Researchers worldwide have access to promising and newly available medical isotopes to advance cancer treatment, thanks to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Both isotopes, thorium 227 and radium 223, emit alpha radiation, which holds promise to treat cancer that has spread from the main tumor. The high energy released by the alpha particles, with their short range and short half-life, can destroy (more…)

8/23/2010

New measurements of an old rock show that the solar system may be up to two million years older than scientists previously thought. The new birth date could resolve a major controversy among geochemists, and provides extra evidence (more…)

Scientific techniques are transforming the study of the past, and the analysis of isotopes is shedding new light on the origins of archaeological finds and human migration in prehistoric Britain. What are isotopes, and how do they help us understand long-vanished cultures? Sara Coelho explains. (more…)

Scientists are revolutionising our understanding of early human societies with a more precise way of dating cave art.

Instead of trying to date the paintings and engravings themselves, they are analysing carbonate deposits like stalactites and stalagmites that have formed over them.

This means they don’t risk harming irreplaceable art, (more…)

by Tamera Jones

Cave lions probably became extinct across Europe and Asia 14,000 years ago because a warmer climate drastically reduced the availability of their favourite hunting arenas, say scientists.

Around 1000 years later, the lion also went extinct in Alaska and the Yukon in north-west Canada.

The researchers say as the climate warmed around 14,700 years ago, forests and shrubs steadily replaced the open, steppe-like environment that had dominated for thousands of years, reducing the amount of clear space for the lion to hunt in. (more…)

by Tom Marshall

The cave bear went out not with a bang, but with a whimper. Its European population underwent 25,000 years of slow decline before finally going extinct around 24,000 years ago, according to recent genetic analysis.

Earlier theories suggested it died out more quickly, perhaps because of a sudden catastrophe like rapid environmental change or hunting by a fast-growing population of humans. (more…)

by Tamera Jones 

Entire communities of seabirds including albatrosses, storm petrels and shearwaters rely on bait and discards from fishing boats as their main source of food, report scientists.

The birds fly all the way from Antarctica, the Falkland Islands and South Georgia in the South Atlantic to the waters off the coast of south Brazil to feed on energy-rich shark livers thrown overboard by shark and tuna fishermen.

Although the smaller birds – like shearwaters and petrels – benefit from these fisheries, albatrosses are being harmed. (more…)

Abstract 

Each spring, millions of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) migrate from overwintering sites in Mexico to recolonize eastern North America. However, few monarchs are found along the east coast of the USA until mid-summer. Brower (Brower, L. P. 1996 J. Exp. Biol. 199, 93–103.) proposed that east coast recolonization is accomplished by individuals migrating from the west over the Appalachians, but to date no evidence exists to support this hypothesis. We used hydrogen (δD) and carbon (δ13C) stable isotope measurements to estimate natal origins of 90 monarchs sampled from 17 sites along the eastern United States coast. We found the majority of monarchs (88%) originated in the mid-west and Great Lakes regions, providing, to our knowledge, the first direct evidence that second generation monarchs born in June complete a (trans-) longitudinal migration across the Appalachian mountains. The remaining individuals (12%) originated from parents that migrated directly from the Gulf coast during early spring. Our results provide evidence of a west to east longitudinal migration and provide additional rationale for conserving east coast populations by identifying breeding sources.

Published in Biology Letters. For more information and the complete text, click here: http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/07/08/rsbl.2010.0525.full

Canada’s National Research Universal (NRU) reactor appears days away from coming back on-line – a move that should temporarily alleviate a shortage of medical isotopes that has plagued clinicians for more than a year. (more…)