ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• Ancient snakes living on Madagascar
• Promoting healing by keeping skeletal stem cells 'young'
• Microbial answer to plastic pollution?
• Flavonoids in orange juice suppress oxidative stress from high-fat, high-carb meal
• Molecular brake for the bacterial flagellar nano-motor
• New Paper Pinpoints a Seat of Self-Control in the Brain
• Jaw bone grown from adult stem cells
• Targeted agent blocked growth of deadly brain cancer in preclinical studies
• Secret to healing chronic wounds might lie in tiny pieces of silent RNA
• X-rays often inaccurate in the diagnosis of hip and pelvic fractures
• New 'smart' roof reads the thermometer, saves energy in hot and cold climates
• Motivation by anticipation: Expecting rapid feedback enhances performance
• Common house ants form supercolonies, prosper in urban settings
• Hormone replacement in joint fluid has potential regenerative effect
• Printable sensors for cell phones and other devices?
• Rare ATM gene mutations, plus radiation, may increase risk of a second breast cancer
• Ecosystems under threat from ocean acidification
• Misinformation about antibiotics can travel to large audience via Twitter
• Ancient fossil flea-like creature: Rare body parts find provides vital clues to identity
• Tuberculosis good and bad news: Blood pressure drug shows promise, but TB bacterium might be more resistant than thought
• Brain waves and meditation
• Conventional infection control measures found effective in reducing MRSA rates
• Computer scientists develop a comfortable and secure login method
• Better military technology does not lead to shorter wars, analysis reveals
• Large Hadron Collider: Beams colliding at record energies mark start of research program

Ancient snakes living on Madagascar Posted: 31 Mar 2010 08:00 AM PDT Blind snakes have been discovered to be one of the few species now living in Madagascar that existed there when it broke from India about 100 million years ago, according to a new study.

Promoting healing by keeping skeletal stem cells 'young' Posted: 31 Mar 2010 08:00 AM PDT Scientists seeking new ways to fight maladies ranging from arthritis and osteoporosis to broken bones that won't heal have cleared a formidable hurdle, pinpointing and controlling a key molecular player to keep stem cells in a sort of extended infancy. It's a step that makes treatment with the cells in the future more likely for patients.

Microbial answer to plastic pollution? Posted: 31 Mar 2010 08:00 AM PDT Fragments of plastic in the ocean are not just unsightly but potentially lethal to marine life. Coastal microbes may offer a smart solution to clean up plastic contamination, according new research.

Flavonoids in orange juice suppress oxidative stress from high-fat, high-carb meal Posted: 31 Mar 2010 08:00 AM PDT Eating foods containing flavonoids -- orange juice, in this case -- along with a high-fat, high-carbohydrate fast-food meal neutralizes the oxidative and inflammatory stress generated by the unhealthy food and helps prevent blood vessel damage, a new study by endocrinologists shows.

Molecular brake for the bacterial flagellar nano-motor Posted: 31 Mar 2010 08:00 AM PDT Researchers have now discovered that Escherichia coli bacteria harness a sophisticated chemosensory and signal transduction machinery that allows them to accurately control motor rotation, thereby adjusting their swimming velocity in response to changing environments. The research may foster the development of novel strategies to fight persistent infections.

New Paper Pinpoints a Seat of Self-Control in the Brain Posted: 31 Mar 2010 08:00 AM PDT The ability to delay gratification allows humans to accomplish such goals as saving for retirement, going to the gym regularly and choosing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In a new paper, a team of researchers for the first time causally shows that this ability is rooted in a part of the frontal lobe of the brain: the prefrontal cortex.

Jaw bone grown from adult stem cells Posted: 31 Mar 2010 05:00 AM PDT Scientists have succeeded in growing a complex, full-size bone from human adult stem cells. A research team grew a temporomandibular joint from stem cells derived from bone marrow.

Targeted agent blocked growth of deadly brain cancer in preclinical studies Posted: 31 Mar 2010 05:00 AM PDT A drug already in clinical trials to treat a variety of tumors shows a remarkable ability to shut down growth of glioblastoma in both laboratory cells and in animals, say researchers. In their experiments, the agent put a brake on growth of laboratory cancer cell lines, and no mice with glioblastoma in their brain died as a result of their tumor while on therapy.

Secret to healing chronic wounds might lie in tiny pieces of silent RNA Posted: 31 Mar 2010 05:00 AM PDT Scientists have determined that chronic wounds might have trouble healing because of the actions of a tiny piece of a molecular structure in cells known as RNA. The researchers discovered in a new animal study that this RNA segment in wounds with limited blood flow lowers the production of a protein that is needed to encourage skin cells to grow and close over the sore.

X-rays often inaccurate in the diagnosis of hip and pelvic fractures Posted: 31 Mar 2010 05:00 AM PDT Radiographs (standard X-rays) are often inconclusive in the detection of hip and pelvic fractures in the emergency department, according to a new study.

New 'smart' roof reads the thermometer, saves energy in hot and cold climates Posted: 31 Mar 2010 05:00 AM PDT Scientists report the development of a "smart" roof coating, made from waste cooking oil from fast food restaurants, that can "read" a thermometer.

