ScienceDaily: Latest Science News |
| Journey Toward The Center Of The Earth: One-of-a-kind Microorganism Lives All Alone Posted: 10 Oct 2008 01:00 PM CDT The first ecosystem with only a single biological species has been discovered and its genome analyzed by a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary team. Living 2.8 km beneath the surface of the earth in the Mponeng gold mine near Johannesburg, South Africa, the rod-shaped bacterium Desulforudis audaxviator exists in complete isolation, total darkness, a lack of oxygen, and 60-degree-Celsius heat.  |
| New Light On Link Between Snoring And Cognitive Deficits In Children Posted: 10 Oct 2008 01:00 PM CDT About two-thirds of children with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) -- snoring or obstructive sleep apnea -- have some degree of cognitive deficit, but the severity of the cognitive deficit has been notoriously difficult to correlate to the severity of the SDB, suggesting that other important issues may be at play, or that the right factors were simply not being measured.  |
| Wielding Microbe Against Microbe, Beetle Defends Its Food Source Posted: 10 Oct 2008 01:00 PM CDT As the southern pine beetle moves through the forest boring tunnels inside the bark of trees, it brings with it both a helper and a competitor. The helper is a fungus that the insect plants inside the tunnels as food for its young. But also riding along is a tiny, hitchhiking mite, which likewise carries a fungus for feeding its own larvae.  |
| How Effective Are Probiotics In Irritable Bowel Syndrome? Posted: 10 Oct 2008 01:00 PM CDT Several new studies highlight the safety and efficacy of probiotics in improving symptoms and normalizing bowel movement frequency in patients suffering from constipation or diarrhea related to Irritable Bowel Syndrome.  |
| Baked Slug: New Method To Test Fireproofing Material Posted: 10 Oct 2008 01:00 PM CDT Researchers have developed a technique for measuring a key thermal property of fire-resistive materials at high temperatures. The measurement technique has already been adopted commercially and incorporated into a national standard.  |
| Species Extinction By Asteroid A Rarity Posted: 10 Oct 2008 01:00 PM CDT New research argues in favor of a "sick earth" mechanism for most extinctions, rather than external event like an asteroid strike.  |
| Promising New Material Could Improve Gas Mileage Posted: 10 Oct 2008 10:00 AM CDT With gasoline at high prices, it's disheartening to know that up to three-quarters of the potential energy you are paying for is wasted. Now researchers have identified a promising new material that could transform a technology that currently cools and heats car seats -- thermoelectrics -- into one that also efficiently converts waste heat into electricity to help power the car and improve gas mileage.  |
| Posted: 10 Oct 2008 10:00 AM CDT Fatty foods may not be the healthiest diet choice, but those rich in unsaturated fats -- such as avocados, nuts and olive oil -- have been found to play a pivotal role in sending this important message to your brain: stop eating, you're full.  |
| Diversity Of Plant-eating Fishes May Be Key To Recovery Of Coral Reefs Posted: 10 Oct 2008 10:00 AM CDT A report scheduled to be published this week in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that maintaining the proper balance of herbivorous fishes may be critical to restoring coral reefs, which are declining dramatically worldwide.  |
| New Screening Technologies Improve Detection Of Polyps During Colonoscopy Posted: 10 Oct 2008 10:00 AM CDT Two new studies highlight new technologies with the potential to improve the detection of colorectal polyps and flat lesions during colonoscopy.  |
| Satellite Data Reveals Extreme Summer Snowmelt In Northern Greenland Posted: 10 Oct 2008 10:00 AM CDT The northern part of the Greenland ice sheet experienced extreme snowmelt during the summer of 2008, with large portions of the area subject to record melting days. This conclusion is based on an analysis of microwave brightness temperature recorded by the Special Sensor Microwave Imager onboard the F13 satellite.  |
| Narcissistic People Most Likely To Emerge As Leaders Posted: 10 Oct 2008 10:00 AM CDT When a group is without a leader, you can often count on a narcissist to take charge, a new study suggests. Researchers found that people who score high in narcissism tend to take control of leaderless groups. Narcissism is a trait in which people are self-centered, exaggerate their talents and abilities and lack empathy for others.  |
| Ripple Effect: Water Snails Offer New Propulsion Possibilities Posted: 10 Oct 2008 07:00 AM CDT A UC San Diego engineer has revealed a new mode of propulsion based on how water snails create ripples of slime to crawl upside down beneath the surface.  |
