Dear Reader ,
Here is your customized PHYSorg.com Newsletter for January 12, 2012:
Spotlight Stories Headlines
- Stockholm techies use water to charge mobile phones- The world's smallest magnetic data storage unit
- Electron's negativity cut in half by supercomputer
- Worm seeks worm: Researchers find chemical cues driving aggregation in nematodes
- Choreographing dance of electrons offers promise in pursuit of quantum computers
- Don't know much about charter schools
- Electrochemical dissolution of platinum in an ionic liquid
- Research team discovers genes and disease mechanisms behind a common form of muscular dystrophy
- Planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception
- We may be less happy, but our language isn't
- A scarcity of women leads men to spend more, save less
- In tackling lead pollution, fungi may be our friends
- Optical nanoantennas enable efficient multipurpose particle manipulation
- Study provides new insights into an ancient mechanism of mammalian evolution
- Graphene quantum dots: The next big small thing
Space & Earth news
Bowing to pressure, Beijing begins hourly smog data
Beijing on Thursday began publishing real-time air quality data on the Internet, bowing to a vocal online campaign for greater government transparency over pollution in China's capital.
Mars-bound NASA rover adjusts course to red planet (Update)
Firing on all engines, NASA's latest rover to Mars executed a course adjustment Wednesday that put it on track for a landing on the red planet in August.
China, India to jump forward with Hawaii telescope
China and India are catapulting to the forefront of astronomy research with their decision to join as partners in a Hawaii telescope that will be the world's largest when it's built later this decade.
The Milky Way contains at least 100 billion planets according to survey
(PhysOrg.com) -- Our Milky Way galaxy contains a minimum of 100 billion planets according to a detailed statistical study based on the detection of three extrasolar planets by an observational technique called microlensing.
100 year Starship Project has a new leader
You may have heard by now about the 100 Year Starship project, a new research initiative to develop the technology required to send a manned mission to another star. The project is jointly sponsored by NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It will take that long just to make such a trip feasible, hence the name. So we’re a long ways off from naming any crew members or a starship captain, but the project itself does have a new leader, a former astronaut.
Global cyber anti-garbage drive aims to muster millions
Cyber-environmentalists said Thursday they aim to mobilise millions of people around the world for a mass waste clean-up, saying they had to step in because governments had failed to do so.
Some earthquakes expected along Rio Grande Rift in Colorado and New Mexico, new study says
(PhysOrg.com) -- The Rio Grande Rift, a thinning and stretching of Earth’s surface that extends from Colorado’s central Rocky Mountains to Mexico, is not dead but geologically alive and active, according to a new study involving scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.
Loss of planetary tilt could doom alien life
Although winter now grips much of the Northern Hemisphere, those who dislike the cold weather can rest assured that warmer months shall return. This familiar pattern of spring, summer, fall and winter does more than merely provide variety, however. The fact that life can exist at all on Earth is closely tied to seasonality, which is a sign of global temperature moderation.
Astronomers release unprecedented data set on celestial objects that brighten and dim
Astronomers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Arizona have released the largest data set ever collected that documents the brightening and dimming of stars and other celestial objects—two hundred million in total.
Russian spacecraft to crash soon, risks unclear
(AP) -- A Russian space probe designed to burnish the nation's faded space glory in a mission to one of Mars' moons has turned into one of the heaviest, most toxic pieces of space junk ever.
Planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception
There are more exoplanets further away from their parent stars than originally thought, according to new astrophysics research.
Researchers discover particle which could 'cool the planet'
In a breakthrough paper published in Science, researchers from The University of Manchester, The University of Bristol and Sandia National Laboratories report the potentially revolutionary effects of Criegee biradicals.
Diverse ecosystems are crucial climate change buffer
Preserving diverse plant life will be crucial to buffer the negative effects of climate change and desertification in in the world's drylands, according to a new landmark study.
Cut back on soot, methane to slow warming: study
There are simple, inexpensive ways to cut back on two major pollutants -- soot and methane -- and taking action now could slow climate change for years to come, international scientists said Thursday.
Technology news
Survey: Most Haiti text donors have given since
(AP) -- The massive earthquake that devastated Haiti two years ago prompted an outpouring of charitable donations and propelled a new way of giving - through text messages - into the public eye.
NREL helping Virgin Islands cut fuel use
The U.S. Virgin Islands are a great place to visit, but you wouldn't want to pay energy bills there.
