Dear Reader ,
Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for August 12, 2012:
Spotlight Stories Headlines
- EyeRing helps visually impaired point, press, and hear information- Smelling a skunk after a cold: Brain changes after a stuffed nose protect the sense of smell
- First single-molecule measurement of Van Der Waals interactions at metal-organic interface
- Wired reporter hack reveals perils of digital age
- Metabolic MAGIC: Meta-analyses reveal new genetic regions influencing blood glucose traits
- Study finds how stress, depression can shrink the brain
- Ten new diabetes gene links offer picture of biology underlying disease
- World's most powerful X-ray laser beam refined to scalpel precision
- Modeling reveals significant climatic impacts of megapolitan expansion
- Cornelia deLange syndrome: Mutations disrupt cellular recycling and cause childhood genetic disease
- Differences in the genomes of related plant pathogens
- Maldives floating island masterplan tests the waters
- Dutch reality show to offer one-way tickets to Mars
- Curiosity Mars rover installing smarts for driving
- Exynos 5 Dual chip is unrobed by Samsung
Space & Earth news
Wife: Ex-astronaut Armstrong 'amazingly resilient'
(AP) — The wife of former astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, says he's "amazingly resilient" and making progress toward recovering from heart surgery.
Moderate quake hits Alaska's Aleutian Islands
(AP) — A moderate earthquake was recorded Friday morning off Alaska's remote Aleutian Islands, but a tsunami wasn't generated.
'Tears of St. Lawrence' meteor shower to peak at weekend
The annual Perseid meteor shower -- dubbed "the tears of St. Lawrence" in honour of a martyred Christian saint -- reaches its peak this weekend, astronomers said on Friday.
NASA's mega-rover landed on Mars. What's next?
(AP) — After a spectacular landing on Mars, the rover Curiosity wasted no time embracing its inner shutterbug, delighting scientists with vistas of Gale Crater complete with sand dunes, mountain views and even haze.
UN chief launches new initiative to protect oceans
The UN chief on Sunday announced an initiative to protect oceans from pollution and over-fishing and to combat rising sea levels which threaten hundreds of millions of the world's people.
Disease alert as Philippines flood toll jumps to 85
Emergency relief officials and doctors deployed to flood devastated communities in the Philippines Sunday to prevent outbreaks of disease as the death toll jumped to 85.
Italy's biggest steel plant may have to halt production
Italy's biggest steel plant may have to halt production after a new court ruling announced Saturday against the operators who must clean up pollution that some blame for high local cancer rates.
Modeling reveals significant climatic impacts of megapolitan expansion
According to the United Nations' 2011 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects, global urban population is expected to gain more than 2.5 billion new inhabitants through 2050. Such sharp increases in the number of urban dwellers will require considerable conversion of natural to urban landscapes, resulting in newly developing and expanding megapolitan areas. Could climate impacts arising from built environment growth pose additional concerns for urban residents also expected to deal with impacts resulting from global climate change?
Curiosity Mars rover installing smarts for driving
(Phys.org) -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity will spend its first weekend on Mars transitioning to software better suited for tasks ahead, such as driving and using its strong robotic arm.
Dutch reality show to offer one-way tickets to Mars
As the world marvels at the latest US Mars landing, a Dutch start-up is aiming to beat NASA at its own game by sending the first humans to the red planet -- and film all as a reality show.
Technology news
Scientists integrating multiple organ-on-chip systems to mimic the whole human body
The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University today announced that it has entered into a Cooperative Agreement worth up to $37 million with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop an automated instrument that integrates 10 human organs-on-chips to study complex human physiology outside the body. This effort builds on the Institute's past breakthroughs in which Institute researchers engineered microchips that recapitulate the microarchitecture and functions of living organs, such as the lung, heart, and intestine. Each individual organ-on-chip is composed of a clear flexible polymer -- about the size of a computer memory stick -- that contains hollow microfluidic channels lined by living human cells. Because the microdevices are translucent, they provide a window into the inner-workings of human organs without having to invade a living body.
Computer memory leaks a turn off
When you switch off your computer any passwords you used to login to web pages, your bank or other financial account evaporate into the digital ether, right? Not so fast! Researchers in Greece have discovered a security loophole that exploits the way computer memory works and could be used to harvest passwords and other sensitive data from a PC even if it is in standby mode.
