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Here is your customized PHYSorg.com Newsletter for January 29, 2012:
Spotlight Stories Headlines
- Scientists rediscover self-healing silicone mechanism from the 1950s- Astronomers solve mystery of vanishing energetic electrons in Earth's outer radiation belt
- NVIDIA dresses up CUDA parallel computing platform
- Stress-induced genomic instability facilitates rapid cellular adaption in yeast
- The pupils are the windows to the mind
- Stealthy leprosy pathogen evades critical vitamin D-dependent immune response
- Carbon storage in tropical vegetation: New map to help developing nations track deforestation, report on emissions
- Genetic study links body clock receptor to diabetes
- Study finds mutations tied to aggressive childhood brain tumors
- Genetics study reveals how pneumococcus bacteria evolve to evade vaccines
- North Carolina becomes home of White Spaces network
- Bus-sized asteroid shaves by Earth
- The secret life of proteins: Researchers discover dual role of key player in immune system
- Trial by fire: A landscape-scale experiment in restoring Ozark glades
- Oxford, Harvard scientists lead data-sharing effort: New standards allow disparate data sets to integrate
Space & Earth news
Japan emissions rising after atomic crisis: report
Japanese manufacturer's greenhouse gas emissions are rising after the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, hurting the country's carbon reduction goals, a report said Sunday.
SwRI-led RAD measures radiation from solar storm
The largest solar particle event since 2005 hit the Earth, Mars and the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft travelling in-between, allowing the onboard Radiation Assessment Detector to measure the radiation a human astronaut could be exposed to en route to the Red Planet.
Space Weather Center to add world's first 'ensemble forecasting' capability
Improved Forecasting to Coincide with Peak in Solar Activity
NASA sees a weakening Cyclone Funso's 'closed eye'
Powerful Cyclone Funso's eye has been clear in NASA satellite imagery over the last several days until NASA's Aqua satellite noticed it had "closed" and become filled with high clouds on January 27.
NASA eyes cyclone Iggy's threat to western Australia
NASA satellites are providing valuable data to forecasters as Tropical Cyclone Iggy nears Western Australia. NASA's Aqua satellite provided visible and infrared data on Iggy, observing colder cloud tops and strengthening storm. Iggy has already triggered warnings and watches along coastal areas.
Russian cargo vessel arrives at space station
A Russian cargo vessel docked safely at the International Space Station on Saturday carrying mainly water and fuel, the mission control centre said.
Romney sees starships fueled by private enterprise
Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney tried to boost support on Florida's "Space Coast" Friday ahead of next week's key primary, promising business would play a bigger role in future missions.
Beijing air pollution soars with fireworks smoke
(AP) -- Clouds of smoke from Lunar New Year fireworks sent air pollution readings soaring in the more sensitive measurement system Beijing started using a little more than a week ago, reports said Sunday.
Climate-driven heat peaks may shrink wheat crops
More intense heat waves due to global warming could diminish wheat crop yields around the world through premature ageing, according to a study published Sunday in Nature Climate Change.
Bus-sized asteroid shaves by Earth
An asteroid about the size of a bus shaved by Earth on Friday in what spacewatchers described as a "near-miss," though experts were not concerned about the possibility of an impact.
Carbon storage in tropical vegetation: New map to help developing nations track deforestation, report on emissions
A study published in Nature Climate Change today finds that tropical vegetation contains 21 percent more carbon than previous studies had suggested. Using a combination of remote sensing and field data, scientists from Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC), Boston University, and the University of Maryland were able to produce the first "wall-to-wall" map (with a spatial resolution of 500 m x 500 m) of carbon storage of forests, shrublands, and savannas in the tropics of Africa, Asia, and South America. Colors on the map represent the amount of carbon density stored in the vegetation in a continuum fashion (Figure 1). Reliable estimates of carbon storage are critical to understanding the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere by changes in land cover and land use.
Technology news
Anonymous attack Mexico websites to protest copyright law
The shadowy online hackers group Anonymous blocked access to the websites of the Mexican Senate and the Interior Ministry Friday to protest a proposed law to fine people who violate copyright online.
'We care about every worker': Apple CEO
Apple chief executive Tim Cook has responded to media reports alleging harsh working conditions in China for manufacturing employees of the popular gadget-maker.
British police arrest 5 in tabloid bribery probe
(AP) -- The criminal investigation into British tabloid skullduggery turned full force on a second Rupert Murdoch publication Saturday, with the arrest of four current and former journalists from The Sun on suspicion of bribing police.
Twitter's new censorship plan rouses global furor
(AP) -- Twitter, a tool of choice for dissidents and activists around the world, found itself the target of global outrage Friday after unveiling plans to allow country-specific censorship of tweets that might break local laws.
Former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein leaves HP
Former Palm chief executive Jon Rubinstein has left Hewlett-Packard, less than two years after Palm was acquired by the computer giant.
Teens migrating to Twitter -- sometimes for privacy
(AP) -- Teens don't tweet, will never tweet - too public, too many older users. Not cool. That's been the prediction for a while now, born of numbers showing that fewer than one in 10 teens were using Twitter early on.
North Carolina becomes home of White Spaces network
(PhysOrg.com) -- America’s first commercial “TV White Spaces Network” was launched this week in Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina. Wilmington, as the first U.S. city to shift from analog to digital TV, was chosen as the present-day site of the first commercial network since the city had early access to white spaces in that TV changeover, and was used as the test bed for the new technology. The city has been testing white space applications since 2010.
