ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

Dust Storms In Sahara Desert Sustain Life In Atlantic Ocean Posted: 19 Jul 2008 07:00 PM CDT Saharan dust storms help sustain life over extensive regions of the North Atlantic Ocean. Scientists mapped the distribution of nutrients including phosphorous and nitrogen and investigated how organisms such as phytoplankton are sustained in areas with low nutrient levels. They found that plants are able to grow in these regions because they are able to take advantage of iron minerals in Saharan dust storms.

Alzheimer's Early Detection: Biomarkers Identify Early Onset Of Disease, Before Symptoms Appear Posted: 19 Jul 2008 07:00 PM CDT Researchers have confirmed that in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's, levels of specific proteins in the blood and spinal fluid can be used to track the progression of AD, long before symptoms appear. The hope is that, one day, screening for such biomarkers could take their place beside such routine tests as colonoscopies and mammograms as another common tool of preventive medicine.

Bullying And Being Bullied Linked To Suicide In Children, Review Of Studies Suggests Posted: 19 Jul 2008 07:00 PM CDT Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have found signs of an apparent connection between bullying, being bullied and suicide in children, according to a new review of studies from 13 countries published in the International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health.

Caesarean Section: No Consensus On Best Technique Posted: 19 Jul 2008 07:00 PM CDT Despite the routine delivery of babies by caesarean section, there is no consensus among medical practitioners on which is the best operating method to use. In a systematic review published in the Cochrane Library, researchers call for further studies to establish the safest method for both mother and infant.

Tips On How To Build A Better Home For Biological Parts Posted: 19 Jul 2008 07:00 PM CDT Researchers have compiled a series of guidelines that should help researchers in their efforts to design, develop and manage next-generation databases of biological parts.

Cancer Researchers Call For Ethnicity To Be Taken Into Account Posted: 19 Jul 2008 07:00 PM CDT Breast cancer research needs to investigate how a person's ethnicity influences their response to treatment and its outcome, according to a new Comment piece in The Lancet. Emerging evidence suggests that particular drugs may benefit people from one ethnic group more than others, because of differences in their genetic makeup.

Distribution Of Creatures Great And Small Can Be Predicted Mathematically Posted: 19 Jul 2008 01:00 PM CDT In studying how animals change size as they evolve, biologists have unearthed several interesting patterns. For instance, most species are small, but the largest members of a taxonomic group -- such as the great white shark, the Komodo dragon, or the African elephant -- are often thousands or millions of times bigger than the typical species. Now for the first time researchers explain these patterns within an elegant statistical framework.

HIV Conquers Immune System Faster Than Previously Realized Posted: 19 Jul 2008 01:00 PM CDT New research into the earliest events occurring immediately upon infection with HIV-I shows that the virus deals a stunning blow to the immune system earlier than was previously understood. This suggests the window of opportunity for successful intervention may be only a matter of days -- not weeks -- after transmission, as researchers had previously believed.

Low-sodium Advice For Asthmatics Should Be Taken With A Grain Of Salt Posted: 19 Jul 2008 01:00 PM CDT Following a low-sodium diet does not appear to have any appreciable impact on asthma control, according to new research. Contrary to past studies -- which have suggested a link between low-sodium diets and improved asthma control -- a new study found no evidence that cutting back on salt helps patients with their symptoms.

Improved Culture System For Hepatitis C Virus Infection Posted: 19 Jul 2008 01:00 PM CDT Researchers have developed the first tissue culture of normal, human liver cells that can model infection with the hepatitis C virus and provide a realistic environment to evaluate possible treatments. The novel cell line will allow pharmaceutical companies to effectively test new drug candidates or possible vaccines for the HCV infection, which afflicts about 170 million people worldwide.

Goodbye To Faulty Software? Posted: 19 Jul 2008 01:00 PM CDT Will it ever be possible to buy software guaranteed to be free from bugs? A team of European researchers think so. Their work on the mathematical foundations of programming could one day revolutionize the software industry.

Research Publications Online: Too Much Of A Good Thing? Posted: 19 Jul 2008 01:00 PM CDT The Internet gives scientists and researchers instant access to an astonishing number of academic journals. So what is the impact of having such a wealth of information at their fingertips? The answer, according to new research, is surprising -- scholars are actually citing fewer papers in their own work, and the papers they do cite tend to be more recent publications. This trend may be limiting the creation of new ideas and theories.

Bees Go 'Off-color' When They Are Sickly Posted: 19 Jul 2008 07:00 AM CDT Bumble bees go "off color" and can't remember which flowers have the most nectar when they are feeling under the weather. The behavior of the bumbling bees reveals that, like humans who are ill, bees are often not at their most astute and clever when they feel poorly.

Easing Pain And Numbness Associated With Diabetes Posted: 19 Jul 2008 07:00 AM CDT To ease pain and numbness associated with diabetes, scientists are studying a drug previously used for depression to treat peripheral neuropathy. Diabetics often suffer from this condition because of high blood sugar levels that damage nerve cells.

Vaccine For Koala Chlamydia Close Posted: 19 Jul 2008 07:00 AM CDT Eighteen female koalas treated with an anti-chlamydia vaccine are showing positive results, giving scientists hope they have an answer to the disease that is threatening the survival of koalas in the wild.

