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Here is your customized PHYSorg.com Newsletter for May 28, 2010:
Spotlight Stories Headlines
- Japan plans to build robot moon base by 2020- 'Nano-tattoo' may help diabetics track their blood sugar
- Radioactive isotope of tin confirmed to have doubly magic nucleus
- Arizona man is first to go home with a total artificial heart
- Walking robot navigates bumpy ground (w/ Video)
- Applied physicists create building blocks for a new class of optical circuits
- Following the Sugar Right From the Start: Researchers Image Glycans on Embryonic Cells Hours After Fertilization
- The epigenetic influence of the father
- In The Brain, Early-Stage Intense Passionate Love Seems To Be Universal
- Zeroing in on quantum effects: New materials yield clues about high-temperature superconductors
- Austria bans Google's street view cars over privacy
- Drug shields lab monkeys from deadly Ebola virus
- Could the Taste of Vodka be Related to Molecular Makeup?
- Fujitsu Supercomputer Achieves World Record in Computational Quantum Chemistry
- Biologists report how whales have changed over 35 million years
Space & Earth news
Millions face hunger in arid belt of Africa
(AP) -- At this time of year, the Gadabeji Reserve should be refuge for the nomadic tribes who travel across a moonscape on the edge of the Sahara to graze their cattle. But the grass is meager after a drought killed off the last year's crops. Now the cattle are too weak to stand and too skinny to sell, leaving the poor without any way to buy grain to feed their families.
Australia to sue Japan over whaling
Australia said Friday it would begin legal action next week to stop Japan killing hundreds of whales a year in the name of scientific research, prompting immediate condemnation from Tokyo.
Experts gather as volcanic dust settles
Following the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajoekull volcano that spewed huge amounts of ash and grounded numerous flights, more than 50 experts from around the world gathered at a workshop organised by ESA and EUMETSAT to discuss what has been learned and identify future opportunities for volcanic ash monitoring.
The turbulent past of the Milky Way's black hole
The supermassive black hole at the center of our Galaxy went through turbulent times over the past centuries. We know this thanks to its surrounding molecular clouds, whose varying X-ray and gamma-ray luminosity reflects a major flare in the past. These findings, obtained by an international team of researchers led by French astrophysicists, are published in The Astrophysical Journal.
Canadian research examines effects of scientific claims on oil
A University of Alberta researcher says people generally do not act on information about the effects fossil fuel-based products are having on the environment. And the reason, says English and film studies researcher Imre Szeman, is because of the way discussions on environmental issues are structured.
Put more nitrogen into milk, not manure
The more efficient dairy farmers are in managing nitrogen, the more milk their cows will produce and the less nitrogen will be wasted in manure and urine, according a study by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and cooperators.
Delta 4 rocket blasts off on GPS mission
(AP) -- After several day's delay due to technical issues, a Delta 4 rocket has rumbled into the sky from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral carrying a GPS satellite.
Post-mortem of a Comet: Scientists put the Comet Wild 2 under the microscope
Researchers at the University of Leicester are examining extraterrestrial material from a comet to assess the origins of our Solar System.
NASA Marshall Successfully Tests Sub-Scale Rocket Motor (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Fire and sparks flew as a 24-inch-diameter solid rocket motor was successfully tested May 27 at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The 21-second firing tested a NASA sub-scale motor designed as a versatile, quick-turnaround and low-cost way to determine the performance of new materials and designs.
Obama visits oil spill zone, 'top kill' results awaited
US President Barack Obama arrived in Louisiana Friday to view the oil spill response amid suspense over the latest bid to cap the massive leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
Indonesia mud volcano still spewing sludge four years later
Four years after it erupted from the well of a gas company linked to one of Indonesia's richest men, the mud volcano known as "Lusi" is still spewing its toxic sludge over Java's countryside.
In deserts, which dunes are the most stable?
By modeling a desert where the wind blows in two directions, French researchers from CNRS and Universite Paris Dideror have succeeded in observing and highlighting, for the very first time, the formation process and long-term evolution of two types of very large sand dunes: transverse dunes and longitudinal dunes.
NASA Sensor Completes Initial Gulf Oil Spill Flights
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) instrument collected an image over the site of the Deepwater Horizon BP oil rig disaster on May 17, 2010. Crude oil on the surface appears orange to brown. Scientists are using spectroscopic methods to analyze measurements for each point in images like this one to detail the characteristics of the oil on the surface.
Study finds reforestation may lower the climate change mitigation potential of forests
Scientists at the University of Oklahoma and the Fudan University in Shanghai, China, have found that reforestation and afforestation -- the creation of new forests -- may lower the potential of forests for climate change lessening.