| Clue To Genetic Cause Of Fatal Birth Defect Posted: 10 Oct 2008 07:00 AM CDT A novel enzyme may play a major role in anencephaly, offering hope for a genetic test or even therapy for the rare fatal birth defect in which the brain fails to develop, according to a new study.  |
| Tracking Down The Cause Of Mad Cow Disease: First Synthetic Prion Protein With An Anchor Posted: 10 Oct 2008 07:00 AM CDT Researchers in Germany and Switzerland have developed a new general method for the synthesis of anchored proteins, such as GPI-anchored prions, which cause scrapie and mad cow disease.  |
| Outlook For Crohn's Disease Improves Thanks To New Therapies Posted: 10 Oct 2008 07:00 AM CDT A study led by Mayo Clinic has found that infliximab (Remicade) administered alone (monotherapy) or in combination with azathioprine is a more effective treatment for patients with moderate to severe Crohn's disease than azathioprine alone.  |
| An Accurate Picture Of Ice Loss In Greenland Posted: 10 Oct 2008 07:00 AM CDT Researchers are developing a method for creating an accurate picture of Greenland's shrinking ice cap. On the strength of this method, it is now estimated that Greenland is accountable for a half millimetre-rise in the global sea level per year.  |
| Bipolar Disorder In Children Appears Likely To Continue Into Young Adulthood Posted: 10 Oct 2008 07:00 AM CDT About 44 percent of individuals who had bipolar disorder as children continue to have manic episodes as young adults, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. This rate, along with the severity of the disease at young ages, strongly suggest that bipolar disorder can be continuous from childhood to adulthood, the authors note.  |
| Small Intestine Can Sense And React To Bitter Toxins In Food Posted: 10 Oct 2008 04:00 AM CDT Toxins in food often have a bad, bitter taste that makes people want to spit them out. New research finds that bitterness also slows the digestive process, keeping bad food in the stomach longer and increasing the chances that it will be expelled.  |
| Better Insights Needed Into Failure Mechanisms Of Hip Replacements Posted: 10 Oct 2008 04:00 AM CDT If a hip prosthesis implanted to replace a worn-out joint itself fails, then what are the reasons? Until now this problem has been little understood: partly due to incomplete records, partly due to insufficient knowledge of the forces acting on the hip replacement. Computation models developed by the University of Twente and UMC St. Radboud can make an important contribution to our understanding in this field, says Prof. Nico Verdonschot in his inaugural lecture as Professor of Implantation Biomechanics at the University of Twente. Such models can, for instance, predict the strength of a bone much better than a specialist can do visually using an X-ray image.  |
| Green Coffee-growing Practices Buffer Climate-change Impacts Posted: 10 Oct 2008 04:00 AM CDT Chalk up another environmental benefit for shade-grown Latin American coffee: University of Michigan researchers say the technique will provide a buffer against the ravages of climate change in the coming decades.  |
| How Much Are You Really Exercising? Obese Women Know Better Than Normal Weight Women Posted: 10 Oct 2008 04:00 AM CDT People struggling with obesity often underestimate how many calories they are actually consuming, which can hinder weight loss efforts. It should follow that the same person would overestimate the amount of exercise they're doing, right? Researchers have found that obese women actually reported their activity levels most accurately, when compared to overweight and normal weight women.  |
| Thinning Of Greenland Glacier Attributed To Ocean Warming Preceded By Atmospheric Changes Posted: 10 Oct 2008 04:00 AM CDT The sudden thinning in 1997 of Jakobshavn Isbræ, one of Greenland's largest glaciers, was caused by subsurface ocean warming, according to research in the journal Nature Geoscience. The research team traces these oceanic shifts back to changes in the atmospheric circulation in the North Atlantic region.  |
| Free Drug Samples Carry Risks For Children Posted: 10 Oct 2008 04:00 AM CDT Free prescription drug samples distributed to children may be unsafe, according to a study by physicians from Cambridge Health Alliance and Hasbro Children's Hospital.  |
| Tropical Rainforest And Mountain Species May Be Threatened By Global Warming Posted: 10 Oct 2008 01:00 AM CDT Contrary to conventional wisdom, tropical plant and animal species living in some of the warmest places on Earth may be threatened by global warming, according to ecologists.  |
