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Here is your customized PHYSorg.com Newsletter for September 3, 2010:
Spotlight Stories Headlines
- Magnetism's subatomic roots: Study of high-tech materials helps explain everyday phenomenon- Engineers achieve world record with high-speed graphene transistors
- NASA hurricane researchers eye Earl's eye
- Research on resting brains finds there's a lot going on even when 'idle'
- Review: mTrip iPhone app uses augmented reality
- Chemists discover method to create high-value chemicals from biomass
- Fox spit helped Forest Service confirm rare find
- Researchers identify genes associated with asthma
- Moving toward greener chemistry
- Induced pluripotent stem cell retain an inactivated X chromosome
- Imaging reveals key metabolic factors of cannibalistic bacteria
- Most new farmland comes from cutting tropical forest: researcher
- Rolling the dice with evolution: Massive extinction will have unpredictable consequences
- Cheaper, better solar cell is full of holes
- Physicists find fractal boundaries in crystals
Space & Earth news
Breathe easy -- no 'nasty surprises' in Australian air study
A CSIRO study of the quality of air inside the typical Australian home has not revealed any nasty surprises.
SwRI energetic particle instruments selected for Solar Probe Plus mission
NASA selected two instruments led by Southwest Research Institute, which measure energetic particles for the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft, slated to launch by 2018. This first-ever journey into the Sun's outer atmosphere - called the corona - will seek to answer two of the biggest mysteries in heliophysics: why the Sun's corona is so much hotter than its inner regions, and how the solar wind is accelerated. The answers to these questions can be obtained only through in-situ measurements down in the corona.
Image: A chameleon sky
The sands of time are running out for the central star of this the Hourglass Nebula.
Greater clarity on climate finance at 46-nation forum
Forty-six countries gained a clearer view on Friday of what it may take to secure a deal worth hundreds of billions of dollars in climate aid, an issue that threatens hopes for a treaty on global warming.
BP removes cap from plugged well in Gulf of Mexico
BP on Thursday removed a massive cap which had stemmed the flow of oil from its ruptured well deep in the Gulf of Mexico in a key step toward killing the well once and for all, officials said.
Indonesian volcano spews new burst of ash
(AP) -- An Indonesian volcano that was quiet for four centuries shot a new, powerful burst of hot ash more than 10,000 feet (three kilometers) in the air Friday, sending frightened residents fleeing to safety for the second time this week.
Death of the 'Doughnut': How quaggas are casting a pall on the Lake Michigan fishery
(PhysOrg.com) -- Something has been eating Charlie Kerfoot's doughnut, and all fingers point to a European mollusk about the size of a fat lima bean.
Water mission reveals insight into Amazon plume
(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA's SMOS water mission has taken another step forward by demonstrating that it will lead to a better understanding of ocean circulation. Using preliminary data, scientists can clearly see how surface currents affect the 'Amazon plume' in the open sea.
Earth from space: Giant iceberg enters Nares Strait
ESA's Envisat satellite has been tracking the progression of the giant iceberg that calved from Greenland's Petermann glacier on 4 August 2010. This animation shows that the iceberg, the largest in the northern hemisphere, is now entering Nares Strait - a stretch of water that connects the Lincoln Sea and Arctic Ocean with Baffin Bay.
GOES-13 satellite sees Hurricane Earl's clouds covering the US Northeast
Hurricane Earl lashed the North Carolina coast last night and this morning, September 3, and is now headed for Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This morning's image from the GOES-13 satellite saw Hurricane Earl's clouds covering most of the northeastern U.S.
Setting sail in the sun
Propelled by sunlight pressure, large lightweight sails made of ultrathin aluminum-coated plastic could one day take probes to the edge of our solar system and other stars.
NASA imagery reveals a weaker, stretched out Fiona
NASA satellite data has noticed that Tropical Storm Fiona is getting "longer." That is, the storm is elongating in almost a north-south direction, indicating that she's weakening and may not make it through the weekend. Meanwhile, forecasters are watching two other areas for development in the eastern Atlantic this weekend.
Earl's path along northeast is not well-worn
Pushed by an ill-timed trough of low pressure, Hurricane Earl is heading uncomfortably close to an area relatively few hurricanes tend to go: the Northeast coastline.
