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Here is your customized PHYSorg.com Newsletter for March 20, 2011:
Spotlight Stories Headlines
- Is space like a chessboard?- Major clue in long-term memory making discovered
- Batteries charge quickly and retain capacity, thanks to new 3D nanostructure
- Rapid, high-definition chemistry with new imaging technique
- Tiny LNA-based compounds inhibit entire disease-associated microRNA families
- Climate change hits home
- Think globally, but act locally when studying plants, animals, global warming
- Researchers create organic nanoparticle that uses sound and heat to find, treat tumors
- Mutant prions help cells foil harmful protein misfolding
- Metabolite levels may be able to improve diabetes risk prediction
- AT&T to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 bn
Space & Earth news
Pacific islands push US to improve fisheries deal
A group of 17 Pacific island nations began putting pressure on the United States on Saturday to reshape a 23-year-old fisheries treaty.
US detects 'minuscule' radioactivity from Japan
A radiation monitor in California detected a "minuscule" amount of an isotope from Japan's crippled nuclear power plant, officials said Friday, but insisted it was of no concern.
Tokyo at risk: Can megacities cope with disaster?
The cascade of catastrophe that has befallen Japan highlights the vulnerability of megacities to disaster, including fallout from a nuclear accident, say experts on urban risk.
Image: Chasma Boreale, Mars
(PhysOrg.com) -- Chasma Boreale, a long, flat-floored valley, cuts deep into Mars' north polar icecap.
Climate change hits home
Direct experience of extreme weather events increases concern about climate change and willingness to engage in energy-saving behaviour, according to a new research paper published in the first edition of the journal Nature Climate Change this week.
Technology news
Huffington Post rebuffs union boycott call
The Huffington Post rebuffed a union boycott call over its practice of using unpaid bloggers, saying most of them are "thrilled to contribute" despite not being paid.
Netflix series to star Kevin Spacey
Netflix, which has become a US video giant streaming movies and TV shows, is getting behind a series of its own starring Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey as an ambitious US politician.
iPads fuel flight of paperless planes
Tablet computers such as the iPad are revolutionizing aircraft cockpits as tens of thousands of private pilots bring the powerful mini-computers into planes. Several of the nation's largest airlines are poised to follow suit.
Samsung unit fined $32 mn for price-fixing
A unit of Korean conglomerate Samsung was fined $32 million dollars for involvement in an Asian price fixing ring for a key computer monitor component, the US Justice Department said Friday.
Apple could face iPad 2 component shortages
Apple could face shortages of components for the iPad 2 because of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, according to a research firm.
ICANN grants .xxx but delays opening domain gates
The group in charge of Internet addresses on Friday opened the door for websites ending with ".xxx" but delayed deciding whether to open the floodgates for other suffixes.
Disaster-related apps can help you prepare for worst
While working as a programmer for Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, Calif., two years ago, Terence Worley felt the ground rumble and shake beneath his feet. "I reached for my phone to see how close the quake was, and how big. But there wasn't an easy way to get this information," he says. That night, he wrote his first application for the iPhone, called QuakeWatch, designed to track and send warnings about earthquakes based on U.S. Geological Survey data and other feeds.
New York Times to try charging online -- again
Four years after pulling the plug on an attempt to charge readers on the Web, The New York Times is going to try again.
AT&T to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 bn
AT&T agreed to buy T-Mobile USA from Germany's Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion in a blockbuster deal in the wireless telecom sector, the two companies announced Sunday.
Medicine & Health news
Radiation risks to health: A joint statement from leading scientific experts
The growing concern surrounding the release of radiation from an earthquake and tsunami-stricken nuclear complex in Japan has raised fears of radiation exposure to populations in North America from the potential plume of radioactivity crossing the Pacific Ocean. To help Americans understand their radiation-related health risks, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), the American Thyroid Association (ATA), The Endocrine Society and the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) issued a joint statement (http://www.endo-society.org/advocacy/policy/upload/Joint-Statement-on-Radiation-Risks-to-Health.pdf).
Biodegradable tooth-binding micelles inhibit Streptococcus mutans biofilm growth
Today, during the 89th General Session & Exhibition of the International Association for Dental Research, held in conjunction with the 40th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research and the 35th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, lead researcher F. Cheni will hold an oral presentation on a research study titled "Biodegradable Tooth-binding Micelles Inhibit Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) Biofilm Growth."
How do cell phones affect young brains?
Cell phone safety warnings are generally designed for a large man with a big head who talks less than half an hour a day.
Researchers must be wary of contracting infections
The death of a scientist who caught the plague in a laboratory in 2009 shook the disease research community. It was the first such death of a researcher, and 50 years since the last known lab-acquired case of plague.
Metabolite levels may be able to improve diabetes risk prediction
Measuring the levels of small molecules in the blood may be able to identify individuals at elevated risk of developing type 2 diabetes as much as a decade before symptoms of the disorder appear. In a report receiving advance online release in Nature Medicine, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers describes finding that levels of five amino acids not only indicated increased diabetes risk in a general population but also could differentiate, among individuals with traditional risk factors such as obesity, those most likely to actually develop diabetes.
Tiny LNA-based compounds inhibit entire disease-associated microRNA families
A study published online in this week's Nature Genetics demonstrates that tiny Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA)-based compounds developed by Santaris Pharma A/S can inhibit entire disease-associated microRNA families. This provides a potential new approach for treating a variety of diseases including cancer, viral infections, cardiovascular and muscle diseases.
Major clue in long-term memory making discovered
You may remember the color of your loved one's eyes for years. But how?
Biology news
Polar bear star Knut dies
Knut the polar bear, who became a global media sensation as a cub after being rejected by his mother and reared by hand, died suddenly for unexplained reasons, the Berlin Zoo said.
Mutant prions help cells foil harmful protein misfolding
Romping clumps of misfolded proteins are prime suspects in many neurological disorders including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease. Those diseases are devastating and incurable, but a team of biologists at Brown University reports that cells can fix the problems themselves with only a little bit of help. The insight suggests that there are more opportunities to develop a therapy for protein misfolding than scientists had thought.
Think globally, but act locally when studying plants, animals, global warming
Global warming is clearly affecting plants and animals, but we should not try to tease apart the specific contribution of greenhouse gas driven climate change to extinctions or declines of species at local scales, biologists from The University of Texas at Austin advise.
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