| Turning Cancer Friend Into Cancer Foe Posted: 10 Oct 2008 01:00 AM CDT Scientists have created a peptide that binds to Bcl-2, a protein that protects cancer cells from programmed cell death, and converts it into a cancer cell killer. The research may lead to new cancer treatments.  |
| Population Growth Puts Dent In Natural Resources Posted: 10 Oct 2008 01:00 AM CDT It's a 500-pound gorilla that Robert Criss, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, sees standing on the speaker's dais at political rallies, debates and campaigns. Its name is population growth. "Population growth is driving all of our resource problems, including water and energy. The three are intertwined," Criss says.  |
| Growing Role Of Molecular Diagnostics Posted: 10 Oct 2008 01:00 AM CDT Novel platform technologies and key advances in genomics are rapidly driving the development of molecular diagnostics, reports Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News. The payoff for successful molecular diagnostic products can be significant as Kalorama Information predicts that this market currently exceeds $3.2 billion worldwide and will reach $5.4 billion in four years.  |
| New International Building Codes Address Fire Safety And Evacuation Issues For Tall Structures Posted: 10 Oct 2008 01:00 AM CDT Future buildings -- especially tall structures -- should be increasingly resistant to fire, more easily evacuated in emergencies, and safer overall thanks to 23 major and far-reaching building and fire code changes approved recently by the International Code Council based on recommendations from the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology. The recommendations were part of NIST's investigation of the collapses of New York City's World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001.  |
| Premature Ejaculation? Not Your Fault: Gene Determines Rapidity Of Ejaculation In Men Posted: 10 Oct 2008 01:00 AM CDT The rapidity of ejaculation in men is genetically determined. Neuropsychiatrists studied 89 Dutch men with premature ejaculation and will publish results in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.  |
| Deep Magma Matters: Volcanic Eruptions More Complex And Harder To Predict Posted: 09 Oct 2008 10:00 PM CDT New research by a team of US and UK scientists into volcanoes has found that they function in a far more complex way than previously thought, making future eruptions even harder to predict. Although the Soufrière Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat exhibits cycles of eruption and quiet, magma is continuously supplied from deep in the crust but that a valve acts below a shallower magma chamber, releasing lava to the surface periodically.  |
| Post-term Pregnancies Risk Infant's Life And Health, Study Shows Posted: 09 Oct 2008 10:00 PM CDT Infants born more than one week past their due dates have a higher risk of both impaired health and death, according to two new studies.  |
| Satellite Image Analysis Reveals South Ossetian Damage Posted: 09 Oct 2008 10:00 PM CDT Satellite images captured before and after the Aug. 7-8 clash between Georgia, South Ossetian separatists and Russia reveal that 424 civilian structures near Tskhinvali were damaged by Aug. 19 -- although they appeared intact in images taken on Aug. 10 and earlier, researchers report.  |
| Major Study Of Opiate Use In Children's Hospitals Provides Simple Steps To Alleviate Harm Posted: 09 Oct 2008 10:00 PM CDT Hospitalized kids with painful ailments from broken bones to cancer are often dosed with strong, painkilling drugs known as opiates. The medications block pain, but they can have nasty side effects. Constipation, for instance, is one side effect that can cause discomfort and even extend a child's hospital stay.  |
| New Sensor Could Help Avert Pipeline Failures Posted: 09 Oct 2008 10:00 PM CDT Researchers have developed a prototype sensor that quickly detects very small amounts of hydrogen accumulation in coated pipeline steel. The new sensor could provide early warning of pipes that have accumulated excessive amounts of hydrogen and avert potentially disastrous failures of pipelines.  |
| Car Or Pedestrian? How We Follow Objects With Our Eyes Posted: 09 Oct 2008 10:00 PM CDT When an object moves fast, we follow it with our eyes: our brain correspondingly calculates the speed of the object and adapts our eye movement to it. This in itself is an enormous achievement, yet our brain can do even more than that. In the real world, a car will typically accelerate or brake faster than, say, a pedestrian. But the control of eye movement in fact responds more sensitively to changes in the speed of fast moving objects than slow moving objects.  |