Most new farmland comes from cutting tropical forest: researcher
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study led by a Stanford researcher shows that more than 80 percent of the new farmland created in the tropics between 1980 and 2000 came from felling forests, which sends carbon into the atmosphere and drives global warming. But the research team also noted that big agribusiness has largely replaced small farmers in doing most of the tree cutting in Brazil and Indonesia, which may make it easier to rein in the trend.
NASA hurricane researchers eye Earl's eye
Hurricane Earl, currently a Category Two storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale with maximum sustained winds of 100 knots (115 miles per hour), continues to push relentlessly toward the U.S. East Coast, and NASA scientists, instruments and spacecraft are busy studying the storm from the air and space. Three NASA aircraft carrying 15 instruments are busy criss-crossing Earl as part of the agency's Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes mission, or GRIP, which continues through Sept. 30. GRIP is designed to help improve our understanding of how hurricanes such as Earl form and intensify rapidly.
Missing piece inspires new look at Mars puzzle
(PhysOrg.com) -- Experiments prompted by a 2008 surprise from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suggest that soil examined by NASA's Viking Mars landers in 1976 may have contained carbon-based chemical building blocks of life.
Technology news
Dubai police chief calls BlackBerry a spy tool
(AP) -- Worries about spying by the U.S. and Israel spurred plans to sharply limit BlackBerry services in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai's police chief said in comments that suggest a tough line in talks with the smart phone maker.
Taking the 'search' out of search and rescue
Their emergencies happened hundreds, if not thousands, of miles from one another, but the captain whose vessel had become disabled near Kamalino, Hawaii, the pilot who crashed onto the Knik Glacier near Anchorage, Alaska, and the hiker who suffered a compound fracture while hiking near Merritt, Washington, all share a common experience: They were plucked to safety in the weeks leading up to the Labor Day weekend due to NASA technology.
Facebook's new security feature: remote logouts
(AP) -- Facebook is rolling out a new security feature that lets users log out of their accounts remotely from another computer.
Dell's enterprise challenge remains after 3Par
(AP) -- Dell Inc. doesn't have to start over in its quest to become a significant purveyor of technology for businesses after losing a multibillion dollar bidding contest for an obscure data-storage maker.
Video lambasting Google on privacy hits Times Square
A video cartoon featuring Google's chief giving away ice cream to snoop on children aired on a giant screen in Times Square as a privacy group continued to hound the Internet giant.
HP finds partner to build memristors into chips
Hewlett-Packard Co. has found an ally to take a breakthrough research project of HP's and build the technology into computer chips.
Time Warner Cable gets ESPN3.com in new deal
(AP) -- Time Warner Cable Inc. customers will finally get access to the sports website ESPN3.com, even if they are not subscribers of the company's Internet service, according to a long-term deal with The Walt Disney Co. announced Thursday.
Recording companies eager for Google to launch music service
Google Inc., which is developing a digital music service, is winning over record companies that are hoping the technology company can loosen Apple Inc.'s grip on the digital music market.
GPS keeps track of school bus riders
Josh Case climbed aboard the yellow school bus Tuesday, lifting his backpack to scan an ID card that had been assigned to him on his first day of kindergarten.
Twitter tops 145 million registered users: CEO
Twitter has over 145 million registered users and more people are using mobile devices to access the microblogging service, according to co-founder Evan Williams.
YouTube to turn profit this year: NY Times
Google-owned videosharing website YouTube is expected to turn a profit this year on revenue of 450 million dollars, The New York Times reported Friday.
Review: mTrip iPhone app uses augmented reality
(AP) -- The new iPhone application mTrip is a travel guide and then some: It uses the latest in smart phone technology to make it easier to stay on track in a foreign locale.
Medicine & Health news
New warning signs may predict kidney transplant failure
Kidney transplants that show a combination of fibrosis (scarring) and inflammation after one year are at higher risk of long-term transplant failure, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).
Occurrence of increased kidney transplant listings in patients with prior non-kidney transplants
Individuals who received a non-kidney organ transplant in the past may be more likely to be listed for a kidney transplant prior to initiation of dialysis (pre-emptive listing) than other candidates, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The results indicate that the growth in the numbers of this group of kidney transplant candidates adds to the list of organ allocation challenges.
Researchers pave the way for a better understanding of HIV infection and AIDS
Dr. Eric A. Cohen, Director of the Human Retrovirology research unit at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montreal (IRCM), and his team published yesterday, in the online open-access journal PLos Pathogens, the results of their most recent research on the role of the Vpr protein in HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection and AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome).