Online RISK game lets Facebook users conquer world
US videogame superpower Electronic Arts is sending Facebook members out to conquer the world with a humor-infused version of the classic strategy board game RISK.
IBM attacks the complexity of security with identity intelligence
IBM announced a new identity intelligence breakthrough designed in IBM labs to provide corporations with a far more sophisticated approach to managing the information employees can access.
Xbox workers threaten suicide in China labor tiff
(AP) -- Dozens of workers assembling Xbox video game consoles climbed to a factory dormitory roof, and some threatened to jump to their deaths, in a dispute over job transfers that was defused but highlights growing labor unrest as China's economy slows.
ONR's information discovery and sharing environment undergoes 'Marathon' experiment
The ability to catch international smugglers and terrorists just got upgraded with a Jan. 12 demonstration of collaborative software funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR).
Wind turbine giant Vestas to cut 2,335 jobs this year
Wind turbine giant Vestas said Thursday it would slash 2,335 jobs, leaving Denmark's government red-faced after it made "green technologies" a top priority of its just-launched EU presidency.
India's Infosys warns about IT sector outlook, shares slump
Indian IT giant Infosys on Thursday posted a 33-percent rise in its quarterly profit, but warned of a slowdown and weak client spending due to global uncertainty and the European debt crisis.
The quantifier: Building software that interprets medical images
Polina Golland’s parents tell the story that, sometime in the early 1980s, when Polina was in junior high, she announced that she wanted to go to MIT. That’s an unusual plan for any 13- or 14-year-old to hatch independently, but particularly one living in the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Ford collaborates with Microsoft for in-car health and wellness research
Ford, Microsoft Corp. and Healthrageous are researching how connected devices can help people monitor and maintain health and wellness
Microsoft eclipses Yahoo in US search for 1st time
Microsoft Corp. has finally reached a long-sought and expensive goal - its Bing search engine now ranks second behind Google in the Internet's most lucrative market.
Karma hybrid car offers earth-friendly luxury
Technology lovers stopped and stared as the world's first high-performance hybrid luxury sedan glided silently down a street outside the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
Calif. stands to reap windfall from Facebook IPO
What's good for Facebook and its employees could be very good for California's treasury.
User interface revolution coming to computers, TVs
Control your television with your voice or a wave of the hand. Run your laptop with your eyes.
One-third of car fuel consumption is due to friction loss
No less than one third of a car's fuel consumption is spent in overcoming friction, and this friction loss has a direct impact on both fuel consumption and emissions. However, new technology can reduce friction by anything from 10% to 80% in various components of a car, according to a joint study by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) in USA. It should thus be possible to reduce car's fuel consumption and emissions by 18% within the next 5 to 10 years and up to 61% within 15 to 25 years.
Improving the performance of electric induction motors
The School of Engineers in Eibar (UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country) was where Patxi Alkorta, a local professor, defended his thesis, following his research into advanced motor control devices. These control devices are units designed to correct errors and improve the performance of the motors. This researcher has opted for cutting-edge models and has developed them so that they can be applied to an induction motor, and in this way he has transferred them from theory to practice. To do this, he made use of an experimental platform located at the school in Eibar. "These control devices have been used before, but I have adapted them for use in an induction motor, and I have shown that they are in fact applicable and suitable," says Alkorta. His thesis is entitled Desarrollo e implementación de controladores avanzados para motores eléctricos (Development and implementation of advanced control devices for electric motors).
Stockholm techies use water to charge mobile phones
(PhysOrg.com) -- A Swedish company headquartered in Stockholm has figured out how to power smartphones using a system that includes some water, a tray, a little round container, and an eyeglass case styled cover. The company, myFC, is introducing its PowerTrekk system to Americans at the CES show in Vegas. PowerTrekk describes its charger as a pocket size, lightweight gizmo for users “who spend time away from the electricity grid.” Translation: If you are hiking over the weekend with no Starbucks or friend’s flat in sight, your phone can still get charged.
Medicine & Health news
First step toward treatment for painful flat feet
A team led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) has made an advance in understanding the causes of adult-acquired flat feet – a painful condition particularly affecting middle-aged women.
Australian airlines reject 'fat tax'
Calls for overweight passengers to pay a surcharge to fly with Australian airlines fell flat Thursday with the major carriers all rejecting the idea.
S. Korea activists seek court ban on cigarette sales
South Korean anti-smoking activists have gone to the constitutional court to try to shut down the country's cigarette industry, a court official said Thursday.
