Doctoral researchers in Australia have discovered a revolutionary treatment for damaged retinas. Using near infrared light, they have been able to both prevent damage and reverse sustained damage to the retinas through intense light damage. This new finding shows promise of helping to prevent blindness in people whose eyes have suffered light damage that can lead to blindness.

When the eyes are damaged by light, the vision cells become overly stressed and essentially shut down. Once they have shut themselves down, they eventually die. When vision cells have died, there is no way to recover them. Often what happens is one group of cells shuts down in the retina- a “hot-spot” of damaged cells, and then it spreads outward from that area.

With this new method of reversing damage using gentle, pain free infrared light, those damaged cells can be recovered before they die. Exposure to the near infrared light every day for less than a week shows incredible capabilities of healing damaged cells, and restoring vision.

In addition to providing treatment for eyes damaged from light, this process also shows promise for those suffering from Macular Degeneration, and even Dry Macular Degeneration- the leading cause of blindness in developed countries. The trick is providing treatment immediately after damage has ensued, or when a positive diagnosis of DMD is made. Once the cells have died, there is no way to get them back. Treating them when they are in the damaged phase- before death- can make the cells more resistant to stress and bring them back to a functioning status.

Not only is this an amazing treatment showing great promise- it is also affordable. The array of small LED lights the doctors use, make this process completely pain free and incredibly affordable. The researchers remark that the affordability is exciting in itself due to the high cost of blindness.

Scientists track a single atom inside a human cell and foresee subsequent advances in drug development.
According to Professor Lloyd Hollenberg, a physicist at the University of Melbourne, the atom was encased in a nanodiamond shell. Researches used it to explore the human cell and they were excited to see how this quantum sensor experienced the environment of the cell’s interior.

Professor Hollenberg stated that this experiment would enable future researchers to create an entire class of these quantum devices and do more research in the nanoscale environment.

The quantum sensor was able to detect cell activity and the entrance and exit of chemicals. Understanding these processes is a crucial step in developing medicines targeted at the molecular level.

A team composed of members from various scientific departments at the University of Melbourne crafted the tools and technology to manipulate and monitor the atom inside its nanodiamond shell. When these proved successful, they inserted the quantum sensor into human cells kept in the laboratory and sought to track its movements there.

According to Dr Yan Yan of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, the sensor they developed can provide important information about movement inside a human cell. Since drug delivery depends on the interactions of similarly-sized particles inside cells, the information gathered will be useful in new drug development.

Liam McGuiness, a physicist from the school of Physics at the University of Melbourne, also noted the significance of this achievement. The ability to monitor the movement of such a small sensor in a microscopic environment was not previously possible, he says, except in controlled environments inside physics labs.

Following these initial experiments, scientists involved in the effort hope to develop more of the same
technology in the coming years. These tools may enable the creation of previously impossible drug developments.

The following is a piece of a sales ad, created to entice additional women in science. Work and study hard, get good grades and earn an engineering degree or a science degree, and you will be rewarded with a great-paying career in your selected field. However, as stated by the new United States Government analysis, the “reward” involves working for lower pay, about 12% lower than women’s male equivalents.

“Women in ‘STEM’: A Gender Gap to Innovation,” developed and it is a report consisting of eleven pages, which is the initial study about women who are employed in technical environments, distributed by the CDESA, otherwise known as the ESA (Commerce Dept.’s Economic/Statistics Admin. “STEM” – science – technology – engineering – mathematics. The analysis is founded on information from a survey performed in the early 2000’s, an American Community Review, and it is a continuous opinion poll conducted by the USCB (United States Census Bureau) that complements the past ten years census.

The information’s general assumption is that women in science are working for lower pay and they are undersold in the United States Science, Technology, and Engineering & Math labor force – maintaining around 24 percent of all “S.T.E.M.” occupations whilst encompassing 48 percent of all employees – will not be surprising to any individual who tracks the subject. However, they might view the nonexistence of development decreasing: “Throughout the previous ten years, this understated instance regarding women in science and working for lower pay continues to be moderately continuous, even while the female’s portion of college cultured labor force has enlarged,” clarifies a branch official news statement on the analysis, released recently.

Rebecca Blank, a current secretary with Commerce and Ph.D. Economist, supervises both the Census Bureau as well as the CDESA. Rebecca attempted to add the best twist on the income difference amid women and men in science and other fields. Ms. Blank said, “There is a femininity/masculinity salary gap throughout the country.” She continued, saying, “However, it is essentially lower in Technology, engineering, science and math fields, meaning educated women working for lower pay.” Nevertheless, she recognized that the wages gap fosters bigger questions. “In reality, an individual might believe that the lower pay gap may essentially attract more women into engineering and/or science. Therefore, it enhances the mystery of what it is that everyone is doing within our colleges and our households that makes “S.T.E.M.” occupations apparently less appealing to the female population.”

