Dear Reader ,
Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for December 24, 2012:
Spotlight Stories Headlines
- Enzyme accelerates malignant stem cell cloning in chronic myeloid leukemia- Why some grasses evolved a more efficient photosynthesis and others didn't
- Study: Amazon deforestation brings loss of microbial communities
- Fluctuating environment may have driven human evolution
- Cellular metabolism arms T cells to battle viruses and tumours
- Bumblebees do best where there is less pavement, more floral diversity
- Biologists identify proteins vital to chromosome segregation
- Slow trumps fast in changing the summer monsoon
- Elevated levels of C-reactive protein appear associated with psychological distress, depression
- Instagram sued over contract changes
- How shrubs are reducing the positive contribution of peatlands to climate
- Google announces "Conversions" API for adding offline information to targeted online advertising
- Rare genetic faults identified in families with bowel cancer
- Masers in stellar nurseries
- How excess holiday eating disturbs your 'food clock'
Space & Earth news
Changes in population growth, consumption and farming begin to return former farmlands to nature
(Phys.org)—With the global population racing past seven billion, demographers and world leaders have been concerned with depletion of resources to support everyone. The future, though, may be less bleak than some have feared. Changes in population growth and how farmers use land have brought the world to "peak farmland," a team of Rockefeller University scientists report in a special issue of the journal Population and Development Review.
NASA's Space Launch System core stage passes major milestone, ready to start construction
(Phys.org)—The team designing America's new flagship rocket has completed successfully a major technical review of the vehicle's core stage. NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) will take the agency's Orion spacecraft and other payloads beyond low-Earth orbit, providing a new capability for human exploration.
The rings on the planet go 'round and 'round...
Recently I posted an image of two of Saturn's shepherd moons, Pandora and Prometheus, captured by Cassini in a face-off across the spindly F ring. Now here's a much wider-angle view of the gas giant's rings, seen by Cassini two days later on December 20, and the same two moons can still be seen staring each other down… two tiny points of light visible across the wavering line of the F ring at lower center.
Orion assemblage on track for 2014 launch
NASA is thrusting forward and making steady progress toward launch of the first space-bound Orion crew capsule -designed to carry astronauts to deep space. The agency aims for a Florida blastoff of the uncrewed Exploration Flight Test-1 mission (EFT-1) in September 2014 – some 20 months from now – NASA officials told Universe Today.
Slow trumps fast in changing the summer monsoon
(Phys.org)—Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory traced the different ways pollution particles change summer monsoon rainfall in South Asia. They found that pollution's effect through "slow" processes, affecting the region over weeks to months, has a more extensive impact on the monsoon than the "fast" processes occurring in a matter of days. Monsoons are an important climatic feature of our planet, and understanding the factors that influence monsoon behavior is a fundamental challenge for climate science. Their work was published in the Geophysical Research Letters.
Masers in stellar nurseries
(Phys.org)—Astronomers have come to realize that the process of star formation, once thought to consist essentially of just the simple coalescence of material by gravity, occurs in a complex series of stages. As the gas and dust in giant molecular clouds comes together into stars, dramatic outflowing jets of material develop around each, as do circumstellar disks (possibly pre-planetary in nature). Other features are present as well: Astronomers in the 1960s were amazed to discover that these star-forming regions sometimes produce natural masers (masers are the bright, radio wavelength analogs of lasers). Clouds of water vapor or methanol vapor in regions of active star formation generate some of the most spectacular masers.
Hubble eyes the needle galaxy
(Phys.org)—Like finding a silver needle in the haystack of space, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced this beautiful image of the spiral galaxy IC 2233, one of the flattest galaxies known.
Christmas sky show
(Phys.org)—Just when you thought Christmas was over: At the end of the day on Dec. 25th, a pair of holiday lights will pop out of the deepening twilight. Jupiter and the Moon are having a Christmas conjunction.
How shrubs are reducing the positive contribution of peatlands to climate
Peatlands (bogs, turf moors) are among the most important ecosystems worldwide for the storage of atmospheric carbon and thus for containing the climate warming process. In the last 30 to 50 years the peat (Sphagnum) mosses, whose decay produces the peat (turf), have come under pressure by vascular plants, mostly small shrubs.
Study: Amazon deforestation brings loss of microbial communities
An international team of microbiologists led by Klaus Nüsslein of the University of Massachusetts Amherst has found that a troubling net loss in diversity among the microbial organisms responsible for a functioning ecosystem is accompanying deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
Fluctuating environment may have driven human evolution
A series of rapid environmental changes in East Africa roughly 2 million years ago may be responsible for driving human evolution, according to researchers at Penn State and Rutgers University.
Technology news
Disputed Asian islands once had strategic role
(AP)—Perched on a narrow promontory jutting off Taiwan's heavily industrialized northeastern coast, the Suao naval base is only 220 kilometers (140 miles) from a rocky group of islets at the center of a bitter territorial dispute between Japan and China.