Roll-out of electronic patient records likely to be a long and complex process
Interim results from the first comprehensive evaluation of the implementation of electronic health records in secondary care in England have found delays and frustration with the system, according to research published in the British Medical Journal today.
Long term use of oral bisphosphonates may double risk of esophageal cancer
People who take oral bisphosphonates for bone disease over five years may be doubling their risk of developing oesophageal cancer (cancer of the gullet), according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal today.
Hope for arthritis patients in fat tissue
(PhysOrg.com) -- A recent discovery at the University of Arizona College of Medicine -- that adult stem cells collected from fat tissue can be converted to cells that will grow cartilage tissue -- has focused one Arizona Arthritis Center lab's research, promising new hope for osteoarthritis sufferers.
Children who eat vended snack foods face chronic health problems, poor diet
School children who consume foods purchased in vending machines are more likely to develop poor diet quality - and that may be associated with being overweight, obese or at risk for chronic health problems such as diabetes and coronary artery disease, according to research from the University of Michigan Medical School.
Double hand transplant patient shows new hands
(AP) -- The recipient of a rare double hand transplant says he feels "fantastic" and can wiggle fingers on both his new hands.
Study challenges value of oxygen therapy in end-of-life care
Millions of patients with advanced disease in palliative care settings receive oxygen therapy to help them breathe more easily. But a new study from Duke University Medical Center says roughly half of them don't benefit from the intervention, and among those who do benefit, it doesn't make a bit of difference whether they get pure oxygen or just plain old room air - both offer equal benefit.
Researchers identify how bone-marrow stem cells hold their 'breath' in low-oxygen environments
UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified unique metabolic properties that allow a specific type of stem cell in the body to survive and replicate in low-oxygen environments.
Hair provides proof of the link between chronic stress and heart attack
Researchers at The University of Western Ontario have provided the first direct evidence using a biological marker, to show chronic stress plays an important role in heart attacks. Stressors such as job, marital and financial problems have been linked to the increased risk for developing cardiovascular disease including heart attack. But there hasn't been a biological marker to measure chronic stress. Drs. Gideon Koren and Stan Van Uum developed a method to measure cortisol levels in hair providing an accurate assessment of stress levels in the months prior to an acute event such as a heart attack. The research is published on-line in the journal Stress.
US neurologists agree on protocols for treatment of infantile spasms
Researchers from across the U.S., as part of the Infantile Spasms Working Group (ISWG), established guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of infantile spasms (IS). The goal of the ISWG is to improve patient outcomes by creating protocols that educate pediatricians on early diagnosis and treatment options. Full details of this study appear online in Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy.
New animal model for hemophilia A developed
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have developed a new animal model for studying hemophilia A, with the goal of eventually treating people with the disorder. Hemophilia A, a hereditary defect that prevents blood from clotting normally, is caused by a variety of mutations in the factor VIII gene.
Israeli researchers develop promising new HIV treatment
Israeli researchers have developed a new treatment for HIV that kills human cells infected with the virus and could lead to a breakthrough in treating AIDS, the Haaretz newspaper said on Friday.
International effort to improve muscular dystrophy treatment
A large international study aimed at improving the care of muscular dystrophy patients worldwide is being launched by physicians, physical therapists, and researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
Verbal snippets offer insights on well-being amid separation, divorce
A new study from the University of Arizona shows that people in the midst of a divorce typically reveal how they are handling things - not so much by what they say but how they say it.
Race, insurance status cited in uneven death rates among pedestrians hit by cars
Uninsured minority pedestrians hit by cars are at a significantly higher risk of death than their insured white counterparts, even if the injuries sustained are similar, new research from Johns Hopkins suggests.
Americans struggle with long-term weight loss
Only about one in every six Americans who have ever been overweight or obese loses weight and maintains that loss, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.
British booze consumption in biggest fall for 60 years
Notorious abroad for their binge-drinking, Britons bucked the trend last year with alchohol consumption in the country showing its biggest fall since 1948, the industry said Friday.
Study exposes cognitive effects of Parkinson's disease
Researchers at Queen's University have found that people with Parkinson's disease can perform automated tasks better than people without the disease, but have significant difficulty switching from easy to hard tasks. The findings are a step towards understanding the aspects of the illness that affect the brain's ability to function on a cognitive level.
