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Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for February 17, 2013:
Spotlight Stories Headlines
- Polytron predicts glass smartphones by end of year (w/ Video)- Pew's fact tank studies American social networking
- Facebook network hit by 'sophisticated' attack
- Python hunt in Everglades nets just 68: organizers
- Famed US hacker helps Ecuador secure its vote
- 'Activating' RNA takes DNA on a loop through time and space
- 'Snooze button' on biological clocks improves cell adaptability
- Organic electronics—how to make contact between carbon compounds and metal
- Ancient teeth bacteria record disease evolution
- Dopants dramatically alter electronic structure of superconductor
- Aviation industry dons 'shark skins' to save fuel
- Jupiter's Europa moon 'likeliest to have life'
- Mussels cramped by environmental factors
- Strengthening speech networks to treat aphasia
- Mussel-inspired 'glue' for surgical repair and cancer drug delivery
Space & Earth news
Malawi's bountiful harvests and healthier children
Through research led by Michigan State University, crop yields have increased dramatically. The children of Ekwendi, Malawi, also have gained weight and are taller. These improvements bring smiles to Sieglinde Snapp, MSU ecologist, and other researchers who have worked in Malawi for many years.
Preparing for climate change-induced weather disasters
The news sounds grim: mounting scientific evidence indicates climate change will lead to more frequent and intense extreme weather that affects larger areas and lasts longer.
Climate change real economic risk, World Bank tells G20
The president of the World Bank on Saturday warned the finance chiefs of the world's leading economic powers that global warming is a real risk to the planet and already affecting the world economy in unprecedented ways.
Key to cleaner environment may be right beneath our feet
While many people recognize that clean water and air are signs of a healthy ecosystem, most do not realize that a critical part of the environment is right beneath their feet, according to a Penn State hydrologist.
Rice University analysis links ozone levels, cardiac arrest
Researchers at Rice University in Houston have found a direct correlation between out-of-hospital cardiac arrests and levels of air pollution and ozone. Their work has prompted more CPR training in at-risk communities.
Thirsty crops and hungry people: Symposium to examine realities of water security
You may have guzzled a half-liter bottle of water at lunchtime, but your food and clothes drank a lot more. The same half-liter that quenched your thirst also produces only about one square-inch of bread or one square-inch of cotton cloth.
Meeting: Project aims to predict yield potential to help global food security
Resolving the debate over how best to feed a growing global population requires basic information about current and potential yields at local levels around the world, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln agronomist said.
2 space rocks hours apart point up the danger
(AP)—A space rock even bigger than the meteor that exploded like an atom bomb over Russia could drop out of the sky unannounced at any time and wreak havoc on a city. And Hollywood to the contrary, there isn't much the world's scientists and generals can do about it.
NWS: New tool confirmed Miss. tornado
(AP)—Officials say new technology allowed forecasters in Mississippi to quickly confirm the tornado that tore through Hattiesburg this week and alert the public.
Islands want UN to see climate as security threat
(AP)—The Marshall Islands and other low-lying island nations appealed to the U.N. Security Council on Friday to recognize climate change as an international security threat that jeopardizes their very survival.
Going negative: Scientists explore new technologies that remove atmospheric CO2
In his Feb. 12 State of the Union address, President Obama singled out climate change as a top priority for his second administration. "We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence," he said. "Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science – and act before it's too late."
Russia halts search for meteorite
Russian authorities halted their search Sunday for the meteorite that spectacularly struck the Urals last week, leaving about 1,200 people injured and damaging several thousand buildings.
Bright streak of light reported over California
(AP)—Hours after a meteor exploded over Russia and injured more than 1,000 people and an asteroid passed relatively close to Earth, residents in California reported seeing an unusual flash of light over the San Francisco Bay area that left many startled and thrilled.
US protesters urge Obama to act on global warming
Thousands of protesters gathered in Washington Sunday for a rally to press President Barack Obama to take concrete measures to help fight global warming.
Historic legacy of lead pollution persists despite regulatory efforts
Efforts to reduce lead pollution have paid off in many ways, yet the problem persists and will probably continue to affect the health of people and animals well into the future, according to experts speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston.
Flow of research on ice sheets helps answer climate questions
Just as ice sheets slide slowly and steadily into the ocean, researchers are returning from each trip to the Arctic and Antarctic with more data about climate change, including information that will help improve current models on how climate change will affect life on the earth, according to a Penn State geologist.
