Mystical Beauty

Scientific analysis of limestone ossuaries (bone boxes) and physical evidence found in a 2,000-year-old tomb in Talpiot, Jerusalem, provide credible new information that the tomb once may have held the remains of Jesus of Nazareth and his family.

Expanding waistlines, unsightly bulges: people will gladly remove excess body fat to improve their looks. But unwanted fat also contains stem cells with the potential to repair defects and heal injuries in the body. A team led by Philippe Collas at the University of Oslo in Norway has identified certain chemical marks that allow him to predict which, among the hundreds of millions of stem cells in liposuctioned fat, are best at regenerating tissue.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University have developed an easier and faster method to detect disease biomarkers in liquid samples using highly porous, micron-sized, silica beads that contain optical and magnetic nanoparticles.

Continuing with more than a decade of research, doctors at the University of Minnesota have discovered a treatment to help patients with advanced cases of adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), a rare disorder affecting the nerves. The results are published in the late February issue of Bone Marrow Transplantation.

Scientists at Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory have discovered a new type of phase transition -- a change from one form to another -- in vanadium, a metal that is commonly added to steel to make it harder and more durable. Under extremely high pressures, pure vanadium crystals change their shape but do not take up less space as a result, unlike most other elements that undergo phase transitions.