Naked Science News

Leprosy DNA from Mediaeval Skeletons

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:22:55 +0000

German scientists have used DNA from ancient skeletons to rebuild the genetic sequence of mediaeval leprosy. Caused by Mycobacterium leprae, leprosy was at one time a worldwide scourge affecting m...

Gene therapy focused on eyes

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:21:48 +0000

Scientists in America have developed a new virus that can deliver therapeutic genes to treat retinal diseases. A number of sight-loss conditions are known, including some that are genetic and whic...

Tuguska Fireball meteor fragments found

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:20:55 +0000

Mark - More than 100 years ago, back in 1908, a huge blast ripped open the sky in a region of Siberia called Tunguska. It flattened more than 2,000 square kilometres of forest all around. ...

Self-healing concrete

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:19:40 +0000

A 3 million grant has been awarded to teams across Bath, Cardiff and Cambridge universities to investigate a new building technology; self-healing concrete. Concrete is vitally important for the str...

Cloaking device developed, for fish

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:16:19 +0000

The dream of invisibility goes back to at least the Greeks whose god of the underworld, Hades is supposed to have had a helmet of invisibility. But this week scientists at the Nanyan Technological ...

At what age do we learn sympathy?

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:13:25 +0000

Sympathy is crucial for human co-existence. It's one of the factors why society is able to function, but we've never fully understood how it develops. Newborns respond to others in distress thr...

Skimming through the Sun's atmosphere

Thu, 6 Jun 2013 17:03:17 +0000

The surface of the Sun is an incredibly violent place that it is difficult for theorists to model or for experimentalists to reproduce on Earth. However, a paper in Science this week by Cooper Downs a...

Planet caught in the act of forming

Thu, 6 Jun 2013 16:53:33 +0000

For as long as people have been looking at the night sky, they have been wondering where our Earth came from, and by what processes it formed. A paper published in Science this week by Neenka van der ...

What's in a name?

Thu, 6 Jun 2013 16:53:17 +0000

Parents are subconsciously selecting names that linguistically portray their children as, in the case of boys, bigger and stronger, or, in the case of girls, more feminine and petite. That's the co...

Nuclear bombs mark newborn neurons

Thu, 6 Jun 2013 16:42:55 +0000

Radioactivity released into the air by Cold War nuclear tests has enabled Swedish scientists to probe how adult brains produce new nerve cells and whether they survive for any length of time. The di...

Misdiagnosed manganism near Mount Etna?

Thu, 6 Jun 2013 16:14:30 +0000

Scientists in Italy have found that the surfaces of lava stones from Mount Etna, in Sicily, may be leaching manganese into the environment. Almost 1.5 million people are supplied with water from Etn...

Quickfire Science: HPV and Oral Cancer

Thu, 6 Jun 2013 15:42:54 +0000

This week, Michael Douglas revealed in an interview with The Guardian newspaper, that he believes the throat cancer he suffered was a result of infection with the human papillomavirus that's HPV. An i...

Fighting flu with a virus

Thu, 30 May 2013 21:49:34 +0000

Scientists have engineered a viral vector to convert cells lining the airways into producers of antibodies against flu. Squirting a dose of the modified agent into the noses of mice and ferrets full...

Fibre optics rev up

Thu, 30 May 2013 18:28:14 +0000

Whether you know it or not you are probably using fibre optics every day, they are the very thin glass fibres which carry most of the information around the internet and telephone systems. The i...

400 year-old frozen plants resuscitated

Thu, 30 May 2013 15:02:20 +0000

Plants entombed in glacial ice for more than 400 years have been successfully resuscitated by scientists in Canada. The bryophytes, forms of moss including liverworts, have been revealed in the Can...

Avatars block voices for schizophrenics

Thu, 30 May 2013 14:52:22 +0000

Conversing with a computer-generated face playing the part of the voices experienced by patients with schizophrenia can suppress the problem within hours in some individuals, new research ...

New microscope sees chemistry in action!