Russia meteor not linked to asteroid flyby
New information provided by a worldwide network of sensors has allowed scientists to refine their estimates for the size of the object that entered that atmosphere and disintegrated in the skies over Chelyabinsk, Russia, at 7:20:26 p.m. PST, or 10:20:26 p.m. EST on Feb. 14 (3:20:26 UTC on Feb. 15).
Jupiter's Europa moon 'likeliest to have life'
US astronomers looking for life in the solar system believe that Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter, which has an ocean, is much more promising than desert-covered Mars, which is currently the focus of the US government's attention.
Technology news
Quintiles files with SEC to become public company
(AP)—Clinical testing company Quintiles Transnational wants to become a public company again after nearly a decade in private hands.
Silicon Valley talent dream tied to immigrant hopes
Silicon Valley's long crusade to break open doors to America for foreigners with key technology skills hinges on a political battle in Washington over broader immigration reform.
Germany demands probe of Amazon work conditions
A German government minister called Sunday for a thorough probe into allegations that foreign seasonal workers hired in Germany by US online retail giant Amazon were harassed and intimidated.
Israeli public asked to choose logo for Obama visit
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's office is asking the public to choose an official logo for next month's state visit of US President Barack Obama by voting for one of three proposed designs on Facebook.
Egypt telecoms authority says can't block YouTube
(AP)—An Egyptian rights group and the nation's telecommunication's ministry have filed appeals to reverse a court order to block YouTube.
Facebook network hit by 'sophisticated' attack
Facebook said Friday its computer system was "targeted in a sophisticated attack" last month, but that it found no evidence any user data was compromised.
Aviation industry dons 'shark skins' to save fuel
In its never-ending quest to develop more aerodynamic, more fuel-efficient aircraft, the aviation industry believes the ocean's oldest predator, the shark, could hold the key to cutting energy consumption.
Famed US hacker helps Ecuador secure its vote
Kevin Mitnick, who once gained notoriety as America's most wanted computer hacker, now heads a thriving Internet consultancy tasked with helping keep Sunday's presidential elections in Ecuador secure.
Pew's fact tank studies American social networking
(Phys.org)—The Pew Research Center, a "fact tank" on attitudes and trends that they identify, has issued a report from its Internet & American Life Project that slices and dices data on who uses social media. The portrait includes percentage shares according to ethnicity, age, and sex. "The Demographics of Social Media Users—2012" is a report that takes its data from a national survey conducted between November and December last year, in English and Spanish. Some of the findings are no surprise to those who generally follow social networking trends.
Medicine & Health news
Research team launches groundbreaking drug trial in Africa
Determined to bring relief to seizure victims, a Michigan State University research team this month begins a groundbreaking clinical drug trial that could help prevent a quarter-million African children from developing epilepsy each year.
Mexico: Bird flu outbreak hits 582,000 chickens
(AP)—Mexico's animal health agency says a bird flu outbreak at seven farms in central Mexico has affected as many as 582,000 chickens.
Evidence shows concussions require long-term follow-up for players
As the National Football League braces for lawsuits by 4000 former players alleging the league failed to protect them from the long-term consequences of concussions, game-changing research by a leading Canadian researcher shows damage to the brain can persist for decades after the original head trauma.
British minister warns on 'gagging clauses' in NHS
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has written to hospitals in England to warn them against using "gagging orders" to stop staff from exposing poor practices, the ministry said Saturday.
A new way of looking at drug discovery
Garret FitzGerald, MD, FRS, chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Director of the Institute for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has long said the current drug-development system in the United States is in need of change, "representing an unsustainable model."
Briefing explores associations between air pollution and health outcomes
Lance Waller, PhD, chair of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health, will present preliminary work that explores relationships between high-levels of air pollution exposure and health effects at a press briefing hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science on February 17.
Big protests in Spain against health care reforms
(AP)—Thousands of demonstrators marched through the streets of 16 Spanish cities Sunday to protest plans to part-privatize the public health care system, with some questioning the government's motives.
Novel herbal compound offers potential to prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease
Administration of the active compound tetrahydroxystilbene glucoside (TSG) derived from the Chinese herbal medicine Polygonum multiflorum Thunb, reversed both overexpression of α-synuclein, a small protein found in the brain, and its accumulation using a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. These results, which may shed light on the neuropathology of AD and open up new avenues of treatment, are available in the current issue of Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience.
New York wraps up five years of handing out free condoms
New York City this week marked the fifth anniversary of a groundbreaking free condom program that has distributed tens of millions free rubbers, under the racy slogan "NYC Condoms—Get Some!"