New study maps spawning habitat of bluefin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico
Electronic tagging and fisheries catch data have revealed pronounced differences in preferred habitat of Atlantic bluefin tuna and yellowfin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico, despite their close ancestry, according to a new study published today in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE. Bluefin tuna return to the same regions of the Gulf of Mexico during spring months to spawn. The bluefin are selecting a particular habitat along the slope waters of the Gulf of Mexico, which has unique oceanographic properties that are predictable and can be seen from satellites. Yellowfin tuna are more widely distributed throughout the warm Gulf waters and occupy the region throughout the year.
MBARI sends underwater robot to study Deepwater Horizon spill (w/ Video)
MBARI's Division of Marine Operations, under an agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), sent a high-tech robotic submersible to the oily waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The goal is to collect information about the oil plume from the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig accident for NOAA.
BP pushes on with 'top kill' as true slick size emerges
BP pressed on Friday with a risky bid to plug a ruptured oil well it said was going as planned, while new data showed the Gulf of Mexico spill is the worst in US history.
The Earth's hidden weakness
(PhysOrg.com) -- Three thousand kilometres beneath our feet, the Earth's solid rock gives way to the swirling liquid iron of the outer core.
Small Near-Earth Object Probably a Rocket Part
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have determined that a small object that safely passed Earth on May 21 is more than likely an upper-stage of a rocket that carried a spacecraft on an interplanetary trajectory.
Deep subduction of the Indian continental crust beneath Asia
Geological investigations in the Himalayas have revealed evidence that when India and Asia collided some 90 million years ago, the continental crust of the Indian tectonic plate was forced down under the Asian plate, sinking down into the Earth's mantle to a depth of at least 200 km kilometers.
Europa's Churn Leads to Oxygen Burn
Jupiter's moon Europa has a salty ocean, and scientists have long wondered if life could be found there. One scientist says Europa also has enough oxygen to support an ocean teeming with life.
The Polaris Cluster
(PhysOrg.com) -- A Cepheid star is one whose mass and age results in physical conditions that generate periodic oscillations in its photosphere. A Cepheid thus varies regularly in brightness, with a period proportional to its intrinsic luminosity.
Japan plans to build robot moon base by 2020
(PhysOrg.com) -- Believing that a moon base is essential for exploration of the solar system, Japan has recently announced plans to send humanoid robots to the moon to construct a robot lunar base. As part of the $2.2 billion project, the robots will begin surveying the moon around 2015, and then build the unmanned base near the moon's South Pole by 2020.
Technology news
TSMC Announces 0.18-Micron Automotive Grade Embedded Flash IP
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company today announced the 0.18-mciron automotive Embedded Flash IP as its second generation Embedded Flash IP that passed AEC-Q100 product qualification requirements for a wide range of automotive applications.
Taiwan's Foxconn raising pay for workers
(AP) -- The Taiwanese electronics company buffeted by a spate of suicides at its China factories said Friday it will raise the pay of workers by an average of 20 percent.
Researcher develops new antenna to aid rural emergency workers
Emergency workers in rugged, rural areas may never lose a cell phone call again thanks to a new antenna developed by Montana State University researchers in collaboration with Advanced Acoustic Concepts, Inc.
Student uses pedal power to create novel machine
An innovative bicycle-powered water pump, created by a student at the University of Sheffield, has proved a huge success and is now in regular production in Guatemala, transforming the lives of rural residents.
eBay enlists China and US post services to battle Taobao
US auction site eBay announced a partnership Friday with China Post and the US Postal Service in a new bid to re-establish itself in China, where the market is dominated by homegrown rival Taobao.com.
Time is money: SIM time network has far-reaching benefits
Clocks in the Americas and the Caribbean Islands are now ticking in unison thanks to the work of the Sistema Interamericano de Metrologia (SIM), a regional metrology organization that works to promote accurate measurements throughout the Americas. Since 2005, SIM has been building a time network, designed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, that now extends to 16 nations.
Fujitsu Develops Gallium-Nitride HEMT Amplifier Featuring World's Highest Output in the C-Ku Band
Fujitsu today announced the development of an amplifier based on gallium-nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) technology, which features an output of 12.9W - more than twice the output of previous amplifiers and presently featuring the world's highest amplification output - when operating in the wide band range of the C-band, X-band, and Ku-band radio frequency spectrums between 6GHz-18GHz.
Feds sue 6 websites for offering free comic books
(AP) -- Six websites run by a Florida man violated federal copyright laws by allowing visitors to view Batman and other comic books for free without permission from the publishers or authors, government lawyers charge in a federal lawsuit.
Lawmaker seeks cooperation from Google, Facebook
(AP) -- The head of the House Judiciary Committee is asking Google and Facebook to cooperate with government inquiries into privacy practices at both companies.