Rebecca Blank continued by saying that the survey did not examine the gender hole by job setting, like academia as opposed to industry. “Hence, we failed to look at the hole by jobs,” she comments. “And what is intriguing is that manufacturing/engineering, which holds the lowermost fraction of women, really has the bottom gender gap. It is just seven cents.”

Rebecca stated that the gender salary gap “is, and continues to be, one of the largest research queries in money matters (otherwise referred to as economics). Why does this gap happen, even when you regulate for seemingly what are every one of the production characteristics?” Nonetheless, Ms. Blank is enthusiastic about risking a guess. One response, she states, is that women in science, engineering, math and/or technology do not appear to receive the same amount of workplace advancements and raises as men do.”

Reference:
Women in Science Work for Less Money, Jeffrey Mervis (August 4, 2011, 11:47 AM), Retrieved August 9, 2011 from http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/08/women-in-science-work-for-less.html

Did you know that lions are most likely to attack people sometime during the 10 days following a full moon? This is the period of time that puts people and the big cats at the greatest risk of encounter: when humans are out at night and when the lions are the hungriest. Between the years of 1988 and 2009, over 1000 people were attacked in Tanzania and over 700 were killed and either partially or wholly eaten.

Efforts have been taken to protect the people of the country against these brutal attacks. Through research and education, scientists hope to cut down on the number of people ambushed by ravenous lions. According to an article on Sciencemag.org, ‘Man Eating Lions Attack by the Dark of the Moon’, people at the greatest risk are those in rural areas who tend to spend the night in their fields to protect their crops. Bush pigs can wreak havoc on the livelihood of these farmers but the pigs are also a healthy source of food for the lions. As lions stalk the bush pigs, they often stumble upon sleeping farmers who make much easier prey than the wily hogs.

It has been studied and shown that the majority of attacks occur between the hours of 6pm and 9:45pm, with the instance of attack four times greater during the 10 days after the full moon. The reason for this is that, during this period, the moon rises later than normal, leaving these hours darker than any other time of the year. The movie ‘The Ghost and the Darkness’ (1996) dramatizes one of these events which took place in 1898. Two lions were reported to have killed about 35 people on a man-eating rampage in Kenya.

While scientists are trying to educate the rural people of Tanzania, it may be difficult. The poverty stricken people are often left with no choice than to protect their crops from destruction. To not do so would through them into near destitution. Researchers also hope that their studies will dispel the myths surrounding the moon, showing people that there is a very real basis for the correlation between the full moon and the time frame of attacks.

Centuries ago the British government offered a monetary prize to anyone who could develop an exact method of determining the longitude of a ship. A British cabinetmaker invented a clock for the purpose and won the £20,000 prize, the first offered for scientific research. Once again, offering a prize for accomplishments in the technical or scientific fields are in vogue. Multimillion dollar prizes offered by the X-Prize Foundation are mainly responsible for the current interest in handing out prizes for projects such as manned spaceflight and DNA sequencing. Now the United States government is coming on board with the Department of Defense and NASA offering prizes for technical goals or advances in research. The National Institutes of Health–the NIH–however, the usual benefactor of biomedical research prizes, has so far not entered the game, although that may change soon.

During a recent meeting on the Bethesda, Maryland campus of the NIH, several private organizations as well as government agencies reported their success with offering research prizes. Those reports spurred speculation as to whether the NIH will begin their own offers of prizes. At this meeting, it was reported that Francis Collins, NIH Director, will sign contracts soon that ensure NIH compliance with the America COMPETES Act. Under this Act, federal agencies are authorized to offer cash to researchers who will take on the harder high-risk projects in research. Although grants exists for such research, it is apparently not enough incentive to entice potential researchers and scientists to spend time on the riskier projects.

The 2007 America COMPETES Act allows Federal agencies to present a problem on Challenge.gov, to research teams or individuals, appraise the results, and award prizes for the best solution. Called incentives research, this was just one subject discussed during the crowdsourcing conference. Participants also looked at other ways to use the power of many willing brains. Tim O’Reilly, media guru, pointed out how the Internet collects massive amounts of information and data. Although not all information is collected in a scientific way, he believes scientists should mine the Internet for the newest and best ideas in this global brain. If cash incentives produce needed solutions, conference attendees felt it is money well spent.

If you had a watch with glowing hands in the early 20th century, there is a good chance it was painted with a newly discovered element called ‘radium’. Radioactive chemicals such as this were used in everything from clocks to toothpaste to health tonics. The technology might have been new and exciting, but was also potentially dangerous. Workers who painted those watch hands fell ill, most of them dying of cancer.
Of course, today’s world wouldn’t be the same had we never discovered radioactivity. It’s used in medical diagnostics, scientific research and technology such as smoke alarms. However it’s vital that we remain cautious about new discoveries to reduce any possible risks they pose.