ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• World's oldest leather shoe found in Armenia
• New evidence that drinking coffee may reduce the risk of diabetes
• Oil from Gulf spill could have powered 38,000 cars (and more) for a year, researcher says
• Shortcut through eyelid gives surgeons less-invasive approach to fix brain fluid leaks
• A cooler Pacific may have severely affected medieval Europe, North America
• Personality predicts political preferences
• Crocodile and hippopotamus served as 'brain food' for early human ancestors
• Mechanism links abnormal blood clots with Alzheimer's disease
• Two brain circuits involved with habitual learning
• Long sleep duration linked to an increased risk of metabolic syndrome in older adults
• Protecting privacy: Make the data 'fade away' like footsteps in the sand
• Sleep colors your view of the world: Study suggests sleep may restore color perception
• World's largest DNA scan reveals rare variants that disrupt gene activity in autistic children
• Drug that restricts blood supply to prostate tumors delays disease progression
• Tracking coral larvae to understand Hawai'i reef health
• Reducing the toxicity of lithium
• New software to measure emotional reactions to Web
• Sleep may help you become a 'Guitar Hero'
• Genetic 'parts' list now available for hypothalamus -- key part of the mammalian brain
• Protein could heal erectile dysfunction after cancer surgery
• Allowing body checking in youth hockey may increase risk of injury, including severe concussions
• In India, one in 25 people have gene that causes heart failure
• Molecular imaging prototype looks deep into soft tissues of the brain and other organs
• Poor health? Easier for some to blame bad genes than change lifestyle
• Individual brain cells can ID objects as dissimilar as cars and dogs
• Mutation causes intense pain
• Subsurface oil from Deepwater Horizon spill in Gulf of Mexico, say researchers
• Stem cells for first time used to create abnormal heart cells for study of cardiomyopathy
• Walls falling faster for solid-state memory
• Do creative work activities create stress?
• Dolphins use diplomacy in their communication, biologists find
• Short people are more likely to develop heart disease than tall people, review finds
• TRAPPIST telescope to scout the sky and uncover exoplanets and comets
• Early consumption of soda indicator of unhealthy diet, study finds
• Understanding the mechanisms of liver regeneration through computer simulation
• Gestational age at delivery has relationship with the risk of special educational needs, study finds

World's oldest leather shoe found in Armenia Posted: 10 Jun 2010 08:00 AM PDT A perfectly preserved shoe -- 1,000 years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt and 400 years older than Stonehenge in the UK -- has been discovered in a cave in Armenia by an international team of archaeologists.

New evidence that drinking coffee may reduce the risk of diabetes Posted: 10 Jun 2010 08:00 AM PDT Scientists are reporting new evidence that drinking coffee may help prevent diabetes and that caffeine may be the ingredient largely responsible for this effect.

Oil from Gulf spill could have powered 38,000 cars (and more) for a year, researcher says Posted: 10 Jun 2010 08:00 AM PDT As of June 9, 2010, if all the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico had been used for fuel, it could have powered 38,000 cars, and 3,400 trucks, and 1,800 ships for a full year, according to a researcher who has launched a website that reports the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in terms of lost uses of the lost fuel on a daily basis.

Shortcut through eyelid gives surgeons less-invasive approach to fix brain fluid leaks Posted: 10 Jun 2010 08:00 AM PDT Surgeons have safely and effectively operated inside the brains of a dozen patients by making a small entry incision through the natural creases of an eyelid to reach the skull and deep brain.

A cooler Pacific may have severely affected medieval Europe, North America Posted: 10 Jun 2010 08:00 AM PDT A new study has found a connection between La Nina-like sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific and droughts in western Europe and in what later became the southwestern United States and Mexico.

Personality predicts political preferences Posted: 10 Jun 2010 08:00 AM PDT There is a strong relationship between a voter's politics and his personality, according to new research.

Crocodile and hippopotamus served as 'brain food' for early human ancestors Posted: 10 Jun 2010 05:00 AM PDT Fish really is "brain food." And it seems that even pre-humans living as far back as 2 million years ago somehow knew it.

Mechanism links abnormal blood clots with Alzheimer's disease Posted: 10 Jun 2010 05:00 AM PDT New research suggests that abnormalities in the process of blood clot formation may contribute to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. The study advances our understanding of the link between vascular pathology and AD and proposes a new therapeutic strategy aimed at slowing cognitive decline.

Two brain circuits involved with habitual learning Posted: 10 Jun 2010 05:00 AM PDT Driving to and from work is a habit for most commuters -- we do it without really thinking. But before our commutes became routine, we had to learn our way through trial-and-error exploration. A new study has found that there are two brain circuits involved with this kind of learning and that the patterns of activity in these circuits evolve as our behaviors become more habitual.

