Medicine

Mon 8 Mar 2010 Molecular Imaging Technique Uses Ultrasound and Microscopic Bubbles to Target Cancer Cells. An imaging technique combining ultrasound and specially modified contrast agents may allow researchers to noninvasively detect cancer and show its progression, according to research published in the March issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM). The technique enables researchers to visualize tumor activity at the molecular level. more

  Chemistry

Sun 7 Mar 2010 Rice University researchers have found a way to stitch graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) into a two-dimensional quilt that offers new paths of exploration for materials science. The technique has implications for application of graphene materials in microelectronics that scale well below the limitations of silicon determined by Moore's Law.more

  Physics

Tue 23 Feb 2010 Physicists Use Ultra-Fast Lasers to Open Doors to New Technologies Unheard of Just Years Ago. For nearly half a century, scientists have been trying to figure out how to build a cost-effective and reasonably sized X-ray laser that could, among other things, provide super high-resolution imaging. Recent breakthroughs by a joint institute of Colorado University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, have paved the way on how to build a tabletop X-ray laser that could be used for super high-resolution imaging, while also giving scientists a new way to peer into a single cell and gain a better understanding of the nanoworld. Both of these feats could lead to major breakthroughs in many fields including medicine, biology and nanotechnology development.more

  Biology

Mon 15 Feb 2010 Biologists Image Birth of Blood-Forming Stem Cells in Embryo. Biologists at UC San Diego have identified the specific region in vertebrates where adult blood stem cells arise during embryonic development. Their discovery is a critical first step for the development of safer and more effective stem cell therapies for patients with leukemia, multiple myeloma, anemia and a host of other diseases of the blood or bone marrow. The researchers say their time-lapse imaging of the process, by which primitive embryonic tissues first produce the parent stem cells that produce all adult blood cells over the life of an individual, should help guide future efforts to repair and replace this cell population for therapeutic purposes.more