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Here is your customized PHYSorg.com Newsletter for November 5, 2010:
Spotlight Stories Headlines
- Engineered yeast could produce low-cost plastics from renewable resources- Fine-tuning photosynthesis
- Positronium scatters like an electron
- BPA from thermal paper receipts passes through the skin
- Scientists create world's first 'super-twisted' light
- World's oldest axe found in Australia
- Engineers assessing Cassini spacecraft
- Thawing a planet-sized snowball
- New statistical model moves human evolution back 3 million years
- 'Prima donna' protein doesn't work well in pairs
- Moved by religion: Mexican cavefish develop resistance to toxin
- Unexpectedly small effects of mutations in bacteria bring new perspectives
- EU wants tighter online privacy
- New 'nano-drug' hits brain-tumor target found in 2001
- Key genes may contain insight into evolution of dinosaurs
Space & Earth news
China says its car boom is ruining air quality
China's booming car sales have had a devastating effect on the environment, the national environmental watchdog has warned in its first-ever report on pollution caused by vehicle emissions.
Aerosol particles form in nighttime plumes from coal-fired power plants
Many studies show how daytime emissions from coal-fired power plants lead to ultrafine particles, linked to climate and health issues. But few studies watch what happens at night, when conditions favor different reactions. Now, thanks to a team of scientists led by Dr. Rahul Zaveri of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, we know pollutant gases given off at night, which remain concentrated in the atmosphere, can react with naturally occurring compounds to form troubling aerosols.
Images: New insights revealed into comet features with EPOXI flyby
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's EPOXI mission spacecraft successfully flew past comet Hartley 2 at 7 a.m. PDT (10 a.m. EDT) Thursday, Nov. 4. Scientists say initial images from the flyby provide new information about the comet's volume and material spewing from its surface.
GOES-13 Satellite sees Hurricane Tomas lashing Haiti and eastern Cuba today
Tomas strengthened to hurricane status and is currently lashing Hispaniola and eastern Cuba today and the GOES-13 satellite provided a visible image of its extensive cloud cover.
NASA extends TIMED mission for fourth time
Nine years after beginning its unprecedented look at the gateway between Earth's environment and space, not to mention collecting more data on the upper atmosphere than any other satellite, NASA's Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission has been extended again.
STAR TRAK for November: Jupiter and Leonid meteor shower
Jupiter will be easy to see in the south as night falls in November. The best time to observe this bright planet with a telescope will be from dusk to midnight as it travels high across the sky from southeast to southwest. Jupiter's four brightest moons will be visible with binoculars.
Use satellites to know your snow
(PhysOrg.com) -- As winter approaches, northern dwellers will get assistance from space to help them face the harsh weather. Satellite information on snow cover is now available through ESA's GlobSnow project soon after it snows.
Shuttle launch off until end of month to fix leak
(AP) -- Space shuttle Discovery's final voyage was postponed Friday until the end of the month so NASA can fix a fuel leak.
Engineers assessing Cassini spacecraft
Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., are working to understand what caused NASA's Cassini spacecraft to put itself into "safe mode," a precautionary standby mode. Cassini entered safe mode around 4 p.m. PDT (7 p.m. EDT) on Tuesday, Nov. 2.
Thawing a planet-sized snowball
These days the climate news is all about global warming, but global freezing was the biggest climate worry in Earth's distant past.
Technology news
A safety switch prevents a big bang
German scientists developed a new method to prevent explosions due to electrical sparks. For this development and the successful technology transfer, they received this year's Technology Transfer Prize of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Braunschweig.
Italy to liberalise wifi access from 2011: minister
Italy will liberalise public wifi access to the Internet from next year, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said Friday, referring to a much-criticised law restricting wifi connections for security reasons.
The engines of change
In today's wired world, search engines have changed the way people find data, and social searches are making it even easier to find exactly what you're looking for, with a little help from your friends. For example, a recent partnership between Facebook and Microsoft enables Facebook users searching on Microsoft's Bing to see their friends' faces in the search results next to web pages their friends have "liked" and shared online.
