ScienceDaily: Latest Science News |
| How Whales And Other Marine Mammals React To Sonar Posted: 09 Aug 2008 07:00 PM CDT Marine biologists have just completed a pioneering research effort in Hawaii to measure the biology and behavior of some of the most poorly understood whales on Earth. During the study, for the first time, scientists attached listening and movement sensors on marine mammals around realistic military operations.  |
| Organic Food Has No More Nutritional Value Than Food Grown With Pesticides, Study Shows Posted: 09 Aug 2008 07:00 PM CDT New research in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture shows there is no evidence to support the argument that organic food is better than food grown with the use of pesticides and chemicals. The study looked at the following crops – carrots, kale, mature peas, apples and potatoes – staple ingredients that can be found in most families' shopping list.  |
| Spiders Who Eat Together, Stay Together -- And Form Enormous Colony Sizes Posted: 09 Aug 2008 07:00 PM CDT The ability to work together and capture larger prey has allowed social spiders to stretch the laws of nature and reach enormous colony sizes, zoologists have found.  |
| Nanowires From DNA: Project Opens Up New Possibilities For Modified Chain Molecules Posted: 09 Aug 2008 07:00 PM CDT For millions of years nature has been optimizing DNA – in all living creatures this biomolecule is responsible for storing genetic information. New research is putting the long chain molecule into a new context. Detached from its biological origin, artificial DNA double helices were modified in such a way that the evolutionarily optimized biomolecule can also be used as a key structural element for the arrangement of metal ions. There are numerous potential applications of this basic research. With this method, for example, molecular wires or the smallest magnets could be developed to be used in nanotechnology. Moreover, the scientists think about using it as catalysts, in medicine or as sensors.  |
| Global Warming Forecasts Not Taking Into Account Nanoscale Atmospheric Aerosols Posted: 09 Aug 2008 07:00 PM CDT Researchers say brown carbons -- a nanoscale atmospheric aerosol species -- are being overlooked when scientists put together computer models for climate studies. They have developed a new technique to precisely determine optical properties of brown carbon nanoparticles over the entire visible light, ultraviolet and infrared spectrums. The method promises to provide more accurate prediction of climate change, including global warming.  |
| Diet And Autism Research Focuses On Which Foods May Affect Autistic Behavior Posted: 09 Aug 2008 07:00 PM CDT Can autism be "cured" with diet? Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston embark on a double-blind study to find out if wheat and dairy products can affect autistic behavior, as some parents believe.  |
| If Your First Cigarette Gave You A Buzz And You Now Smoke, A Gene May Be To Blame Posted: 09 Aug 2008 01:00 PM CDT Anyone who has ever tried smoking probably remembers that first cigarette vividly. Now, a new study links those first experiences with smoking, and the likelihood that a person is currently a smoker, to a particular genetic variation. The finding may help explain the path that leads from that first cigarette to lifelong smoking.  |
| Trigger For Brain Plasticity Identified: Signal Comes, Surprisingly, From Outside The Brain Posted: 09 Aug 2008 01:00 PM CDT Researchers have long sought a factor that can trigger the brain's ability to learn -- recapturing the "sponge-like" quality of childhood. Called Otx2, it causes a key type of cell in the cortex to mature, initiating a critical period -- a window of heightened brain plasticity, when the brain can readily make new connections  |
| Posted: 09 Aug 2008 01:00 PM CDT Scientists are shedding light on an important, unsolved physics problem: the relationship between chaos theory -- which is based on 300-year-old Newtonian physics -- and the modern theory of quantum mechanics. The study demonstrated a fundamental new property -- what appears to be chaotic behavior in a quantum system -- in the magnetic "spins" within the nuclei or centers of atoms of frozen xenon.  |
| Putting MicroRNAs On The Stem Cell Map Posted: 09 Aug 2008 01:00 PM CDT Short snippets of RNA called microRNAs help to keep embryonic stem cells in their stem cell state. Researchers now have discovered the gene circuitry that controls microRNAs in embryonic stem cells. Mapping the control circuitry of stem cells reveals how they maintain themselves or decide to differentiate, providing key clues for regenerative medicine and reprogramming of adult cells to a stem cell state. These maps also aid our understanding of human development and diseases such as cancer.  |
| ALife Conference To Reveal Bio-inspired Spam Detection Posted: 09 Aug 2008 01:00 PM CDT An algorithm for spam recognition inspired by the immune system will be presented at the first European conference on Artificial Life (ALIFE XI).  |
| Robotics Research: Enhancing The Lives Of People With Disabilities Posted: 09 Aug 2008 01:00 PM CDT Robots may be the solution for people with disabilities who are struggling to regain the use of their limbs.  |
