ScienceDaily: Latest Science News |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2008 11:00 AM PST Observations made by NASA instruments onboard an Air Force satellite have shown that the boundary between the Earth's upper atmosphere and space has moved to extraordinarily low altitudes.  |
| Nanotubes Sniff Out Cancer Agents In Living Cells Posted: 16 Dec 2008 11:00 AM PST MIT Engineers have developed carbon nanotubes into sensors for cancer drugs and other DNA-damaging agents inside living cells.  |
| Rare Lead Bars Discovered Off The Coast Of Ibiza May Be Carthaginian Munitions Posted: 16 Dec 2008 11:00 AM PST Archaeologists have recovered three lead bars which may originate from the third century before Christ, 39 meters under the sea off the north coast of Ibiza. One of the bars has Iberian characters on it. The lead originates from the mines of Sierra Morena in southern Spain.  |
| Charting HIV's Rapidly Changing Journey In The Body Posted: 16 Dec 2008 11:00 AM PST HIV is so deadly largely because it evolves so rapidly. With a single virus as the origin of an infection, most patients will quickly come to harbor thousands of different versions of HIV, all a little bit different and all competing with one another to most efficiently infect that person's cells. Now scientists have settled a longstanding question about just how HIV morphs in the body.  |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2008 11:00 AM PST Researchers have devised a new research tool that could help unpick the complex cell interactions that lead to cancer and also allow social scientists to mine social networking sites such as Facebook for useful insights.  |
| Parents Be Aware This Holiday Season: Magnets In Children's Toys Pose Significant Health Risk Posted: 16 Dec 2008 11:00 AM PST A growing number of adults know about the potential risk of swallowing magnets, but medical complications from magnets continue to be extensive worldwide and throughout childhood.  |
| Titan's Volcanoes Give NASA Spacecraft Chilly Reception Posted: 16 Dec 2008 08:00 AM PST Data collected during several recent flybys of Titan by NASA's Cassini spacecraft have put another arrow in the quiver of scientists who think the Saturnian moon contains active cryovolcanoes spewing a super-chilled liquid into its atmosphere. The information was released today during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, Calif.  |
| Single Adult Stem Cell Can Self Renew, Repair Tissue Damage In Live Mammal Posted: 16 Dec 2008 08:00 AM PST The first demonstration that a single adult stem cell can self renew in a mammal was reported by scientists. The transplanted adult stem cell and its differentiated descendants restored lost function to mice with hind limb muscle tissue damage.  |
| Ocean Fish Farming Harms Wild Fish, Study Says Posted: 16 Dec 2008 08:00 AM PST Farming of fish in ocean cages is fundamentally harmful to wild fish, according to an essay in this week's Conservation Biology. Using basic physics, the author explains how farm fish cause nearby wild fish to decline. The foundation of his paper is that higher density of fish promotes infection, and infection lowers the fitness of the fish.  |
| Cellular Stress Causes Fatty Liver Disease In Mice Posted: 16 Dec 2008 08:00 AM PST Researchers have discovered a direct link between disruption of a critical cellular housekeeping process and fatty liver disease, a condition that causes fat to accumulate in the liver. The findings might open new avenues for understanding and perhaps treating fatty liver disease, which is the most common form of liver disease in the Western world.  |
| Greenland's Glaciers Losing Ice Faster This Year Than Last Year, Which Was Record-setting Itself Posted: 16 Dec 2008 08:00 AM PST Researchers watching the loss of ice flowing out from the giant island of Greenland say that the amount of ice lost this summer is nearly three times what was lost one year ago. The loss of floating ice in 2008 pouring from Greenland's glaciers would cover an area twice the size of Manhattan Island in the US, they said.  |
| Overweight Children At Increased Risk Of Arm And Leg Injuries Following Motor Vehicle Crash Posted: 16 Dec 2008 08:00 AM PST Children who are overweight or obese are over two and a half times more likely to suffer injuries to their upper and lower extremities following a motor vehicle crash compared with normal weight children, according to a report.  |
