Iron 'Snow' Helps Maintain Mercury's Magnetic Field.
New scientific evidence suggests that deep inside the
planet Mercury, iron “snow” forms and falls toward the
center of the planet, much like snowflakes form in Earth’s
atmosphere and fall to the ground. (UIUC)
Solar Variability: Striking a Balance with Climate Change.
The sun has powered almost everything on Earth since life
began, including its climate. The sun also delivers an
annual and seasonal impact, changing the character of each
hemisphere as Earth's orientation shifts through the year.
Since the Industrial Revolution, however, new forces have
begun to exert significant influence on Earth's climate. (GSFC)
Platypus Genome Explains Animal's Peculiar Features; Holds
Clues to Evolution of Mammals. An international
consortium of scientists, led by Washington University
School of Medicine in St. Louis, has decoded the genome of
the platypus, showing that the animal's peculiar mix of
features is reflected in its DNA. An analysis of the
genome, published today in the journal Nature, can help
scientists piece together a more complete picture of the
evolution of all mammals, including humans. (WUSTL)
Superbug Genome Sequenced.
The genome of a newly-emerging superbug, commonly known as
Steno, has just been sequenced. The results reveal an
organism with a remarkable capacity for drug resistance. (Bristol U.)
Ponds Found to Take Up Carbon Like World's Oceans.
Research led by Iowa State University limnologist, or lake
scientist, John Downing finds that ponds around the globe
could absorb as much carbon as the world's oceans. (ISU)
Cornell Researchers Study Bacterium Big Enough to See.
The secret to an unusual bacterium's massive size -- it's
the size of a grain of salt, or a million times bigger
than E. coli bacteria, and big enough to see with the
naked eye -- may be found in its ability to copy its
genome tens of thousands of times. (Cornell U.)
Researchers
Tackling Unsolved Questions About Protein Structures.
A University of Arizona research team is exploring the
evolutionary origins of protein structures. Their findings
will help people better understand how proteins evolved to
carry out the instructions encoded in the genes of every
living thing. (U. Arizona)
'Crispy Noodle' Chemistry Could Reduce Carbon Emissions.
A new material developed in Manchester, which has a
structure that resembles crispy noodles, could help reduce
the amount of carbon dioxide being pumped out and drive
the next generation of high-performance hydrogen cars. (U.
Manchester)
Harnessing Sunlight on the Cheap.
For a project that could be on the very cutting edge of
renewable energy, this one is actually decidedly low
tech--and that's the point. (MIT)
Gene Sequence that Can Make Half of Us Fatter is
Discovered.
A gene sequence linked to an expanding waist line, weight
gain and a tendency to develop type 2 diabetes has been
discovered as part of a study published in the journal
Nature Genetics. (ICL)
May 5
Warming a Greater Danger to Tropical Species.
Polar bears fighting for survival in the face of a rapid
decline of polar ice have made the Arctic a poster child
for the negative effects of climate change. But new
research shows that species living in the tropics likely
face the greatest peril in a warmer world. (Washington U.)
65-million-year-old Asteroid Impact Triggered a Global
Hail of Carbon Beads. The asteroid presumed to
have wiped out the dinosaurs struck the Earth with such
force that carbon deep in the Earth's crust liquefied,
rocketed skyward, and formed tiny airborne beads that
blanketed the planet, say scientists from the U.S., U.K.,
Italy, and New Zealand in this month's Geology. (Indiana
U.)
Unraveling the Genomic Code for Development.
Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have
produced the first complete description of the complex
network of genes that create a particular type of cell in
an organism. (Caltech)
New Technique Determines that the Number of Fat Cells
Remains Constant in All Body Types.
The radioactive carbon-14 produced by above-ground nuclear
testing in the 1950s and ’60s has helped researchers
determine that the number of fat cells in a human’s body,
whether lean or obese, is established during the teenage
years. Changes in fat mass in adulthood can be attributed
mainly to changes in fat cell volume, not an increase in
the actual number of fat cells. (LLNL)
May 4
Turning Fungus Into Fuel.
A spidery fungus with a voracious appetite for military
uniforms and canvas tents could hold the key to
improvements in the production of biofuels, a team of
government, academic and industry researchers has
announced. (LANL)
May 2
Diatoms Discovered to Remove Phosphorus from Oceans.
Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have
discovered a new way that phosphorus is naturally removed
from the oceans – it’s stored in diatoms. The discovery
opens up a new realm of research into an element that’s
used for reproduction, energy storage and structural
materials in every organism. Its understanding is vital to
the continued quest to understand the growth of the oceans. (GIT)
May 1
Animal Interaction Behind ‘Cambrian Explosion’? An
event as simple as the world’s first bite may have sparked
an ancient “explosion” of life 500 million years ago that
led to the rise of the broad groups of animals that are
still alive today. (Harvard U.)
April 30
Graphene-based Gadgets May Be Just Years Away.
Researchers at The University of Manchester have produced
tiny liquid crystal devices with electrodes made from
graphene – an exciting development that could lead to
computer and TV displays based on this technology. (U.
Manchester)
Are You Looking at Me? In humans, the eyes are
said to be the ‘window to the soul’, conveying much about
a person’s emotions and intentions. New research
demonstrates for the first time that starlings also
respond to a human’s gaze. (Bristol U.)
United We Stand: When Cooperation Butts Heads With
Competition.
Phrases such as “survival of the fittest” and “every man
for himself” may seem to accentuate the presence of
political and social competition in American culture;
however, there obviously are similar instances of inter-
and intra-group conflict across almost all known
organisms. So what makes competition so prevalent for life
and why does it sometimes seem to be preferred over
cooperation? (APS)
April 29
Compact Galaxies in Early Universe Pack a Big Punch.
Imagine receiving an announcement touting the birth of a
baby 20 inches long and weighing 180 pounds. After reading
this puzzling message, you would immediately think the
baby's weight was a misprint. (WM Keck)
Microbes Could Boost World Energy Supply. British
and Canadian scientists expect to begin trials next month
to find out whether microbes can unlock the vast amount of
energy trapped in the world's unrecoverable heavy oil
deposits. (Newcastle U.)
New Research Shows Consistency in Synaesthetic
Experiences. A quirky psychological phenomenon
known as “grapheme-color synaesthesia” describes
individuals who experience vivid colors whenever they see,
hear, or think of ordinary letters and digits. A hallmark
of synaesthesia is that individuals seem to be
idiosyncratic in their experiences. That is, most
synesthaetes will consistently see the same colors
accompanied with specific graphemes, but few of these
experiences appear to be shared with other synesthetes. (APS)
Some Light Shed on Blood Sugar Production.
A University of Alberta diabetes researcher has
collaborated on a body of diabetes research that has
unravelled the signalling pathway mystery that controls
the production of blood sugar. (U. Alberta)
April 28
Boost for ‘Green Plastics’ From Plants.
Australian researchers are a step closer to turning plants
into ‘biofactories’ capable of producing oils which can be
used to replace petrochemicals used to manufacture a range
of products. (CSIRO)
Before Fossil Fuels, Earth’s Minerals Kept CO2 in Check.
Over millions of years carbon dioxide levels in the
atmosphere have been moderated by a finely tuned natural
feedback system—a system that human emissions have
recently overwhelmed. (Carnegie I.)
Cause and Affect: Emotions Can Be Unconsciously and
Subliminally Evoked. Most people agree that
emotions can be caused by a specific event and that the
person experiencing it is aware of the cause, such as a
child’s excitement at the sound of an ice cream truck. But
recent research suggests emotions also can be
unconsciously evoked and manipulated. (APS)
Copper Nanowires Grown By New Process Create Long-lasting
Displays. A new low-temperature, catalyst-free
technique for growing copper nanowires has been developed
by researchers at the University of Illinois. The copper
nanowires could serve as interconnects in electronic
device fabrication and as electron emitters in a
television-like, very thin flat-panel display known as a
field-emission display. (UIUC)
Insulin Pill Possibilities Starting to Gel.
Insulin pills to replace the injections necessary for
those suffering from diabetes appear closer to reality
through new research by chemical and biomedical engineers
at The University of Texas at Austin. (UTA)
Global Warming "Fix" Would Damage Ozone Layer. An
international team of scientists, including University of
Maryland professor Ross Salawitch, says that a
widely-discussed idea to offset global warming by
injecting sulfate particles into the stratosphere would
significantly damage the protective ozone layer that
protects Earth from the sun's ultraviolet rays. (U.
Maryland)
Brookhaven Scientists Explore Brain's Reaction to Potent
Hallucinogen.