| Cassini Prepares To Swoop By Saturn's Geyser-Spewing Moon Posted: 09 Aug 2008 07:00 AM CDT Fractures, or "tiger stripes," where icy jets erupt on Saturn's moon Enceladus will be the target of a close flyby by the Cassini spacecraft on Monday, Aug. 11. Cassini will zoom past the tiny moon a mere 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the surface. Just after closest approach, all of the spacecraft's cameras -- covering infrared wavelengths, where temperatures are mapped, as well as visible light and ultraviolet -- will focus on the fissures running along the moon's south pole. That is where the jets of icy water vapor emanate and erupt hundreds of miles into space.  |
| Pinpointing Genetic Variations In European Americans Posted: 09 Aug 2008 07:00 AM CDT Researchers have identified just 200 positions within the curves of the DNA helix that they believe capture much of the genetic diversity in European Americans, a population with one of the most diverse and complex historic origins on Earth. Their findings narrow the search for the elusive ancestral clues known as single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, that cause disease and account for the minute variations in the European American population.  |
| Tuning In To A New Language On The Fly: Effects Of Context And Seasonality On Songbird Brain Posted: 09 Aug 2008 07:00 AM CDT New research has shown that exposure to a changed acoustic and social environment can rewire the way the brain processes sounds. Study of the responses of individual brain cells has shown that they respond best to a particular frequency (pitch) of sound, less well to nearby frequencies, and poorly to distant sound frequencies.  |
| Beyond PTEN: Alternate Genes Linked To Breast, Thyroid And Kidney Cancer Predisposition Posted: 09 Aug 2008 07:00 AM CDT A new discovery may lead to more effective screening and treatment for patients with a difficult to recognize syndrome characterized by tumor-like growths and a high risk of developing specific cancers. The research is the first in over thirteen years to identify an alternate susceptibility gene for Cowden syndrome and related disorders.  |
| New Approach To Ad Hoc Networks For First Responders Debuts Posted: 09 Aug 2008 07:00 AM CDT Researchers successfully demonstrated a prototype approach to maintain two-way communications with first responders as they make their way in building fires, and mine and tunnel collapses.  |
| 82 Percent Of Americans Think Health Care System Needs Major Overhaul Posted: 09 Aug 2008 07:00 AM CDT Americans are dissatisfied with the US health care system and 82 percent think it should be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt, according to a new survey.  |
| Posted: 08 Aug 2008 07:00 PM CDT Researchers are using meta-materials, which mimic the behavior of ice, but are created out of completely different substances, to and figure out why water ice doesn't completely conform to the Third Law of Thermodynamics.  |
| Multi-tasking Molecule Holds Key To Allergic Reactions Posted: 08 Aug 2008 07:00 PM CDT As the summer approaches most of us rejoice, reach for the sunscreen and head outdoors. But an ever-growing number of people reach for tissue instead as pollen leaves eyes watering, noses running and spirits dwindling. Hay fever is just one of a host of hypersensitivity allergic diseases that cause suffering worldwide and others, such as severe reactions to bee stings or eating peanuts, can be more serious and even fatal.  |
| Back To The Future: Psychologists Examine Children's Mental Time Traveling Abilities Posted: 08 Aug 2008 07:00 PM CDT Planning and anticipating occur so frequently in our everyday lives that it is hard to imagine a time when we didn't have this capability. But just as many other capacities develop, so does this mental time traveling ability. Researchers have recently explored how children comprehend the future and ways that this understanding can be affected by, for example, their current physiological state.  |
| Twenty Disease-specific Stem Cell Lines Created Posted: 08 Aug 2008 07:00 PM CDT A set of new stem cell lines will make it possible for researchers to explore ten different genetic disorders—including muscular dystrophy, juvenile diabetes, and Parkinson's disease—in a variety of cell and tissue types as they develop in laboratory cultures. Researchers have produced a robust new collection of disease-specific stem cell lines, all of which were developed using the new induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS) technique. The new iPS lines, developed from the cells of patients ranging in age from one month to 57-years-old, will be deposited in a new HSCI "core" facility being established at Massachusetts General Hospital.  |
| Beyond 3G: Ultra-fast Mobile Radio Networks Of The Future Posted: 08 Aug 2008 07:00 PM CDT Today's growing third generation (3G) of mobile data services are only a taste of what is to come. Now, European researchers are paving the way to a world where ultra-fast internet access is available from every mobile device.  |
| Attention Grabbers Snatch Lion's Share Of Visual Memory Posted: 08 Aug 2008 07:00 PM CDT Our visual memory is not as good as we may think, according to new research -- but it can be used more flexibly than scientists previously thought. In a study in the journal Science, researchers have shown how we remember what we see and why we can recall visually important or striking images most clearly, using a topical example of a relay race to illustrate the concept.  |
