ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• Runaway anti-matter production makes for a spectacular stellar explosion
• Eavesdropping on bacterial conversations may improve chronic wound healing
• Scientists target East Coast U.S. rocks for carbon dioxide storage
• Breast cancer screening should begin at age 40, new recommendations suggest
• Reducing some water flow rates may bring environmental gains
• Adding technology to geometry class improves opportunities to learn
• Smoking cessation may actually increase risk of developing type 2 diabetes
• New key factor identified in the development of Alzheimer's disease
• Can kitchen spoons be dangerous spoons? Too little or too much medicine, depending on spoon size
• Radiofrequency ablation safe and effective for reducing pain from bone metastases, study suggests
• Solar-powered irrigation significantly improves diet and income in rural sub-Saharan Africa
• More U.S. patients receive multiple psychotropic medications
• Obesity now poses as great a threat to quality of life as smoking
• Refusing chickenpox vaccine associated with increased risk of disease
• Winter, Nighttime Tornadoes Pose Greatest Risk, National Weather Service Warns
• Can Supplements Help People with Diabetes Avoid Retinopathy?
• Researchers identify scaffold regulating protein disposal
• Nurse home visitation program reduces girls' potential criminality later in life
• Scans Show Learning 'Sculpts' The Brain's Connections
• Exercise helps patients with peripheral artery disease
• Highway Barriers Stifle Sound, Sight, and Soot
• How precursors of gene-regulating small RNAs are sorted by cellular machinery
• Ecosystem, vegetation affect intensity of urban heat island effect
• Pain management failing as fears of prescription drug abuse rise
• New Evidence Of Culture In Wild Chimpanzees
• Discovery aims to correct cellular defects leading to diabetes
• Protection of organic products taken to next level
• Bardet-Biedl syndrome proteins shown to run an export business that protects cilia
• ALMA test sharpens vision of new observatory
• Overexposure to credit default swaps contributed to financial meltdown
• Five New Exoplanets Discovered By NASA's Kepler Space Telescope
• Scientists identify target that may inhibit HIV infectivity
• Licorice root: Trip to the candy store might help ward off rare, but deadly infections
• Angina In The Legs? Time To Alert Patients And Physicians
• Pandemic toolkit offers flu with a view
• Women's bodies and minds agree less than men's on what's sexy
• Massive black hole implicated in stellar destruction
• Vitamin C 'cures' mice with accelerated aging disease
• Finally, an excuse for pregnant women to eat bacon and eggs
• PSA value at 2 years post-treatment can predict long-term survival in prostate cancer patients
• Light-generating transistors to power labs on chips
• GDP is misleading measure of wealth, says top economist
• Spectacular Mars images reveal evidence of ancient lakes
• Experimental drug shows promise against brain, prostate cancers
• Roe of marine animals is best natural source of omega-3
• Chronic sinusitis patients experience improved quality of life after endoscopic sinus surgery
• Demonstration of pH-regulating protein
• Veterinarians lead way in disaster response for animals

Runaway anti-matter production makes for a spectacular stellar explosion Posted: 05 Jan 2010 08:00 AM PST Astronomers have discovered a distant star that exploded when its center became so hot that matter and anti-matter particle pairs were created.

Eavesdropping on bacterial conversations may improve chronic wound healing Posted: 05 Jan 2010 08:00 AM PST Listening in on bacterial conversations could be the solution for improving chronic wound care, say researchers.

Scientists target East Coast U.S. rocks for carbon dioxide storage Posted: 05 Jan 2010 08:00 AM PST Scientists say buried volcanic rocks along the heavily populated coasts of New York, New Jersey and New England, as well as further south, might be ideal reservoirs to lock away carbon dioxide emitted by power plants and other industrial sources. A new study outlines formations on land as well as offshore where the best potential sites may lie. Power plants might pipe emissions under the seabed. The idea is controversial because of fears that CO2 might leak.

Breast cancer screening should begin at age 40, new recommendations suggest Posted: 05 Jan 2010 08:00 AM PST The new recommendations from the Society of Breast Imaging and the American College of Radiology on breast cancer screening state that breast cancer screening should begin at age 40 and earlier in high-risk patients. The recommendations also suggest appropriate utilization of medical imaging modalities such as mammography, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasound for breast cancer screening.

Reducing some water flow rates may bring environmental gains Posted: 05 Jan 2010 08:00 AM PST Although conservationists have often concentrated on increasing water flow through ecosystems to bring about more natural conditions in altered landscapes, increasing flows can have unfavorable consequences in some situations, notably those where invasive species or pollution are problematic.