Can cosmetic surgery tame its Wild West?
From US "Botox parties" to Asia's craze for eyelid jobs or Brazilian bum lifts, millions now reshape their bodies through cosmetic surgery each year.
NIH study to test treatment for fatty liver disease in children
With the launch of a new clinical trial supported by the National Institutes of Health, researchers are working to determine whether treating children diagnosed with the most severe form of fatty liver disease with a drug called cysteamine will help improve the liver.
New Jersey's adult minority, immigrant populations favor clinics as health care providers
(Medical Xpress) -- While almost 85 percent of New Jersey’s adults (ages 19 to 64) have a usual source of medical care (USC), the nearly 6 percent who utilize clinics are generally poorer and sicker than those who visit private doctors or group practices.
Workplace empowerment for front-line health workers creates higher job satisfaction
Frontline health workers—including nursing assistants, paramedics and pharmacy technicians—who received a combination of benefits and support from their employers had higher job satisfaction, a new study found.
Half of care home patients suffer drug errors
(Medical Xpress) -- Errors in administration of medication are a serious problem in long-term residential care. New research completed by the University of Warwick and the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) shows how a new electronic medication management system developed in the UK specifically for use in residential and nursing homes, has been shown to significantly reduce drug administration errors.
Research prevents eco-fraud
In recent years, the growing demand for organic food products has led to the faking of food and fraud. Headed by the Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, a European research project will now develop methods capable of both determining the geographical origin of a food product and deciding whether or not it is organic.
Research identifies 'bath salts' as new source of flesh-eating infection
A study led by Russell R. Russo, MD, a third-year Orthopaedic Surgery resident at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, has identified a new source of life-threatening necrotizing fasciitis – "bath salts." The study, describing the first known case of necrotizing fasciitis from an intramuscular injection of the street drug known as "bath salts," is published in the January 2012 issue of Orthopedics, now available online.
Thousands of seniors lack access to lifesaving organs, despite survival benefit
Thousands more American senior citizens with kidney disease are good candidates for transplants and could get them if physicians would get past outdated medical biases and put them on transplant waiting lists, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers.
First detailed data of risk of using Rasilez with certain blood pressure-lowering drugs
Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital have published the first detailed figures showing the risk of using the prescription drug Rasilez in combination with certain other blood pressure-lowering medications.
Brazil to pay for removal of defective breast implants
The government said Thursday it would pay for surgery on Brazilian women to remove defective French-made and Dutch-made breast implants.
'Open-source' robotic surgery platform going to top medical research labs
Robotics experts at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of Washington (UW) have completed a set of seven advanced robotic surgery systems for use by major medical research laboratories throughout the United States. After a round of final tests, five of the systems will be shipped to medical robotics researchers at Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Nebraska, UC Berkeley, and UCLA, while the other two systems will remain at UC Santa Cruz and UW.
Discrimination may harm your health
Racial discrimination may be harmful to your health, according to new research from Rice University sociologists Jenifer Bratter and Bridget Gorman.
Cabazitaxel with radiation and hormone therapy may improve prostate cancer survival
Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Center has started a Phase I clinical trial investigating the latest prostate cancer chemotherapy drug to extend survival, Cabazitaxel, in combination with radiation and hormone therapy. This first-of-its-kind multimodality approach could improve disease control and eventually survival for locally advanced prostate cancer patients.
Researchers find new, noninvasive way to identify lymph node metastasis
Using two cell surface markers found to be highly expressed in breast cancer lymph node metastases, researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center, working with colleagues at other institutions, have developed targeted, fluorescent molecular imaging probes that can non-invasively detect breast cancer lymph node metastases. The new procedure could spare breast cancer patients invasive and unreliable sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsies and surgery-associated negative side effects.
Viral load a major factor affecting risk of sexually transmitting HIV
The level of HIV-1 in the blood of an HIV-infected partner is the single most important factor influencing risk of sexual transmission to an uninfected partner, according to a multinational study of heterosexual couples in sub-Saharan Africa. The study, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, calculated the risk of HIV-1 transmission per act of sexual intercourse and found the average rate of infection to be about 1 per 900 coital acts. The findings also confirmed that condoms are highly protective and reduce HIV infectivity by 78 percent.
Parabens in breast tissue not limited to women who have used underarm products
New research into the potential link between parabens and breast cancer has found traces of the chemicals in breast tissue samples from all of the women in the study. Parabens are commonly used as preservatives in cosmetics, food products and pharmaceuticals. As the research shows that parabens are measurable in the tissue of women who do not use underarm cosmetics the parabens must enter the breast from other sources.
