ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

Quantum Cat’s 'Whiskers' Offer Advanced Sensors Posted: 24 Apr 2009 11:00 AM PDT Scientists have turned one of the key problems with quantum entangled systems -- that they are easily 'disturbed' by their environment -- into an advantage which promises quantum sensors that are fundamentally more sensitive than their conventional counterparts.

Gene That Switches On During Development Of Epilepsy Discovered Posted: 24 Apr 2009 11:00 AM PDT A new discovery made while studying mice may help explain how some people without a genetic predisposition to epilepsy can develop the disorder.

Self-healing Concrete For Safer, More Durable Infrastructure Posted: 24 Apr 2009 11:00 AM PDT A newly developed concrete material can heal itself when it cracks. No human intervention is necessary -- just water and carbon dioxide.

Grapefruit Juice Boosts Drug's Anti-cancer Effects, Study Suggests Posted: 24 Apr 2009 11:00 AM PDT Results from a small, early clinical trial show that combining grapefruit juice with the drug rapamycin can be effective in treating various types of cancer. The grapefruit juice increases drug levels, allowing lower doses of the drug to be given.

Robot-assisted Surgery Appears Useful For Removal Of Some Head And Neck Tumors Posted: 24 Apr 2009 11:00 AM PDT Robot-assisted surgery appears feasible for treatment of selected head and neck cancers, according to a new article.

SPEEDY Babies; A New Behavioral Syndrome Posted: 24 Apr 2009 11:00 AM PDT SPEEDY babies are active and agile movers with speech disorders and tongue dysfunction. Researchers have studied and described these children, and observed a recurrent pattern in their behavioral phenotype.

Animals That Seem Identical May Be Completely Different Species Posted: 24 Apr 2009 08:00 AM PDT Animals that seem identical may belong to completely different species. This is the conclusion of researchers in Sweden who have used DNA analyses to discover that one of our most common segmented worms is actually two types of worm. The result is one of many suggesting that the variety of species on Earth could be considerably larger than we thought.

First Evidence For DNA-based Vaccination Against Chronic Hepatitis C Posted: 24 Apr 2009 08:00 AM PDT The first-proof-of-concept for a DNA-based therapeutic vaccination against chronic hepatitis C has been developed. Researchers hope that this will encourage further clinical development. The data also provide further evidence for the antiviral role of the HCV-specific T cell response.

Salmonella Strain's Path To Virulence Uncovered Posted: 24 Apr 2009 08:00 AM PDT Scientists have uncovered genetic evidence about the evolutionary path that transformed Salmonella enteritidis from an innocuous bacterium into a virulent pathogen.

Radiation Exposure Associated With More Aggressive Thyroid Cancer, Worse Outcomes Posted: 24 Apr 2009 08:00 AM PDT Patients with thyroid cancer who have previously been exposed to radiation -- for example, in the workplace, through environmental exposure or for treatment of acne or another condition -- appear to have more aggressive disease and tend to have worse outcomes in the long term, according to a new article.

Light Scattering Technology May Hold Promise For Quickly Determining Chemotherapy's Effectiveness Posted: 24 Apr 2009 08:00 AM PDT By examining the patterns in which light bounces off cell surfaces, researchers may be able to assess chemotherapy's success in inducing cancer cell death, according to a new study.

Treating Addiction By Eliminating Drug-associated Memories Posted: 24 Apr 2009 08:00 AM PDT Addicts, even those who have been abstinent for long periods of time, are often still vulnerable to their own memories of prior drug use. For example, exposure to the same environment in which they commonly used drugs -- a contextual memory -- can increase their craving for the drug dramatically and can lead to relapse.

Astronomers Discover Youngest And Lowest Mass Dwarfs In Solar Neighborhood Posted: 24 Apr 2009 05:00 AM PDT Astronomers have found three brown dwarfs with estimated masses of less than 10 times that of Jupiter, making them among the youngest and lowest mass sub-stellar objects detected in the solar neighbourhood to date.

