ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• Algae, bacteria hogged oxygen after ancient mass extinction, slowed marine life recovery
• Antarctic icebergs play a previously unknown role in global carbon cycle, climate
• New colon cancer marker identified
• How well do you know your friends?
• Smaller particles could make solar panels more efficient
• FDA considers new rules to speed up confirmatory trials of drugs granted accelerated approval
• Neuroscientists decode crucial component in brain signal processing
• Supervised weight training safe for pregnant women, study suggests
• 'Dispense as written' prescriptions may add $7.7 billion to annual health care costs in U.S.
• School energy audits in Canadian city find millions in potential energy savings
• Large regional changes in farmland area predicted
• Living at high altitude reduces risk of dying from heart disease: Low oxygen may spur genes to create blood vessels
• New secret to how smells are detected uncovered
• Asthma drug could help control or treat Alzheimer's disease
• Freshwater content of upper Arctic Ocean increased 20 percent since 1990s, large-scale assessment finds
• 'Can you hear me now?' How neurons decide how to transmit information
• Participatory mapping workshops underway in Congo
• Kudzu vines spreading north from US Southeast with warming climate
• Inclusive fitness theory defended
• HIV integration requires use of a host DNA-repair pathway
• Young asthmatics are leaving emergency rooms in Quebec, Canada, missing critical documentation
• Promising clue to mechanism behind gene mutation that causes Parkinson's disease
• Research may lead to new treatments for Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders
• Nearly one in four postmenopausal women with fractures is obese
• Universal property of music discovered
• Malaria as a complication to landmine and war injuries
• Black hole found in binary star system: More than five times greater in mass than our Sun
• Shift of young anchovy from the estuary to the sea may be important for success of recruitment
• Virtual Ireland launched at Queen’s

Algae, bacteria hogged oxygen after ancient mass extinction, slowed marine life recovery Posted: 25 Mar 2011 01:42 PM PDT After the biggest mass extinction in Earth's history -- 250 million years ago -- algae and bacteria in the ocean rebounded so fast that they consumed virtually all the oxygen in the sea, slowing the recovery of the rest of marine animals for several million years.

Antarctic icebergs play a previously unknown role in global carbon cycle, climate Posted: 25 Mar 2011 01:42 PM PDT In a finding that has global implications for climate research, scientists have discovered that when icebergs cool and dilute the seas through which they pass for days, they also raise chlorophyll levels in the water that may in turn increase carbon dioxide absorption in the Southern Ocean.

New colon cancer marker identified Posted: 25 Mar 2011 01:42 PM PDT A research team has identified an enzyme that could be used to diagnose colon cancer earlier. It is possible that this enzyme also could be a key to stopping the cancer.

How well do you know your friends? Posted: 25 Mar 2011 01:42 PM PDT How does your best friend feel when people act needy? Or, about people being dishonest? What do they think when others seem uncomfortable in social situations? If you don't know -- your relationship may pay a price.

Smaller particles could make solar panels more efficient Posted: 25 Mar 2011 01:42 PM PDT New research could significantly improve the efficiency of solar cells. The size of light-absorbing particles -- quantum dots -- affects the particles' ability to transfer energy to electrons to generate electricity.

FDA considers new rules to speed up confirmatory trials of drugs granted accelerated approval Posted: 25 Mar 2011 01:42 PM PDT Since 1992, the US Food and Drug Administration has granted accelerated approval to 47 new indications for 35 cancer drugs and in more than half the cases -- 26 indications -- further trials have confirmed the benefits of the drugs. But the agency has concerns about the length of time some drugs have remained on the market without confirmation of their benefits, according to a review article.

Neuroscientists decode crucial component in brain signal processing Posted: 25 Mar 2011 12:21 PM PDT A team of Neuroscientists from NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, have made a major breakthrough in understanding how signals are processed in the human brain.

