Flowchart of CancerLocator. Step 1: A set of solid tumor samples and healthy plasma samples collected from public databases and the literature are used to select the informative features (CpG clusters) that can differentiate tumor types or healthy plasma samples. Then the beta distributions of the methylation levels of these selected features for each tumor type or healthy plasma samples are learnt. Step 2: Given a plasma sample, the methylation profile of its cfDNAs is measured by whole-genome bisulfite sequencing, which is then used as input for cancer location prediction by CancerLocator

US Researchers have developed a computer program that can simultaneously detect cancer and identify where in the body the cancer is located, from a patient’s blood sample...

Brookhaven scientists identified how a zinc/copper (Zn/Cu) catalyst transforms carbon dioxide (two red and one grey balls) and hydrogen (two white balls) to methanol (one grey, one red, and four white balls), a potential fuel. Under reaction conditions, Zn/Cu transforms to ZnO/Cu, where the interface between the ZnO and Cu provides the active sites that allow the formation of methanol.

Results will guide design of improved catalysts for transforming pollutant to useful chemicals. Capturing CO2 and converting it to useful chemicals such as methanol could reduce both pollution and our dependence on petroleum products. So scientists are intensely interested in the catalysts that facilitate such chemical conversions...

In this study, astronomers used data from the Keck and Spitzer telescopes to trace the star forming and dusty regions of galaxies at about 10 billion years ago. The picture in the background shows the GOODS field, one of the five regions in the sky that was observed for this study. Credit: Mario De Leo-Winkler with images from the Spitzer Space Telescope, NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage team.

A molecule found in car engine exhaust fumes that is thought to have contributed to the origin of life on Earth has made astronomers heavily underestimate the amount of stars that were forming in the early Universe, a University of California, Riverside-led study has found. That molecule is called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH). On Earth it is also found in coal and tar...

Magetic field model/Magnetic anomaly. Credit: ESA

Satellites have been mapping the upper part of the Earth magnetic field by collecting data for 3 years and found some amazing features about the Earth’s crust. The result is the release of highest resolution map of this field seen from space to date. This ‘lithospheric magnetic field’ is very weak and therefore difficult to detect and map from space. But with the Swarm satellites it has been possible. “By combining Swarm measurements with historical data from the German CHAMP satellite, and using a new modelling technique, it was possible to extract the tiny magnetic signals of crustal magnetization with unprecedented accuracy,” said professor Nils Olsen from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

Most of the Earth magnetic field is gen...