Latest Ohio State University Stories

Twenty minutes per day of guided workplace meditation and yoga combined with six weekly group sessions can lower feelings of stress by more than 10 percent and improve sleep quality in sedentary office employees, a pilot study suggests.The study offered participants a modified version of what is known as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a program established in 1979 to help hospital patients in Massachusetts assist in their own healing that is now in wide use around the world.In...

When the legendary science fiction writer Isaac Asimov penned the "Three Laws of Responsible Robotics," he forever changed the way humans think about artificial intelligence, and inspired generations of engineers to take up robotics.In the current issue of journal IEEE Intelligent Systems, two engineers propose alternative laws to rewrite our future with robots.The future they foresee is at once safer, and more realistic."When you think about it, our cultural view of robots has...

CINCINNATI, July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. today announced the successful treatment of the first patient of its IDE feasibility trial. The case, which was performed at The Ohio State University Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery, marks the first natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) procedure involving the company's investigational devices. NOTES is a surgical method in which external incisions are eliminated, potentially leading to reduced pain, a...

Ohio State University researchers have developed a new method for making extremely pure, very small metal-oxide nanoparticles.They are using this simple, fast, and low-temperature process to make materials for gas sensors that detect toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) and biological warfare agents.The researchers described their work in a recent issue of the journal Materials Chemistry and Physics.Patricia Morris, associate professor of materials science and engineering at Ohio State, leads a...

A study comparing how two common dietary oil supplements affect body composition suggests that both oils, by themselves, can lower body fat in obese postmenopausal women with Type 2 diabetes.The two oils compared were safflower oil, a common cooking oil, and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a compound naturally found in some meat and dairy products that has been associated with weight loss in previous studies. Both are composed primarily of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are considered...

EAST HARTFORD, Conn., June 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Pratt & Whitney has established a strategic university partnership with The Ohio State University focused on world-class engineering research in the field of power transmission and gear technology for aviation engines. Pratt & Whitney is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) company. Pratt & Whitney will work with the university on fundamental and applied research initiatives that support the design and development of...

Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute, the University of California, San Diego, and Ohio State University have used a very sensitive fluorescence technique to find that a bacterial protein thought to exist in one "natural" three-dimensional structure (shape), can actually twist itself into a second form, depending on the protein's chemical environment. One folded form is active and the other is inactive, but the protein can easily morph from one state to another.The...

Two abrupt and drastic climate events, 700 years apart and more than 45 centuries ago, are teasing  scientists who are now trying to use ancient records to predict future world climate.The events "“ one, a massive, long-lived drought believed to have dried large portions of Africa and Asia, and the other, a rapid cooling that accelerated the growth of tropical glaciers "“ left signals in ice cores and other geologic records from around the world.Lonnie Thompson, University...

Ohio State University cancer researchers have used computational and genomic methods to identify possible anti-cancer agents that may block a particular kind of tumor behavior. The agents target multiple genes associated with that behavior at one time.The researchers wanted to find agents that might reverse the gene changes associated with invasive liver cancer and perhaps stop liver tumors from spreading in the body. Such therapy could greatly improve patient survival, the researchers...

Nasty, politicized Supreme Court nomination battles may erode public support of the high Court, according to a study of public reactions to the Samuel Alito nomination process.In a new book, researchers reveal how television advertisements that opposed Alito's nomination in 2005 had a disturbing side effect: Many people who viewed those highly political ads become less supportive of the Supreme Court as an institution.The reason seems to be that, in the minds of many viewers, the ads reduced...