Supervised weight training safe for pregnant women, study suggests Posted: 25 Mar 2011 12:16 PM PDT Despite decades of doctors' reluctance to recommend weight training to pregnant women, a new study has found that a supervised, low-to-moderate intensity program is safe and beneficial.

'Dispense as written' prescriptions may add $7.7 billion to annual health care costs in U.S. Posted: 25 Mar 2011 12:16 PM PDT Approximately five percent of prescriptions submitted by CVS Caremark Pharmacy Benefit Management members in a 30-day period during 2009 included a "dispense as written" designation. This practice -- whereby doctors or patients demand the dispensing of a specific brand-name drug and not a generic alternative -- costs the health care system up to $7.7 billion annually.

School energy audits in Canadian city find millions in potential energy savings Posted: 25 Mar 2011 12:16 PM PDT Engineering students have developed an energy audit model that could save schools millions of dollars in energy costs. An audit of 153 schools in Hamilton, Ontario has made conservation recommendations that could reduce energy costs by up to $2.4 million annually.

Large regional changes in farmland area predicted Posted: 25 Mar 2011 12:16 PM PDT The effects of climate change and population growth on agricultural land area vary from region to region, according to a new study. Regions with relative high latitudes -- China, Russia and the US -- could see a significant increase in arable land in coming years, but Africa, Europe and India and South America could lose land area.

Living at high altitude reduces risk of dying from heart disease: Low oxygen may spur genes to create blood vessels Posted: 25 Mar 2011 12:16 PM PDT Researchers have found that people living at higher altitudes have a lower chance of dying from heart disease and live longer.

New secret to how smells are detected uncovered Posted: 25 Mar 2011 12:16 PM PDT Researchers seeking to unravel the most ancient of our senses have found a previously unknown step in how odors are processed by the brain.

Asthma drug could help control or treat Alzheimer's disease Posted: 25 Mar 2011 12:16 PM PDT A drug used to treat asthma has been shown to help reduce the formation of amyloid beta, a peptide that is implicated in the development of Alzheimer's disease, and the subsequent build up of amyloid plaques in the brain by more than 50 percent.

Freshwater content of upper Arctic Ocean increased 20 percent since 1990s, large-scale assessment finds Posted: 25 Mar 2011 08:19 AM PDT The freshwater content of the upper Arctic Ocean has increased by about 20 percent since the 1990s, according to a new large-scale assessment. This corresponds to a rise of approximately 8,400 cubic kilometres and has the same magnitude as the volume of freshwater annually exported on average from this marine region in liquid or frozen form.

'Can you hear me now?' How neurons decide how to transmit information Posted: 25 Mar 2011 08:18 AM PDT There are billions of neurons in the brain and at any given time tens of thousands of these neurons might be trying to send signals to one another. Much like a person trying to be heard across a crowded room, neurons must figure out the best way to get their message heard above the din. Researchers have now found two ways that neurons accomplish this, establishing a fundamental mechanism by which neurons communicate.

Participatory mapping workshops underway in Congo Posted: 25 Mar 2011 08:18 AM PDT Many of the mapping and monitoring efforts associated with REDD focus on the big picture of carbon stock and of deforestation trends throughout the tropics. A research expedition just underway is focusing on the third piece necessary to inform a global REDD mechanism -- namely, how do people use the land? Participatory mapping workshops with indigenous peoples in the Congo Basin are focusing the discussion.

Kudzu vines spreading north from US Southeast with warming climate Posted: 25 Mar 2011 08:18 AM PDT Kudzu, the plant scourge of the US Southeast. The long tendrils of this woody vine, or liana, are on the move north with a warming climate.

Inclusive fitness theory defended Posted: 25 Mar 2011 07:21 AM PDT In 1964, biologist William Hamilton introduced Inclusive Fitness Theory to predict and explain phenomena ranging from animal behavior to patterns of gene expression. With its many successes, the theory became a cornerstone for modern biology. In August 2010, researchers challenged the theory in the journal Nature. Now Nature has published sharp rebuttals from scores of scientists.