Paradoxical Relationship Discovered Between Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever And Its Carrier Mosquitoes Posted: 19 Jul 2008 07:00 AM CDT Scientists have shown a negative correlation between dengue hemorrhagic fever and the density of the Aedes mosquitoes that transmit the virus. The study explains how current efforts to reduce the mosquitoes may actually increase the incidence of the potentially fatal viral disease.

Crop Residue May Be Too Valuable To Harvest For Biofuels Posted: 19 Jul 2008 07:00 AM CDT In the rush to develop renewable fuels from plants, converting crop residues into cellulosic ethanol would seem to be a slam dunk. However, that might not be such a good idea for farmers growing crops without irrigation in regions receiving less than 25 inches of precipitation annually, says a soil scientist.

New Model Explains Why We Overestimate Our Future Choices Posted: 19 Jul 2008 07:00 AM CDT When people make choices for future consumption, they select a wider variety than when they plan to immediately consume the products. A new study examines the reasons behind this diversification of choices.

Hydrogen Vehicles Coming Soon? Two Million Could Be On Roads By 2020 Posted: 18 Jul 2008 07:00 PM CDT A transition to hydrogen vehicles could greatly reduce US oil dependence and carbon dioxide emissions, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council, but making hydrogen vehicles competitive in the automotive market will not be easy. Vehicle costs are high, and the U.S. currently lacks the infrastructure to produce and widely distribute hydrogen to consumers. The maximum practicable number of hydrogen vehicles that could be on the road by 2020 is 2 million, says the report. The number of hydrogen vehicles on the road could then grow rapidly, to nearly 60 million in 2035 and 200 million by 2050.

Discovery Of A New Signaling Mechanism May Lead To Novel Anti-inflammatory Therapy Posted: 18 Jul 2008 07:00 PM CDT A new signaling mechanism used to activate protein kinases that are critical for the body's inflammatory response has been discovered.

Tunguska Catastrophe: Evidence Of Acid Rain Supports Meteorite Theory Posted: 18 Jul 2008 07:00 PM CDT The Tunguska catastrophe in 1908 evidently led to high levels of acid rain. This is the conclusion reached by Russian, Italian and German researchers based on the results of analyses of peat profiles taken from the disaster region. In peat samples corresponded to 1908 permafrost boundary they found significantly higher levels of the heavy nitrogen and carbon isotopes 15N and 13C.

Mini ECG Gets Heart Attack Rehab Patients Mobile Posted: 18 Jul 2008 07:00 PM CDT Scientists have teamed a mobile phone with a miniature heart monitor and a GPS device in research aimed at tackling the low participation rates of heart patients in cardiac rehabilitation.

Students Who Use 'Clickers' Score Better On Physics Tests Posted: 18 Jul 2008 07:00 PM CDT Hand-held electronic devices called clickers are helping college students learn physics, according to a series of research studies. Students who used the devices to answer multiple-choice questions during physics lectures earned final examination scores that were around 10 percent higher -- the equivalent of a full-letter grade -- than students who didn't.

People Predict Budgets Better On Annual Basis Posted: 18 Jul 2008 07:00 PM CDT People who made annual budgets were more accurate than those who made monthly ones. They also found that peoples' perception of their budget-making abilities affected the accuracy of the budgets.

Volcanic Eruptions May Have Wiped Out Ocean Life 94 Million Years Ago Posted: 18 Jul 2008 04:00 PM CDT University of Alberta scientists contend they have the answer to mass extinction of animals and plants 93 million years ago. The answer, research has uncovered, has been found at the bottom of the sea floor where lava fountains erupted, altering the chemistry of the sea and possibly of the atmosphere.

Genetic Variant Increases Triglyceride Levels In Asian-Americans Posted: 18 Jul 2008 04:00 PM CDT A genetic variant found almost exclusively in individuals of Asian descent increases the risk of elevated plasma triglycerides over four-fold. In fact, all 11 subjects who carried both copies of this rare variant for apolipoprotein A-V had extremely high and dangerous triglyceride levels in their blood.

Tree Branching Key To Efficient Flow In Nature And Novel Materials Posted: 18 Jul 2008 04:00 PM CDT Nature, in the simple form of a tree canopy, appears to provide keen insights into the best way to design complex systems to move substances from one place to another, an essential ingredient in the development of novel "smart" materials.

Protein Transports Nutrients Believed To Protect Against Eye Disease Posted: 18 Jul 2008 04:00 PM CDT Scientists have identified the protein responsible for transporting nutrients to the eye that are believed to protect against the development of age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of vision loss in elderly Americans. The research sought to illuminate the process by which compounds called lutein and zeaxanthin move from the bloodstream to the eye.

Virtual World Is Sign Of Future For Scientists, Engineers Posted: 18 Jul 2008 04:00 PM CDT A new virtual environment enables scientists and engineers to interpret raw data collected with powerful instruments called dynamic atomic force microscopes. This is part of a research trend, with tools for other applications also being developed.

Context Is Everything: New Research Uncovers Key To Consumer Preferences Posted: 18 Jul 2008 04:00 PM CDT New research in the Journal of Consumer Research reveals that a product's attractiveness can shift depending on the other choices that are available at the time. The authors demonstrate that if consumers perceive they're choosing the best item from a set of options, they are more likely to feel good enough about choosing the product again next time.

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