Science X Newsletter Week 01

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Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for week 01:

	Scientific team sounds the alarm on sugar as a source of disease Is sugar making us sick? A team of scientists at the University of California in San Francisco believes so, and they're doing something about it. They launched an initiative to bring information on food and drink and added sugar to the public by reviewing more than 8,000 scientific papers that show a strong link between the consumption of added sugar and chronic diseases.
	Defying textbook science, study finds new role for proteins Open any introductory biology textbook and one of the first things you'll learn is that our DNA spells out the instructions for making proteins, tiny machines that do much of the work in our body's cells. Results from a study published on Jan. 2 in Science defy textbook science, showing for the first time that the building blocks of a protein, called amino acids, can be assembled without blueprints - DNA and an intermediate template called messenger RNA (mRNA). A team of researchers has observed a case in which another protein specifies which amino acids are added.
	NASA team hacks Opportunity to treat Mars Rover's amnesia NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has been working well into its golden years - after nearly 11 years roaming the Red Planet, it has survived more than 40 times past its warranty. But now, this trusty veteran explorer is experiencing some worrisome memory loss.
	'Bad luck' of random mutations plays predominant role in cancer, study shows Scientists from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have created a statistical model that measures the proportion of cancer incidence, across many tissue types, caused mainly by random mutations that occur when stem cells divide. By their measure, two-thirds of adult cancer incidence across tissues can be explained primarily by "bad luck," when these random mutations occur in genes that can drive cancer growth, while the remaining third are due to environmental factors and inherited genes.
	Guide for healthy eating may consider environment The government issues dietary guidelines every five years to encourage Americans to eat healthier. This year's version may look at what is healthy for the environment, too.
	Explained: The enigmatic death of Mrs. Oscar Wilde For decades, historians of literature have mulled the untimely death that met Constance, the wife of the exuberant, scandalous writer Oscar Wilde.
	Innate behavior determines how we steer our car Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have solved a 70 year old mystery in traffic research: an until now inexplicable jerkiness when we steer a vehicle. The discovery may lead to safety systems in cars that can correct dangerous steering movements before they occur.
	Lawsuit accuses Apple of storage sleight of hand (Update) Apple on Friday faced a lawsuit accusing it of promising more available storage space than it actually delivers in iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch devices.
	Wakati solution aims to extend produce shelf life In 2015, Africa continues to struggle with some fundamental problems. According to the United Nations 45 percent of all crops grown in developing countries never reaches the consumer and ends up as waste. No fridge for preserving food is part of the problem and even if a farmer had a fridge, he might need electricity to make it run.
	NASA explores inflatable spacecraft technology (Update) Devising a way to one day land astronauts on Mars is a complex problem and NASA scientists think something as simple as a child's toy design may help solve the problem. Safely landing a large spacecraft on the Red Planet is just one of many engineering challenges the agency faces as it eyes an ambitious goal of sending humans into deep space later this century.
	Flatbed scanner's Cinderella act, a functioning camera Photography enthusiasts in do-it-yourself mode recently saw how Dario Morelli managed to take parts from an Epson flatbed scanner to create a medium format camera. ("Flatbed" refers to a scanner providing a flat, glass surface.)
	Robot looks like a fish to ride with marine life (Phys.org)—Students at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich are working on a project that could deliver an ideal device for marine life filming, minus the turbulence and appearance that could scare fish away. They are working on Sepios, a nautical robot with fish-like appearance that would make it ideal for closing in on fish. The device, they said, is a four-finned cuttlefish-inspired robot, a distance away from classical nautical vehicles on the level of maneuverability. They said "contrary to the cuttlefish, it uses four fins, to maximize our goal of omnidirectionality."
New version of common antibiotic could eliminate risk of hearing loss On Christmas Eve, 2002, Bryce Faber was diagnosed with a deadly cancer called neuroblastoma. The 2-year-old's treatment, which, in addition to surgery, included massive amounts of radiation followed by even more massive amounts of antibiotics, no doubt saved his life. But those same mega-doses of antibiotics, while staving off infections in his immunosuppressed body, caused a permanent side effect: deafness.
	Nanoscale neighbors: First use of transformation optics to accurately analyze nonlocality in 3D plasmonic systems (Phys.org) —The ubiquitous van der Waals interaction – a consequence of quantum charge fluctuations – includes intermolecular forces such as attraction and repulsion between atoms, molecules and surfaces. The most long-range force acting between particles, it influences a range of phenomena including surface adhesion, friction and colloid stability. Typically a simple task when parallel surfaces are further apart than 10 nanometers, calculating van der Waals forces between, for example, a pair of nanospheres less than five nanometers apart becomes quite difficult. Moreover, the latter scale requires that the effect of nonlocality (the direct interaction of two objects that are separated in space with no perceivable intermediate agency or mechanism) be considered, introducing complexity into, and thereby further hampering, analysis.
	Researchers target the cell's 'biological clock' in promising new therapy to kill cancer cells Cell biologists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have targeted telomeres with a small molecule called 6-thiodG that takes advantage of the cell's 'biological clock' to kill cancer cells and shrink tumor growth.
Fat isn't all bad: Skin adipocytes help protect against infections When it comes to skin infections, a healthy and robust immune response may depend greatly upon what lies beneath. In a new paper published in the January 2, 2015 issue of Science, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report the surprising discovery that fat cells below the skin help protect us from bacteria.
	Not all obese people develop metabolic problems linked to excess weight New research demonstrates that obesity does not always go hand in hand with metabolic changes in the body that can lead to diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
HIV vaccines should avoid viral target cells, primate model study suggests Vaccines designed to protect against HIV can backfire and lead to increased rates of infection. This unfortunate effect has been seen in more than one vaccine clinical trial.
	Indoor wood-burning can affect air quality (HealthDay)—Although many people enjoy gathering around a fire during cold winter months, fires that aren't built properly can affect air quality and people's health, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Poland to search for its famous WWII submarine Two Polish teams will search this year for the Polish submarine ORP Orzel, which disappeared in the North Sea in May 1940 during a mission with the Allies in World War II.

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