Improving emergency evacuation planning with decision-making simulation
A unique disaster-response planning tool takes real-time human decision-making into account to determine effective law-enforcement strategies during evacuations. A University of Michigan researcher contributed to the development of the tool.
Atty: MN woman can't pay for sharing songs
(AP) -- A Minnesota woman ordered to pay a recording industry trade group $1.5 million for illegally sharing music online doesn't plan to pay those damages as her attorneys continue to argue the amount is unconstitutional, she said Thursday.
Russian Facebook investor soars on London stock debut
Shares in Russian Internet company Mail.ru, an investor in social networking site Facebook, surged on their London debut on Friday.
Consumer Reports: Kinect not 'racist'
(AP) -- Looking to debunk a report that Microsoft's new motion-sensing video game controller might be racist, Consumer Reports says it found no evidence that Kinect has problems recognizing users with darker skin.
Obama to launch clean energy initiative in India
US President Barack Obama and India are expected to launch a joint initiative on clean energy, eyeing economic opportunities in an area that has long divided the two countries.
Swiss man performs aerial loops with jet wings
(AP) -- Swiss adventurer Yves Rossy has completed two aerial loops using a custom-made jet-propelled wingsuit.
EU wants tighter online privacy
(AP) -- The European Union wants companies such as Google Inc. or Facebook Inc. to give people more control over how their online habits are tracked, requirements that could crimp Internet firms' ability to target advertising.
Medicine & Health news
Hunger in the womb raises risk of diabetes
Exposure to hunger in the uterus raises the risks of high blood sugar levels in later life, claim Dutch and Chinese researchers in the journal Diabetes.
Helping health providers answer questions about dialysis through NIH videos
Health care providers can now take advantage of a new video series to help them talk with patients about preparing for dialysis treatments, the National Institutes of Health announced today.
Overweight children have different eating patterns than normal weight children
Overweight children reported more frequent intake of healthy foods such as fruit, vegetables, fish, brown bread and potatoes as well as low-energy cheese and yoghurt compared with normal weight children. This comes from a recent study from researchers at Telemark University College, Norway and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
Studies validate use of family health history as gold standard in disease risk assessment
Thousands of the world's top scientists and clinicians in the human genetics field will convene to present their latest research findings at the American Society of Human Genetics 60th Annual Meeting, which will be held November 2-6, 2010, in Washington, D.C.
Real-time physician electronic alerts reduce unnecessary blood testing in elderly patients
An electronic message sent to physicians the moment they ordered a blood test for elderly patients reduced unnecessary use of the test that is often false-positive for the elderly, according to a paper published in the November edition of American Journal of Managed Care.
Chefs can create reduced-calorie restaurant foods
(PhysOrg.com) -- Restaurants could play an important role in helping to reduce the growing obesity epidemic by creating reduced-calorie meals, according to Penn State researchers.
Pregnancy problems could be from antibacterial agent
A chemical found in everything from antibacterial soaps and lotions to socks and toothpaste may disrupt an enzyme that plays an important role in pregnancy, University of Florida researchers say.
Whooping cough vaccine is needed for adults to prevent illness in youngsters
For most people, the giggle of an infant is one of the purest, sweetest sounds the ear has ever heard.
New drug shrinks brain tumors, reduces seizures in children with tuberous sclerosis
A drug used to treat advanced kidney cancer has now been shown to reduce a particular kind of brain tumor by at least 30 percent in patients with tuberous sclerosis—a genetic disease that causes tumors to grow on vital organs. In addition, patients in the study with active epilepsy had an 86 percent reduction in seizure frequency.
Understanding diabetes at the molecular level
United States and Japanese researchers have identified a key step in metabolic pathways linked to diabetes and cancer. The study on activation of the protein complex TORC 2 was published online in the journal Current Biology Oct. 28.
Infants' hemodynamic responses to happy and angry facial expressions
Japanese research group led by Prof. Ryusuke Kakigi and Dr. Emi Nakato (National Institute for Physiological Sciences: NIPS) and Prof. Masami K Yamaguchi (Chuo University) found that the hemispheric differences in the temporal area overlying superior temporal sulcus (STS) when processing positive (happy) and negative (angry) facial expressions in infants. Their finding was reported in NeuroImage.
