The EDGE: ScienceDaily Top Science Headlines -- for Thursday, August 9, 2012

ScienceDaily Top Science Headlines

for Thursday, August 9, 2012

Welcome to another edition of ScienceDaily's email newsletter. You can change your subscription options or unsubscribe at any time.

Oh, my stars and hexagons! DNA code shapes gold nanoparticles (August 8, 2012) -- DNA holds the genetic code for all sorts of biological molecules and traits. But researchers have found that DNA's code can similarly shape metallic structures. The team found that DNA segments can direct the shape of gold nanoparticles -- tiny gold crystals that have many applications in medicine, electronics and catalysis. Each of the four DNA bases codes for a different gold particle shape: rough round particles, stars, flat round discs, and hexagons. ... > full story

Test vaccine successfully protects monkeys from Nipah virus (August 8, 2012) -- Researchers have successfully tested in monkeys a vaccine against Nipah virus, a human pathogen that emerged in 1998 during a large outbreak of infection and disease among pigs and pig farmers in Southeast Asia. This latest advance builds upon earlier work by the scientists, who found that the same vaccine can protect cats from Nipah virus and ferrets and horses from the closely related Hendra virus. ... > full story

Scientists show two-drug combination has potential to fight cocaine addiction (August 8, 2012) -- A fine-tuned combination of two existing pharmaceutical drugs has shown promise as a potential new therapy for people addicted to cocaine -— a therapy that would reduce their craving for the drug and blunt their symptoms of withdrawal. ... > full story

Chronic exposure to staph bacteria may be risk factor for lupus (August 8, 2012) -- Chronic exposure to even small amounts of staph bacteria could be a risk factor for the chronic inflammatory disease lupus, new research shows. ... > full story

Shark teeth help scientists uncover predator's history (August 8, 2012) -- Biologists are studying living great whites and other sharks – as well as fossilized shark teeth – to gain insight into shark behavior and ancestry using the latest in computed tomography scans to analyze shark tooth anatomy, development and evolution. ... > full story

New phenomenon in nanodisk magnetic vortices (August 8, 2012) -- New findings suggest that the road to magnetic vortex RAM might be more difficult to navigate than previously supposed, but there might be unexpected rewards as well. Contrary to suppositions, the formation of magnetic vortices in ferromagnetic nanodisks is an asymmetric phenomenon. ... > full story

Researchers collect and reuse enzymes while maintaining bioactivity (August 8, 2012) -- Researchers are collecting and harvesting enzymes while maintaining the enzyme's bioactivity. The new model system may impact cancer research. ... > full story

Why do older adults display more positive emotion? It might have to do with what they're looking at (August 8, 2012) -- Research has shown that older adults display more positive emotions and are quicker to regulate out of negative emotional states than younger adults. Given the declines in cognitive functioning and physical health that tend to come with age, we might expect that age would be associated with worse moods, not better ones. So what explains older adults' positive mood regulation? ... > full story

Early human ancestors had more variable diet (August 8, 2012) -- New research sheds more light on the diet and home ranges of early hominins belonging to three different genera, notably Australopithecus, Paranthropus and Homo -- that were discovered at sites such as Sterkfontein, Swartkrans and Kromdraai in the Cradle of Humankind, about 50 kilometers from Johannesburg. Australopithecus existed before the other two genera evolved about 2 million years ago. ... > full story

New atmospheric compound tied to climate change, human health (August 8, 2012) -- Scientists have discovered a surprising new chemical compound in Earth's atmosphere that reacts with sulfur dioxide to form sulfuric acid, which is known to have significant impacts on climate and health. The new compound, a type of carbonyl oxide, is formed from the reaction of ozone with alkenes, which are a family of hydrocarbons with both natural and human-made sources. ... > full story

Hibernation altered by climate change takes a toll on Rocky Mountain animal species (August 8, 2012) -- Climate change is causing a late wake-up call from hibernation for a species of Rocky Mountain ground squirrel and the effect is deadly. Biologists have examined data on a population of Columbian ground squirrels and found a trend of late spring snow falls has delayed the animals' emergence from hibernation by 10 days over the last 20 years. ... > full story