| Warming Climate Signals Big Changes For Ski Areas, Says New Study Posted: 16 Dec 2008 05:00 AM PST Rocky Mountain ski areas face dramatic changes this century as the climate warms, including best-case scenarios of shortened ski seasons and higher snowlines and worst-case scenarios of bare base areas and winter rains, says a new Colorado study.  |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2008 05:00 AM PST Progeria, premature aging disease of children, is rare, fatal. One of the fastest translations of a basic research discovery into a promising clinical trial for an "untreatable" and fatal disorder will be discussed at the American Society for Cell Biology's annual meeting in San Francisco.  |
| New Hybrid Nanostructures Detect Nanoscale Magnetism Posted: 16 Dec 2008 05:00 AM PST Researchers have created a new process for growing a single multi-walled carbon nanotube that is embedded with cobalt nanostructures. Using this new hybrid material, the team determined that the electrical conductance of MWCNTs is sensitive enough to detect and be affected by trace amounts of magnetic activity. It is believed to be the first instance of demonstrating the detection of magnetic fields of such small magnets using an individual carbon nanotube.  |
| Half-dose Flu Shot Appears To Produce Immune Response In Young, Healthy Adults Posted: 16 Dec 2008 05:00 AM PST Individuals younger than 50 who have been previously vaccinated do not appear to have a substantially different immune response to a half-dose of influenza vaccine than to a full dose, according to a new report. This suggests that half-dose vaccination in healthy young individuals may be effective in times of vaccine shortage.  |
| Posted: 16 Dec 2008 05:00 AM PST A novel x-ray technique allowing the observation of molecular motion on a time scale never reached before has just been developed. This discovery opens promising prospects for the study of chemical and biological systems.  |
| Under-reported Dementia Deaths Raises Questions About Accuracy Of Mortality Statistics Posted: 16 Dec 2008 05:00 AM PST Deaths due to dementia and Alzheimer's disease are underreported on death certificates, according to a new study, raising concerns about the accuracy of mortality statistics based on these documents.  |
| Solar Flare Surprise: Stream Of Perfectly Intact Hydrogen Atoms Detected Posted: 16 Dec 2008 02:00 AM PST Solar flares are the most powerful explosions in the solar system. Packing a punch equal to a hundred million hydrogen bombs, they obliterate everything in their immediate vicinity. Not a single atom should remain intact. At least that's how it's supposed to work.  |
| New Mechanism For Attentional Control In The Human Brain Discovered Posted: 16 Dec 2008 02:00 AM PST A new study in the journal Science reports the discovery of a new mechanism of attention in the human brain. Researchers also provides new insights into the workings of a stimulant-like drug that could have broad applications for enhancing the cognition of people with conditions ranging from autism to schizophrenia.  |
| UV-B Light Sensing Mechanism Discovered In Plant Roots Posted: 16 Dec 2008 02:00 AM PST Scientists have discovered that plant roots can sense UV-B light and have identified a specific gene that is a vital player in UV-B signaling, the communication between cells. The gene RUS1 measures UV-B light levels and passes this information on to other parts of the plant responsible for healthy development.  |
| Key Mechanism That Occurs At Inception Point Of Many Human Lymphomas Identified Posted: 16 Dec 2008 02:00 AM PST Researchers have explained how certain key mutations occur in human lymphomas -- a process that has, until now, remained a mystery.  |
| The European Eel: To Migrate Or Not To Migrate In Freshwaters? Posted: 16 Dec 2008 02:00 AM PST The European eel's biology and ecology never cease to amaze us. At the elver stage, certain individuals swim up estuaries to grow in rivers, whereas others spend their entire life cycle at sea. In Bordeaux, researchers have looked into the origin of this divergence in migratory behavior. What if it was only a question of energy reserves and feeding behavior?  |
| Children With Diabetes At Increased Risk For Developing Eating Disorders Posted: 16 Dec 2008 02:00 AM PST Children with diabetes are at an increased risk for developing eating disorders, and researchers want to know if it's their disease or treatment that's to blame.  |
| High Pesticide Levels Found In Fruit-based Drinks In Some Countries Outside United States Posted: 15 Dec 2008 11:00 PM PST In the first worldwide study of pesticides in fruit-based soft drinks, researchers in Spain are reporting relatively high levels of pesticides in drinks in some countries, especially the United Kingdom and Spain. Drinks sampled from the United States, however, had relatively low levels, the researchers note.  |