Adding technology to geometry class improves opportunities to learn Posted: 05 Jan 2010 08:00 AM PST A new study suggests the students who used dynamic geometry software were more successful in discovering new mathematical ideas than when they used static, paper-based diagrams.

Smoking cessation may actually increase risk of developing type 2 diabetes Posted: 05 Jan 2010 05:00 AM PST Cigarette smoking is a well-known risk factor for type 2 diabetes, but new research suggests that quitting the habit may actually raise diabetes risk in the short term.

New key factor identified in the development of Alzheimer's disease Posted: 05 Jan 2010 05:00 AM PST A small protein found in the gene- ß -amyloid precursor protein, APP, has been identified as a novel factor for the development of Alzheimer's disease related endosome abnormalities, which have also been tied previously to the loss of brain cells in Alzheimer's disease.

Can kitchen spoons be dangerous spoons? Too little or too much medicine, depending on spoon size Posted: 05 Jan 2010 05:00 AM PST A new study illustrates the dangers of using kitchen spoons to measure liquid medicine.

Radiofrequency ablation safe and effective for reducing pain from bone metastases, study suggests Posted: 05 Jan 2010 05:00 AM PST Image-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA), a minimally invasive cancer treatment which can be performed in the outpatient setting, significantly reduced the level of pain experienced by cancer patients with bone (osseous) metastases, limiting the need for strong narcotic pain management, and supporting improved patient frame of mind, according to new results.

Solar-powered irrigation significantly improves diet and income in rural sub-Saharan Africa Posted: 05 Jan 2010 05:00 AM PST Solar-powered drip irrigation systems significantly enhance household incomes and nutritional intake of villagers in arid sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new study.

More U.S. patients receive multiple psychotropic medications Posted: 05 Jan 2010 05:00 AM PST An increasing number of US adults are being prescribed combinations of antidepressants and antipsychotic medications, according to a new study.

Obesity now poses as great a threat to quality of life as smoking Posted: 05 Jan 2010 02:00 AM PST As the US population becomes increasingly obese while smoking rates continue to decline, obesity has become an equal, if not greater, contributor to the burden of disease and shortening of healthy life in comparison to smoking. In a new study, researchers calculate that the Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) lost due to obesity is now equal to, if not greater than, those lost due to smoking, both modifiable risk factors.

Refusing chickenpox vaccine associated with increased risk of disease Posted: 05 Jan 2010 02:00 AM PST Children whose parents refuse the varicella (chickenpox) vaccine appear more likely to develop the disease, according to a new study.

Winter, Nighttime Tornadoes Pose Greatest Risk, National Weather Service Warns Posted: 05 Jan 2010 02:00 AM PST Shrouded in darkness, nighttime tornadoes can be deadly, especially during the winter season when people are not accustomed to such severe weather. Given the dangers, forecasters with NOAA's National Weather Service are increasing efforts to alert people of a potential threat in their area before they go to sleep.

Can Supplements Help People with Diabetes Avoid Retinopathy? Posted: 05 Jan 2010 02:00 AM PST In theory, Vitamins C and E and magnesium could help prevent or limit diabetic retinopathy (DR), a potentially blinding disease, since each nutrient causes the body to respond in ways that alter retinopathy mechanisms.

Researchers identify scaffold regulating protein disposal Posted: 05 Jan 2010 02:00 AM PST How does a cell manage to identify and degrade the diverse types of defective proteins and thus protect the body against serious diseases? Researchers have found a crucial piece in this puzzle. In an enzyme complex that plays a critical role in the quality control of proteins, they discovered a scaffold regulating the identification and disposal of various defectively produced proteins.

Nurse home visitation program reduces girls' potential criminality later in life Posted: 05 Jan 2010 02:00 AM PST Girls whose mothers were visited at home by nurses during pregnancy and the children's infancy appear less likely to enter the criminal justice system by age 19, according to a new study.

Scans Show Learning 'Sculpts' The Brain's Connections Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:00 PM PST Spontaneous brain activity formerly thought to be "white noise" measurably changes after a person learns a new task, researchers have shown. Scientists also report that the degree of change reflects how well subjects have learned to perform the task.

Exercise helps patients with peripheral artery disease Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:00 PM PST Peripheral artery disease affects 5 million individuals in the US and is the leading cause of limb amputations. Doctors have long considered exercise to be the single best therapy for PAD, and now a new study helps explain why.