New Kenyan fossils shed light on early human evolution (August 8, 2012) -- Exciting new fossils discovered east of Lake Turkana confirm that there were two additional species of our genus -- Homo -- living alongside our direct human ancestral species, Homo erectus, almost two million years ago. ... > full story

Physics and math shed new light on biology by mapping the landscape of evolution (August 8, 2012) -- Researchers capture evolutionary dynamics in a new theoretical framework that could help explain some of the mysteries of how and why species change over time. ... > full story

A molecule central to diabetes is uncovered (August 8, 2012) -- At its most fundamental level, diabetes is a disease characterized by stress -- microscopic stress that causes inflammation and the loss of insulin production in the pancreas, and system-wide stress due to the loss of that blood-sugar-regulating hormone. ... > full story

One in three post-partum women suffers PTSD symptoms after giving birth: Natural births a major cause of post-traumatic stress, study suggests (August 8, 2012) -- Doctors are still divided about whether childbirth qualifies as a "traumatic event." But new research now indicates that approximately one-third of all post-partum women exhibit some symptoms of PTSD, and a smaller percentage develop full-blown PTSD following labor. ... > full story

Diversity keeps grasslands resilient to drought, climate change (August 8, 2012) -- Grasslands should come out as the winner with increased periods and intensity of drought predicted in the future. ... > full story

Protein that boosts longevity may protect against diabetes: Sirtuins help fight off disorders linked to obesity (August 8, 2012) -- According to a new study, a protein that slows aging in mice and other animals also protects against the ravages of a high-fat diet, including diabetes. ... > full story

Boys appear to be more vulnerable than girls to the insecticide chlorpyrifos: Lower IQs seen in boys exposed in the womb to comparable amounts of the chemical (August 8, 2012) -- A new study is the first to find a difference between how boys and girls respond to prenatal exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos. Researchers have found that, at age seven, boys had greater difficulty with working memory, a key component of IQ, than girls with similar exposures. ... > full story

New substances 15,000 times more effective in destroying chemical warfare agents (August 8, 2012) -- In an advance that could be used in masks to protect against nerve gas, scientists are reporting development of proteins that are up to 15,000 times more effective than their natural counterpart in destroying chemical warfare agents. ... > full story

Advanced explosives detector sniffs out previously undetectable amounts of TNT (August 8, 2012) -- With the best explosive detectors often unable to sniff out the tiny amounts of TNT released from terrorist bombs in airports and other public places, scientists are reporting a potential solution. New research describes the development of a device that concentrates TNT vapors in the air so that they become more detectable. ... > full story

Leveraging bacteria in drinking water to benefit consumers (August 8, 2012) -- Contrary to popular belief, purified drinking water from home faucets contains millions to hundreds of millions of widely differing bacteria per gallon, and scientists have discovered a plausible way to manipulate those populations of mostly beneficial microbes to potentially benefit consumers. ... > full story

July 2012 marked hottest month on record for contiguous U.S.; Drought expands to cover nearly 63 percent of the Lower 48 (August 8, 2012) -- According to NOAA scientists, the average temperature for the contiguous U.S. during July was 77.6°F, 3.3°F above the 20th century average, marking the hottest July and the hottest month on record for the nation. The previous warmest July for the nation was July 1936 when the average U.S. temperature was 77.4°F. The warm July temperatures contributed to a record-warm first seven months of the year and the warmest 12-month period the nation has experienced since recordkeeping began in 1895. ... > full story

Unusual weather events identified during 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, Australia (August 8, 2012) -- Research has revealed that the extremely hot, dry and windy conditions on Black Saturday in the Australian state of Victoria combined with structures in the atmosphere called 'horizontal convective rolls' -- similar to streamers of wind flowing through the air -- which likely affected fire behavior. ... > full story

Mockup Orion stack shows path to launch (August 8, 2012) -- The Vehicle Assembly Building's transfer aisle offered a glimpse of the future recently as a full-size Orion spacecraft mock-up was placed atop a model of the service module so engineers and technicians could determine the exact dimensions for connectors that will run from the launch pad structure to the spacecraft before liftoff. ... > full story