Brain-imaging studies performed in animals at the U.S.
Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National
Laboratory provide researchers with clues about why an
increasingly popular recreational drug that causes
hallucinations and motor-function impairment in humans is
abused. Using trace amounts of Salvia divinorum - also
known as "salvia," a Mexican mint plant that can be smoked
in the form of dried leaves or serum - Brookhaven
scientists found that the drug's behavior in the brains of
primates mimics the extremely fast and brief "high"
observed in humans. (BNL)
April 25
Laser Experiments Offer Insight Into Evolution of “Gas
Giants”. By shooting the high-energy Omega laser
onto precompressed samples of planetary fluids, scientists
are gaining a better understanding of the evolution and
internal structure of Jupiter, Saturn and extrasolar giant
planets. (LLNL)
Chalk One Up for Coccolithophores. Scientists have
feared that gradual acidification of the world's oceans
would wreak havoc with organisms that build protective
outer shells. But a new finding shows at least three
species of coccolithophores – single-celled algae that are
major players in the ocean's cycling of carbon – are
responding to ocean acidification by building thicker cell
walls and plates of chalk, contrary to what some recent
lab experiments have shown. (U. Washington)
Berkeley Researchers Find New Details Following the Path
of Solar Energy During Photosynthesis.
Imagine a technology that would not only provide a green
and renewable source of electrical energy, but could also
help scrub the atmosphere of excessive carbon dioxide
resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. That’s the
promise of artificial versions of photosynthesis, the
process by which green plants have been converting solar
energy into electrochemical energy for millions of years.
To get there, however, scientists need a far better
understanding of how Nature does it, starting with the
harvesting of sunlight and the transporting of this energy
to electrochemical reaction centers. (LBNL)
April 24
New Research Shows Sleight of Hand Is Not So Slight.
Typing on a keyboard or scribbling on paper may be similar
activities, but there is a significant difference in how
the body moves, according to new motor development
research. (Purdue U.)
First Nanoscale Image of Soil reveals an 'Incredible'
Variety.
A handful of soil is a lot like a banana, strawberry and
apple smoothie: Blended all together, it is hard to tell
what's in there, especially if you have never tasted the
fruits before. (Cornell U.)
April 23
Different Processes Govern Sight, Light Detection.
A Johns Hopkins University biologist, in research with
implications for people suffering from seasonal affective
disorder and insomnia, has determined that the eye uses
light to reset the biological clock through a mechanism
separate from the ability to see. (JHU)
First Draft of Transgenic Papaya Genome Yields Many Fruits.
A broad collaboration of research institutions in the U.S.
and China has produced a first draft of the papaya genome.
This draft, which spells out more than 90 percent of the
plant’s gene coding sequence, sheds new light on the
evolution of flowering plants. And because it involves a
genetically modified plant, the newly sequenced papaya
genome offers the most detailed picture yet of the genetic
changes that make the plant resistant to the papaya
ringspot virus. (UIUC)
New Source for Biofuels Discovered by Researchers.
A newly created microbe produces cellulose that can be
turned into ethanol and other biofuels, report scientists
from The University of Texas at Austin who say the microbe
could provide a significant portion of the nation's
transportation fuel if production can be scaled up. (UTA)
Study Captures Brain’s Activity Processing Speech.
You might be able to hear the difference, but to many
children and adults, these words sound exactly the same.
The problem isn’t that they can’t hear the sounds. The
problem is that they can’t tell them apart. (UT Dallas)
Did a
Significant Cool Spell Mark the Demise of Megafauna?
The end of the Pleistocene Epoch was marked with steadily
warmer temperatures and the great ice age glaciers that
covered vast areas of North America were in retreat. (U.
Arizona)
Mystery of Ancient Supercontinent Revealed. In a
paper published in this month’s ‘Geophysical Journal
International’, Dr Graeme Eagles from the Earth Sciences
Department at Royal Holloway, University of London,
reveals how one of the largest continents ever to exist
met its demise. (RAS)
New Hazard Estimates Could Downplay Earthquake Dangers.
The dangers posed by a major earthquake in the New Madrid
and Charleston, S.C., zones in the Midwestern and Southern
parts of the United States may be noticeably lower than
current estimates if seismologists adjust one of the major
assumptions that go into calculating seismic hazard,
according to a study presented by a Northwestern
University seismologist April 16 at the Seismological
Society of America’s annual meeting. (Northwestern U.)