India marks milestone in fight against polio
(AP) -- India will celebrate a full year since its last reported case of polio on Friday, a major victory in a global eradication effort that appeared to be stalled just a few years ago.
Study finds no better odds using 3 embryos in IVF
A new study of fertility treatment found that women who get three or more embryos have no better odds of having a baby than those who get just two embryos.
New research finds ideal number of embryos to implant during assisted conception
(Medical Xpress) -- Controversy exists over how many embryos should be implanted during assisted conception (in-vitro fertilisation/IVF) therapy. New research by the University of Bristol and published in the The Lancet shows that, while discretion can be applied in whether to implant one or two embryos, three or more should never be implanted into women of any age.
Brain region can signal early-stage Alzheimer's and other dementias
(Medical Xpress) -- A key misplaced yet again? Unable to recall a name? Forgetfulness frequently leads to anxiety: is it just a sign of age, or are these the first symptoms of the onset of Alzheimer’s disease? It has never been easy to answer this question in the early stages - however, that might be about to change. Using modern imaging techniques, scientists from Leipzig’s Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences and Leipzig University have identified a brain hub that is associated with thought functions often affected by dementias. This could facilitate improved predictions of the progress of dementia.
Discovery could help stem smoking-related diseases
(Medical Xpress) -- Sufferers of smoking related lung diseases could have their debilitating symptoms reduced following the discovery of a potential new treatment.
Practice doesn't make perfect when it comes to understanding risk
(Medical Xpress) -- People aren’t very good at making decisions that involve risk. Many people are afraid of airplanes, although accidents are extremely rare; some people even drive to avoid flying, putting themselves at more risk. A new study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, examines how people learn about risk and finds that practice does not make perfect.
Medical physicists say fear of diagnostic radiation is overblown
An association of physicists in the medical field has warned patients not to decline diagnostic radiation procedures because of perceptions that the tests may be harmful.
Internet could help nurses treat obesity, say researchers
(Medical Xpress) -- Nurses and patients could be given more support to reduce the amount of obesity in today’s society through internet-based resources, according to research at the University of Southampton.
Get fit with your kids in 2012
Losing weight and exercising more consistently top Americans’ New Year’s resolution lists. Health and Exercise Science chair Michael Berry says that adults who include their kids in fitness goals could make working out and losing weight a lot more fun.
Selectively stopping glutathione sensitizes brain tumors to chemotherapy
Brain cancer cells are particularly resistant to chemotherapy — toxins enter the cells, but before the toxins can kill, cancer cells quickly pump them back outside. In fact, brain cancer cells are even better than healthy cells at cleaning themselves. This means that when hit with chemotherapy, healthy cells tend to die before brain cancer cells. Especially in the brain, killing healthy cells is bad.
Researchers identify pivotal immune cell in Type 1 diabetes in humans
(Medical Xpress) -- Researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology have proven – for the first time in human tissues -- the specific immune system T cells which trigger the destruction of type 1 diabetes in the pancreas. The finding is an important advance that verifies in humans several important disease characteristics shown in mouse studies and provides a key focal point for interrupting the disease process.
Grapes may help prevent age-related blindness
Can eating grapes slow or help prevent the onset of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a debilitating condition affecting millions of elderly people worldwide? Results from a new study published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine suggest this might be the case. The antioxidant actions of grapes are believed to be responsible for these protective effects.
Mass media and health: Well-informed people eat better
It is time to leave apart the belief that mass media are always a source of bad habits. Television, newspaper and the Internet, when used to get information, may turn out to be of help for health.
New laboratory method uses mass spectrometry to rapidly detect staph infections
Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have developed a new laboratory test that can rapidly identify the bacterium responsible for staph infections. This new test takes advantage of unique isotopic labeling combined with specific bacteriophage amplification to rapidly identify Staphylococcus aureus.
New culprit discovered in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia
A new study published in the journal Nature Medicine by NYU Cancer Institute researchers, shows how the cancer causing gene Notch, in combination with a mutated Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) protein complex, work together to cause T- cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL).
Scientists learn how stem cell implants help heal traumatic brain injury
For years, researchers seeking new therapies for traumatic brain injury have been tantalized by the results of animal experiments with stem cells. In numerous studies, stem cell implantation has substantially improved brain function in experimental animals with brain trauma. But just how these improvements occur has remained a mystery.
