Scientists at the University of Adelaide have made a breakthrough that could change the world`s thinking on what light is capable of. ...

Becoming "hard of hearing" is a standard but unfortunate part of aging: A syndrome called age-related hearing loss affects about 40 percent of people over 65 in the United States, and will afflict an estimated 28 million Americans by 2030. "Age-related hearing loss is a very common symptom of aging in humans, and also is universal among mammal species, and it`s one of the earliest d...

Astronomers have tracked down a gigantic, previously unknown assembly of galaxies located almost seven billion light-years away from us. The discovery, made possible by combining two of the most powerful ground-based telescopes in the world, is the first observation of such a prominent galaxy structure in the distant Universe, providing further insight into the cosmic web and how it formed. "...

More than half of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) don`t get any counselling on their ability to drive after angioplasty — and this could be putting lives in danger, Dr. Ravi Bajaj told the 2009 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress, co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. "If a patient is discharged from hospital following a cardiac e...

Engineered, light-sensitive molecules introduced into a blind rodent`s eye resulted in vision, according to results from an interdisciplinary collaboration between numerous labs. The results could lead to treatments for people with inherited, blinding eye diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa, which affects one in every 3,000 individuals. The findings were presented at Neuroscience 2009, the annua...

Too much light at night can lead to symptoms of depression, according to a new study in mice. Researchers found that mice housed in a lighted room 24 hours a day exhibited more depressive symptoms than did similar mice that had a normal light-dark cycle. However, mice that lived in constant light, but could escape into a dark, opaque tube when they wanted showed less evidence of depressive symptom...

Light is intangible and, in addition, it travels at great velocity. Nevertheless, it can be confined to a very small space by controllably inserting light into a microscopic container surrounded by reflective walls. The light will then be stored by continuous reflections and cannot escape. In the scientific domain, such a small reflective microcavity is termed a microresonator. These microresonato...

In the September issue of the journal Behavior Therapy, University of Vermont psychologist Kelly Rohan presents the first published research study of the long-term effects of different treatments for seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a form of severe depression that occurs annually in the fall and winter seasons. The first year Rohan randomized 69 people with SAD into one of four groups: light th...

A study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reports a significant breakthrough in explaining gaps in scientists` understanding of human brain function. The study – which provides a picture of language processing in the brain with unprecedented clarity – will be published in the October 16 issue of the journal Science. "Two central mysteries...

Contestants on TV shows like Top Chef and Hell`s Kitchen know that their meat-cutting skills will be scrutinized by a panel of unforgiving judges. Now, new archaeological evidence is getting the same scrutiny by scientists at Tel Aviv University and the University of Arizona. Their research is providing new clues about how, where and when our communal habits of butchering meat developed, and they`...