Press Releases - June 2007
Archive
29 June 2007 - EMBL
Modern brains have an ancient core
Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) now reveal that the hypothalamus and its hormones are not purely vertebrate inventions, but have their evolutionary roots in marine, worm-like ancestors.
22 June 2007 - CERN
CERN announces new start-up schedule for world's most powerful particle accelerator
Speaking at the 142nd session of the CERN Council today, the Organization's Director General Robert Aymar announced that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will start up in May 2008, taking the first steps towards studying physics at a new high-energy frontier. A low-energy run originally scheduled for this year has been dropped as the result of a number of minor delays accumulated over the final months of LHC installation and commissioning, coupled with the failure in March of a pressure test in one of the machine's components.
22 June 2007 - EMBL
New compound effectively treats fungal infections
A new mechanism to attack hard-to-treat fungal infections has been revealed by scientists from the biotech company Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc., California, and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory [EMBL] outstation in Grenoble, France. In the current issue of Science they describe how a new compound kills fungal pathogens by blocking an enzyme crucial for their protein synthesis.
19 June 2007 - ESO
Back on Track
Observing the image of a faint object that lies close to a star is a demanding task as the object is generally hidden in the glare of the star. Characterising this object, by taking spectra, is an even harder challenge. Still, thanks to ingenious scientists and a new ESO imaging spectrograph, this is now feasible, paving the way to an eldorado of many new thrilling discoveries.
18 June 2007 - ESA
ESA and NASA sign agreement on James Webb Space Telescope and LISA Pathfinder
At a ceremony that took place today at the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget, ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain and NASA Administrator Michael Griffin signed the official agreements that define the terms of the cooperation on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and on the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Pathfinder mission.
15 June 2007 - ESA
First ATV leaves Europe to prepare for launch from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana
Time to bid farewell to the most sophisticated spacecraft ever built in Europe. The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will leave the European Space Agency's ESTEC establishment in the Netherlands in mid-July and be shipped to Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. There, it will start its launch preparation campaign which will last several months, before being launched by Ariane 5 not earlier than mid-January 2008 and (after a 12 to 15 day journey) docking automatically with the International Space Station using its own propulsion and navigation systems.
15 June 2007 - EMBL
Casting the molecular net
Scientists at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital (Canada), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (Germany), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) have created a new computational method called NetworKIN. This method uses biological networks to better identify relationships between molecules.
14 June 2007 - EMBL
New findings challenge established views about human genome
The ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE), an international research consortium organised by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today published the results of its exhaustive, four-year effort to build a "parts list" of all biologically functional elements in one percent of the human genome in the journal Nature.
13 June 2007 - ESO
Free from the Atmosphere
An artificial, laser-fed star now shines regularly over the sky of Paranal, home of ESO's Very Large Telescope, one of the world's most advanced large ground-based telescopes. This system provides assistance for the adaptive optics instruments on the VLT and so allows astronomers to obtain images free from the blurring effect of the atmosphere, regardless of the brightness and the location on the sky of the observed target. Now that it is routinely offered by the observatory, the skies seem much sharper to astronomers.
12 June 2007 - ESO
Matter Flashed at Ultra Speed
Using a robotic telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory, astronomers have for the first time measured the velocity of the explosions known as gamma-ray bursts. The material is travelling at the extraordinary speed of more than 99.999% of the velocity of light, the maximum speed limit in the Universe.
10 June 2007 - EMBL
Researchers shed light on shrinking of chromosomes
Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) for the first time tracked chromosome condensation in mammalian cells over the entire course of cell division.
5 June 2007 - EMBL
Uncovering the molecular basis of obesity
Why does the same diet make some of us gain more weight than others? The answer could be a molecule called Bsx, as scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the German Institute for Nutrition (DIFE), Potsdam, and the University of Cincinnati report in the current issue of Cell Metabolism.
3 June 2007 - EMBL
New insights into the neural basis of anxiety
People who suffer from anxiety tend to interpret ambiguous situations, situations that could potentially be dangerous but not necessarily so, as threatening. Researchers from the Mouse Biology Unit of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Italy have now uncovered the neural basis for such anxiety behaviour in mice.