Looking older than your age may not be a sign of poor health: study
Even though most adults want to avoid looking older than their actual age, research led by St. Michael's Hospital shows that looking older does not necessarily point to poor health. The study found that a person needed to look at least 10 years older than their actual age before assumptions about their health could be made.
Replacing faulty neurons
Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, Kobe, have shown that neurons called Purkinje cells can not only be generated from embryonic stem (ES) cells, but can also become fully integrated into existing neuronal circuits when transplanted into the brains of mouse fetuses.
New strategy to eliminate malaria
UCSF global health experts have outlined a new strategy and action plan to help countries eliminate malaria and bring the world closer to global eradication of the deadly disease.
Stimulant-enhanced beverages add new danger to alcohol consumption
(PhysOrg.com) -- With growing concern about college students drinking stimulant-enhanced alcoholic beverages, the University of Rhode Island banned such drinks from campus.
Gene discovery supports link between handedness and language-related disorders
Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, have identified a genetic variant which influences whether a person with dyslexia is more skilled with either the left or right hand. The finding identifies a novel gene for handedness and provides the first genetic evidence to support a much speculated link between handedness and a language-related disorder.
Mysteries of colour vision revealed as scientists map out eye's neural network
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists, using sophisticated recording equipment, have mapped the neural circuitry involved in processing colour vision in humans for the first time.
BPA from thermal paper receipts passes through the skin
Bisphenol A, or BPA, is a chemical found in the thermal paper widely used in receipts from cash registers and in some plastics and resins, and has now been shown to pass through human skin.
Biology news
Time is ripe for wine grapes
CSIRO researchers have discovered a new method growers could use to control when their grapes ripen, without affecting wine quality.
3 gulls found with jagged beer cans around necks
(AP) -- Three seagulls with jagged beer-can collar slipped around their necks have been discovered in the San Francisco area.
Research: Imported grape varieties may excel on the South plains
(PhysOrg.com) -- Wine grapes that flourish in certain parts of Europe just might excel in West Texas.
Could the Yangtze River dolphin be on its way to extinction?
Last week at the global biodiversity conference in Nagoya a study revealed that one fifth of the world’s vertebrate species continue to move closer to extinction. Researchers looked at how a species’ status on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species changed over time.
Not all clones the same
Despite their name, not all clones are created equal. This is especially true for the products of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), which entails the transplantation of the nucleus from a mature somatic cell, or non-reproductive cell, into an oocyte, or immature female ovum, whose nucleus has been removed. The result is a genomically reprogrammed cell that has been ‘tricked’ into acting like a fertilized egg, and subsequently develops into a clone of the nucleus-donor organism; however, the success rate for this procedure is remarkably low and many of the resulting clones exhibit a spectrum of developmental problems
Selected hens give new genetic insights
Studies of heavy, fast-growing hens and small, slow-growing hens provide important new knowledge on the origin of the genetic variation that has enabled them to adapt rapidly to new extreme environments. This is shown by new research findings published in the online scientific periodical PLOS Genetics.
Coastal dolphins quieter than thought
Dolphins are thought to be able to communicate with each other over vast expanses of ocean, between distances as far as 15 miles apart. Studies of dolphin whistles have suggested that they should carry that far in water, which transmits sound much better than air does.
Key genes may contain insight into evolution of dinosaurs
(PhysOrg.com) -- Birds and alligators have little in common, other than that the first is sometimes the other's lunch. That hasn't always been the case, though, and that's what attracts Arkhat Abzhanov.
Unexpectedly small effects of mutations in bacteria bring new perspectives
Most mutations in the genes of the Salmonella bacterium have a surprisingly small negative impact on bacterial fitness. And this is the case regardless whether they lead to changes in the bacterial proteins or not. This is shown by Uppsala University scientists in an article being published today in the prestigious journal Science.
Moved by religion: Mexican cavefish develop resistance to toxin
A centuries-old religious ceremony of an indigenous people in southern Mexico has led to small evolutionary changes in a local species of fish, according to researchers from Texas A&M University.
Fish species stay alive on land with special skin
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study shows how an amphibious fish stays alive for up to two months on land. It's all in the skin.
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