Knowing the art of picking one’s brain
Reading Time: 2 minutesBY MAZLAN HANAFI BASHARUDIN FANCY forecasting the trends or customers’ behaviour in the future? Knowing how people think would be helpful in predicting and understanding their choices and actions. By learning the art (and the science behind it) of picking one’s brain, there is a way to do so now. Studying how the brain works, or neuroscience, is what’s currently offered at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). Neuroscience looks […]
Scientists seeking to regrow kidneys make promising discovery
Reading Time: 2 minutesSCIENTISTS seeking to regrow damaged kidneys have discovered that blocked kidneys in newborns have a remarkable ability to repair themselves after the obstruction is removed. The finding offers insights into how that happens and could eventually help doctors regenerate kidneys in adults. The new research, from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, looked at […]
Genetically modified hens ‘lay drugs’
Reading Time: 2 minutesSCIENTISTS at the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute have produced GM chickens that make human proteins in their eggs, offering a more cost-effective method of producing certain types of drugs. The study published in BMC Biotechnology initially focused on producing high quality proteins for use in scientific research and later found the drugs work at […]
Why some people are more flexible than others?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteTHEY begin seated on the floor, knees bent out to their sides and soles of their feet touching. Next reaching forward and pull their feet in toward their body and slowly deepen the stretch. These people are just more flexible than others! There are a number of different factors that may contribute to why some […]
Asthma monitoring gets easier
Reading Time: 2 minutesNew local innovation is world’s first with potential for assessing other respiratory functions. BANGI: A locally innovated asthma monitoring device is all set to create a new revolution in respiratory medicine, especially for the examination of asthmatic attacks in real time. Developed by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Penang Hospital, the gadget called Spironic is […]
HIV vaccine protects non-human primates from infection
Reading Time: 2 minutesFOR more than 20 years, scientists at Scripps Research have chipped away at the challenges of designing an HIV vaccine. Now new research, published in Immunity, shows that their experimental vaccine strategy works in non-human primates. The new study shows that rhesus macaque monkeys can be prompted to produce neutralising antibodies against one strain of […]
New material to promote natural wound healing
Reading Time: < 1 minuteMATERIALS are widely used to help heal wounds: Collagen sponges help treat burns and pressure sores, and scaffold-like implants are used to repair bones. However, the process of tissue repair changes over time, so scientists are developing biomaterials that interact with tissues as healing takes place. Now, Dr Ben Almquist and his team at Imperial […]
Blood test for early cancer
Reading Time: 2 minutesCANCER scientists led by principal investigator Dr Daniel De Carvalho at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre have combined “liquid biopsy,” epigenetic alterations and machine learning to develop a blood test to detect and classify cancer at its earliest stages. The findings, published online in Nature, describe not only a way to detect cancer, but hold promise […]
Scientists grow perfect human blood vessels in a Petri dish
Reading Time: 2 minutesBreakthrough technology advances research of vascular diseases like diabetes SCIENTISTS have managed to grow perfect human blood vessels as organoids in a Petri dish for the first time. The breakthrough engineering technology, outlined in a new study published recently in Nature, dramatically advances research of vascular diseases like diabetes, identifying a key pathway to potentially […]
Cancer hazard in old honey
Reading Time: 2 minutesA recently concluded workshop on communicating research hosted by Malaysian Biotechnology Information Centre (Mabic) and Monash University Malaysia, found potential “science journalists” among researchers. The article published here is also a testimony of the success of the first home-grown science communication teaching module created by Mabic. The writer was given an opportunity to write popular […]