April 21
Researchers Identify New Class of Photoreceptors in
Retina, Pointing to New Ways Sights-and Smells-Are
Regulated. The identification of a new class of
photoreceptors in the retina of fruit flies sheds light on
the regulation of the pigments of the eye that confer
color vision, researchers at New York University’s Center
for Developmental Genetics report in a new study appearing
in the Public Library of Science’s journal, PloS Biology.
The findings, they write, may also have implications for
the regulating of olfactory receptors, which are
responsible for the detection of smells, because both
types of receptors belong to the same protein family. (NYU)
Arctic Ice More Vulnerable to Sunny Weather. The
shrinking expanse of Arctic sea ice is increasingly
vulnerable to summer sunshine, new research concludes. The
study, by scientists at the National Center for
Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Colorado State University
(CSU), finds that unusually sunny weather contributed to
last summer's record loss of Arctic ice, while similar
weather conditions in past summers do not appear to have
had comparable impacts. (UCAR)
Synchrotron Light Unveils Oil in Ancient Buddhist
Paintings from Bamiyan. The world was in shock
when in 2001 the Talibans destroyed two ancient colossal
Buddha statues in the Afghan region of Bamiyan. Behind
those statues, there are caves decorated with precious
paintings from 5th to 9th century A.D. The caves also
suffered from Taliban destruction, as well as from a
severe natural environment, but today they have become the
source of a major discovery. Scientists have proved,
thanks to experiments performed at the European
Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), that the paintings
were made of oil, hundreds of years before the technique
was “invented” in Europe. (ESRF)
Causes of Disease Can Be Revealed By Metabolic
Fingerprinting.
Your metabolic 'fingerprint' can reveal much about the
possible causes of major diseases, according to the first
'metabolome-wide' association study ever carried out,
published today in the journal Nature. (ICL)
April 18
Female Mice Can Identify Inbred Males By Their Scent.
Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that
female mice avoid mating with inbred males by 'sensing'
the diversity of a protein type in their urine. (U.
Liverpool)
April 17
Ceramic, Heal Thyself. A new computer simulation
has revealed a self-healing behavior in a common ceramic
that may lead to development of radiation-resistant
materials for nuclear power plants and waste storage. (PNNL)
Seeing Clearly Despite the Clouds. Satellites
taking atmospheric measurements might now be able to see
blue skies as clearly as optimists do. Researchers have
found a way to reduce cloud-induced glare when satellites
measure blue skies on cloudy days, by as much as ten-fold
in some cases. The result might lead to more accurate
estimates of the amount of sunlight penetrating the
atmosphere. Because clouds represent one of the largest
areas of uncertainty, eventually this could lead to
improved climate models. (PNNL)
Duke Scientists Deconstruct Process of Bacterial Division.
Duke University researchers have made a major advance in
understanding how bacteria divide. This could lead to new
antibiotic treatments that prevent dangerous bacteria from
multiplying. (DUMC)
Changing Jet Streams May Alter Paths of Storms and
Hurricanes. The Earth’s jet streams, the
high-altitude bands of fast winds that strongly influence
the paths of storms and other weather systems, are
shifting—possibly in response to global warming.
Scientists at the Carnegie Institution determined that
over a 23-year span from 1979 to 2001 the jet streams in
both hemispheres have risen in altitude and shifted toward
the poles. The jet stream in the northern hemisphere has
also weakened. These changes fit the predictions of global
warming models and have implications for the frequency and
intensity of future storms, including hurricanes. (Carnegie
I.)
Bacteria in Dish Recreate Predator-Prey Interactions.
The hunter-versus-hunted phenomenon exemplified by a pack
of lionesses chasing down a lonely gazelle has been
recreated in a Petri dish with lowly bacteria. (Duke U.)
April 16
Black Hole Sheds Light on a Galaxy. A light echo
occurs when interstellar gas is heated by radiation and
reacts by emission of light. An international team led by
Stefanie Komossa from the Max Planck Institute for
extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, has
observed the light echo of an enormous X-ray flare, which
was almost certainly produced when a single star was
disrupted by a supermassive black hole. For the first
time, the light echo of such a rare and highly dramatic
event could be observed in great detail. The light echo
not only revealed the stellar disruption process, but it
also provides a powerful new method for mapping galactic
nuclei. (MPG)
New Technique Yields More Detailed Picture of Chromatin
Structure. University of Illinois researchers have
developed a technique for imaging cells under an electron
microscope that yields a sharper image of the structure of
chromatin, the tightly wound bundle of genetic material
and proteins that makes up the chromosomes. (UIUC)
Are Sacrificial Bacteria Altruistic or Just Unlucky?
