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Here is your customized PHYSorg.com Newsletter for October 9, 2011:
Spotlight Stories Headlines
- Makani's flying windmills win Breakthrough award- If you don't snooze, do you lose? Wake-sleep patterns affect brain synapses
- Brain imaging reveals why we remain optimistic in the face of reality
- Genetic engineers create smarter toxins to help crops fight resistant pests
- Novel technique uses RNA interference to block inflammation
- Graphene's 'Big Mac' creates next generation of chips
- New membrane lipid measuring technique may help fight disease
- Three new gene faults found to increase melanoma risk by 30 percent
- Biologists use Sinatra-named fly to show how to see the blues -- and the greens
- How bookmarking genes pre-cell division hastens their subsequent reactivation
- 3-D battery structure shows new twist in battery design
- Small molecules can starve cancer cells
- Mass. schools team up for supercomputer center
Space & Earth news
Climate talks inch ahead on aid despite discord
Climate negotiators said they made progress on laying out ways to help poor countries but deep differences remained on core issues ahead of a make-or-break talks in South Africa.
Technology news
Report: Jobs funeral Friday, ceremony private
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the funeral for Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is being held Friday.
Sprint down after testy meeting with analysts
(AP) -- The struggling wireless carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. said Friday that it will need to raise more money to build a higher-speed data network even as it must spend more to subsidize sales of the new iPhone to its customers.
Ubisoft plays to guitar fantasies with 'Rocksmith'
Laurent Detoc beamed as he pictured the the flood of guitarists that Ubisoft will unleash on the world after its innovative Rocksmith videogame hits the market this month.
Joysticks transform US warfare in Afghanistan
In battle they take out Taliban fighters with joystick-controlled weapons, while back at base American soldiers hook up their Xboxes and kill their way through video games.
Book fair to tackle challenges of digital age storytelling
Authors once just had to deal with a publisher but are now being forced to embrace the digital age and negotiate the rights to their works for TV, films and ebooks.
Conn. gets tough with Amazon, pushing on with tax
Connecticut officials are not giving up on requiring Internet sellers to collect state sales taxes, despite signs from online retailer Amazon.com that it has no immediate plans to abide by the state's new Internet tax law.
3-D battery structure shows new twist in battery design
(PhysOrg.com) -- Battery life and driving range are two sticky phrases in discussions about why EVs have yet to hit mainstream use. Drivers still feel skittish about the idea of setting out on longer trips on batteries lasting too few miles and then losing time seeking a recharge. New developments in battery research may brighten the picture somewhat.
Mass. schools team up for supercomputer center
(AP) -- At a gritty industrial site occupied a century ago by a textile mill, five universities are collaborating to install supercomputers that will recreate the start of the universe and perform other research.
Makani's flying windmills win Breakthrough award
(PhysOrg.com) -- Makani Power, of Alameda, California, creators of the high-altitude wind turbine, is one of this year’s winners of the Popular Mechanics seventh annual Breakthrough Awards. Naming Makani team members Corwin Hardham, Kenny Jensen, and Damon Vander Lind, the award honors these creators of a “sleek, 20-kilowatt Wing 7 prototype” that is “equal parts airplane, helicopter and robot.”
Medicine & Health news
Man with world's largest feet finds fame
The first thing that people notice about Brahim Takioullah is not his feet -- which he hopes will make him famous -- but his enormous height. He stands more than eight foot (246 cm) tall.
Pancreatic cancer 4th most deadly, treatments few
(AP) -- Pancreatic cancer is notoriously lethal - there are almost as many deaths from it each year as there are new cases. The deaths this week of Apple founder Steve Jobs and Nobelist Ralph Steinman bring unusual attention to this less-well-known type of cancer.
Cholera epidemic spreads in Central African Republic
A cholera epidemic in the Central African Republic has claimed 16 victims, a health ministry spokesman said Saturday, as another source said it had reached the capital.
Listeria outbreak draws Seattle lawyer to battle
(AP) -- Bill Marler updates his many blogs each day about the latest foodborne illness outbreak and travels the world delivering speeches, imploring the food industry to improve its safety measures. All this while working the phones to get money for the victims.
Western fast food, waistlines surge in India
Every lunchtime at a McDonald's on the corner of one of central New Delhi's biggest streets, queues of hungry young patrons, often four-wide and unruly, snake towards the counters.
Small molecules can starve cancer cells
All cells in our body have a system that can handle cellular waste and release building blocks for recycling. The underlying mechanism is called autophagy and literally means "self-eating". Many cancer cells have increased the activity of this system and the increased release of building blocks equip the cancer cells with a growth advantage and can render them resistant towards treatment.
Three new gene faults found to increase melanoma risk by 30 percent
An international team of researchers has discovered the first DNA faults linked to melanoma - the deadliest skin cancer - that are not related to hair, skin or eye colour.
If you don't snooze, do you lose? Wake-sleep patterns affect brain synapses
An ongoing lack of sleep during adolescence could lead to more than dragging, foggy teens, a University of Wisconsin-Madison study suggests.
Brain imaging reveals why we remain optimistic in the face of reality
For some people, the glass is always half full. Even when a football fan's team has lost ten matches in a row, he might still be convinced his team can reverse its run of bad luck. So why, in the face of clear evidence to suggest to the contrary, do some people remain so optimistic about the future?
Biology news
How bookmarking genes pre-cell division hastens their subsequent reactivation
In order for cells of different types to maintain their identities even after repeated rounds of cell division, each cell must "remember" which genes were active before division and pass along that memory to its daughter cells. Cells deal with this challenge by deploying a "bookmarking" process. In the same way a sticky note marks the last-read page in a book, certain molecules tag the active genes in a cell so that, after it divides, the same genes are reactivated right away in the new cells.
Biologists use Sinatra-named fly to show how to see the blues -- and the greens
New York University biologists have identified a new mechanism for regulating color vision by studying a mutant fly named after Frank ('Ol Blue Eyes) Sinatra. Their findings, which appear in the journal Nature, focus on how the visual system functions in order to preserve the fidelity of color discrimination throughout the life of an organism. They also offer new insights into how genes controlling color detection are turned on and off.
Novel technique uses RNA interference to block inflammation
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers – along with collaborators from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals – have found a way to block, in an animal model, the damaging inflammation that contributes to many disease conditions. In their report receiving early online publication in Nature Biotechnology, the investigators describe using small interfering RNA technology to silence the biochemical signals that attract a particular group of inflammatory cells to areas of tissue damage.
Genetic engineers create smarter toxins to help crops fight resistant pests
One of the most successful strategies in pest control is to endow crop plants with genes from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt for short, which code for proteins that kill pests attempting to eat them.
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