Long sleep duration linked to an increased risk of metabolic syndrome in older adults Posted: 10 Jun 2010 05:00 AM PDT Participants reporting a daily sleep duration of eight hours or more including naps were 15 percent more likely to have metabolic syndrome. This relationship remained unchanged after full adjustment for potential confounders. Participants who reported a short sleep duration of less than six hours initially were 14 percent more likely to have metabolic syndrome; this association disappeared after controlling for potential confounders. Participants were 29,310 people 50 years of age or older in Guangzhou, China.

Protecting privacy: Make the data 'fade away' like footsteps in the sand Posted: 10 Jun 2010 05:00 AM PDT However well we protect our data, sooner or later we run the risk of information we want to keep private ending up in the public domain. So how can we see information fade away over time? If we could let details gradually disappear from view this would drastically reduce privacy-related problems while ensuring that the information still retains its usefulness to some extent.

Sleep colors your view of the world: Study suggests sleep may restore color perception Posted: 10 Jun 2010 05:00 AM PDT Prior wakefulness caused the color gray to be classified as having a slightly but significantly greenish tint. Overnight sleep restored perception to achromatic equilibrium so that gray was perceived as gray. The study involved five people who viewed a full-field, homogenous stimulus of either slightly reddish or greenish hue. The observers had to judge whether the stimulus was greener or redder than their internal perception of neutral gray.

World's largest DNA scan reveals rare variants that disrupt gene activity in autistic children Posted: 10 Jun 2010 02:00 AM PDT The largest DNA scan for familial autism found rare genetic changes occurring nearly 20 percent more in autistic children than healthy children. Not always found in autistic children's parents, these variants suggest that tiny genetic errors occur during formation of the parents' eggs and sperm, which are copied during creation of the child's DNA. The findings may reveal clues to where genes go awry and increase autism risk, offering hope for common treatments.

Drug that restricts blood supply to prostate tumors delays disease progression Posted: 10 Jun 2010 02:00 AM PDT A blood vessel-blocking drug called tasquinimod slowed the rate of disease progression in a clinical trial of 200 prostate cancer patients, according to researchers.

Tracking coral larvae to understand Hawai'i reef health Posted: 10 Jun 2010 02:00 AM PDT Scientists will use satellite-tracked drifters to track the coral larvae's dispersal along O'ahu's south shore in an effort to better understand why certain reefs in Maunalua Bay are doing well and others are doing poorly.

Reducing the toxicity of lithium Posted: 10 Jun 2010 02:00 AM PDT Lithium is the most effective treatment for bipolar disorder. However, its use is limited because of neurological side effects and a risk for overdose-induced toxicity. Researchers have now delineated a molecular pathway by which chronic administration of therapeutic doses of lithium has negative effects in mice and hope that these data might provide new ideas for combination therapies that diminish the toxicities of lithium.

New software to measure emotional reactions to Web Posted: 10 Jun 2010 02:00 AM PDT A group of Canadian scientists is developing software that can actually measure emotional responses to the Web.

Sleep may help you become a 'Guitar Hero' Posted: 10 Jun 2010 02:00 AM PDT The improvement in performance accuracy on "Guitar Hero III" was greater after a night of sleep than after a similar length of daytime wakefulness. At acquisition participants played about 61 percent of the notes correctly. Performance accuracy improved to 63 percent in the wake condition and 68 percent in the sleep condition. The study involved 15 college students -- 13 women and two men -- with a mean age of 20 years.

Genetic 'parts' list now available for hypothalamus -- key part of the mammalian brain Posted: 09 Jun 2010 11:00 PM PDT Researchers in the U.S. and Japan have generated the first comprehensive genetic "parts" list of a mouse hypothalamus, an enigmatic region of the brain -- roughly cherry-sized, in humans -- that controls hunger, thirst, fatigue, body temperature, wake-sleep cycles and links the central nervous system to control of hormone levels.

Protein could heal erectile dysfunction after cancer surgery Posted: 09 Jun 2010 11:00 PM PDT After men have surgery to remove a cancerous prostate gland, up to 80 percent of them will lose the ability to have an erection because of damage to a critical nerve that runs along the prostate. New research shows the damaged nerve can be regenerated more quickly with a protein called sonic hedgehog delivered via a nanofiber gel. The finding may help preserve erectile function.