Highway Barriers Stifle Sound, Sight, and Soot Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:00 PM PST Highway barriers erected along roadways to block the sound and sight of traffic for the adjoining neighborhoods may also be reducing the amount of pollutants, such as soot from diesel exhaust, reaching area residents.

How precursors of gene-regulating small RNAs are sorted by cellular machinery Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:00 PM PST A team of scientists has determined a hierarchical set of criteria that explain how the molecular precursors of gene-regulating small RNAs are sorted by the cellular machinery.

Ecosystem, vegetation affect intensity of urban heat island effect Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:00 PM PST Researchers studying urban landscapes have found that the intensity of the "heat island" created by a city depends on the ecosystem it replaced and on the regional climate. Urban areas developed in arid and semi-arid regions show far less heating compared with the surrounding countryside than cities built amid forested and temperate climates.

Pain management failing as fears of prescription drug abuse rise Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:00 PM PST Millions of Americans with significant or chronic pain associated with their medical problems are being under-treated as physicians increasingly fail to provide comprehensive pain treatment -- either due to inadequate training, personal biases or fear of prescription drug abuse.

New Evidence Of Culture In Wild Chimpanzees Posted: 04 Jan 2010 08:00 PM PST A new study of chimpanzees living in the wild adds to evidence that our closest primate relatives have cultural differences, too. The study shows that neighboring chimpanzee populations in Uganda use different tools to solve a novel problem: extracting honey trapped within a fallen log.

Discovery aims to correct cellular defects leading to diabetes Posted: 04 Jan 2010 08:00 PM PST A recent discovery may change the perception and treatment of diabetes. That's because scientists have moved closer toward correcting the root cause of the disease rather than managing its symptoms. Specifically researchers identified a protein and its antioxidant product that both prevent the death and promote the growth of cells which produce and release insulin in the pancreas.

Protection of organic products taken to next level Posted: 04 Jan 2010 08:00 PM PST Ready-to-eat, organic processed pork products look similar to conventionally cured meats. The organic versions have become popular among consumers as processors work to meet the demand. Although the natural and organic processed meat products are manufactured to simulate traditionally cured meat products as closely as possible, they're not exactly alike.

Bardet-Biedl syndrome proteins shown to run an export business that protects cilia Posted: 04 Jan 2010 08:00 PM PST A protein complex mutated in human disease removes excess signaling molecules to prevent them from damaging cilia, say researchers.

ALMA test sharpens vision of new observatory Posted: 04 Jan 2010 08:00 PM PST The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array passed a key milestone crucial to producing the high-quality images that will be this revolutionary new observatory's trademark. A team of astronomers and engineers successfully linked three of the observatory's advanced antennas at the 16,500-foot-elevation observing site in northern Chile. Linking three antennas to work in unison for the first time allowed the ALMA team to correct errors that can arise when only two antennas are used, thus paving the way for precise, high-resolution imaging.

Overexposure to credit default swaps contributed to financial meltdown Posted: 04 Jan 2010 08:00 PM PST Overexposure to credit default swaps (CDS) -- a market-traded form of investment insurance -- are believed to have contributed to last year's financial meltdown. Trying to understand how CDS prices are determined, a team of researchers concludes that earnings have a major impact and in turn, CDS prices can seriously affect the economy. When earnings drop, CDS spreads rise.

Five New Exoplanets Discovered By NASA's Kepler Space Telescope Posted: 04 Jan 2010 05:00 PM PST NASA's Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars, has discovered its first five new exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system.

Scientists identify target that may inhibit HIV infectivity Posted: 04 Jan 2010 05:00 PM PST Scientists have discovered a new agent that might inhibit the infectivity of HIV. The agent, surfen, impairs the action of a factor in semen that greatly enhances the viral infection. Surfen might be used to supplement current HIV microbicides to greatly reduce HIV transmission during sexual contact.

Licorice root: Trip to the candy store might help ward off rare, but deadly infections Posted: 04 Jan 2010 05:00 PM PST As it turns out, children were not the only ones with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads over this past holiday season. In a new study, scientists show how a compound from licorice root might be an effective tool in battling life-threatening, antibiotic-resistant infections resulting from severe burns.

Angina In The Legs? Time To Alert Patients And Physicians Posted: 04 Jan 2010 05:00 PM PST Researchers recommend that people over age 40 be screened for peripheral artery disease (PAD), which puts people at high risk for serious medical complications including heart disease, stroke and possible lower limb amputation.