Syrians wage frenzied propaganda war on social media
The battle for Syria is raging on the ground but also on social media, where people on both sides of the conflict are hacking, posting and spamming in a frenzied propaganda war.
WikiLeaks: Our site's been hit by weeklong attack
(AP) — The secret-busting organization WikiLeaks says it's been the victim of a sustained denial-of-service attack which has left its website sluggish or inaccessible for more than a week.
Wired reporter hack reveals perils of digital age
The perils of modern dependence on Internet-linked gadgets and digitally-stored memories remained a hot topic on Friday in the wake of a hack that wiped clean a Wired reporter's devices.
Maldives floating island masterplan tests the waters
(Phys.org) -- From tourist paradise to devastation to sustainable future, an imaginative path toward rebirth is possible for global coastal populations at risk of being wiped out by rising sea levels. That path lies in artificial floating islands. The Maldives government is in a joint venture with the architectural firm Dutch Docklands International for the world’s largest artificial floating-island project. The present phase will focus on tourism. In turn super-rich globetrotters will enjoy the high end living activities they are accustomed to without having to fear being suddenly wrapped around a pole and dying.
EyeRing helps visually impaired point, press, and hear information
Beyond canes and seeing-eye dogs, there is always room for more technology ideas to help the visually impaired ease up daily tasks that go beyond just walking and navigating sidewalks safely. MIT researchers have come up with a novel way for the visually impaired to independently identify objects and learn more about them. “EyeRing is a wearable intuitive interface that allows a person to point at an object to see or hear more information about it,” say the researchers. Their EyeRing is actually a system made up of ring, smartphone, and earpiece.
Medicine & Health news
Bird flu claims ninth victim this year in Indonesia
An Indonesian man has died of bird flu, the health ministry said Saturday, in the country's ninth fatal case this year.
Experimental stroke therapy helps Illinois senator
(AP) -- Good luck and experimental therapy may have helped U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk recover more extensively than he would have with standard care after he suffered a stroke in January.
Doctors target gun violence as a social disease
(AP) — Is a gun like a virus, a car, tobacco or alcohol? Yes say public health experts, who in the wake of recent mass shootings in the U.S. are calling for a fresh look at gun violence as a social disease.
Cornelia deLange syndrome: Mutations disrupt cellular recycling and cause childhood genetic disease
Genetics researchers have identified a key gene that, when mutated, causes the rare multisystem disorder Cornelia deLange syndrome (CdLS). By revealing how mutations in the HDAC8 gene disrupt the biology of proteins that control both gene expression and cell division, the research sheds light on this disease, which causes intellectual disability, limb deformations and other disabilities resulting from impairments in early development.
Metabolic MAGIC: Meta-analyses reveal new genetic regions influencing blood glucose traits
Researchers have identified 38 new genetic regions that are associated with glucose and insulin levels in the blood. This brings the total number of genetic regions associated with glucose and insulin levels to 53, over half of which are associated with type 2 diabetes.
Study finds how stress, depression can shrink the brain
Major depression or chronic stress can cause the loss of brain volume, a condition that contributes to both emotional and cognitive impairment. Now a team of researchers led by Yale scientists has discovered one reason why this occurs — a single genetic switch that triggers loss of brain connections in humans and depression in animal models.
Ten new diabetes gene links offer picture of biology underlying disease
Ten more DNA regions linked to type 2 diabetes have been discovered by an international team of researchers, bringing the total to over 60.
Smelling a skunk after a cold: Brain changes after a stuffed nose protect the sense of smell
Has a summer cold or mold allergy stuffed up your nose and dampened your sense of smell? We take it for granted that once our nostrils clear, our sniffers will dependably rebound and alert us to a lurking neighborhood skunk or a caramel corn shop ahead.
Biology news
Differences in the genomes of related plant pathogens
Many crop plants worldwide are attacked by a group of fungi that numbers more than 680 different species. After initial invasion, they first grow stealthily inside living plant cells, but then switch to a highly destructive life-style, feeding on dead cells. While some species switch completely to host destruction, others maintain stealthy and destructive modes simultaneously. A team of scientists led by Richard O'Connell from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne and Lisa Vaillancourt from University of Kentucky in Lexington have investigated the genetic basis for these two strategies. The researchers found that pathogen life-style has moulded the composition of these fungal genomes and determines when particular genes are switched on. They also discovered surprising new functions for fungal infection organs.
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