newmission33 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Immortal Worms Defy Aging

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27, 2012 @05:32PM

An anonymous reader writes: Researchers from The University of Nottingham have demonstrated how a species of flatworm overcomes the ageing process to be potentially immortal.

The discovery, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is part of a project funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Medical Research Council (MRC) and may shed light on the possibilities of alleviating ageing and age-related characteristics in human cells.

Submission + - Biologists Debunk the 'Rotting' Y Chromosome Theory, Men Will Still Exist

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 22, 2012 @06:52PM

An anonymous reader writes: Biologists have previously predicted that that the male sex-determining Y chromosome, which once carried around 800 genes, like the X, has lost hundreds of them over the past 300 million years, will mutate itself out of existence, leading to the eventual extinction of men.

However, researchers of a study published in the latest issue of Nature found evidence to suggest that the Y chromosome will not shed anymore of the 19 ancestral genes that it is left with.

Submission + - Antibiotics Are Useless in Treating Most Sinus Infections

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 16, 2012 @10:26AM

An anonymous reader writes: While doctors routinely prescribe antibiotics to treat sinus infections, researchers on Tuesday revealed that amoxicillin, the most commonly prescribed medication for nasal cavity inflammation and sinuses, was just as effective as a dummy pill.
Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, found that there was no significant difference in symptoms between patients taking amoxicillin to those who took the placebo three days after starting the pills were administered.

Submission + - Scientists Create World's First Atomic X-Ray Laser 2

Submitted by newmission33 on Thursday January 26, 2012 @02:13PM

newmission33 writes: Government researchers have created the fastest, purest X-ray laser pulses ever achieved, and have fulfilled a 1967 prediction that an atomic scale x-ray laser could be made in the same manner as visible-light lasers., according to a statement released Wednesday.

Researchers at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory used the Linac Coherent Light Source to aim a powerful x-ray source beam, a billion times brighter than any previous source, at a capsule of neon gas and triggered an “avalanche” of X-ray emissions to become the world’s first “atomic X-ray laser.”

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