New 'smart' nanotherapeutics can deliver drugs directly to the pancreas
A research collaboration between the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Children's Hospital Boston has developed "smart" injectable nanotherapeutics that can be programmed to selectively deliver drugs to the cells of the pancreas. Although this nanotechnology will need significant additional testing and development before being ready for clinical use, it could potentially improve treatment for Type I diabetes by increasing therapeutic efficacy and reducing side effects.
Receptor for tasting fat identified in humans (w/ Audio)
Why do we like fatty foods so much? We can blame our taste buds.
Deaf sign language users pick up faster on body language
Deaf people who use sign language are quicker at recognizing and interpreting body language than hearing non-signers, according to new research from investigators at UC Davis and UC Irvine.
Study finds chlorophyll can help prevent cancer - but questions traditional research methods
A recent study at Oregon State University found that the chlorophyll in green vegetables offers protection against cancer when tested against the modest carcinogen exposure levels most likely to be found in the environment.
Anthrax capsule vaccine protects monkeys from lethal infection
a naturally occurring component of the bacterium that causes the disease—protected monkeys from lethal anthrax infection, according to U.S. Army scientists. The study, which appears in the Jan. 20th print edition of the journal Vaccine, represents the first successful use of a non-toxin vaccine to protect monkeys from the disease.
Researchers locate protein that could 'turn off' deadly disease carrier
Researchers from Boston College have discovered a protein that plays a pivotal role in the progression of the deadly diseases toxoplasmosis and malaria and shown that its function could be genetically blocked in order to halt the progress of the parasite-borne illnesses, the team reports in the current edition of the journal Science.
Diet counts: Iron intake in teen years can impact brain in later life
(Medical Xpress) -- Iron is a popular topic in health news. Doctors prescribe it for medical reasons, and it's available over the counter as a dietary supplement. And while it's known that too little iron can result in cognitive problems, it's also known that too much promotes neurodegenerative diseases.
Seeing what's inside a tumor
Gliomas, the most common types of brain tumor, are also among the deadliest cancers: Their mortality rate is nearly 100 percent, in part because there are very few treatments available.
Scientists identify gene crucial to normal development of lungs and brain
Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a gene that tells cells to develop multiple cilia, tiny hair-like structures that move fluids through the lungs and brain. The finding may help scientists generate new therapies that use stem cells to replace damaged tissues in the lung and other organs.
We may be less happy, but our language isn't
"If it bleeds, it leads," goes the cynical saying with television and newspaper editors. In other words, most news is bad news and the worst news gets the big story on the front page.
A scarcity of women leads men to spend more, save less
The perception that women are scarce leads men to become impulsive, save less, and increase borrowing, according to new research from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.
Research team discovers genes and disease mechanisms behind a common form of muscular dystrophy
Continuing a series of groundbreaking discoveries begun in 2010 about the genetic causes of the third most common form of inherited muscular dystrophy, an international team of researchers led by a scientist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has identified the genes and proteins that damage muscle cells, as well as the mechanisms that can cause the disease. The findings are online and will be reported in the Jan. 17 print edition of the journal Developmental Cell.
Newly identified type of immune cell may be important protector against sepsis
Investigators in the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Systems Biology have discovered a previously unknown type of immune cell, a B cell that can produce the important growth factor GM-CSF, which stimulates many other immune cells. They also found that these novel cells may help protect against the overwhelming, life-threatening immune reaction known as sepsis.
How the brain routes traffic for maximum alertness
A new UC Davis study shows how the brain reconfigures its connections to minimize distractions and take best advantage of our knowledge of situations.
Biology news
Conserving biodiversity could benefit the world's poor
Land areas that are a priority for wildlife conservation provide relatively high levels of ecosystem services such as pollination, water purification, food production, and climate regulation, so safeguarding them is expected to benefit people. Assessing these benefits to populations in ways that are useful to decisionmakers who guide conservation efforts has, however, proved difficult.
Soon for sale? Ethnic veggies like maxixe and shiso
Komatsuna. Shiso. Winged beans. Maxixe. They're not your garden-variety vegetables.
Hydrogels help grasses grow on remote, arid rangelands
(PhysOrg.com) -- The arid conditions in the southwestern United States make restoring degraded rangelands extremely difficult, but a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientist has found a way to help native grasses survive there so they can be closely studied as restoration tools.
S.African rangers kill poachers in Kruger park
Authorities have killed two suspected poachers, arrested two others and found 11 rhino carcasses in the same area of South Africa's Kruger National Park in one week, a spokesman said Thursday.