| NOAA Forecasts Even Stronger Atlantic Hurricane Season For 2008 Than Earlier Prediction Posted: 08 Aug 2008 04:00 PM CDT In the August update to the Atlantic hurricane season outlook, NOAA's Climate Prediction Center has increased the likelihood of an above-normal hurricane season and has raised the total number of named storms and hurricanes that may form. Forecasters attribute this adjustment to atmospheric and oceanic conditions across the Atlantic Basin that favor storm development - combined with the strong early season activity.  |
| New Biochemical Pathway That Triggers Critical Repairs In DNA Replication Process Discovered Posted: 08 Aug 2008 04:00 PM CDT Scientists have unraveled a new biochemical pathway that triggers a critical repair response to correct errors in the DNA replication process that could otherwise lead to harmful or fatal mutations in cells. Though the work focused on yeast cells, the team expects to find an analogous system in human cells that could be exploited as a target for potential therapies for cancers, which are often caused by such repair mechanisms going off course.  |
| Fingerprints Provide Clues To More Than Just Identity Posted: 08 Aug 2008 04:00 PM CDT Fingerprints can reveal critical evidence, as well as an identity, with the use of a new technology that detects trace amounts of explosives, drugs or other materials left behind in the prints. The new technology also can distinguish between overlapping fingerprints left by different individuals -- a difficult task for current optical forensic methods.  |
| B Cells Can Act Alone In Autoimmune Disease Posted: 08 Aug 2008 04:00 PM CDT B cells, the source of damaging autoantibodies, have long been thought to depend upon T cells for their activation and were not considered important in the initiation of autoimmune diseases like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. An article in the journal Immunity turns this paradigm on its head by showing that in systemic autoimmune diseases B cells can be activated the absence of T cells.  |
| Novel Method Quickens Discovery Of Gene Function Posted: 08 Aug 2008 04:00 PM CDT Think researchers know all there is to know about Escherichia coli, commonly known as E. coli? Think again. "E. coli has more than four thousand genes, and the functions of one-fourth of these remain unknown," says a biology professor whose laboratory specializes in carrying out research using the bacterium.  |
| Extreme Appeal: Voters Trust Extreme Positions More Than Moderate Ones, Study Finds Posted: 08 Aug 2008 04:00 PM CDT Trying to appear moderate is not always the best strategy for capturing votes during an election, reveals a new study. Extreme positions can build trust among an electorate, who value ideological commitment in times of uncertainty. "A rational electorate is reluctant to support someone who does not exhibit commitment to some ideology," says USC economist Juan Carrillo. "Voters rightly perceive that someone without ideological commitment cannot have developed a valuable political program."  |
| Complete Neanderthal Mitochondrial Genome Sequenced From 38,000-year-old Bone Posted: 08 Aug 2008 01:00 PM CDT The complete mitochondrial genome of a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal has been sequenced. The findings open a window into the Neanderthals' past and helps answer lingering questions about our relationship to them.  |
| Embryonic-like Stem Cells Can Be Created Without Cancer-causing Gene Posted: 08 Aug 2008 01:00 PM CDT Embryonic-like stem cells can be efficiently generated using a natural signaling molecule instead of the virally delivered cancer-causing gene c-Myc. The results represent progress in overcoming hurdles to the potential use of reprogrammed cells for stem-cell-based therapies in humans.  |
| Beijing Olympics Air Pollution Control Efforts Being Assessed Posted: 08 Aug 2008 01:00 PM CDT Flying downwind from Chinese mainland, unmanned aerial vehicles will measure emissions of soot and other forms of black carbon during China's "great shutdown."  |
| Tumor Suppressor Inhibits Cell Growth Posted: 08 Aug 2008 01:00 PM CDT Researchers have described the mechanism by which p53 regulates cells and protects them against DNA damage that might lead to cancer. The study shows that two p53 target genes -- called Sestrin1 and Sestrin2 -- provide an important link between p53 and a protein kinase called mTOR, a central regulator of cell growth.  |
| Physicist's Quantum-'Uncollapse' Hypothesis Verified Posted: 08 Aug 2008 01:00 PM CDT In 2006, two physics and astronomy professors spelled out how to exploit a quantum quirk to accomplish a feat long thought impossible, and now a research team has tested the theory, proving it correct.  |
| Healthy Diet Study Will Take Place Entirely In Virtual World Of Second Life Posted: 08 Aug 2008 01:00 PM CDT The University of Houston department of health and human performance is launching an international effort to recruit 500 participants for a study promoting healthy dietary habits and physical activity. The study will take place entirely in the virtual world of Second Life.  |
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