Robots big and small showcase their skills at NIST Alaskan events (w/ Video)
Make room, Bender, Rosie and R2D2! Your newest mechanical colleagues are a few steps closer to reality, thanks to lessons learned during two robotics events hosted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) at the recent IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Anchorage, Alaska. The events—the Virtual Manufacturing Automation Competition (VMAC) and the Mobile Microrobotics Challenge (MMC)—were designed to prove the viability of advanced technologies for robotic automation of manufacturing and microrobotics.
Austria bans Google's street view cars over privacy
Austria has placed a temporary ban on Google Street View cars while it probes concerns that the Internet company used the vehicles to collect private data, a statement said Friday.
Fujitsu Supercomputer Achieves World Record in Computational Quantum Chemistry
Fujitsu and Chuo University of Japan today announced that a team of researchers employed the T2K Open Supercomputer - which was delivered by Fujitsu to Kyoto University's Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies - to successfully compute with high precision, as a world first, an optimization problem to reveal the molecular behavior of ethane (CH3 only), ammonia (NH3) and oxygen (O2).
Medicine & Health news
Health group: Donor cuts hurting Africa AIDS fight
(AP) -- Doctors are being forced to turn away people with HIV/AIDS - meaning they will fall ill and almost certainly die - in eight African countries as donors cut funding amid the global economic meltdown, an aid group said Thursday.
UCSF analyses detail tobacco industry influence on health policy
Three new UCSF studies describe the wide reach of the tobacco industry and its influence on young people, military veterans and national health care reform.
MSU team studies connection between statins, tendon ruptures
Michigan State University researchers are studying the role that statins - lifesavers for tens of millions of Americans trying to lower their cholesterol - play in causing disabling tendon ruptures.
NYC hospital wins kidney transplant-cancer lawsuit
(AP) -- A prominent organ-transplant hospital wasn't to blame for the death of a man who became riddled with cancer after getting a kidney from a donor who unknowingly had uterine cancer, jurors found Friday.
Researchers find papillary renal cell carcinoma unresponsive to sunitinib
Of the more than 38,000 Americans diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) each year, approximately 20 percent have non-clear cell forms of the disease. New findings shows that a non-clear cell form of kidney cancer known as papillary RCC, which accounts for 12 percent of all RCC, responds differently to sunitinib - a standard frontline treatment for RCC. In a small but decisive Phase II trial, the researchers found that sunitinib was not effective in patients with this form of the disease. The terms clear- and non-clear cell refer to the general appearance of the cancer cells under a microscope.
Young children respond well to recommended swine flu vaccine
The first head to head study of the two H1N1 vaccines used in the UK during the recent pandemic finds that the adjuvanted split virus vaccine induced higher immune response rates in young children, but was associated with more reactions than the whole virus vaccine.
Oakland to license, tax indoor marijuana growers
(AP) -- Local governments in California and other Western states have tried to clamp down on medical marijuana, but Oakland has taken a different approach.
Frozen human embryos are not life forms, S.Korean court says
South Korea's Constitutional Court has ruled that human embryos left over from fertility treatment are not life forms and can be used for research or destroyed, a court spokesman said Friday.
The deep voice of alpha male
Men with a deep, masculine voice are seen as more dominant by other men but a man's own dominance - perceived or actual - does not affect how attentive he is to his rivals' voices. His own dominance does however influence how he rates his competitors' dominance: the more dominant he thinks he is, the less dominant he rates his rival's voice. These findings by Sarah Wolff and David Puts, from the Department of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University in the US, are published online in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.
Those with allergic asthma face double trouble during flu season, findings suggest
New research from UT Southwestern Medical Center suggests that allergic reactions to pet dander, dust mites and mold may prevent people with allergic asthma from generating a healthy immune response to respiratory viruses such as influenza.
Video game research project to help blind children exercise
VI Fit, a project at the University of Nevada, Reno, helps children who are blind become more physically active and healthy through video games.
Age is a factor in choosing between two comparable stroke-prevention procedures
A published report provides the final details on how two stroke-prevention procedures are safe and equally beneficial for men and women at risk for stroke, though their effectiveness does vary by age, say researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health in collaboration with other North American stroke investigators.
Many with HIV start care too late
Despite growing evidence that the earlier people are diagnosed with HIV and get access to care, the better their clinical outcomes, many HIV-infected people in the United States and Canada are not receiving the care they need early enough. A study of nearly 45,000 patients in both countries highlighting this trend appears in the June 1, 2010, issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.
Cold sore virus may contribute to cognitive and brain abnormalities in schizophrenia
Exposure to the common virus that causes cold sores may be partially responsible for shrinking regions of the brain and the loss of concentration skills, memory, coordinated movement and dexterity widely seen in patients with schizophrenia, according to research led by Johns Hopkins scientists.