Explosives and fish are traced with chemical tags
Researchers at the University of Oviedo (Spain) have come up with a way of tagging gunpowder which allows its illegal use to be detected even after it has been detonated. Based on the addition of isotopes, the technique can also be used to track and differentiate between wild fish and those from a fish farm, such as trout and salmon.
Hotter homes produce smarter babies
(PhysOrg.com) -- A hotter home appears to produce babies with better cognitive abilities - but before you turn up the home heater to make your baby brainier, the research was conducted on the Australian lizard Bassiana duperreyi by researchers from the University of Sydney.
Evolutionary psychologists find macaques more likely influenced by friends than family
(PhysOrg.com) -- In order to better understand human relationships, researchers who study such things often turn to other primates for the simple reason that they are more accessible, being locked up in zoos and such. Thus, PhD student Jerome Micheletta, at the University of Portsmith in the UK, found himself studying the crested macaque in the Marwell Wildlife Zoological Park. It was while doing so that he discovered that the macaques tended to follow the gaze of a friend more quickly than they did others, such as family members. Micheletta along with Dr. Dr Bridget Waller have published their findings on this research in the journal Animal Behavior.
Grain crops with lower carotene levels are less affected by parasitic plants
Grain crops that produce less carotene can produce more food, especially in Africa, as they are less affected by parasitic plants. This is the result of research with which Muhammad Jamil hopes to obtain his doctorate at Wageningen University on 11 January 2012. Jamil studied processes and technologies that could improve the control of the parasitic weed Striga both in the lab and in the field. He discovered that rice plants that produce less carotene than usual are less infected by the Striga parasite. Jamil believes that his findings could lead the way to cheaper and effective technologies for improving food production and farmer incomes, especially in Africa.
Honeybee deaths linked to seed insecticide exposure
Honeybee populations have been in serious decline for years, and Purdue University scientists may have identified one of the factors that cause bee deaths around agricultural fields.
In tackling lead pollution, fungi may be our friends
Fungi may be unexpected allies in our efforts to keep hazardous lead under control. That's based on the unexpected discovery that fungi can transform lead into its most stable mineral form. The findings reported online on January 12 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, suggest that this interaction between fungi and lead may be occurring in nature anywhere the two are found together. It also suggests that the introduction or encouragement of fungi may be a useful treatment strategy for lead-polluted sites.
Study provides new insights into an ancient mechanism of mammalian evolution
A team of geneticists and computational biologists in the UK today reveal how an ancient mechanism is involved in gene control and continues to drive genome evolution. The new study is published in the journal Cell.
Breakthrough model reveals evolution of ancient nervous systems through seashell colors
Determining the evolution of pigmentation patterns on mollusk seashells—which could aid in the understanding of ancient nervous systems—has proved to be a challenging feat for researchers. Now, however, through mathematical equations and simulations, University of Pittsburgh and University of California, Berkeley, researchers have used 19 different species of the predatory sea snail Conus to generate a model of the pigmentation patterns of mollusk shells.
Largest bird alters its foraging due to climate change
Paris/ Leipzig. Wandering albatrosses have altered their foraging due to changes in wind fields in the southern hemisphere during the last decades. Since winds have increased in intensity and moved to the south, the flight speed of albatrosses increased and they spend less time foraging. As a consequence, breeding success has improved and birds have gained 1 kilogram. These are the results of the study of an international research team published in the latest issue of the Science journal. However, these positive consequences of climate change may last short if future wind fields follow predictions of climate change scenarios, researchers warn.
Scientists identify novel approach to view inner workings of viruses
Since the discovery of the microscope, scientists have tried to visualize smaller and smaller structures to provide insights into the inner workings of human cells, bacteria and viruses. Now, researchers at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), part of the National Institutes of Health, have developed a new way to see structures within viruses that were not clearly seen before. Their findings are reported in the Jan. 13 issue of Science.
Worm seeks worm: Researchers find chemical cues driving aggregation in nematodes
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have long seen evidence of social behavior among many species of animals, both on the earth and in the sea. Dolphins frolic together, lions live in packs, and hornets construct nests that can house a large number of the insects. And, right under our feet, it appears that nematodes—also known as roundworms—are having their own little gatherings in the soil. Until recently, it was unknown how the worms communicate to one another when it's time to come together. Now, however, researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University have identified, for the first time, the chemical signals that promote aggregation.
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