 14, 2003, the power grid failure that left the northeastern United States in darkness surprised a country unaccustomed to interrupted electricity. Expectations of a plentiful energy supply in the United States contrast dramatically to the situation in some developing countries that lim...

Analysis of Lake Washington microbes shows the power of metagenomic approaches

WALNUT CREEK, CAToday's powerful sequencing machines can rapidly read the genomes of entire communities of microbes, but the challenge is to extract meaningful information from the jumbled reams of data. In a paper appearing in Nature Biotechnology August 17, a collaboration headed by researcher...

Cow power could generate electricity for millions

Converting livestock manure into a domestic renewable fuel source could generate enough electricity to meet up to three per cent of North America's entire consumption needs and lead to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), according to US research published today, Thursday, 2...

The bombardier beetle, power venom and spray technologies

The bombardier beetle is inspiring designers of engines, drug-delivery devices and fire extinguishers to improve spray technologies, writes Andy McIntosh, from Leeds University, and Novid Beheshti, of Swedish Biomimetics 3000 Ltd, in Aprils Physics World. The bombardier beetle, found mainly in ...

'Wildcat Power Cord' repairs cruciate ligament in dairy cow's knee

MANHATTAN, KAN. -- An 8-year-old Jersey dairy cow is back at her Kansas farm thanks to a decade of research and an experimental surgery performed at Kansas State University's Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. The cow, named Wilhelmina Jolene by the veterinary students assigned to her case, ...

Fujitsu Combines Capacity, Performance and Power Efficiency Into the Industry's First 320GB 7200 RPM 2.5" Sata Hard Disk Drive

320GB Hard Disk Drive Sets the Standard for High Performance Laptops and Desktops SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc., a leading supplier of innovative computer products including hard disk drives, peripherals an...

The surprising power of the pill

Women who have tried to conceive using in vitro fertilization (IVF) methods are painfully aware that timing is of the essence. There are cancelled vacations, too many sick days taken from work, and the necessity to plan everything around the treatment. But thanks to a Tel Aviv University study...

Work with power grids leads to cell biology discovery

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Gene therapy, in which a working gene is inserted into a cell to replace a faulty or absent gene, is a promising experimental technique for the prevention and treatment of disease. Now a research team led by a Northwestern University physicist reports that a counterintuitive...

New twist on life's power source

Stanford, CA A startling discovery by scientists at the Carnegie Institution puts a new twist on photosynthesis, arguably the most important biological process on Earth. Photosynthesis by plants, algae, and some bacteria supports nearly all living things by producing food from sunlight, and in th...

Genetic tags reveal secrets of memories' staying power in mice

A better understanding of how memory works is emerging from a newfound ability to link a learning experience in a mouse to consequent changes in the inner workings of its neurons. Researchers, supported in part by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), have...

Department of Energy putting power in the hands of consumers through technology

The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory announced today the results of a year-long effort to put the power grid in the hands of consumers through technology. The Pacific Northwest GridWise Demonstration Project found that advanced technologies enable consumers to be active...

Wind power explored off California's coast

In many ways, wind energy seems an ideal energy source. Fields of mighty turbines spinning in rhythm could harness carbonless power and shuttle it off to homes and industries. But questions remain about the feasibility of wind parks: How much will they cost" Can this unpredictable energy source be...

The power of multiples: Connecting wind farms can make a more reliable - and cheaper - power source

Wind power, long considered to be as fickle as wind itself, can be groomed to become a steady, dependable source of electricity and delivered at a lower cost than at present, according to scientists at Stanford University. The key is connecting wind farms throughout a given geographic area wit...

Choices and Challenges forum to address nuclear power issue

Blacksburg, Va. -- Choices and Challenges, an annual forum at Virginia Tech with a reputation for tackling controversial issues, will continue the trend with the literally heated and topical subject of "Nuclear Power Reconsidered." This day-long series of panels and discussions will be held on ...

Fuel cells gearing up to power auto industry

HOUSTON, October 29, 2007 The average price for all types of gasoline is holding steady around $2.95 per gallon nationwide, but the pain at the pump might be short-lived as research from the University of Houston may eliminate one of the biggest hurdles to the wide-scale production of fuel cell-p...

Selexis Announces Advanced Approach to Maximize Power of Genetic Elements for Rapid Development of High Performance Cell Lines

Publication in September issue of Nature Methods Shows Application of Bioinformatics tools to Identify The Most Powerful Matrix Attachment Regions Applied to Boost Transgene Expression. GENEVA, Switzerland, Aug. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Researchers at Selexis SA and The University of L...

Beyond batteries: Storing power in a sheet of paper

Troy, N.Y. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new energy storage device that easily could be mistaken for a simple sheet of black paper. The nanoengineered battery is lightweight, ultra thin, completely flexible, and geared toward meeting the trickiest design and ...

Pectin power

Scientists have found a new possible explanation for why people who eat more fruit and vegetables may gain protection against the spread of cancers. They have shown that a fragment released from pectin, found in all fruits and vegetables, binds to and is believed to inhibit galectin 3 (Gal3)...

MIT: Preventing forest fires with tree power

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--MIT researchers and colleagues are working to find out whether energy from trees can power a network of sensors to prevent spreading forest fires. What they learn also could raise the possibility of using trees as silent sentinels along the nation's borders to detect potentia...

University of Arizona scientist shares in discovery of microbe filaments' power

Researchers from The University of Arizona and Columbia University have discovered that tiny filaments on bacteria can bundle together and pull with forces far stronger than experts had previously thought possible. The team of researchers, including Magdalene Maggie So, a member of the BIO5 Ins...

Continents loss to oceans boosts staying power

HOUSTON, April 1, 2008 -- New research suggests that the geological staying power of continents comes partly from their losing battle with the Earth's oceans over magnesium. The research finds continents lose more than 20 percent of their initial mass via chemical reactions involving the Earth's c...

Smarter energy storage for solar and wind power

Development of the first hybrid battery suitable for storing electricity from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind is now a step closer. CSIRO and Cleantech Ventures have invested in technology start-up Smart Storage Pty Ltd to develop and commercialise battery-based storage solutions....

Study shows big power of small RNAs, not just proteins, in halting cancer

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) researchers led by Lin He, Xingyue He, and Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Investigator (HHMI) Greg Hannon have identified a family of micro RNAs (miRNAs) that enable a critical tumor suppressor network, called the p53 pathway, to...

Boosting brain power -- with chocolate

Eating chocolate could help to sharpen up the mind and give a short-term boost to cognitive skills, a University of Nottingham expert has found. A study led by Professor Ian Macdonald found that consumption of a cocoa drink rich in flavanols ?a key ingredient of dark chocolate ?boosts blood flow ...

Lower carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fueled power plants possible with technology development

A more economical technology for a 90 percent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fueled power plants is being developed by a chemical engineer and his colleagues at The University of Texas at Austin as part of the TXU Carbon Management Program. TXU Power, a subsidiary of TXU Corp., ...

'Juiced-up' battery fueled by sugar could power small portable electronics

Dutch researcher Harm Veling has demonstrated that our brains fend off distractions. If we are busy with something we suppress disrupting external influences. If we are tired, we can no longer do this. Social-psychologist Veling proved that the brain selects incoming information to remember usef...

The power of one: A simpler, cheaper method for cell fusion

It's not easy to make one plus one equal one. But biological engineer Chang Lu has done just that with a new and cheaper method to electrically fuse cells - a vital technology for studying stem cells, creating clones and finding disease antibodies. "The only current method for electrofusion req...