HIV integration requires use of a host DNA-repair pathway Posted: 25 Mar 2011 07:21 AM PDT The human immunodeficiency virus, the cause of AIDS, makes use of the base excision repair pathway when inserting its DNA into the host-cell genome, according to a new study. The research shows that crippling the repair pathway prevents the virus from completing this critical step in its life cycle. The findings offer potential new targets for novel anti-HIV drugs that may not lead as quickly to viral resistance as current drugs, the researchers say.

Young asthmatics are leaving emergency rooms in Quebec, Canada, missing critical documentation Posted: 25 Mar 2011 07:21 AM PDT It sounds unbelievably simple but it's true -- a written action plan for asthma treatment, attached to the drug prescription, improves asthma control in children.

Promising clue to mechanism behind gene mutation that causes Parkinson's disease Posted: 25 Mar 2011 07:21 AM PDT Researchers have discovered a way that mutations in a gene called LRRK2 may cause the most common inherited form of Parkinson's disease. The study, published online this month in the journal Public Library of Science, shows that upon specific modification called phosphorylation, LRRK2 protein binds to a family of proteins called 14-3-3, which has a regulatory function inside cells.

Research may lead to new treatments for Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders Posted: 25 Mar 2011 07:21 AM PDT Scientists are conducting research that may someday lead to new treatments for repair of the central nervous system. The group has identified and analyzed unique adult animal stem cells that can turn into neurons. The neurons they found appear to have many of the qualities desired for cells being used in development of therapies for slowly progressing, degenerative conditions like Parkinson's disease and for damage due to stroke or spinal cord injury.

Nearly one in four postmenopausal women with fractures is obese Posted: 25 Mar 2011 07:21 AM PDT A new study compares the prevalence and location of fractures in obese (BMIe30 kg/m2) and non-obese postmenopausal women and examines specific risk factors for fracture. The research demonstrates that obese postmenopausal women are almost as likely to fracture as non-obese women, and that poor mobility and increased risk of falls may play an important role.

Universal property of music discovered Posted: 25 Mar 2011 07:20 AM PDT Researchers have discovered a universal property of scales. Until now it was assumed that the only thing scales throughout the world have in common is the octave. The many hundreds of scales, however, seem to possess a deeper commonality: if their tones are compared in a two- or three-dimensional way by means of a coordinate system, they form convex or star-convex structures. Convex structures are patterns without indentations or holes, such as a circle, square or oval.

Malaria as a complication to landmine and war injuries Posted: 25 Mar 2011 05:27 AM PDT Malaria can complicate the course of disease in poor farmers with landmine injuries in underdeveloped countries, where both malaria and war injuries are frequent causes of illness and death. New research charts the extent and effect of malaria on war-injured people and studied the potential for preventing them contracting the disease.

Black hole found in binary star system: More than five times greater in mass than our Sun Posted: 25 Mar 2011 05:27 AM PDT The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) has obtained the first spectroscopy data from the X-ray transient binary XTE J1859+226, which confirm the existence of a black hole. Only about 20 binary stellar systems are known to contain a black hole, out of an estimated population of around 5,000 in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Shift of young anchovy from the estuary to the sea may be important for success of recruitment Posted: 25 Mar 2011 05:27 AM PDT The more anchovies grow, the greater the probability of their survival, and it is precisely those born at the peak of the season of egg-laying and promptly moving out to the ocean area which enjoy optimum growth. These are the key factors to good recruitment, according to new research.

Virtual Ireland launched at Queen’s Posted: 25 Mar 2011 05:27 AM PDT Documenting Ireland – Parliament, People and Migration, a virtual library of the history of modern Ireland was today launched at Queen's University Belfast. The new virtual resource brings together the story of migration throughout Irish history into one place, a searchable online database. The online resource has three searchable databases: Enhanced British Parliamentary Paper on Ireland, The Irish Emigration Database and Voices of Migration and Return.

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