ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• Cancer-metabolism link runs deep in humans, novel network algorithm suggests
• Supercomputer reproduces a cyclone's birth, may boost forecasting
• Medicine from moss: Bioreactor technique may offer hope to people with age-related blindness
• White eyes, foot-wide flowers, maroon plants: Researcher creating unique winter-hardy hibiscuses
• Can I buy you a drink? Genetics may determine sensitivity to other people's drinking behavior
• How do cells die? Biophotonic tools reveal real-time dynamics in living color
• Nanoparticles as destructive beacons to zap tumors
• New technique for studying dark energy
• Simple screening test reduces invasive examinations for suspected bowel disease
• New quantum state of matter discovered in Heusler compounds: Applications in spintronics, quantum computing and new physical effects
• Transparency through open notes: Risks and rewards of inviting patients to review their medical records
• Can chaos theory help predict heart attacks?
• Autism has unique vocal signature, new technology reveals
• High-resolution imaging expands vision research of live birds of prey
• Identification of a gene essential to newborn babies' first breath
• European Space Agency develops radar to watch for space hazards
• A blood test for depression?
• NASA telescope finds elusive buckyballs in space for first time
• The healing effects of forests
• Inhibiting fatty acids in immune cells decreases atherosclerosis risk
• Parents and physicians should share decisions in sex development disorder surgery, study suggests
• HIV's sugar coating offers new vaccine approach
• No firm conclusions about HDL cholesterol can be drawn from JUPITER sub-analysis
• Noninvasive MR imaging of blood vessel growth in tumors using nanosized contrast agents

Cancer-metabolism link runs deep in humans, novel network algorithm suggests Posted: 23 Jul 2010 05:00 PM PDT Eighty years ago, the medical establishment believed cancer was caused by a dysfunction of metabolism, but the idea went out of vogue. Now, scientists are again looking at metabolism and its role in cancer and other common diseases.

Supercomputer reproduces a cyclone's birth, may boost forecasting Posted: 23 Jul 2010 05:00 PM PDT Scientists have employed NASA's Pleiades supercomputer and atmospheric data to simulate tropical cyclone Nargis -- with the first model to replicate the formation of the tropical cyclone five days in advance.

Medicine from moss: Bioreactor technique may offer hope to people with age-related blindness Posted: 23 Jul 2010 05:00 PM PDT Biologists in Germany have used a moss bioreactor to produce a human protein, the absence of which leads to age-related blindness in 50 million people.

White eyes, foot-wide flowers, maroon plants: Researcher creating unique winter-hardy hibiscuses Posted: 23 Jul 2010 05:00 PM PDT With a little cross-breeding and some determination, plant physiologist and forage agronomist Dr. Dariusz Malinowski is trying to add more colors to the world of hibiscuses. Malinowski is working on breeding winter-hardy hibiscus in what started as a hobby about four years ago, but in the last year has been added to the strategic plan of the Vernon research program.

Can I buy you a drink? Genetics may determine sensitivity to other people's drinking behavior Posted: 23 Jul 2010 05:00 PM PDT Your friend walks into a bar to meet you for happy hour. He sidles up to the bar and orders a drink -- does that make you more likely to get a drink yourself? According to new findings, genetics may determine the extent to which you are influenced by social drinking cues -- signals such as advertisements, drinks placed on a bar, and seeing other people around you drinking.

How do cells die? Biophotonic tools reveal real-time dynamics in living color Posted: 23 Jul 2010 02:00 PM PDT Apoptosis, programmed cell death, is essential to normal development, healthy immune system function, and cancer prevention. The process dramatically transforms cellular structures but the limitations of conventional microscopy methods have kept much about this structural reorganization a mystery.

Nanoparticles as destructive beacons to zap tumors Posted: 23 Jul 2010 02:00 PM PDT A group of researchers is developing a way to treat cancer by using lasers to light up tiny nanoparticles and destroy tumors with the ensuing heat.

New technique for studying dark energy Posted: 23 Jul 2010 02:00 PM PDT A new but technically challenging observational "shortcut" will help make large-scale cosmic maps that can yield clues to to the nature of the mysterious "dark energy" that pervades the universe.

Simple screening test reduces invasive examinations for suspected bowel disease Posted: 23 Jul 2010 02:00 PM PDT A simple screening test identifies patients who are most likely to have inflammatory bowel disease and reduces the need for expensive, invasive and time consuming endoscopies, finds a new study.

New quantum state of matter discovered in Heusler compounds: Applications in spintronics, quantum computing and new physical effects Posted: 23 Jul 2010 02:00 PM PDT Scientists have been researching Heusler compounds, which are an important material class for the use in spintronic applications. Over the past few years, new application areas have emerged in the field of renewable energy, such as solar energy and thermoelectrics. And now Heusler compounds are also being considered for future technologies such as quantum computers.