| Late Preterm Births Present Serious Risks To Newborns Posted: 15 Dec 2008 11:00 PM PST More than half a million babies are born preterm in the United States each year, and preterm births are on the rise. Late preterm births, or births that occur between 34 and 36 weeks (approximately 4 to 6 weeks before the mother's due date), account for more than 70% of preterm births. Despite the large number of affected babies, many people are unaware of the serious health problems related to late preterm births. A new study and an accompanying editorial soon to be published in The Journal of Pediatrics investigate the serious neurological problems associated with late preterm births.  |
| Metabolic Reactions: Less Is More In Single-celled Organisms Posted: 15 Dec 2008 11:00 PM PST A new study of four single-celled organisms had some surprising results. The organisms, which differed in size and complexity of each organism's genome, used the same number of biochemical reactions when optimizing growth. And, contrary to what you might expect, each, to efficiently perform metabolic tasks such as growing fast or converting sugars to ethanol, tended to use only a small fraction of the biochemical reactions available to them in the metabolic network.  |
| Good News For Young Male Cancer Patients Posted: 15 Dec 2008 11:00 PM PST Young men undergoing treatment for cancer often want to know how the disease and its treatment affect their chances of fathering healthy children. A new large-scale study shows that there is a slightly higher risk of deformities, but the actual risk of having a child with deformities is nevertheless extremely low.  |
| Computer Scientists Launching Indoor Navigation System Posted: 15 Dec 2008 11:00 PM PST Now that navigation systems are here to stay, we can hardly imagine life without them. Aside from private use for getting about on roads, they play an essential role in air and ocean traffic, and even in rail transport for guiding and monitoring trains. Now researchers are developing positioning and navigation technologies to be used in the field of traffic logistics and for emergency services. What they are focusing on in particular is indoor positioning and navigation.  |
| Drug-resistant Tuberculosis Rife In China Posted: 15 Dec 2008 11:00 PM PST Levels of drug-resistant tuberculosis in China are nearly twice the global average. Nationwide research published in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases has shown that almost 10 percent of Chinese TB cases are resistant to the most effective first-line drugs.  |
| Practice As Well As Sleep May Help Birds Learn New Songs Posted: 15 Dec 2008 08:00 PM PST The reorganization of neural activity during sleep helps young songbirds to develop the vocal skills they display while awake. Practice, or auditory feedback, may also play a role in learning.  |
| Gene Mutation Appears To Help Prevent Heart Disease Posted: 15 Dec 2008 08:00 PM PST Researchers have discovered a novel gene mutation among the Old Order Amish population that significantly reduces the level of triglycerides in the blood and appears to help prevent cardiovascular disease.  |
| Meiosis: Cueing Up At The Meiotic Starting Line Posted: 15 Dec 2008 08:00 PM PST Geneticists have been debating if meiosis requires only external or internal signals. Although earlier work revealed that an external cue from retinoic acid is needed, new research shows that embryonic germ cells must first express the Dazl gene in order to process the retinoic acid signal.  |
| Intense Chemotherapy Wards Off Recurrence In Half Of Mantle Cell Lymphoma Patients After Seven Years Posted: 15 Dec 2008 08:00 PM PST More than half of younger mantle cell lymphoma patients who received an intensive regimen of chemotherapy as front-line treatment remain in remission seven years later, researchers have reported.  |
| Supercomputer Center Director Offers Tips On Data Preservation In The Information Age Posted: 15 Dec 2008 08:00 PM PST The world has gone digital in just about everything we do. Almost every iota of information we access these days is stored in some kind of digital form and accessed electronically -- text, charts, images, video, music, you name it. The key questions are: Will your data be there when you need it? And who's going to preserve it?  |
| Effects Of Unconscious Exposure To Advertisements Posted: 15 Dec 2008 08:00 PM PST Fads have been a staple of American pop culture for decades, from spandex in the 1980s to skinny jeans today. But while going from fad to flop may seem like the result of fickle consumers, a new study suggests that this is exactly what should be expected for a highly efficient, rationally evolved animal.  |