Hashtag symbolizes end of an era for Newsweek
Almost 80 years after first going to print, the final Newsweek magazine hit newsstands Monday featuring an ironic hashtag as a symbol of its Twitter-era transition to an all-digital format.
Microsoft veteran strategy officer stepping down
Microsoft announced on Monday that company veteran Craig Mundie has stepped down from his post as chief of research and will retire in the year 2014.
Cyberattack—the silent nightmare
In Michigan's worst techno-horror story, the state's major utilities get hacked in the wintertime. Power in the state shuts down, and nobody can figure out how to regain control of the systems needed to turn it back on. Millions of people are left in the dark and in the cold.
Google announces "Conversions" API for adding offline information to targeted online advertising
(Phys.org)—Google has announced (on its DoubleClick search site) the development of a new API that allows advertisers to combine online and offline information on users/customers resulting in more sophisticated online targeted advertising. The new API, called Conversions allows retailers to add information obtained via in-store transactions as well as that gained from call-tracking or from other activities (such as when customers take advantage of discounts, return items, experience credit problems or engage in fraud), to online data collected by Google. The result is a system that is expected to result in users finding ads being shown to them as they cruise the web that are tailor-made for them based on both their online and offline shopping and/or browsing habits.
Instagram sued over contract changes
A lawsuit filed here seeks to stop Instagram from changing its terms of service, saying the Facebook-owned smartphone photo-sharing service is breaching its contract with users.
Medicine & Health news
Kindergartner undergoes very rare robotic surgery at UCLA
Leonidas Hill recently made history at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA, when the 5-year-old became the first pediatric patient in the western United States to undergo transoral robotic surgery (TORS)—a minimally invasive surgery performed with the help of a robot—to repair a rare congenital condition known as a laryngeal cleft.
Terbium: A new 'Swiss Army knife' for cancer diagnosis and treatment
A collaboration between the Paul Scherrer Institute, CERN's ISOLDE facility, and the Institut Laue-Langevin, has published preclinical study results for a newly developed set of tumour-targeting radiopharmaceuticals. The results, published in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, are a significant success for this group of nuclear medicine specialists and radiochemists, demonstrating the potential to provide a new generation of radioisotopes with excellent properties for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
Judge temporarily blocks Ga. abortion law
(AP)—A state judge has suspended a Georgia law banning abortions for women who are more than 20 weeks pregnant.
Survey shows that nearly 1 in 3 children with food allergies experience bullying
Nearly a third of children diagnosed with food allergies who participated in a recent study are bullied, according to researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Almost eight percent of children in the U.S. are allergic to foods such as peanuts, tree-nuts, milk, eggs, and shellfish.
Mental-health parity can cut costs
(Medical Xpress)—Implementation of the Mental Health Parity Act could save tens, possibly hundreds of billions of dollars and prevent needless suffering. The federal government has promised further guidance about how the law applies, but to date, there is confusion and no publicly available compliance data. Judith Bentkover, academic director of Brown's Executive Master of Health-Care Leadership Program, urges citizens and elected leaders to break the silence around mental-health services. Her essay originally appeared in the Providence Journal on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012.
Study shows how dark chocolate may be good for our health—particularly if you are male
(Medical Xpress)—Cocoa-rich dark chocolate might help protect against heart disease and stroke, but probably more so if you are a man.
Fruit in your holiday stocking can help keep bones strong
(Medical Xpress)—We know high-fat, high-sugar foods cause obesity and promote heart disease, but most people don't realize that sugar and fat also contribute to conditions like osteoporosis by weakening bones.
Researchers identify quadruplex structure in C9ORF72
(Medical Xpress)—A Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association funded research project at UCL has given new insights into the structure and function of an MND gene called C9ORF72. The work is published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Fak inhibitor proves effective against brain tumors in preclinical studies, study shows
(Medical Xpress)—Researchers from Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) have published findings from a preclinical study assessing the effectiveness of a small-molecule inhibitor, CFAK-Y15, in treating some brain cancers. The paper, published in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, demonstrates for the first time that inhibiting the protein focal adhesion kinase (FAK) with CFAK-Y15 is an effective approach to controlling growth of glioblastoma tumors, especially in combination with the standard chemotherapy agent temozolomide (Temodar).
FDA warns doctors of counterfeit Botox
Federal regulators have warned more than 350 medical practices that Botox they may have received from a Canadian supplier is unapproved and could be counterfeit or unsafe.
Traditions in Chad harm, kill underfed children
(AP)—On the day of their son's surgery, the family woke before dawn. They saddled their horses and set out across the 12-mile-long carpet of sand to the nearest town, where they hoped the reputed doctor would cure their frail, feverish baby.
Children with chronic conditions increasingly use available resources in children's hospitals
Children with chronic conditions increasingly used more resources in a group of children's hospitals compared with patients without a chronic condition, according to a report that analyzed data from 28 U.S. children's hospitals between 2004 and 2009, and is being published Online First by Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Study examines overuse of ambulatory health care services in US
An analysis of nationally representative survey data found significant improvement in the delivery of underused care, but more limited changes in the reduction of inappropriate care in ambulatory health care settings between 1998 and 2009, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine.
