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Orangutan's Spontaneous Whistling Opens New Chapter In Study Of Evolution Of Speech Posted: 12 Dec 2008 11:00 AM PST An orangutan's spontaneous whistling is providing scientists at Great Ape Trust of Iowa new insights into the evolution of speech and learning.

Key To Regulation Of Puberty Discovered Posted: 12 Dec 2008 11:00 AM PST Scientists have taken a major step to understanding how the brain controls the onset of puberty. They have identified the hormone Neurokinin B as a critical part of the control system that switches on the master regulator of human puberty.

Technique To Count Messages Made By Single Genes Developed Posted: 12 Dec 2008 11:00 AM PST Researchers describe a technique for looking more precisely at a fundamental step of a cell's life: a gene, DNA, being read into a message, mRNA. The technique could provide a window into the process by which genes are switched on inappropriately, causing disease.

New Cause Of Heart Arrhythmia Found Posted: 12 Dec 2008 11:00 AM PST A new study shows that atrial fibrillation -- the most common form of sustained heart arrhythmia -- can be caused in an unexpected way. Researchers report the first evidence that a rare and particularly severe form of the disease stems from a gene involved in shuttling other molecules in and out of the cell nucleus, where the DNA that serves as the blueprint for life is housed.

Wave Power Facility Successful in Sweden Posted: 12 Dec 2008 11:00 AM PST A wave energy plant located in the sea outside Lysekil, Sweden has been quite successful. For nearly three years, a wave power plant has stood on the bottom of the ocean a couple of kilometers off the west coast of Sweden, near Lysekil. The station is uniquely durable and maintenance-free because of its simple mechanical construction.

Engineers To Create Virtual Crash Test Dummy Posted: 12 Dec 2008 11:00 AM PST Engineers are working on a new "virtual" crash test dummy, one that will live entirely within computers, but will be more realistic than any physical dummy ever subjected to a crash test.

New Detector Will Aid Dark Matter Search Posted: 12 Dec 2008 08:00 AM PST Several research projects are underway to try to detect particles that may make up the mysterious "dark matter" believed to dominate the universe's mass. But the existing detectors have a problem: They also pick up particles of ordinary matter that masquerade as the dark-matter particles. An MIT physicist has a solution.

Hot Drinks Help Fight Cold And Flu Posted: 12 Dec 2008 08:00 AM PST A hot drink may help reduce the symptoms of common colds and flu, according to new research. New research at the Center has found that a simple hot drink of fruit cordial can provide immediate and sustained relief from symptoms of runny nose, cough, sneezing, sore throat, chilliness and tiredness.

Avalanches -- Triggered From The Valley Posted: 12 Dec 2008 08:00 AM PST When slab avalanches thunder into the valley, winter sports fans are in danger. Researchers have now gained amazing insights into the formation of these avalanches -- especially regarding how they are remotely triggered by skiers in more gently inclined areas.

If MRI Shows Signs Of Multiple Sclerosis, Will The Disease Develop? Posted: 12 Dec 2008 08:00 AM PST With more and more people having brain MRIs for various reasons, doctors are finding people whose scans show signs of multiple sclerosis even though they have no symptoms of the disease. A new study published in Neurology found that a third of these people developed MS within an average of about five years.

New Technology Helps Protect US Troops From Infectious Diseases Posted: 12 Dec 2008 08:00 AM PST An enhanced computerized system has been designed to assess environmental and health concerns for deployed US forces. The Global Situational Awareness Tool, developed and operated by the Air Force Special Operations Command, is a computerized set of linkable databases that characterizes and predicts health risks and other dangers to US troops and multi-national forces in Afghanistan and other areas.

Panic Attacks Linked To Higher Risk Of Heart Attacks And Heart Disease, Especially In Younger People Posted: 12 Dec 2008 08:00 AM PST People who have been diagnosed with panic attacks or panic disorder have a greater risk of subsequently developing heart disease or suffering a heart attack than the normal population, with higher rates occurring in younger people, according to new research.

Lethal 'Lint Brush' Captures And Kills Cancer Cells In Bloodstream Posted: 12 Dec 2008 05:00 AM PST In a new tactic in the fight against cancer, scientists have developed what they call a lethal "lint brush" for the blood -- a tiny, implantable device that captures and kills cancer cells in the bloodstream before they spread through the body.

Cellular 'Brakes' May Slow Memory Process In Aging Brains Posted: 12 Dec 2008 05:00 AM PST When diseases or even old age threaten brain cells, some neurons survive while neurons no farther than a millimeter away die. Researchers may have discovered a molecular mechanism that puts the brakes of cell-survival processes, a finding that could be important for understanding age-related memory loss.

Oscillation Rules As The Pacific Cools Posted: 12 Dec 2008 05:00 AM PST The latest image of sea-surface height measurements from the U.S./French Jason-1 oceanography satellite shows the Pacific Ocean remains locked in a strong, cool phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a large, long-lived pattern of climate variability in the Pacific associated with a general cooling of Pacific waters. The image also confirms that El Niño and La Niña remain absent from the tropical Pacific.

RNA Interference Can Facilitate Vaccine Development Posted: 12 Dec 2008 05:00 AM PST Pharmaceutical companies and universities are racing to develop drugs that use the gene silencing mechanism known as RNA interference to treat a host of diseases. Now, a new study opens up an entirely new possibility for this powerful tool: Researchers have demonstrated for the first time that RNA interference can be used as a tool in the development of vaccines.

Semantic Web Technologies Could Improve The Shopping Experience Posted: 12 Dec 2008 05:00 AM PST Scientists at Toshiba's Corporate Research and Development Center in Japan have developed a system that offers shoppers advice on what to buy based on the product barcode and the current weblog buzz around the gadget. The team describes the system WOM Scouter this month in the International Journal of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies.

Living In Multigenerational Households Triples Women's Heart Disease Risk Posted: 12 Dec 2008 05:00 AM PST Living in a household with several generations of relatives triples a woman's risk of serious heart disease, suggests research published in the journal Heart.

Boy Or Girl? It's In The Father's Genes Posted: 12 Dec 2008 02:00 AM PST A study of hundreds of years of family trees suggests a man's genes play a role in him having sons or daughters. Men inherit a tendency to have more sons or more daughters from their parents. This means that a man with many brothers is more likely to have sons, while a man with many sisters is more likely to have daughters.

Oral Cancer Patients Could Be Diagnosed Earlier, Study Suggests Posted: 12 Dec 2008 02:00 AM PST Worldwide, more than 500,000 new cases of cancer of the mouth are diagnosed each year. The majority of these cancers are found too late, causing many people to die within five years of finding out they have cancer.

Future of Plastics: Designing Tomorrow's Sustainable Polymer Posted: 12 Dec 2008 02:00 AM PST Tomorrow's specialty plastics may be produced more precisely and cheaply thanks to the apparently tight merger of a theory by a chemist and years of unexplained data from real world experiments involving polymers in Europe.

No Benefit Shown From Drug Widely Used To Prevent Premature Births Posted: 12 Dec 2008 02:00 AM PST When a pregnant woman goes into early labor, her obstetrician may give her drugs to quiet the woman's uterus and prevent premature birth. New research shows, however, that one popular drug works no better than a placebo at maintaining pregnancy after the initial bout of preterm labor is halted.

Rust-proof -- Even Without Chromium Posted: 12 Dec 2008 02:00 AM PST For a long time, chromium plating protected car bodies against rust, but this has been prohibited since 2007. However, chromium-free coatings are not suitable for universal use; they have to be adapted to the respective application. A new chromium-free coating can help.

Obesity Among California's Low-income Teens Nearly Triple That Of More Affluent Peers Posted: 12 Dec 2008 02:00 AM PST In this policy brief, the authors examine why low-income teenagers are almost three times more likely to be obese than teens from more affluent households. Specifically, persistent barriers to health were found, including high numbers of neighborhood fast food restaurants, high sugary soda consumption and television viewing and low numbers of parks and other opportunities for physical activity.

Climate Change Alters Ocean Chemistry Posted: 11 Dec 2008 11:00 PM PST Scientists have discovered that the ocean's chemical makeup is less stable and more greatly affected by climate change than previously believed. The researchers report in Science that during a time of climate change 13 million years ago, the chemical makeup of the oceans changed dramatically. The researchers warn that the chemistry of the ocean today could be similarly affected by climate changes now underway, with potentially far-reaching consequences for marine ecosystems.