| As Ice Melts, Antarctic Bedrock Is On The Move Posted: 15 Dec 2008 05:00 PM PST As ice melts away from Antarctica, parts of the continental bedrock are rising in response -- and other parts are sinking, scientists have discovered. The finding will give much needed perspective to satellite instruments that measure ice loss on the continent, and help improve estimates of future sea level rise.  |
| How Mutations Are Transmitted From One Generation To The Next Posted: 15 Dec 2008 05:00 PM PST A fundamental process in the transmission of genes from mother to child has been identified. The new study identifies a mechanism that plays a key role in how mutations are transmitted from one generation to the next, providing unprecedented insight into metabolic diseases.  |
| Robotic Aircraft Designed For Weather Forecasting Posted: 15 Dec 2008 05:00 PM PST At MIT, planning for bad weather involves far more than remembering an umbrella. Researchers in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics are trying to improve weather forecasting using robotic aircraft and advanced flight plans that consider millions of variables.  |
| Hepatitis C Treatment Reduces The Virus But Liver Damage Continues Posted: 15 Dec 2008 05:00 PM PST Treating patients who have chronic hepatitis C and advanced liver disease with long-term pegylated interferon significantly decreased their liver enzymes, viral levels and liver inflammation, but the treatment did not slow or prevent the progression of serious liver disease, a study finds.  |
| Predecessor of Cows, The Aurochs, Were Still Living In The Netherlands Around AD 600 Posted: 15 Dec 2008 05:00 PM PST Archaeological researchers have discovered that the aurochs, the predecessor of our present-day cow, lived in the Netherlands for longer than originally assumed. Remains of bones recently retrieved from a horn core found in Holwerd (Friesland, Netherlands), show that the aurochs became extinct in around AD 600 and not in the fourth century.  |
| Low-carb Diets Can Affect Dieters' Cognition Skills Posted: 15 Dec 2008 05:00 PM PST A new study shows that when dieters eliminate carbohydrates from their meals, they performed more poorly on memory-based tasks than when they reduce calories, but maintain carbohydrates. When carbohydrates were reintroduced, cognition skills returned to normal.  |
| Obesity All In Your Head? Brain Genes Associated With Increased Body Mass Posted: 15 Dec 2008 02:00 PM PST Is obesity all in your head? New research suggests that genes that predispose people to obesity act in the brain and that perhaps some people are simply hardwired to overeat. A genetic study of more than 90,000 people has identified six new genetic variants that are associated with increased Body Mass Index. Five of the genes are known to be active in the brain, suggesting that many genetic variants implicated in obesity might affect behavior.  |
| Immunity Stronger At Night Than During Day Posted: 15 Dec 2008 02:00 PM PST A fruit fly's immune system can tell time, researchers have found, and how hard it punches back against infections depends on whether the fly is snoozing or cruising. The discovery could have implications for human health, too.  |
| Dwarf Crocodiles Split Into Three Species Posted: 15 Dec 2008 02:00 PM PST Biologists have discovered that the African dwarf crocodile -- once thought to be two subspecies -- is genetically three distinct species. This result highlights the need for accurate taxonomy for conservation management. The new, unnamed species comes from a population in West Africa.  |
| Promising New Drug Blocks Mutation In Bone Marrow Cancers Posted: 15 Dec 2008 02:00 PM PST Researchers have found that an experimental drug successfully blocks an enzyme that causes some bone marrow cancers. The oral drug, called CYT387, was tested in mice as well as in human cells. In both cases, it blocked the growth of certain bone marrow cancers called myeloproliferative disorders, also referred to as MPDs.  |
| Astrophysicists Aim To Recreate Stars In The Lab Posted: 15 Dec 2008 02:00 PM PST A greater understanding of energetic processes in stars could accelerate development of clean energy from nuclear fusion.  |
| Danger Of Heavy Toilet Seats To Male Toddlers Posted: 15 Dec 2008 02:00 PM PST Doctors have expressed considerable concerns about the growing trend for heavy wooden and ornamental toilet seats after a number of male toddlers were admitted with crush injuries to their penises.  |
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