Allowing body checking in youth hockey may increase risk of injury, including severe concussions Posted: 09 Jun 2010 11:00 PM PDT A comparison of hockey leagues in Canada for 11-12 year old players finds that compared with leagues that do not allow body checking, those that do have an associated three-fold increased risk of game-related injuries, including severe injuries and severe concussions, according to a study in the June 9 issue of JAMA.

In India, one in 25 people have gene that causes heart failure Posted: 09 Jun 2010 11:00 PM PDT One in 25 people from India and other south Asian countries carries a mutated gene that causes heart failure. Studying this gene, and the protein it encodes, could lead to new treatments for heart failure.

Molecular imaging prototype looks deep into soft tissues of the brain and other organs Posted: 09 Jun 2010 11:00 PM PDT Research points to the possibility of a new hybrid molecular imaging system that uses single photon emission tomography (SPECT) and magnetic resonance technology (MR). The new technology could provide a greater depth of information about an array of biological processes and anatomical information including soft-tissue contrast, which is important for many diagnoses.

Poor health? Easier for some to blame bad genes than change lifestyle Posted: 09 Jun 2010 11:00 PM PDT Does knowing that genes are partly responsible for your health condition mean you are less likely to be motivated to find out about the benefits of behavioral changes? Those with the greatest need to change their behaviors are more likely to favor genetic explanations for diseases and the more behavioral risk factors they have, the less likely they are to be interested in behavior change information.

Individual brain cells can ID objects as dissimilar as cars and dogs Posted: 09 Jun 2010 05:00 PM PDT Researchers have found that single brain cells, if confronted with a difficult task, can identify objects as dissimilar as sports cars and dogs.

Mutation causes intense pain Posted: 09 Jun 2010 05:00 PM PDT A mutation that enhances the function of a specific ion channel has been identified as the cause of a rare inherited pain disorder. The research proposes a potential treatment for the disorder and may lead to a better understanding of chronic pain in humans.

Subsurface oil from Deepwater Horizon spill in Gulf of Mexico, say researchers Posted: 09 Jun 2010 05:00 PM PDT Researchers in Florida have confirmed the presence of distinct layers of degraded oil in the deep waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico many miles from the Deepwater Horizon explosion site.

Stem cells for first time used to create abnormal heart cells for study of cardiomyopathy Posted: 09 Jun 2010 05:00 PM PDT Researchers have for the first time differentiated human stem cells to become heart cells with cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscle cells are abnormal. The discovery will allow scientists to learn how those heart cells become diseased and from there, they can begin developing drug therapies to stop the disease from occurring or progressing.

Walls falling faster for solid-state memory Posted: 09 Jun 2010 05:00 PM PDT Researchers have found that flaws in the structure of magnetic nanoscale wires play an important role in determining the operating speed of novel devices using such nanowires to store and process information.

Do creative work activities create stress? Posted: 09 Jun 2010 05:00 PM PDT The demands associated with creative work activities pose key challenges for workers, according to new research that describes the stress associated with some aspects of work and its impact on the boundaries between work and family life.

Dolphins use diplomacy in their communication, biologists find Posted: 09 Jun 2010 02:00 PM PDT Marine biologists are studying the repertoire of sounds used by bottlenose dolphins to communicate. The study reveals stunning complexity in dolphin communication and our lack of understanding about the communication of these marine mammals.

Short people are more likely to develop heart disease than tall people, review finds Posted: 09 Jun 2010 02:00 PM PDT Short people are at greater risk of developing heart disease than tall people, according to the first systematic review and meta-analysis of all the available evidence.

TRAPPIST telescope to scout the sky and uncover exoplanets and comets Posted: 09 Jun 2010 02:00 PM PDT A new robotic telescope has had first light at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory, in Chile. TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) is devoted to the study of planetary systems through two approaches: the detection and characterization of planets located outside the Solar System (exoplanets) and the study of comets orbiting around the Sun.

Early consumption of soda indicator of unhealthy diet, study finds Posted: 09 Jun 2010 02:00 PM PDT Young girls who drink soda have less healthy diets through adolescence than their peers who do not drink soda, according to a new study.

Understanding the mechanisms of liver regeneration through computer simulation Posted: 09 Jun 2010 02:00 PM PDT How does the liver manage to regenerate itself even after severe damage? Seeking to find an answer to this significant medical question, scientists in Germany have gained new insights into the underlying processes involved in the regeneration of liver lobules using computer simulation and laboratory experiments.

Gestational age at delivery has relationship with the risk of special educational needs, study finds Posted: 09 Jun 2010 02:00 PM PDT There is an association between gestation of a baby at delivery and the risk of special educational needs in later life, according to new research.

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