| Researchers Discover How Infectious Bacteria Can Switch Species Posted: 09 Oct 2008 07:00 PM CDT Scientists in the UK have developed a rapid new way of checking for toxic genes in disease-causing bacteria which infect insects and humans. Their findings could in the future lead to new vaccines and anti-bacterial drugs.  |
| Double Flu Jab Needed Against Bird Flu Pandemic Posted: 09 Oct 2008 07:00 PM CDT Scientists recommend stockpiling influenza vaccine. Researchers have determined that vaccination will be the best way to protect people in the event of the next influenza pandemic -- but that each person would need two doses.  |
| Beavers: Dam Good For Songbirds Posted: 09 Oct 2008 07:00 PM CDT The songbird has a friend in the beaver. According to a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society, the busy beaver's signature dams provide critical habitat for a variety of migratory songbirds, particularly in the semi-arid interior of the West.  |
| Deflated 'Pancake' Breasts Restored After Pregnancy, Weight Loss, Aging Posted: 09 Oct 2008 07:00 PM CDT Women who desire a mommy-makeover, have had major weight loss, or are unhappy with the toll age has taken on their breasts can breathe easier. An innovative procedure to correct severely deflated, sagging breasts left looking like "pancakes" will be presented at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons Plastic Surgery 2008 conference.  |
| New Material Could Act As Nanofridge For Microchips In Smaller And Faster Computers Posted: 09 Oct 2008 07:00 PM CDT Researchers in Spain have developed a material which could act as a nanofridge for computers, thus eliminating the barrier posed by overheating in ever smaller chips. The material is based on germanium nanostructures, presents a significant reduction in thermal conductivity and therefore could be a potential candidate in the development of thermoelectric systems compatible with silicon.  |
| Posted: 09 Oct 2008 07:00 PM CDT Scientists are showing how the brain changes when mice learn to feel safe and secure in situations that would normally make them anxious. The mice developed a conditioned inhibition of fear that squelches anxiety as effectively as antidepressant drugs, such as Prozac.  |
| Structure Of 'Beneficial' Virus That Can Infect Cancer Cells Solved Posted: 09 Oct 2008 04:00 PM CDT Researchers have, for the first time, solved the structure of a virus that can infect specific cancer cells. This new knowledge may help drug designers tweak the pathogen enough so that it can attack other tumor subtypes.  |
| Chemical Found In Plastics, Bisphenol A, Linked To Chemotherapy Resistance Posted: 09 Oct 2008 04:00 PM CDT Exposure to bisphenol A may reduce the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatments. BPA -- a man-made chemical found in a number of plastic products, including drinking bottles and the lining of food cans —- actually induces a group of proteins that protect cancer cells from the toxic effects of chemotherapy.  |
| When It Comes To Galaxies, Diversity Is Everywhere Posted: 09 Oct 2008 04:00 PM CDT A group of galaxies in our cosmic backyard has given astronomers clues about how stars form. A thorough survey using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed around 14 million stars in 69 galaxies. Some galaxies were found to be full of ancient stars, while others are like sun-making factories.  |
| Controversial Fat Injections Can Improve Breast Reconstruction; Jury's Out On Augmentation Posted: 09 Oct 2008 04:00 PM CDT Injecting fat after breast reconstruction to correct implant wrinkling or dimpling may be safe and effective to improve breast shape, according to a new study.  |
| 'Fingerprinting' Method Tracks Mercury Emissions From Coal Posted: 09 Oct 2008 04:00 PM CDT Researchers have developed a new tool that uses natural "fingerprints" in coal to track down sources of mercury polluting the environment.  |
| Bad Breath? Mouthrinses Work, But Some Cause Temporary Staining Posted: 09 Oct 2008 04:00 PM CDT Over-the-counter mouthrinses really do put a stop to bad breath. The first systematic review on the effectiveness of mouthrinses shows that they play an important role in reducing levels of bacteria and chemicals that cause mouth odours. Pick which one you use though, because some can temporarily stain your tongue and teeth, warns a new review.  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from ScienceDaily: Latest Science News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email Delivery powered by FeedBurner |
Inbox too full?  Subscribe to the feed version of ScienceDaily: Latest Science News in a feed reader. | |
| If you prefer to unsubscribe via postal mail, write to: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News, c/o FeedBurner, 20 W Kinzie, 9th Floor, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment