ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Shearing triggers odd behavior in microscopic particles
• New method for watching proteins fold
• Millipede border control better than ours
• Viagra against heart failure: Researchers throw light on the mechanism
• Noise-free spectroscopy: Reversing the problem clarifies molecular structure
• Multiple sclerosis linked to different area of brain

Shearing triggers odd behavior in microscopic particles Posted: 23 Dec 2011 06:15 AM PST Microscopic spheres form strings in surprising alignments when suspended in a viscous fluid and sheared between two plates, a finding that will affect the way scientists think about the properties of such wide-ranging substances as shampoo and futuristic computer chips.

New method for watching proteins fold Posted: 23 Dec 2011 06:14 AM PST A protein's function depends on both the chains of molecules it is made of and the way those chains are folded. And while figuring out the former is relatively easy, the latter represents a huge challenge with serious implications because many diseases are the result of misfolded proteins. Now, a team of chemists has devised a way to watch proteins fold in "real-time," which could lead to a better understanding of protein folding and misfolding in general.

Millipede border control better than ours Posted: 23 Dec 2011 06:14 AM PST An Australian zoologist has documented a remarkably sharp boundary between two species of millipede in northwest Tasmania. The boundary is more than 200 km long and apparently less than 100 m wide.

Viagra against heart failure: Researchers throw light on the mechanism Posted: 23 Dec 2011 06:14 AM PST Sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, can alleviate heart problems, and now researchers can explain why. They studied dogs with diastolic heart failure, a condition in which the heart chamber does not sufficiently fill with blood. The scientists showed that sildenafil makes stiffened cardiac walls more elastic again. The drug activates an enzyme that causes the giant protein titin in the myocardial cells to relax.

Noise-free spectroscopy: Reversing the problem clarifies molecular structure Posted: 23 Dec 2011 06:13 AM PST Optical techniques enable us to examine single molecules, but do we really understand what we are seeing? After all, the fuzziness caused by effects such as light interference makes these images very difficult to interpret. Researchers have now adopted a "reverse" approach to spectroscopy which cleaned up images by eliminating background noise.

Multiple sclerosis linked to different area of brain Posted: 22 Dec 2011 04:50 PM PST Radiology researchers have found evidence that multiple sclerosis affects an area of the brain that controls cognitive, sensory and motor functioning apart from the disabling damage caused by the disease's visible lesions.

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