Canada, US immigrants have less health care access than natives: study
In spite of Canada's universal medical coverage, immigrants to that country have less access to health care than native-born Canadians for certain procedures, a new study finds. In fact, immigrants have about the same access as immigrants to the United States who depend on private health insurance or Medicaid and who have less access than native-born Americans.
Serendipity contributes to MRSA susceptibility findings
Duke University Medical Center researchers have found two genes in mice which might help identify why some people are more susceptible than others to potentially deadly staph infections.
Non-invasive therapy significantly improves depression, researchers say
Major depression is a common and disabling brain condition marked not only by the presence of depressed mood but also by its effects on sleep, energy, decision-making, memory and thoughts of death or of suicide.
Induced pluripotent stem cell retain an inactivated X chromosome
Female induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, reprogrammed from human skin cells into cells that have the embryonic-like potential to become any cell in the body, retain an inactive X chromosome, stem cell researchers at UCLA have found.
Research on resting brains finds there's a lot going on even when 'idle'
The resting brain is anything but idle -- that simple proposition would be clear if you could peer into Mike Mrazek's noggin as he putters around his kitchen preparing his daily morning feast of scrambled eggs, oatmeal and fresh fruit.
Researchers identify genes associated with asthma
(PhysOrg.com) -- Yale University researchers have identified three genes containing genetic variations that appear to increase a child's risk of developing asthma. The findings will be published in three separate journals: the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Human Heredity and Mutation Research/Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis.
Biology news
University of Arizona-led group awarded $9.9 million to develop 'super rice'
A University of Arizona-led consortium has been awarded $9.9 million from the National Science Foundation to develop a deeper understanding of the wild relatives of cultivated rice with the ultimate goal of creating next-generation varities that are better capable of withstanding drought and poorer soils and produce higher yields than current forms of domesticated rice.
Increase in Cambodia's vultures gives hope to imperiled scavengers
While vultures across Asia teeter on the brink of extinction, the vultures of Cambodia are increasing in number, providing a beacon of hope for these threatened scavengers, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and other members of the Cambodia Vulture Conservation Project.
Afla-Guard also protects corn crops
Afla-Guard®, a biological control used to thwart the growth of fungi on peanuts, can be used on corn as well, according to a study by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists who helped develop it.
Corn lines resist fungal toxins
(PhysOrg.com) -- Corn germplasm lines developed by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are scoring high marks in field trials for resistance to aflatoxin produced by Aspergilllus flavus and A. parasiticus fungi.
Timing of vaccinations critical to protect horses from encephalitis
(PhysOrg.com) -- Vaccinating horses for eastern equine encephalitis at the proper time of the year is critical to ensuring animal health and protection, according to Michigan State University equine veterinarian Judy Marteniuk.
Playboy males live fast, die young
(PhysOrg.com) -- Promiscuous males are so intent on pursuing sexual partners that they can neglect even essential tasks such as eating, says a new study published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
Satellite data reveal why migrating birds have a small window to spread bird flu
In 2005 an outbreak of the H5N1 'bird flu' virus in South East Asia led to widespread fear with predictions that the intercontinental migration of wild birds could lead to global pandemic. Such fears were never realised, and now research published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology reveals why the global spread of bird flu by direct migration of wildfowl is unlikely but also provides a new framework for quantifying the risk of avian-borne diseases.
Rare hibiscus color is achieved after four years
Dr. Dariusz Malinowski is seeing blue, and he is very excited.
Researchers demonstrate relationship between predation and extinction in small populations
(PhysOrg.com) -- Two ecological issues of increasing concern are the conservation of threatened and endangered species and the management of invasive species. A study by University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology postdoctoral researcher Andrew M. Kramer and associate professor John M. Drake has important implications for both.
Rolling the dice with evolution: Massive extinction will have unpredictable consequences
(PhysOrg.com) -- New research by Macquarie University palaeobiologist, Dr John Alroy, predicts major changes to the rules of evolution as we understand them now. Those changes will have serious consequences for future biodiversity because no one can predict which groups will come to dominate after the current mass extinction.
Imaging reveals key metabolic factors of cannibalistic bacteria
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have revealed new details about how cannibalistic bacteria identify peers suitable for consumption. The work, which employed imaging mass spectrometry, is a first step toward a broader effort to map all signaling molecules between organisms.
Fox spit helped Forest Service confirm rare find
(PhysOrg.com) -- Three weeks ago, when U.S. Forest Service biologists thought they had found a supposedly extinct fox in the mountains of central California, they turned to UC Davis for confirmation.
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