Oxford, Harvard scientists lead data-sharing effort: New standards allow disparate data sets to integrate
Led by researchers at University of Oxford and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) at Harvard University, more than 50 collaborators at over 30 scientific organizations around the globe have agreed on a common standard that will make possible the consistent description of enormous and radically different databases compiled in fields ranging from genetics to stem cell science, to environmental studies.
NVIDIA dresses up CUDA parallel computing platform
(PhysOrg.com) -- This week’s NVIDIA announcement of a dressed up version of its CUDA parallel computing platform is targeted as a good news message for engineers, biologists, chemists, physicists, geophysicists, and other researchers on fast-track computations using GPUs. The new version features an LLVM (low-level virtual machine)-based CUDA compiler, new imaging and signal processing functions added to the NVIDIA Performance Primitives library and a redesigned Visual Profiler with automated performance analysis and expert guidance. NVIDIA says the new enhancements are ways to advance simulations and computational work for these users.
Medicine & Health news
Head and neck cancer in transplant patients: For better or worse?
Transplant patients who develop head and neck cancer are more likely to be non-smokers and non-drinkers, and less likely than their non-transplant counterparts to survive past one year of diagnosis, according to a new study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
Renegade sperm donor triggers US probe
A California man who donates his sperm for free to couples who want to have a baby is being investigated by US regulators but insists he will continue his efforts as a matter of goodwill.
Very good experiences don't just happen for patients
A new training program for emergency department staff at Rhode Island Hospital teaches communication skills by having staff take part in simulations of real patient experiences. The goal is to improve the patient experience by standardizing both team and patient communication in an emergency department (ED) setting. The program will be presented at the 12th Annual International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) in San Diego, Calif.
Zimbabwe doctors report 800 typhoid cases
(AP) -- An independent doctors' group in Zimbabwe is reporting 800 cases of the bacterial disease typhoid in a recent outbreak.
Amylin's long-delayed diabetes drug gets FDA nod
Amylin Pharmaceuticals won approval Friday for its long-delayed diabetes drug Bydureon, a next-generation treatment that requires fewer injections than the company's 7-year old diabetes medicine, Byetta.
Discovery may lead to new treatment for Rett Syndrome
Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have discovered that a molecule critical to the development and plasticity of nerve cells – brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) -- is severely lacking in brainstem neurons in mutations leading to Rett syndrome, a neurological developmental disorder. The finding has implications for the treatment of neurological disorders, including Rett syndrome that affects one in 10,000 baby girls.
Common brain receptor in eyes may link epilepsy, cataracts and antidepressants
Researchers from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and Columbia University have discovered that the most common receptor for the major neurotransmitter in the brain is also present in the lens of the eye, a finding that may help explain links between cataracts, epilepsy and use of a number of widely prescribed antiepileptic and antidepressant drugs. The research appears online in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.
Davos wowed by device that reads 'code of life' in hours
It was the talk of Davos, grabbing the imagination of a forum otherwise shrouded in gloom: a miracle machine that cracks the code of life within hours and could revolutionise healthcare.
Genetic regulation of metabolomic biomarkers -- paths to cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes
In a study to the genetic variance of human metabolism, researchers have identified thirty one regions of the genome that were associated with levels of circulating metabolites, i.e., small molecules that take part in various chemical reactions of human body. Many of the studied metabolites are biomarkers for cardiovascular disease or related disorders, thus the loci uncovered may provide valuable insight into the biological processes leading to common diseases.
The pupils are the windows to the mind
The eyes are the window into the soul -- or at least the mind, according to a new paper published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Measuring the diameter of the pupil, the part of the eye that changes size to let in more light, can show what a person is paying attention to. Pupillometry, as it's called, has been used in social psychology, clinical psychology, humans, animals, children, infants—and it should be used even more, the authors say.
Stealthy leprosy pathogen evades critical vitamin D-dependent immune response
A team of UCLA scientists has found that the pathogen that causes leprosy has a remarkable ability to avoid the human immune system by inhibiting the antimicrobial responses important to our defenses.
Study finds mutations tied to aggressive childhood brain tumors
Researchers studying a rare, lethal childhood tumor of the brainstem discovered that nearly 80 percent of the tumors have mutations in genes not previously tied to cancer. Early evidence suggests the alterations play a unique role in other aggressive pediatric brain tumors as well.
Genetics study reveals how pneumococcus bacteria evolve to evade vaccines
Genetics has provided surprising insights into why vaccines used in both the UK and US to combat serious childhood infections can eventually fail. The study, published today in Nature Genetics, which investigates how bacteria change their disguise to evade the vaccines, has implications for how future vaccines can be made more effective.
Genetic study links body clock receptor to diabetes
A study published in Nature Genetics today has found new evidence for a link between the body clock hormone melatonin and type 2 diabetes. The study found that people who carry rare genetic mutations in the receptor for melatonin have a much higher risk of type 2 diabetes.
Biology news
Trial by fire: A landscape-scale experiment in restoring Ozark glades
A giant experiment is under way at the Tyson Research Center, Washington University in St. Louis' 2,000-acre outdoor laboratory for ecosystem studies.
Stress-induced genomic instability facilitates rapid cellular adaption in yeast
Cells trying to keep pace with constantly changing environmental conditions need to strike a fine balance between maintaining their genomic integrity and allowing enough genetic flexibility to adapt to inhospitable conditions. In their latest study, researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research were able to show that under stressful conditions yeast genomes become unstable, readily acquiring or losing whole chromosomes to enable rapid adaption.
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