Pandemic toolkit offers flu with a view Posted: 04 Jan 2010 05:00 PM PST As communities brace for rising wintertime influenza cases, scientists are developing a mathematical and visual analytic toolkit to help health officials quickly analyze pandemics and craft better response strategies.

Women's bodies and minds agree less than men's on what's sexy Posted: 04 Jan 2010 05:00 PM PST Women's minds and genitals respond differently to sexual arousal, whereas in men, the responses of the body and mind are more in tune with each other, according to researchers.

Massive black hole implicated in stellar destruction Posted: 04 Jan 2010 02:00 PM PST New results from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Magellan telescopes suggest that a dense stellar remnant has been ripped apart by a black hole a thousand times as massive as the Sun. If confirmed, this discovery would be a cosmic double play: it would be strong evidence for an intermediate mass black hole, which has been a hotly debated topic, and would mark the first time such a black hole has been caught tearing a star apart.

Vitamin C 'cures' mice with accelerated aging disease Posted: 04 Jan 2010 02:00 PM PST New research suggests that treatments for disorders that cause accelerated aging, particularly Werner's syndrome, might come straight from the family medicine chest. In their study, a team of Canadian scientists shows that vitamin C stops and even reverses accelerated aging in a mouse model of Werner's syndrome, but the discovery may also be applicable to other progeroid syndromes.

Finally, an excuse for pregnant women to eat bacon and eggs Posted: 04 Jan 2010 02:00 PM PST If you're pregnant and looking for an excuse to eat bacon and eggs, now you've got one: new research shows that choline plays a critical role in helping fetal brains develop regions associated with memory. Choline is found in meats, including pork, as well as chicken eggs.

PSA value at 2 years post-treatment can predict long-term survival in prostate cancer patients Posted: 04 Jan 2010 02:00 PM PST Prostate cancer patients who have a prostate-specific antigen value of less than or equal to 1.5 at two years after external beam radiation therapy are less likely to have a cancer recurrence and cancer-related death, according to a new study.

Light-generating transistors to power labs on chips Posted: 04 Jan 2010 02:00 PM PST What started out as 'blue-sky' thinking by a group of researchers could ultimately lead to the commercial mass production of a new generation of optoelectronic components for devices ranging from mobile laboratories to mobile phones.

GDP is misleading measure of wealth, says top economist Posted: 04 Jan 2010 02:00 PM PST The most commonly used measure of overall economic output is misleading and inaccurate, according to one of the world's leading economists, who says Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ignores the value of natural ecosystems -- an essential component of wealth. Aquifers, ocean fisheries, tropical forests, estuaries and the atmosphere, should but are not used to estimate nations' wealth, he argues.

Spectacular Mars images reveal evidence of ancient lakes Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:00 AM PST Spectacular satellite images suggest that Mars was warm enough to sustain lakes three billion years ago, a period that was previously thought to be too cold and arid to sustain water on the surface, according to new research.

Experimental drug shows promise against brain, prostate cancers Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:00 AM PST An experimental drug currently being tested against breast and lung cancer shows promise in fighting the brain cancer glioblastoma and prostate cancer, researchers have found in two preclinical studies.

Roe of marine animals is best natural source of omega-3 Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:00 AM PST The roe of hake, lumpsucker and salmon is the best dietary source of omega-3, according to a new study. The scientists analyzed the eggs, or roe, of 15 marine animals, and found all of these contained high levels of these fatty acids, which are essential to the human body.

Chronic sinusitis patients experience improved quality of life after endoscopic sinus surgery Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:00 AM PST Upwards of 76 percent of patients with chronic rhinosinusitis experienced significant quality of life improvements after undergoing endoscopic sinus surgery, according to new research.

Demonstration of pH-regulating protein Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:00 AM PST Researchers have identified the protein mechanism that senses bicarbonate fluctuations and adjusts blood pH levels. Scientists have now achieved the first demonstration of the process in a whole animal. The researchers found that the protein adenylyl cyclase sensed and then regulated the pH blood levels in a dogfish shark following feeding.

Veterinarians lead way in disaster response for animals Posted: 04 Jan 2010 11:00 AM PST Most people can picture the first responders who come to the rescue in the wake of a natural disaster. But who provides emergency help for the dogs, cats and horses that people love? Veterinarians are helping to fill the need through a unique initiative that requires all of its students to receive disaster training, providing a new generation of leaders in veterinary medicine and disaster response.

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