Prenatal exposure to BPA and DES may increase breast cancer risk
Exposure in the womb to chemicals like Bisphenol-A (BPA) and Diethylstilbestrol (DES) can increase an offspring's risk of breast cancer, researchers at Yale School of Medicine report in a study published in current issue of Hormones and Cancer, a journal of The Endocrine Society.
New source of stem cells form heart muscle cells, repair damage
A new and non-controversial source of stem cells can form heart muscle cells and help repair heart damage, according to results of preliminary lab tests reported in Circulation Research: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Drug shields lab monkeys from deadly Ebola virus
Pentagon-backed research has yielded a breakthrough in the fight against the Ebola virus, a pathogen that is also feared as a future bioterror weapon, scientists reported on Friday.
Violent video games touted as learning tool
(AP) -- You're at the front lines shooting Nazis before they shoot you. Or you're a futuristic gladiator in a death match with robots.
Will we succeed? The science of self-motivation
Can you help you? Recent research by University of Illinois Professor Dolores Albarracin and Visiting Assistant Professor Ibrahim Senay, along with Kenji Noguchi, Assistant Professor at Southern Mississippi University, has shown that those who ask themselves whether they will perform a task generally do better than those who tell themselves that they will.
The epigenetic influence of the father
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) shed light on the highly debated question whether fathers transmit epigenetic information to their offspring. They have shown that the relatively few histones that bind and fold up DNA in mature human sperm carry specific covalent modifications and occupy specific sites in the genome.
In The Brain, Early-Stage Intense Passionate Love Seems To Be Universal
(PhysOrg.com) -- Close relationship researchers have previously found that Easterners (those from collectivistic cultures such as China) seem to regard love differently from Westerners (those from individualist cultures such as the United States).
Arizona man is first to go home with a total artificial heart
(PhysOrg.com) -- An Arizona man has left hospital with a completely artificial heart beating in his chest. Father of three Charles Okeke, 43, from Phoenix is the first person to leave hospital with a Total Artificial Heart keeping him alive until he receives a donor heart.
Biology news
Sea otter that survived '89 spill dies in Seattle
(AP) -- A 21-year-old northern sea otter who survived the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska died Thursday at the Seattle Aquarium.
Small sea snail damaging world's coral reefs
(PhysOrg.com) -- Victoria University research has found that a small sea snail may be causing significant damage to coral reefs in the Pacific, even more so than climate change or coral bleaching.
Raptors guard S.African World Cup stadium
A South African World Cup stadium has turned to birds of prey to chase out rogue pigeons and rats in an anti-pest strategy that favours raptors above the pitch instead of poisons.
Snails on methamphetamine
Crystal meth (methamphetamine) is a highly addictive drug that seduces victims by increasing self-esteem and sexual pleasure, and inducing euphoria. But once hooked, addicts find the habit hard to break. Barbara Sorg from Washington State University, USA, explains that amphetamines enhance memory. 'In addiction we talk about the "drug memory" as a "pathological memory". It is so potent as to not be easily forgotten,' she explains. As memory plays an important role in addiction, Sorg wondered whether it might be possible to find out more about the effects of meth on memory by looking at the effect it has on a humble mollusc: the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis.
Genetic research shows degeneration in ageing worm
Genetic research focusing on the soil nematode C. elegans has generated fundamental new insights into the way in which these tiny worms age. During the ageing process, the activity of the worm's genes gradually becomes more turbulent and gene regulation declines. Because degenerative processes in worms and humans are similar, the research results offer clues for the prevention and medication of geriatric diseases. Researchers at Wageningen University publish their findings in the online edition of the journal Genome Research this week.
Following the Sugar Right From the Start: Researchers Image Glycans on Embryonic Cells Hours After Fertilization
(PhysOrg.com) -- Berkeley researchers successfully attached imaging probes to glycans - the sugar molecules that are abundant on the surfaces of living cells -- in the embryos of zebrafish less than seven hours after fertilization. This new technique enables scientists to study the physiological changes cells undergo during embryogenesis without invading and doing damage to the embryos.
Biologists report how whales have changed over 35 million years
(PhysOrg.com) -- Whales are remarkably diverse, with 84 living species of dramatically different sizes and more than 400 other species that have gone extinct, including some that lived partly on land. Why are there so many whale species, with so much diversity in body size?
Cell biologist pinpoints how RNA viruses copy themselves
Nihal Altan-Bonnet, assistant professor of cell biology, Rutgers University in Newark, and her research team have made a significant new discovery about RNA (Ribonucleic acid) viruses and how they replicate themselves.
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