Latest Ohio State University Stories

Students apply STEM skills at inaugural Launch Design Challenge. Columbus, OH (PRWEB) May 14, 2011 Wednesday afternoon 250 middle and high school students on 50 teams competed in the inaugural statewide Spring Fling Launch Design Challenge. Applying STEM skills learned in their classes, students competed using sling shots, catapults, trebuchets and other tools of their own design and construction on the Fort Hayes campus, Jack Gibbs Blvd. The PAST Foundation and Experience STEM are the...

In a rare and medically remarkable operation, a multi-disciplinary team of surgeons at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center "“ Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC "“ James) removed the left leg, hip and pelvis of a cancer patient, and used the healthy, living bones from his amputated leg to completely rebuild the connection between his spine and remaining right pelvis to support a high-tech prosthetic leg."This procedure itself...

Janies applies sequencing, supercomputing to correct erroneous classificationA team of scientists has combined embryological observations, genetic sequencing, and supercomputing to determine that a group of small disk-shaped animals that were once thought to represent a new class of animals are actually starfish that have lost the large star-shaped, adult body from their life cycle. In a paper for the journal Systematic Biology, Daniel Janies, Ph.D., a computational biologist in the...

How much scientific evidence is there for and against the assertion that exposure to video game violence can harm teens?Three researchers have developed a novel method to consider that question: they analyzed the research output of experts who filed a brief in a U.S. Supreme Court case involving violent video games and teens.Their conclusion? Experts who say violent video games are harmful to teens have published much more evidence supporting their claims than have experts on the other side...

COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) will host its annual meeting of shareholders Tuesday, April 26, in Columbus, Ohio, with remarks by Michael G. Morris, chairman and chief executive officer. Reporters interested in attending should contact Melissa McHenry, AEP Corporate Media Relations, 614-716-1120. For those unable to attend, a live webcast will be accessible at the URL listed below. WHAT: American Electric Power Annual Meeting...

OSU's Li disrupts cellular messages through fragment-based drug designAn Ohio State biophysicist used a supercomputer to search thousands of molecular combinations for the best configuration to block a protein that can cause breast or prostate cancer.Chenglong Li, Ph.D., an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy at The Ohio State University (OSU), is leveraging a powerful computer cluster at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) to develop a drug that will block the small...

Toddlers who do not have a secure emotional relationship with their parents, and particularly their mothers, could be at increased risk for obesity by age 4 ½, according to new research.The study suggests that children at age 24 months who show insecure attachment patterns have at least 30 percent higher odds for obesity by age 4 ½.The association persisted even after researchers accounted for other family-related factors that could provide alternative explanations for the children's...

Women's appreciation of their bodies is only indirectly connected to their body mass index (BMI), a common health measure of weight relative to height, according to recent research.The most powerful influence on women's appreciation of their bodies is how they believe important others view them, the study suggests. On the flip side, the more women are able to focus on the inner workings of their body "“ or how their bodies function and feel "“ rather than how they appear to others, the...

By Pam Frost Gorder, Ohio State UniversityEngineers at Ohio State University have invented a lens that enables microscopic objects to be seen from nine different angles at once to create a 3D image.Other 3D microscopes use multiple lenses or cameras that move around an object; the new lens is the first single, stationary lens to create microscopic 3D images by itself.Allen Yi, associate professor of integrated systems engineering at Ohio State, and postdoctoral researcher Lei Li described the...

A daily dose of safflower oil, a common cooking oil, for 16 weeks can improve such health measures as good cholesterol, blood sugar, insulin sensitivity and inflammation in obese postmenopausal women who have Type 2 diabetes, according to new research.This finding comes about 18 months after the same researchers discovered that safflower oil reduced abdominal fat and increased muscle tissue in this group of women after 16 weeks of daily supplementation.This combination of health measures that...