Mission success for MSL Entry, Descent, & Landing Instrument (MEDLI) (August 8, 2012) -- Mission success for the MSL Entry, Descent, & Landing Instrument (MEDLI) Suite. When the Curiosity rover touched down on the red planet Aug. 6 at 12:32 p.m. CDT, NASA MEDLI researchers were already cheering. The instrumentation payload, carried in the entry vehicle's heatshield, included an intricate array of sophisticated engineering sensors designed to measure heat, pressure and other conditions impacting the heatshield during atmospheric entry and descent. The shield is jettisoned prior to landing. ... > full story

Molecular economics: New computer models calculate systems-wide costs of gene expression (August 8, 2012) -- Bioengineers have developed a method of modeling, simultaneously, an organism's metabolism and its underlying gene expression. In the emerging field of systems biology, scientists model cellular behavior in order to understand how processes such as metabolism and gene expression relate to one another and bring about certain characteristics in the larger organism. ... > full story

New model synapse could shed light on disorders such as epilepsy and anxiety (August 8, 2012) -- A new way to study the role of a critical neurotransmitter in disorders such as epilepsy, anxiety, insomnia, depression, schizophrenia, and alcoholism has been developed. The new method involves molecularly engineering a model synapse that can precisely control a variety of receptors for a neurotransmitter that is important in brain chemistry. The research opens the door to the possibility of creating safer and more-efficient drugs that target GABA receptors and that cause fewer side effects. ... > full story

First BOSS data: 3-D map of 500,000 galaxies, 100,000 quasars (August 8, 2012) -- Now available to the public: spectroscopic data from over 500,000 galaxies up to 7 billion light years away, over 100,000 quasars up to 11.5 billion light years away, and many thousands of other astronomical objects in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's Data Release 9. This is the first data from BOSS, the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, the largest spectroscopic survey ever for measuring evolution of large-scale galactic structure. ... > full story

New global warming culprit: Methane emissions jump dramatically during dam drawdowns (August 8, 2012) -- Researchers have documented an underappreciated suite of players in global warming: dams, the water reservoirs behind them, and surges of greenhouse gases as water levels go up and down. In separate studies, researchers saw methane levels jump 20- and 36-fold during drawdowns. ... > full story

No difference in death rates among patients exposed to common rheumatoid arthritis drugs, study suggests (August 8, 2012) -- New research confirms no significant difference in the rates of death among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who were exposed to one of several TNF inhibitors used to treat RA, adalimumab (Humira), etanercept (Enbrel), and infliximab (Remicade). ... > full story

Learning: Stressed people use different strategies and brain regions (August 8, 2012) -- Stressed and non-stressed people use different brain regions and different strategies when learning. Non-stressed individuals applied a deliberate learning strategy, while stressed subjects relied more on their gut feeling. ... > full story

Scientists discover the truth behind Colbert's 'truthiness' (August 8, 2012) -- A picture inflates the perceived truth of true and false claims. Trusting research over their guts, scientists in New Zealand and Canada examined the phenomenon Stephen Colbert, comedian and news satirist, calls "truthiness" -- the feeling that something is true. In four different experiments they discovered that people believe claims are true, regardless of whether they actually are true, when a decorative photograph appears alongside the claim. ... > full story

More effective treatments for throat and cervical cancer? (August 8, 2012) -- A breakthrough could lead to more effective treatments for throat and cervical cancer. The discovery could see the development of new therapies, which would target the non-cancerous cells surrounding a tumor, as well as treating the tumor itself. ... > full story

Patterns in adolescent brains could predict heavy alcohol use (August 8, 2012) -- Heavy drinking is known to affect an adolescents’ developing brain, but certain patterns of brain activity may also help predict which teens are at risk of becoming problem drinkers, according to a new study. ... > full story

Conflict of interest declarations in off-label drug use inadequate, experts say (August 7, 2012) -- Conflict-of-interest statements made by physicians and scientists in their medical journal articles after they had been allegedly paid by pharmaceutical manufacturers as part of off-label marketing programs are often inadequate, highlighting the deficiencies in relying on author candidness and the weaknesses in some journal practices in ensuring proper disclosure, according to a new study. ... > full story