Thu, 30 May 2013 14:48:38 +0000

For the first time, chemists have taken before-and-after photographs of molecules involved in a chemical reaction. The pictures show how individual carbon atoms - and the chemical bonds between them -...

Radiation on the way to Mars?

Thu, 30 May 2013 14:45:41 +0000

Just one return trip to Mars would eat up about two-thirds of an astronaut's lifetime safe dose of radiation, a new study has shown. Using the radiation detector mounted on the Curiosity...

How best to breathe up a mountain?

Thu, 30 May 2013 14:14:35 +0000

This week marks the 60th anniversary of the first complete ascent of Mount Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay in 1953. But few people know that had it not been for the failure of one of two ...

Why can't penguins fly?

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:48:51 +0000

The ability to fly is an adaptive trait in birds, but at least five lineages of seabirds have lost this skill over time, penguins among them. It was previously thought that as many flightless birds...

Printing an artificial windpipe

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:46:42 +0000

Scientists have used 3D printing techniques to construct a new temporary windpipe and successfully treat a child born with an airway obstruction. Twenty month old Kaiba Gionfriddo has tracheobronchom...

Quickfire Science: Oklahoma Tornado

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:56:22 +0000

Tragedy struck Oklahoma this week, when a massive tornado at least a mile wide ripped through the town of Moore, leaving at least 24 people dead. Here's your Quickfire Science on these destructive for...

Cockroaches Lose Their Sweet Tooth

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:18:07 +0000

In just 30 years cockroaches have evolved the ability to detect and avoid the traps commonly used to deal with them! Since the 1980s, the mainstay of cockroach control has been lures loaded with an ...

Itch-sensitive nerves discovered

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:12:33 +0000

A key part of the neurological signalling system that conveys itching sensations has been unravelled by US scientists, paving the way for the development of more effective treatments for eczema and ...

Butterflies with built-in Solar Cells

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:14:31 +0000

Researchers in Canada have discovered that the pigmentation in butterfly wings indicates how far they migrate. The team, led by Daniel Hanley at the university of Guelph, studied monarch butterflies, ...

Did selfishness fuel farming?

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:09:57 +0000

Around 12,000 years ago, the behaviour of our ancestors underwent a radical change. Rather than taking food that was growing naturally around us, as we had done for thousands of years previously, we b...

Polyisobutene threat to sea birds

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:46:37 +0000

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) wants the marine practice of discharging a chemical called polyisobutene (PIB) banned after 4,000 birds were injured or killed by the substance. ...

Quickfire Science: Angelina Jolie

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:09:12 +0000

It emerged this week that actress and director Angelina Jolie chose to have a double mastectomy, because she carries a gene called BRCA1, which greatly increases her chances of developing breast cance...

Earth's oldest water beneath Canada

Thu, 16 May 2013 07:38:45 +0000

Water that hasn't seen the light of day, or had contact with the Earth's atmosphere, for 2.5 billion years has been discovered in Ontario, Canada. Reporting in Nature this week, a team of Canadian ...

Malaria gives mosquitoes the munchies

Thu, 16 May 2013 07:29:18 +0000

Malaria manipulates infected mosquitoes, making them more attracted to human skin odours, new research has revealed. Writing in PLoS One, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine scientist Jam...

Can young blood block heart failure?

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:29:36 +0000

A protein found at high levels in the blood of young mice has been shown to reverse the effects of heart failure in older mice, according to a paper published by researchers from the Harvard Stem Cell...

Balloon goes up on Helium prices...

Thu, 9 May 2013 16:35:13 +0000

The fate of one of the world's main sources of helium is about to be decided - and prices are set to soar sky high. That could hit universities and hospitals where liquid helium is used to cool sup...

Vaccine for dust mite allergies!

Thu, 9 May 2013 16:09:30 +0000

It's the dream of many allergy sufferers to have some kind of jab that would vaccinate them against the misery of their reactions. Now new research from a research team in Thailand, working with a com...