Motivation by anticipation: Expecting rapid feedback enhances performance Posted: 31 Mar 2010 05:00 AM PDT The timing of expected feedback impacts individuals' performance: Students who were told they would receive feedback quickly on their presentations earned higher grades than students who expected feedback at a later time. Furthermore, when students expected to receive their grades quickly, they predicted that their performance would be worse than students who were to receive feedback later. This pattern suggests that anticipating rapid feedback may improve performance because the threat of disappointment is more prominent.

Common house ants form supercolonies, prosper in urban settings Posted: 31 Mar 2010 02:00 AM PDT One of the most common house ant species might have been built for living in a forest, but the ants have found ways to take advantage of the comforts of city living. A new study has found that odorous house ant colonies become larger and more complex as they move from forest to city, exploding into supercolonies with more than 6 million workers and 50,000 queens.

Hormone replacement in joint fluid has potential regenerative effect Posted: 31 Mar 2010 02:00 AM PDT German researchers determined that concentrations of the sex hormones, testosterone in men and estrogen in women, may have a positive effect on the regenerative potential of cartilage tissue. The study suggests hormone replacement in the joint fluid of men and women might be beneficial in treating late stages of human osteoarthritis by regenerating damaged tissue.

Printable sensors for cell phones and other devices? Posted: 31 Mar 2010 02:00 AM PDT The cellphone is switched off but immediately springs into action at the point of a finger. It is not necessary to touch the display. This touchless control is made possible by a polymer sensor affixed to the cellphone which, like human skin, reacts to the tiniest fluctuations in temperature and differences in pressure and recognizes the finger as it approaches. The scenario is fictitious at present but could become reality in a few years time.

Rare ATM gene mutations, plus radiation, may increase risk of a second breast cancer Posted: 31 Mar 2010 02:00 AM PDT Certain rare mutations in the ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) gene, combined with radiation exposure, may increase a woman's risk of developing a second cancer in the opposite breast, according to a new study.

Ecosystems under threat from ocean acidification Posted: 31 Mar 2010 02:00 AM PDT Acidification of the oceans as a result of increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide could have significant effects on marine ecosystems, according to new research.

Misinformation about antibiotics can travel to large audience via Twitter Posted: 31 Mar 2010 02:00 AM PDT Misunderstandings about proper use of antibiotics have the potential to spread widely through social networks such as Twitter, according to a new report. Researchers studied the health information content of Twitter updates mentioning antibiotics to determine how people are sharing information and assess the proliferation of misinformation.

Ancient fossil flea-like creature: Rare body parts find provides vital clues to identity Posted: 30 Mar 2010 11:00 PM PDT Researchers have uncovered an ancient water flea-like creature from 425 million years ago -- only the third of its kind ever to be discovered in ancient rocks.

Tuberculosis good and bad news: Blood pressure drug shows promise, but TB bacterium might be more resistant than thought Posted: 30 Mar 2010 11:00 PM PDT Two new tuberculosis studies provide good news and bad news about the bacterium that infects nearly a third of the world's population and a disease that kills nearly 2 million people each year. The good news: A type of blood pressure medication shows promise at overcoming some drug-resistant tuberculosis, at least in the laboratory. The bad news: The Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterium, which causes the disease, might be resistant to treatment in more people than previously thought.

Brain waves and meditation Posted: 30 Mar 2010 11:00 PM PDT We all know that meditation helps relax people, but what exactly happens in the brain during meditation? A new study suggests that nondirective meditation yields more marked changes in electrical brain wave activity associated with wakeful, relaxed attention than just resting without any specific mental technique.

Conventional infection control measures found effective in reducing MRSA rates Posted: 30 Mar 2010 11:00 PM PDT Scientists found that an emphasis on compliance with non-pathogen specific infection control practices such as hand hygiene, efforts to reduce device-related infections and chlorhexidine bathing (a daily bath with the same antibacterial agent used by surgeons to "scrub in" before an operation), is successful in reducing rates of health-care-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Computer scientists develop a comfortable and secure login method Posted: 30 Mar 2010 11:00 PM PDT Computer scientists in Germany have developed a new method that saves the users not only the trouble of memorizing the passwords and login names, but also of typing them. All of this is managed by the user's smartphone.

Better military technology does not lead to shorter wars, analysis reveals Posted: 30 Mar 2010 11:00 PM PDT It is generally assumed that military technology that is offensive rather than defensive in nature leads to shorter wars. Yet, new research from Sweden shows that this assumption is not correct.

Large Hadron Collider: Beams colliding at record energies mark start of research program Posted: 30 Mar 2010 08:00 PM PDT Beams collided at 7 trillion electron volts (7 TeV) in the Large Hadron Collider on March 30 at CERN, marking the start of the LHC research program. Particle physicists around the world are looking forward to a potentially rich harvest of new physics as the LHC begins its first long run at an energy three and a half times higher than previously achieved at a particle accelerator.

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