New non-toxic disinfectant could tackle hospital infections (August 7, 2012) -- A new disinfectant, Akwaton, that works at extremely low concentrations could be used in healthcare settings to help control persistent hospital-acquired infections such as Clostridium difficile. Researchers tested the new compound, Akwaton, against bacterial spores that attach to surfaces and are difficult to destroy. Previous work has shown Akwaton is also effective at low concentrations against strains of Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. ... > full story

Planting the seeds of defense: Stress triggers widespread epigenetic changes that aid in disease resistance (August 7, 2012) -- It was long thought that methylation, a crucial part of normal organism development, was a static modification of DNA that could not be altered by environmental conditions. New findings, however, suggest that the DNA of organisms exposed to stress undergo changes in DNA methylation patterns that alter how genes are regulated. ... > full story

Orbiter images NASA's latest additions to Martian landscape (August 7, 2012) -- Late Monday night, an image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the Curiosity rover and the components that helped it survive its seven-minute ordeal from space to its present location in Mars' Gale Crater. ... > full story

Can nature parks save biodiversity? (August 7, 2012) -- As human activities put increasing pressures on natural systems and wildlife to survive, 200 scientists around the world carved up pieces of the puzzle to present a clearer picture of reality and find ways to mitigate the destructive forces at work. ... > full story

Thinner diabetics face higher death rate (August 7, 2012) -- American adults of a normal weight with new-onset diabetes die at a higher rate than overweight/obese adults with the same disease, according to a new study. ... > full story

Cholesterol levels appear to be improving among US youths (August 7, 2012) -- In a study involving more than 16,000 U.S. children and adolescents, there has been a decrease in average total cholesterol levels over the past 2 decades, although almost 1 in 10 had elevated total cholesterol in 2007-2010. ... > full story

Transformed X-48c flies successfully (August 7, 2012) -- The remotely piloted X-48C aircraft successfully flew for the first time Aug. 7 at Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert. The aircraft, designed by The Boeing Co. and built by Cranfield Aerospace Limited of the United Kingdom, is flying again in partnership with NASA. The new X-48C model, which was formerly the X-48B Blended Wing Body aircraft, was modified to evaluate the low-speed stability and control of a low-noise version of a notional, future Hybrid Wing Body (HWB) aircraft design. The HWB design stems from concept studies being conducted by NASA's Environmentally Responsible Aviation project of future potential aircraft designs 20 years from now. ... > full story

Shedding new light on how jaws evolve (August 7, 2012) -- If you're looking for information on the evolution and function of jaws, a new integrative research program has some answers. Scientists are investigating major adaptive and morphological transformations in the mammalian musculoskeletal system during development and across higher-level groups. ... > full story

Control of devastating cassava virus in Africa demonstrated (August 7, 2012) -- Scientists recently demonstrated progress in protecting cassava against cassava brown streak disease (CBSD), a serious virus disease, in a confined field trial in Uganda using an RNA interference technology. ... > full story

Diseased trees new source of climate gas (August 7, 2012) -- Diseased trees in forests may be a significant new source of methane that causes climate change, according to researchers. ... > full story

New pathway for invasive species -- science teachers (August 7, 2012) -- A survey of teachers from the United States and Canada found that one out of four educators who used live animals as part of their science curriculum released the organisms into the wild after they were done using them in the classroom. ... > full story

Chemists advance clear conductive thin films (August 7, 2012) -- Thin, conductive films are useful in displays and solar cells. A new solution-based chemistry for making indium tin oxide films could allow engineers to employ a much simpler and cheaper manufacturing process. ... > full story

Drug successfully halts fibrosis in animal model of liver disease (August 7, 2012) -- A potential new NADPH oxidase inhibitor therapy for liver fibrosis, a scarring process associated with chronic liver disease that can lead to loss of liver function. ... > full story

This message was sent to jmabs1@gmail.com from:

ScienceDaily | 1 Research Court, Suite 450 | Rockville, MD 20850

Email Marketing by