When good habits go bad: Neuroscientist seeks roots of obsessive behavior, motion disorders
Learning, memory and habits are encoded in the strength of connections between neurons in the brain, the synapses. These connections aren't meant to be fixed, they're changeable, or plastic.
Using transportation data to predict pandemics
In a world of increasing global connections, predicting the spread of infectious diseases is more complicated than ever. Pandemics no longer follow the patterns they did centuries ago, when diseases swept through populations town by town; instead, they spread quickly and seemingly at random, spurred by the interactions of 3 billion air travelers per year.
Teaching the brain to speak again
Cynthia Thompson, a world-renowned researcher on stroke and brain damage, will discuss her groundbreaking research on aphasia and the neurolinguistic systems it affects Feb. 16 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). An estimated one million Americans suffer from aphasia, affecting their ability to understand and/or produce spoken and/or written language.
The research is in: Physical activity enhances cognition
Exercise doesn't only strengthen your heart and muscles – it also beefs up your brain. Dozens of studies now show that aerobic exercise can increase the size of critical brain structures and improve cognition in children and older adults.
WHO urges vigilance over SARS-like virus
The World Health Organisation on Saturday urged countries to be vigilant over the spread of a potentially fatal SARS-like virus after a new case in Britain brought the global number to 12.
America's famed 'Heart Attack Grill' claims another victim
The Heart Attack Grill, the Las Vegas restaurant whose slogan proudly boasts that its artery-clogging fare is "worth dying for," appears to have claimed another victim.
Arrhythmia culprit caught in action
Using powerful X-rays, University of British Columbia researchers have reconstructed a crime scene too small for any microscope to observe – and caught the culprit of arrhythmia in action.
Strengthening speech networks to treat aphasia
Aphasia, an impairment in speaking and understanding language after a stroke, is frustrating both for victims and their loved ones. In two talks Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013, at the conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston, Sheila Blumstein, the Albert D. Mead Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences at Brown University, will describe how she has been translating decades of brain science research into a potential therapy for improving speech production in these patients.
Modern life may cause sun exposure, skin pigmentation mismatch
As people move more often and become more urbanized, skin color—an adaptation that took hundreds of thousands of years to develop in humans—may lose some of its evolutionary advantage, according to a Penn State anthropologist.
Biology news
Is there a Neanderthal in the house?
Bunions bothering you? How about lower back pain, or impacted wisdom teeth?
Thousands seek 50,000-euro jackpot in Estonia fishing test
Thousands took to the ice of a frozen lake in southern Estonia on Saturday in the hopes of catching the big one—a marked fish worth a 50,000 euro ($67,000) jackpot.
Fewer bees in US a threat to world's almond supply
(AP)—In an almond orchard in California's Central Valley, bee inspector Neil Trent pried open a buzzing hive and pulled out a frame to see if it was at least two-thirds covered with bees.
Diamond sheds light on basic building blocks of life
The UK's national synchrotron facility, Diamond Light Source, is now the first and only place in Europe where pathogens requiring Containment Level 3 – including serious viruses such as those responsible for AIDS, Hepatitis and some types of flu – can be analysed at atomic and molecular level using synchrotron light. This special light allows scientists to study virus structures at intense levels of detail and this new facility extends that capability to many viruses that have a major global impact on human and animal health. Studying pathogens in this way has the potential to open up new paths for the development of therapeutic treatments and vaccines.
Mussels cramped by environmental factors
The fibrous threads helping mussels stay anchored – in spite of waves that sometimes pound the shore with a force equivalent to a jet liner flying at 600 miles per hour – are more prone to snap when ocean temperatures climb higher than normal.
Evolution helped turn hairless skin into a canvas for self-expression
(Phys.org)—Hairless skin first evolved in humans as a way to keep cool—and then turned into a canvas to help them look cool, according to a Penn State anthropologist.
'Snooze button' on biological clocks improves cell adaptability
The circadian clocks that control and influence dozens of basic biological processes have an unexpected "snooze button" that helps cells adapt to changes in their environment.
'Activating' RNA takes DNA on a loop through time and space
Long segments of RNA—encoded in our DNA but not translated into protein—are key to physically manipulating DNA in order to activate certain genes, say researchers at The Wistar Institute. These non-coding RNA-activators (ncRNA-a) have a crucial role in turning genes on and off during early embryonic development, researchers say, and have also been connected with diseases, including some cancers, in adults.
Python hunt in Everglades nets just 68: organizers
Hundreds of hunters spent a month combing Florida's Everglades for Burmese pythons, in the end capturing and killing 68 of the slithery, invasive reptiles, organizers said.
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