Study: Blood transfusion associated with increased risk of death for patients with heart attack
A meta-analysis of 10 studies suggests that receipt of a blood transfusion among patients with myocardial infarction (heart attack) was associated with increased all-cause mortality compared with not receiving a blood transfusion during heart attack, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine.
Cholesterol boosts the memory of the immune system
The memory of the human immune system is critical for the development of vaccines. Only if the body recognizes a pathogen with which it has already come into contact in the case of a second infection, the immune system can combat it more effectively than it did the first time. The Freiburg immunobiologist Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schamel from the Institute of Biology III of the University of Freiburg and his colleagues have succeeded in demonstrating how the memory of the immune system functions. Their findings have now been published in the journals Immunity and Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC).
Has breastfeeding been oversold? Some experts take aim at 'breast is best' claims
If I could sum up my breast-feeding ordeal in one image, it would be me sitting in a hospital bed with one of my newborn sons cradled in my arms.
Scientists study how to reduce salt, but not flavor, in cheese
From soup to nuts, supermarket shelves teem with products trumpeting their reduced-salt status. Not in the cheese cooler, though.
Research offers Pa. woman new arm, 14 years after amputation
Over the 14 years since losing her right arm to a hollow-point bullet, Dana Burke was convinced she could feel herself pointing, pinching or waving as she motioned with the 5-inch-long limb the attack left behind.
Rare genetic faults identified in families with bowel cancer
(Medical Xpress)—Rare DNA faults in two genes have been strongly linked to bowel cancer by Oxford University researchers, who sequenced the genomes of people from families with a strong history of developing the disease.
How excess holiday eating disturbs your 'food clock'
(Medical Xpress)—If the sinful excess of holiday eating sends your system into butter-slathered, brandy-soaked overload, you are not alone: People who are jet-lagged, people who work graveyard shifts and plain-old late-night snackers know just how you feel.
Elevated levels of C-reactive protein appear associated with psychological distress, depression
Elevated levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammatory disease, appear to be associated with increased risk of psychological distress and depression in the general population of adults in Denmark, according to a report published Online First by Archives of General Psychiatry, a JAMA Network publication.
Cellular metabolism arms T cells to battle viruses and tumours
(Medical Xpress)—New research demonstrates that the cellular metabolism of certain immune cells is closely linked to their function, which includes protecting against viral infections and the development of tumours.
Eye scan could help track progress of multiple sclerosis
(HealthDay)—In-office eye scans that assess the thinning of the retina may also help doctors determine how fast multiple sclerosis (MS) is progressing in patients with the nervous system disease, a new study suggests.
Enzyme accelerates malignant stem cell cloning in chronic myeloid leukemia
An international team, headed by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, has identified a key enzyme in the reprogramming process that promotes malignant stem cell cloning and the growth of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a cancer of the blood and marrow that experts say is increasing in prevalence.
Biology news
AgriLife Research peanut breeding program offers new varieties
The Texas A&M AgriLife Research peanut breeding program has been busy, releasing four new varieties in the past two years to meet producers' needs, according to the breeders.
The salamander king
When assistant professor of biology James Monaghan was an undergraduate, he hung a life-size inflatable Spiderman from the ceiling of his dorm room. The plastic incarnation of the superhero followed him all the way to his new lab here at Northeastern. His obsession with the "genius kid-scientist" earned Monaghan the nickname "Spiderman," and it stuck until graduate school, where he found a new obsession: salamanders.
Minnesota's iconic moose population is falling
Fly over northeastern Minnesota with "Sky Dan" and you'd see a moose. One time, he spotted 15 of them during an hour flight. The pilot was so confident, he even offered those on his aerial tours a money-back guarantee.
China survey reports fewer sightings of engangered porpoise
A survey of endangered porpoises in China's longest river has yielded fewer sightings as intense ship traffic threatens their existence, scientists said Monday.
Biologists identify proteins vital to chromosome segregation
New York University biologists have identified how a vital protein is loaded by others into the centromere, the part of the chromosome that plays a significant role in cell division. Their findings shed new light on genome replication and may offer insights into the factors behind the production of abnormal numbers of chromosomes.
Bumblebees do best where there is less pavement, more floral diversity
Landscapes with large amounts of paved roads and impervious construction have lower numbers of ground-nesting bumblebees, which are important native pollinators, a study from The University of Texas at Austin and the University of California, Berkeley shows.
Why some grasses evolved a more efficient photosynthesis and others didn't
Even on the evolutionary time scale of tens of millions of years there is such a thing as being in the right shape at the right time. An anatomical difference in the ability to seize the moment, according to a study led by Brown University biologists, explains why more species in one broad group, or clade, of grasses evolved a more efficient means of photosynthesis than species in another clade did.
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