University of Florida
On-the-job exposure to low doses of powerful medications commonly administered to patients intravenously in the operating room may be a factor leading some anesthesiologists to abuse drugs. Anesthesiologists -- who as a group are up to four times more likely to be treated for drug addiction than other physicians -- may become sensitized to the intravenous drugs fentanyl and propofol after repeated exposure during long surgical procedures.
A Florida scientist has grown a living ''brain'' that can fly a simulated plane, giving scientists a novel way to observe how brain cells function as a network. The ''brain'' -- a collection of 25,000 living neurons, or nerve cells, taken from a rat's brain and cultured inside a glass dish -- gives scientists a unique real-time window into the brain at the cellular level. By watching the brain cells interact, scientists hope to understand what causes neural disorders such as epilepsy and to determine noninvasive ways to intervene. As living computers, they may someday be used to fly small unmanned airplanes or handle tasks that are dangerous for humans, such as search-and-rescue missions or bomb damage assessments.
A team of researchers has created tiny hybrid particles that can speedily root out even one isolated E. coli bacterium lurking in ground beef or provide a crucial early warning alarm for bacteria used as agents of bioterrorism and for early disease diagnosis. ''Our focus is the development of a bionanotechnology that combines the strengths of nanotechnology and biochemistry to generate a new type of 'bionanomaterial,' which has some unique properties... Because of these properties, we're able to finish the detection of a single bacterium in 20 minutes.''
A team of Florida researchers has invented a way to rapidly detect traces of TNT or other hidden explosives simply by shining a light on any potentially contaminated object, from a speck of dust in the air to the surface of a suitcase. ''We have to find explosives quickly, inexpensively and, particularly, reliably,'' said University of Florida professor Rolf Hummel. The development provides instantaneous results, gives no false positives, can be used remotely and is portable -- attributes he says will make it indispensable at all levels of law enforcement, from local police to homeland security.
The molecule of life just got a new job description. University of Florida scientists have coaxed a piece of DNA to act in concert with a filter-like membrane and tiny hollow tubes called nanotubes to find and retrieve other DNA dissolved in a solution. It's the first time researchers have turned to a nanotube filter based on DNA to perform a task now routine in medical research, criminal forensics and other areas.
Cash incentive programs that reward schools for high scores on standardized tests create a growing gulf between the rich and poor, a new University of Florida study suggests. The research, conducted in Florida, found that each year since such a program began, children who attended schools in affluent districts received increasingly more money each year than students who live in poor areas, a trend that could jeopardize some of the most-needy youngsters' opportunities for equal education.
Butterflies may seem like the quietest of creatures, but a University of Florida researcher has uncovered new evidence that many of the colorful insects actually spend much of their time ''talking'' to each other. A Florida researcher has found that blue-and-white longwing butterflies emit a barely audible series of clicks when they come into contact with other butterflies. The finding adds to a small but growing number of studies suggesting that some butterfly species use sound to communicate.
Home videos of infants' movements can be used to help detect a form of autism in a child's first year of life, years earlier than the disorder typically is identified, researchers have discovered.
The key to detecting Asperger's syndrome, a milder yet little-understood form of autism, lies in analyzing infants' movements rather than waiting for them to reveal the disorder through social behavior in school or later in adulthood, according to a husband-and-wife team at the University of Florida.
Unwanted, pulled or poisoned, the lowly weed is sometimes better than its highly touted ''herbal'' cousins for preventing and curing a host of diseases, according to University of Florida research. ''If I had one place to go to find medicinal plants, it wouldn't be the forest,'' said John Richard Stepp, a UF anthropologist who did the study. ''There are probably hundreds of weeds growing right outside people's doors they could use.''
Potatoes may be on the no-no list for high-protein diets, but a University of Florida researcher says a new low-carb potato will help win back die-hard carbohydrate counters. ''Consumers are going to love the flavor and appearance of this potato and the fact that it has 30 percent fewer carbohydrates compared to a standard Russet baking potato,'' said Chad Hutchinson, an assistant professor of horticulture with UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
Infantry soldiers suspicious that a truck or box may contain explosives or chemical weapons may soon be able to find out for sure by shooting the target with a sticky little projectile that can detect the danger and report it from afar. The crayon-sized sensor, which users fire from a standard paintball gun, was invented by a team of University of Florida undergraduate engineering students as part of a government- and corporate-supported engineering research and education program at UF. Lockheed Martin's Orlando-based Missiles and Fire Control, which sponsored the project, plans to refine the projectile and put it into production, and there is a chance it could be used in Iraq, Lockheed officials say.
Trilobites, the primitive shelled creatures considered by many to be among the first animals to appear in the fossil record, may have originated in a place known today largely for its barren lifelessness: Siberia. The finding is one of the conclusions of a two year study by geologists at the University of Florida and University of Kansas that is scheduled to appear next week in the online edition of the London Journal of the Geological Society.
The number of shark attacks worldwide took a dip for the third straight year, in part perhaps because more people are realizing the ocean is a wild place instead of a backyard swimming pool, a new study finds. "I think people are beginning to get a little more intelligent about when and where they enter the water," said George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File housed at the Florida Museum of Natural History. "There seems to be more of an understanding that when we enter the sea, it's a wilderness experience, and we're intruders in that environment."
It is well known that unborn babies can recognize their mothers' voices and distinguish music from noise. But exactly what they hear remains unclear.
Now, scientists at the University of Florida have added a piece to the puzzle. In a series of unique experiments on a pregnant ewe designed to record exactly what sounds reach the fetal ear, research has bolstered previous findings suggesting that human fetuses likely hear mostly low-frequency rather than high-frequency sounds. That means they hear vowels rather than consonants and are more sensitive to the melodic parts of speech than to pitch.
The next generation of smart weapons may "see" targets with a manmade version of that wonder of the natural world, the insect eye. Inspired by the panoramic and precise vision of flies and other insects, researchers at several universities and institutions are working on biologically-inspired "eyes" for smart weapons and other self-guided machines. At the University of Florida, the focus of the "bio-optics synthetic systems research," sponsored by the federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, is on adapting mechanisms called "photon sieves" for visual purposes.