Transparency through open notes: Risks and rewards of inviting patients to review their medical records Posted: 23 Jul 2010 02:00 PM PDT Technology has placed vast amounts of medical information literally a mouse click away. Yet what often may be central -- a doctor's notes about a patient visit -- has traditionally not been part of the discussion. In effect, such records have long been out of bounds. In a new article, researchers speculate about the risks and rewards of making clinicians' notes transparent to patients.

Can chaos theory help predict heart attacks? Posted: 23 Jul 2010 11:00 AM PDT Chaos models may someday help model cardiac arrhythmias -- abnormal electrical rhythms of the heart, say researchers.

Autism has unique vocal signature, new technology reveals Posted: 23 Jul 2010 11:00 AM PDT New technology could fundamentally change the study of language development as well as the screening for autism spectrum disorders and language delay.

High-resolution imaging expands vision research of live birds of prey Posted: 23 Jul 2010 11:00 AM PDT Bird observatories all over the world may benefit from a newly designed high-resolution imaging system used to study the retinal structure of live birds of prey. Researchers now reveal unprecedented 3-D information about the retina of four species of raptors -- two hawks and two owls -- using the noninvasive, powerful imaging tool.

Identification of a gene essential to newborn babies' first breath Posted: 23 Jul 2010 11:00 AM PDT How do mammals prepare themselves in utero for a radical modification to their respiration at the time of birth, when they move abruptly from an aquatic medium to air? Researchers have identified a gene in the mouse that is essential to respiration and consequently to survival at birth. This work opens the way to better understanding respiratory disorders in humans, which can range from sleep apnea to sudden infant death syndrome.

European Space Agency develops radar to watch for space hazards Posted: 23 Jul 2010 11:00 AM PDT As part of the European Space Agency's Space Situational Awareness activities, a new radar system will be developed to help safeguard space missions. The radar will detect hazardous objects in Earth orbit and trigger warnings that enable satellite operators to avoid collisions, making spaceflight safer for all.

A blood test for depression? Posted: 23 Jul 2010 11:00 AM PDT Blood tests have been extremely important tools aiding doctors in making medical diagnoses and in guiding the treatment of many diseases. However, psychiatry is one area of medicine where there are few diagnostic blood tests. Dutch researchers evaluated blood gene expression profiles in healthy individuals and patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder, or MDD. They identified a set of seven genes in whole blood that was able to distinguish un-medicated MDD patients from healthy controls.

NASA telescope finds elusive buckyballs in space for first time Posted: 23 Jul 2010 08:00 AM PDT Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered carbon molecules, known as "buckyballs," in space for the first time. Buckyballs are soccer-ball-shaped molecules that were first observed in a laboratory 25 years ago.

The healing effects of forests Posted: 22 Jul 2010 09:00 PM PDT Forests -- and other natural, green settings -- can reduce stress, improve moods, reduce anger and aggressiveness and increase overall happiness. Forest visits may also strengthen our immune system by increasing the activity and number of natural killer cells that destroy cancer cells.

Inhibiting fatty acids in immune cells decreases atherosclerosis risk Posted: 22 Jul 2010 09:00 PM PDT Scientists have found a way to significantly reduce atherosclerosis in mice that does not involve lowering cholesterol levels or eliminating other obesity-related problems. They did it by interfering with production of a substance called fatty acid synthase, an enzyme that converts dietary sugars into fatty acids in the liver.

Parents and physicians should share decisions in sex development disorder surgery, study suggests Posted: 22 Jul 2010 09:00 PM PDT A shared decision-making process would assist doctors and parents who are facing the extraordinarily complex, challenging and controversial choices presented when infants are born with genetic or anatomical anomalies in sexual development and are being considered for elective corrective surgery, a new research paper suggests.

HIV's sugar coating offers new vaccine approach Posted: 22 Jul 2010 09:00 PM PDT The chains of sugar molecules, or carbohydrates, that cover the outside of the highly variable HIV virus remain constant, are different from those found on human cells, and could form the basis of a promising new approach to an AIDS vaccine, according to new research.

No firm conclusions about HDL cholesterol can be drawn from JUPITER sub-analysis Posted: 22 Jul 2010 09:00 PM PDT The European Society of Cardiology is concerned that interpretations of a paper about cholesterol could act to deter ongoing research efforts into developing new therapeutic strategies to increase high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Caution, the ESC experts advise, should be displayed in the interpretation of the results.

Noninvasive MR imaging of blood vessel growth in tumors using nanosized contrast agents Posted: 22 Jul 2010 09:00 PM PDT Scientists have incorporated nanotechnology, material science, and the clinical imaging modality MRI, to create a nanosized probe capable of noninvasively visualizing and quantifying the blood vessel growth in tumors in a preclinical model. Studies in cell and preclinical animal models showed increase uptake of vascular targeted-nanoprobes over non-targeted nanoprobes.

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