Vitamin D Levels Linked To Asthma Severity Posted: 24 Apr 2009 05:00 AM PDT New research provides evidence for a link between vitamin D insufficiency and asthma severity. Serum levels of vitamin D in more than 600 Costa Rican children were inversely linked to several indicators of allergy and asthma severity, including hospitalizations for asthma, use of inhaled steroids and total IgE levels, according to a new study.

Spectacular Recovery From Coral Bleaching At Great Barrier Reef Marine Park In Australia Posted: 24 Apr 2009 05:00 AM PDT Marine scientists are astonished at the spectacular recovery of certain coral reefs in Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park from a devastating coral bleaching event in 2006 when high sea temperatures caused massive and severe coral bleaching in the Keppel Islands. Damaged reefs were quickly smothered by a single species of seaweed -- an event that can spell the total loss of the corals. The rapid recovery is due to an exceptional combination of previously-underestimated ecological mechanisms.

Muscle Deterioration In Patients With Lung Disease Seen Connected To Heightened Carbon Dioxide Levels In The Blood Posted: 24 Apr 2009 05:00 AM PDT Muscle deterioration in patients with lung diseases might be a direct consequence of high carbon dioxide levels in their blood, scientists have found.

New 167-processor Chip Is Super-fast, Ultra Energy-efficient Posted: 24 Apr 2009 05:00 AM PDT A new, extremely energy-efficient processor chip provides breakthrough speeds for a variety of computing tasks. The chip, dubbed AsAP, is ultra-small, fully reprogrammable and highly configurable, so it can be widely adapted to a number of applications.

Evidence Mounts That Short Or Poor Sleep Can Lead To Increased Eating And Risk Of Diabetes Posted: 24 Apr 2009 05:00 AM PDT Laboratory and epidemiological studies continue to show that sleep curtailment and/or decreased sleep quality can disturb neuroendocrine control of appetite, leading to overeating, and can decrease insulin and/or increase insulin resistance, both steps on the road to Type 2 diabetes.

Mystery Of Horse Domestication Solved? Posted: 24 Apr 2009 02:00 AM PDT Wild horses were domesticated in the Ponto-Caspian steppe region (today Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Romania) in the 3rd millennium B.C. Despite the pivotal role horses have played in the history of human societies, the process of their domestication is not well understood. In a new study, scientists have unraveled the mystery of the domestication of the horse.

Liver Disease Responsible For Most Alcohol-related Illness And Deaths Posted: 24 Apr 2009 02:00 AM PDT Liver disease is the most prevalent cause of alcohol-related deaths, followed by car accidents and cancer, according to new research.

Analyzing Caffeine In Selected Dietary Supplements Posted: 24 Apr 2009 02:00 AM PDT About half of adults in the United States report consuming dietary supplements regularly. What they may not know is that some of these supplements contain caffeine, even if it's not listed on the label. Now, scientists have analyzed a number of caffeine-containing products to explore caffeine levels in segments of the U.S. dietary supplement market.

Naturally Occurring Compounds Selectively Deplete Mutant P53 In Tumor Cells Posted: 24 Apr 2009 02:00 AM PDT Researchers have demonstrated that naturally-occurring compounds can selectively deplete mutant p53 and restore "wild type" function to p53 in a variety of tumor cells.

Soft Hardware For A Flexible Chip Posted: 24 Apr 2009 02:00 AM PDT Technology is struggling to meet demands for high-performance, specialised computing systems. A European consortium is responding with a new kind of reconfigurable chip that is both efficient and flexible.

If Not For The Holocaust, There Could Have Been 32 Million Jews In The World Today, Expert Says Posted: 24 Apr 2009 02:00 AM PDT If it were not for the Holocaust, the number of Jews in the world would likely today be at least 26 million, and perhaps even as much as 32 million, says Prof. Sergio DellaPergola of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Chandra Shows Shocking Impact Of Galaxy Jet From Supermassive Black Hole Posted: 23 Apr 2009 11:00 PM PDT A survey by the Chandra X-ray observatory has revealed in detail, for the first time, the effects of a shock wave blasted through a galaxy by powerful jets of plasma emanating from a supermassive black hole at the galactic core. The observations of Centaurus A, the nearest galaxy that contains these jets, have enabled astronomers to revise dramatically their picture of how jets affect the galaxies in which they live.

