The EDGE: ScienceDaily Environment Headlines -- for Sunday, May 8, 2011

ScienceDaily Environment Headlines

for Sunday, May 8, 2011

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Engineers patch a heart: Tissue-engineering platform enables heart tissue to repair itself (May 7, 2011) -- Engineering researchers have established a new method to patch a damaged heart using a tissue-engineering platform that enables heart tissue to repair itself. The breakthrough is an important step forward in combating cardiovascular disease, one of the most serious health problems of our day. ... > full story

It takes a community of soil microbes to protect plants from disease (May 7, 2011) -- Plants rely on a tight-knit army of soil microbes to defend themselves against pathogens, much the way mammals harbor a raft of microbes to avoid infections. The discovery could help scientists develop ways to better protect the world's food crops from devastating diseases. The scientists deciphered, for the first time, the group of microbes that enables a patch of soil to suppress a plant-killing pathogen ... > full story

Direct proof of how T cells stay in 'standby' mode: Study offers means of activating T cells to fight disease without antigenic triggers (May 7, 2011) -- Researchers offer definitive proof that T cells need to actively maintain "quiescence," a sort of standby mode the cells enter while waiting activation by other parts of the immune system. The researchers also found that they can activate quiescent cells by targeting a single protein, opening the possibility that quiescent T cells within tumors can be used to kill cancer cells. ... > full story

Green roof proves a cost-effective way to keep water out of sewers (May 7, 2011) -- Green roofs like the one atop a Con Edison building in Long Island City, Queens can be a cost-effective way to keep water from running into sewer systems and causing overflows, researchers have found. ... > full story

How shifts in temperature prime immune response (May 7, 2011) -- Researchers have found a temperature-sensing protein within immune cells that, when tripped, allows calcium to pour in and activate an immune response. This process can occur as temperature rises, such as during a fever, or when it falls -- such as when immune cells are "called" from the body's warm interior to a site of injury on cooler skin. ... > full story

Vatican science panel calls attention to the threat of glacial melt (May 7, 2011) -- A panel of some of the world's leading climate and glacier scientists has issued a report commissioned by the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences citing the moral imperative before society to properly address climate change. ... > full story

Chemistry curbs spreading of carbon dioxide: Research could have implications for carbon sequestration (May 7, 2011) -- The presence of even a simple chemical reaction can delay or prevent the spreading of stored carbon dioxide in underground aquifers, new research has revealed. ... > full story

Malaria mosquitoes accurately find their way to smelly feet (May 6, 2011) -- Malaria mosquitoes utilize carbon dioxide from exhaled air to localize humans from afar. In the vicinity of their preferred host, they alter their course towards the human feet. Researchers discovered how female malaria mosquitoes use foot odors in the last meters to guide them to their favored biting place. The research suggests possibilities to disrupt the host seeking behavior of the malaria mosquito. ... > full story

Parental exposure to BPA during pregnancy associated with decreased birth weight in offspring (May 6, 2011) -- Parental exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) during pregnancy is associated with decreased birth weight of offspring, compared with offspring from families without parental BPA exposure in the workplace, according to researchers. ... > full story

Advanced instrument analyzes immune cells in far more detail: Technology promises more effective prescription drug therapies (May 6, 2011) -- Researchers have taken a machine already in use for the measurement of impurities in semiconductors and used it to analyze immune cells in far more detail than has been possible before. The new technology lets scientists take simultaneous measurements of dozens of features located on and in cells, whereas the existing technology typically begins to encounter technical limitations at about a half-dozen. ... > full story

Sticking their necks out for evolution: Why sloths and manatees have unusually long (or short) necks (May 6, 2011) -- As a rule all mammals have the same number of vertebrae in their necks regardless of whether they are a giraffe, a mouse, or a human. But both sloths and manatees are exceptions to this rule having abnormal numbers of cervical vertebrae. New research shows how such different species have evolved their unusual necks. ... > full story

Cigarette smoking and arsenic exposure: A deadly combination (May 6, 2011) -- Arsenic exposure and smoking each elevate the risk of disease. But when combined together, the danger of dying from cardiovascular disease is magnified, a new study finds. ... > full story

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