3D-Print Your Way to Invisibility

Thu, 9 May 2013 14:29:53 +0000

A "cloaking device", capable of rendering objects invisible to microwave light, has been produced using a standard 3D printer by scientists in America. 3D printing - or Stereolithographic polymer-bas...

Quickfire Science: 3D Printing

Thu, 9 May 2013 11:35:28 +0000

3D printing is a technique that's dramatically reduced the cost of building complex plastic objects in recent years. But this week in the US, the first ever shot was fired from a gun that was built u...

Milk Monitor Collars Spoilt Dairy

Thu, 9 May 2013 10:57:47 +0000

If you've ever accidentally put spoilt milk in your tea or on your cereal you'll know it's an experience you don't want to repeat. One way to stop this culinary disaster is to have sophisticated elect...

Breast milk combats resistant bacteria.

Wed, 8 May 2013 11:42:49 +0000

HAMLET, a protein in human breastmilk, re-sensitises antibiotic-resistant bacteria to old antibiotics. TheHuman Alpha-lactalbumin Made LEthal to Tumour cells protein, or HAMLET for short, is a...

Honey fends off infection in bees

Wed, 8 May 2013 10:16:43 +0000

Honey does more than just feed bees, it also activates a host of chemical and immune defense mechanisms, new research has found. Through their pollination efforts, which boost crop yields, bees are ...

New drug blocks lethal flu infection

Wed, 8 May 2013 10:07:46 +0000

Mice - and people - infected with a lethal dose of 'flu could be saved by dosing them with a new drug, scientists have announced this week. Eritoran, also known by its test compound name of E5564, ...

Quickfire Science - World's Tiniest Film

Thu, 2 May 2013 17:42:49 +0000

You might have seen this week that researchers at the computing company IBM have entered the Guinness Book of World Records. They've created the world's smallest movie about a boy befriending and pla...

Europe to Ban Controversial Pesticides

Thu, 2 May 2013 17:39:42 +0000

From 1 December this year, farmers in the EU will be banned from using three insecticides on crops that attract bees. The ban comes after some studies implicated the insecticides in the phenomenon...

Comet water in Jupiter's atmosphere

Thu, 2 May 2013 17:38:47 +0000

The crashing of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into Jupiter in July 1994 was a spectacular event seen by thousands around world - the first time that anyone has watched two solar system bodies colliding. Th...

Genetic link to migraines

Thu, 2 May 2013 12:41:16 +0000

A genetic cause for migraines has been discovered by scientists in America.Affecting up to 15% of the population, and more women than men, migraines are a common neurological condition. Patients usual...

Honey essential for bee health

Thu, 2 May 2013 12:23:07 +0000

Honey contituents activate anti-bacterial and detox-controlling genes in bees, allowing them to break down pesticides and fend off infection. And this may explain bee population drops seen in recent y...

Nanosheets Soak Up Spills

Thu, 2 May 2013 12:11:08 +0000

A material capable of absorbing up to 33 times its own weight in oils and organic solvents has been developed by scientists in Australia. The clean-up of oil spills has historically been an expensive...

E. coli-diesel

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:53:16 +0000

E. coli bacteria capable of producing diesel have been engineered by UK scientists. Transport accounts for over 60% of global oil demand, which is expected to rise from the current 85 million barrel...

Hand clench improves memory

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:48:26 +0000

Firmly clenching the right hand for ninety seconds when you are trying to memorise something, followed by an equivalent left hand clench when you want to recall the information again, couldimpro...

Quickfire Science: Gonorrhoea

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:48:38 +0000

This week, Professor Cathy Ison from Public Health England announced that the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhoea could become resistant to all known antibiotics by 2015. Here's the quickfire sc...

Proving Theories of Gravitation

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:07:50 +0000

Observations of a massive neutron star in a compact stellar binary in outer space confirm general relativity theory in a previously untested regime, a new study reports. General relativity (GR), ...

Sounding Sexy

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:39:12 +0000

Marilyn Monroe and Barry White had it sussed decades ahead of the science. Marilyn's breathy vocals takes many men's breath away. And Barry's deep crooning has left millions of women swooning. But why...