Gene Mutation That Causes Eye Cancer Discovered Posted: 11 Dec 2008 11:00 PM PST A geneticist has discovered a gene mutation that can cause the most common eye cancer -- uveal melanoma. The genetic mutation in a gene called GNAQ could be responsible for 45 percent of the cases of uveal melanoma.

Pesticides Are In For It Now Posted: 11 Dec 2008 11:00 PM PST Chemists have developed a method to detect pesticide residues in foodstuffs -- a method that may also be of interest for other areas and may enable quality checks on a running basis.

Drug Combination Improves Or Stabilizes Disease For Relapsed Multiple Myeloma Patients Posted: 11 Dec 2008 11:00 PM PST Researchers have found that a new combination of medications designed to maximize immune functions improved or stabilized multiple myeloma for 76 percent of patients who had relapsed after previous treatment.

Computation And Genomics Data Drive Bacterial Research Into New Golden Age Posted: 11 Dec 2008 11:00 PM PST A potent combination of powerful new analysis methods and abundant data from genomics projects is carrying microbiology forward into a new era. Bacteria in particular are shedding light on fundamental molecular and signaling processes of interest not just within microbiology, but across the whole spectrum of life sciences embracing higher organisms, including plants and vertebrates.

One In Three U.K. Adults Will Be Obese By 2012 Posted: 11 Dec 2008 11:00 PM PST One in three UK adults -- or 13 million people -- will be obese by 2012, finds research published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. And almost half of them will be from low income and disadvantaged communities, widening the health gap between the haves and have-nots even further, say the authors.

Wind, Water And Sun Beat Biofuels, Nuclear And Coal For Clean Energy Posted: 11 Dec 2008 08:00 PM PST Biofuels, nuclear energy and coal are the worst choices for energy alternatives to petroleum products and wind, solar, geothermal, tides and waves are the best, according to results from the first quantitative, scientific evaluation of the proposed, major, energy-related solutions that assesses not only their potential for delivering energy for electricity and vehicles, but also their impacts on global warming, human health, energy security, water supply, space requirements, wildlife, water pollution, reliability and sustainability.

Collagen May Help Protect Brain Against Alzheimer's Disease Posted: 11 Dec 2008 08:00 PM PST Scientists have discovered that a certain type of collagen, collagen VI, protects brain cells against amyloid-beta proteins, which are widely thought to cause Alzheimer's disease.

Robots Designed To Save Lives Of Construction Workers Posted: 11 Dec 2008 08:00 PM PST A trio of pole-climbing serpentine robots are designed to take the place of construction workers tasked with dangerous jobs such as inspecting high-rises or underwater bridge piers. The autonomous robots are designed to climb scaffolding and buildings by wrapping around a poll or beam and then rolling upward via an oscillating joint motion.

Blocking Immune Inhibitor Improves Response To HIV-like Virus, Prolongs Survival In Monkeys Posted: 11 Dec 2008 08:00 PM PST PD-1 is an immune system receptor that hampers the ability of anti-viral killer cells to fight against chronic viral infections, including HIV, HCV and TB. Using an antibody that blocks PD-1, researchers safely and significantly improved both killer T-cell and antibody immune responses against simian immunodeficiency virus in severely infected rhesus macaque monkeys, leading to prolonged survival. PD-1 blockade potentially could be effective in treating humans with HIV or other chronic infectious diseases.

Chemist Tames Longstanding Electron Computation Problem Posted: 11 Dec 2008 08:00 PM PST For 50 years, theoretical chemists have puzzled over the problem of predicting many-electron chemistry with only two electrons, which many thought intractable and perhaps impossible to solve. One scientist will present a new approach to tuning his solution to the problem for exceptional computational accuracy and efficiency in the journal Physical Review Letters.

38 Percent Of Adults And 12 Percent Of Children Use Complementary And Alternative Medicine, Government Survey Shows Posted: 11 Dec 2008 08:00 PM PST Approximately 38 percent of adults in the United States aged 18 years and over and nearly 12 percent of U.S. children aged 17 years and under use some form of complementary and alternative medicine, according to a new nationwide government survey.

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