Cholesterol Appears To Promote Tamoxifen Resistance In Some Breast Cancer Cells Posted: 23 Apr 2009 11:00 PM PDT Breast cancer cells in the laboratory that don't respond to tamoxifen may be producing high amounts of cholesterol in order to provide a kind of shield against the drug, say researchers.

Clouds: Lighter Than Air But Laden With Lead Posted: 23 Apr 2009 11:00 PM PDT Researchers have shown for the first time a direct relation between lead in the sky and the formation of ice crystals that foster clouds. The results suggest that lead generated by human activities causes clouds to form at warmer temperatures and with less water. Not only could this alter precipitation but, under some conditions, these clouds let more of the earth's heat waft back into space, cooling the world slightly.

Targeted Agent Shows Promise In Biliary Cancer Study Posted: 23 Apr 2009 11:00 PM PDT An experimental agent has shown promising results in people with advanced biliary cancer, according new research. The agent, known as AZD6244, blocks enzymes cancer cells need to proliferate and survive.

Using Combinatorial Libraries To Engineer Genetic Circuits Advances Synthetic Biology Posted: 23 Apr 2009 11:00 PM PDT The process of selecting and blending genes to create artificial networks -- synthetic biology -- holds promise for many applications. But developing artificial networks takes time and is often frustrating. A research team has found a way to speed up the construction process by assembling a library of 20 versions of two gene promoters and a simple synthesis technique to create component libraries for synthetic library. This accessible method using combinatorial libraries removes the "tweaking" of gene network engineering.

More African-Americans Die From Causes That Can Be Prevented Or Treated Posted: 23 Apr 2009 11:00 PM PDT Two-thirds of the difference between death rates among African Americans and Caucasians are now due to causes that could be prevented or cured, according to a new study. Researchers found that death from preventable or treatable conditions represented half of all deaths for individuals under age 65 and accounted for nearly 70 percent of the black-white mortality difference.

Plants Absorb More Carbon Dioxide Under Polluted Hazy Skies Posted: 23 Apr 2009 08:00 PM PDT Plants absorbed carbon dioxide more efficiently under the polluted skies of recent decades than they would have done in a cleaner atmosphere, according to new findings.

Humanin Peptide May Be New Drug Target For Diabetes, Alzheimer's Disease Posted: 23 Apr 2009 08:00 PM PDT Recent studies have shown that the mitochondrial peptide Humanin (HN) protects against neuronal cell death such as happens in Alzheimer's disease. Researchers report that a small infusion of HN is a potent regulator of insulin metabolism, significantly improving overall insulin sensitivity and sharply decreasing the glucose levels of diabetic rats.

Afghanistan Declares Its First National Park Posted: 23 Apr 2009 08:00 PM PDT The United States Agency for International Development and the Wildlife Conservation Society applauded Afghanistan's National Environment Protection Agency, which has announced the establishment of the country's first internationally recognized national park.

New Insight Into Rett Syndrome Severity Posted: 23 Apr 2009 08:00 PM PDT Scientists have identified a genetic variation that influences the severity of symptoms in Rett syndrome.

Method For Verifying Safety Of Computer-controlled Devices Developed Posted: 23 Apr 2009 08:00 PM PDT Researchers have developed a new method for systematically identifying bugs in aircraft collision avoidance systems, high-speed train controls and other complex, computer-controlled devices, collectively known as cyber-physical systems.

Why You May Lose That Loving Feeling After Tying The Knot Posted: 23 Apr 2009 08:00 PM PDT Dating couples whose dreams include marriage would do well to step back and reflect upon the type of support they'll need from their partners when they cross the threshold, a new study suggests. Whether the partner who supports your hopes and aspirations while you are dating also can help you fulfill important responsibilities and obligations that come with marriage could make a difference in how satisfied you are after tying the knot.

