Sunday 22 June 2014

Coating stents with vitamin C could reduce clotting risks

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Every year, more than 1 million people in the U.S. who have suffered heart attacks or chest pain from blocked arteries have little mesh tubes called stents inserted into their blood vessels to prop them open. The procedure has saved many lives, but it still has potentially deadly downsides. Now scientists are reporting in the ACS journal Langmuir that coating stents with vitamin C could lower the implants’ risks even further. Eagappanath Thiruppathi and Gopinath Mani note that today’s stents have come a long way since their first introduction. Today, they come coated with pharmaceuticals that can prevent the affected arteries from reclogging. The problem is that about 10,000 to 50,000 people who receive these drug-eluting stents develop something called “late stent thrombosis” (LST), a potentially fatal complication that happens when clots form and re-block the arteries. Although the drugs on the stents are helpful in most cases, they might be responsible for causing problems in others. The compounds prevent the growth of smooth muscle cells that can clog the affected area, but they can also prevent the growth of helpful endothelial cells that, in addition to the drugs, are critical to preventing LST. Thiruppathi and Mani set out to find a

The post Coating stents with vitamin C could reduce clotting risks has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Time to think big: A call for a giant space telescope

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In the nearly 25 years since the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), astronomers and the public alike have enjoyed ground-breaking views of the cosmos and the suite of scientific discoveries that followed. The successor to HST, the James Webb Telescope should launch in 2018 but will have a comparatively short lifetime.

via Science Daily

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Vintage Astronomy, Celestial Planisphere Map Poster

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: planisphere, constellations, retro, antique, americana, vintage, celestial map, star chart, mythology, nostalgic

Vintage illustration astronomy and celestial star chart map created in 1702 featuring the signs of the zodiac and other figures from Greek mythology. Planisphere Celeste featuring the constellations of the northern and southern night sky, planets (Mercury, Mars, Venus and Saturn), the phases of the moon and the sun. A mythological representation of our universe.

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VIDEO: Footage captures new Etna eruption

Science Focus

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A new eruption at Mount Etna eruption has forced the closure of Catania Airport in Sicily 
#science 
 » see original post http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27869840#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Carina Nebula - Breathtaking Universe Stickers

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: crnneb, star nurseries, star clusters, galaxies, starfields, awesome astronomy photos, nebulae, carina nebula, eso, european southern observatory, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A fantastic astronomy photograph showing a panoramic view of the WR 22 and Eta Carinae regions of the Carina Nebula.

The picture was created from images taken with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.

It's a stunning, mind-blowing, fantastic image that reveals a little of the wonder that is our universe.

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image code: crnneb

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

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Persistent Saturnian Auroras

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Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

Spaced Heart Cover For The iPad Mini

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tagged with: geek, girl, space, science, nebula, hubble, telescope, heart, cool, 80s, nerd, stars, pink, universe, teacher, nebulae

Hubble telescope nebula heart for geek girls

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Understanding mussels’ stickiness could lead to better surgical and underwater glues

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Mussels might be a welcome addition to a hearty seafood stew, but their notorious ability to attach themselves to ships’ hulls, as well as to piers and moorings, makes them an unwelcome sight and smell for boaters and swimmers. Now, researchers report in ACS’ journal Langmuir a clearer understanding of how mussels stick to surfaces, which could lead to new classes of adhesives that will work underwater and even inside the body. Shabeer Ahmad Mian and colleagues note that mussels have a remarkable knack for clinging onto solid surfaces underwater. That can make them a real nuisance to recreational boaters and professional fishermen, who have to scrape the hitchhikers off their vessels to help them run more efficiently. Some types of mussels can even plug up drinking water pipes. Mussels also can stick to materials with nonstick coatings. Although researchers have already developed mussel-inspired glues, they still don’t have a full understanding of exactly how these critters stick so well to underwater surfaces. So, Mian’s team set out to investigate this mystery in painstaking detail to improve these adhesives and to develop new ones. Using complex calculations and simulations, they determined that one part of the mussel “glue” molecule, called catechol, pushes

The post Understanding mussels’ stickiness could lead to better surgical and underwater glues has been published on Technology Org.

 
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The Veil Nebula Selection Posters

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: astronomy, space, prints, pictures, gift, gifts, nasa, hubble, nebula, beautiful, science, technology

The Veil Nebula Selection Print. This is a small portion of the Veil Nebula — the shattered remains of a supernova that exploded thousands of years ago. The entire structure spans about 3 degrees on the sky, corresponding to about 6 full moons. The image was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in November 1994 and August 1997. Courtesy: NASA.

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Trifid Nebula, Messier 16 Rectangle Sticker

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: breathtaking astronomy images, star forming nebulae, trfdnbl, star nurseries, galaxies, nebulae, star factory, trifid nebula, star clusters, heavens, factories for stars, eso, vista, european southern observatory

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A fantastic picture from our universe featuring the massive star factory known as the Trifid Nebula.

It was captured in all its glory with the Wide-Field Imager camera attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in northern Chile.
So named for the dark dust bands that trisect its glowing heart, the Trifid Nebula is a rare combination of three nebulae types that reveal the fury of freshly formed stars and point to more star birth in the future. The field of view of the image is approximately 13 x 17 arcminutes.
It's an awe-inspiring, breathtaking image that reveals some of the wonder that is our universe.

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more items in the Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series

image code: trfdnbl

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

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Carina Nebula Room Graphics

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: carina nebula, nebula, stars, astronomy, univesrse, space

The Carina Nebula is a large bright nebula that surrounds several open clusters of stars.

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Hubble iPad case

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!


tagged with: hubble

Hubble

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