Did 'Dark Gulping' Generate Black Holes In Early Universe? Posted: 23 Apr 2009 05:00 PM PDT A process called 'dark gulping' may solve the mystery of the how supermassive black holes were able to form when the Universe was less than a billion years old.

Inherited Impulsivity Predicts Alcoholism, Study Reports Posted: 23 Apr 2009 05:00 PM PDT Solving the age-old chicken and the egg dilemma, researchers report that genetic predisposition to impulsivity is a trait predictive of alcoholism. Selective breeding of mice allowed researchers to focus on whether changing genes changes behavior.

Origins Of Maya Blue In Mexico Posted: 23 Apr 2009 05:00 PM PDT The ancient Maya civilization used a rare type of clay called "palygorskite" to produce Maya blue. Combining structural, morphological and geochemical methods, researchers have defined the features of palygorskite clay on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. These findings will make it possible to ascertain the origin of the materials used to produce this pigment, which survives both time and chemical and environmental elements.

Genetic Variants Predict Recurrence Of Bladder Cancer, Patient Survival Posted: 23 Apr 2009 05:00 PM PDT Scientists have discovered genetic variations in the inflammation pathway that reduce the likelihood of recurrence and increase survival of patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer who are treated with mainstream therapy.

Double-action Power Stations: Energy And Hydrogen Posted: 23 Apr 2009 05:00 PM PDT Gas power plants could be cheaply retrofitted to generate hydrogen as well as power, chemists say. A catalyst would convert methane into hydrogen gas and combustible coke, allowing the power station to produce hydrogen alongside electricity.

A Warm TV Can Drive Away Feelings Of Loneliness And Rejection Posted: 23 Apr 2009 05:00 PM PDT Not all technology meets human needs, and some technologies provide only the illusion of having met your needs. But new research by psychologists indicates that illusionary relationships with the characters and personalities on favorite TV shows can provide people with feelings of belonging, even in the face of low self esteem or after being rejected by friends or family members.

Major Breakthrough In Generating Safer, Therapeutic Stem Cells From Adult Cells Posted: 23 Apr 2009 02:00 PM PDT Researchers have achieved a breakthrough in converting adult cells all the way back to the most primitive embryonic-like cells without using the dangerous genetic manipulations associated with previous methods.

'Pillars Of Creation' -- Giant Star-forming Structure -- Formed In The Shadows Posted: 23 Apr 2009 02:00 PM PDT Research by astronomers suggests that shadows hold the key to how giant star-forming structures like the famous "Pillars of Creation" take shape.

Pain Relievers Appear Ineffective In Preventing Alzheimer's In The Very Elderly Posted: 23 Apr 2009 02:00 PM PDT A new study shows that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as the pain relievers ibuprofen and naproxen, do not prevent Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia. In addition, the risk of developing dementia in the study's very elderly population (most were over age 83 when they developed dementia) was 66 percent higher among heavy NSAID users than among people who used little or no NSAIDs.

Agent Orange Exposure Increases Veterans' Risk Of Aggressive Recurrence Of Prostate Cancer Posted: 23 Apr 2009 02:00 PM PDT Veterans exposed to Agent Orange are at increased risk of aggressive recurrence of prostate cancer, researchers report.

First Noninvasive Technique To Accurately Predict Mutations In Human Brain Tumors Posted: 23 Apr 2009 02:00 PM PDT Neurosurgery professors were able to accurately predict the specific genetic mutation that caused brain cancer in a group of patients studied using magnetic resonance imaging.

New Guidelines For Organization-wide Password Management Posted: 23 Apr 2009 02:00 PM PDT When an employee has so many complex passwords to remember that he keeps them on a sticky note attached to his computer screen, that could be a sign that your organization needs a wiser policy for passwords, one that balances risk and complexity. New guidelines for institution-wide password management issued by NIST could help.

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