An investigation of the genes that govern spore formation
in the bacteria B. subtilis shows that chance plays a
significant role in determining which of the microbes
sacrifice themselves for the colony and which go on to
form spores. (Rice U.)
Saliva Can Help Diagnose Heart Attack, Study Shows.
Early diagnosis of a heart attack may now be possible
using only a few drops of saliva and a new nano-bio-chip,
a multi-institutional team led by researchers at The
University of Texas at Austin reported at a recent meeting
of the American Association of Dental Research. (UTA)
Bloodless Worm Sheds Light on Human Blood, Iron
Deficiency. Using a lowly bloodless worm,
University of Maryland researchers have discovered an
important clue to how iron carried in human blood is
absorbed and transported into the body. The finding could
lead to developing new ways to reduce iron deficiency, the
world's number one nutritional disorder. (U. Maryland)
Ancient Dragon Has Space-age Skull. A new
international study has revealed how the Komodo dragon can
be such an efficient killing machine despite having a
wimpy bite and a featherweight skull. (UNSW)
Getting
Wired for Terahertz. University of Utah engineers
took an early step toward building superfast computers
that run on far-infrared light instead of electricity:
They made the equivalent of wires that carried and bent
this form of light, also known as terahertz radiation,
which is the last unexploited portion of the
electromagnetic spectrum. (U. Utah)
Casting for Molecules. Many of the larger
molecules have something in common with dolls - movable
limbs. Physicists at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max
Planck Society in Berlin can now sort molecules according
to the direction in which their "arms" and "legs" point. (MPG)
Argonne Scientists Develop Techniques for Creating
Molecular Movies. They may never win an Oscar, but
scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE)
Argonne National Laboratory have developed techniques for
creating accurate movies of biological and chemical
molecules, a feat only theorized up until now. (ANL)
Is There Anybody Out There? Probably not,
according to a scientist from the University of East
Anglia. A mathematical model produced by Prof Andrew
Watson suggests that the odds of finding new life on other
Earth-like planets are low, given the time it has taken
for beings such as humans to evolve and the remaining life
span of Earth. (UEA)
The Tree of Flowering Plants.
Over the past 20 years or so, there has been a revolution
in the plant world. If you are a gardener you may have
noticed that some plants are no longer where they used to
be in the guide books because they have been moved into
different families. As Professor Simon Hiscock, Director
of the Botanic Garden, explains, the reason is ‘molecular
phylogenetics’. (U. Bristol)
April 14
Unconscious Decisions in the Brain. Already
several seconds before we consciously make a decision its
outcome can be predicted from unconscious activity in the
brain. (MPG)
Clues to Ancestral Origin of Placenta Emerge in Stanford
Study. Researchers at the Stanford University
School of Medicine have uncovered the first clues about
the ancient origins of a mother’s intricate lifeline to
her unborn baby, the placenta, which delivers oxygen and
nutrients critical to the baby’s health. (Stanford SM)
Insects Evolved a Radically Different Strategy to Smell.
Darwin’s tree of life represents the path and estimates
the time evolution took to get to the current diversity of
life. Now, new findings suggest that this tree, an icon of
evolution, may need to be redrawn. In research published
in the April 13 advance online issue of Nature,
researchers at Rockefeller University and the University
of Tokyo have joined forces to reveal that insects have
adopted a strategy to detect odors that is radically
different from those of other organisms — an unexpected
and controversial finding that may dissolve a dominant
ideology in the field. (Rockefeller U.)
April 11
Engineering Prof
Builds Brains for Robotic Cars. Jonathan Sprinkle
wants to build robotic vehicles that pass the Turing Test.
The test, proposed by Alan Turing in a 1950 paper,
“Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” requires a robot’s
behavior to be so lifelike that an observer can't tell if
he’s dealing with a robot or a person. (U. Arizona)
Bridging the “Green” LED Gap to Provide Greener Lighting.
Concerns over the rising cost of oil and the environmental
impact of carbon emissions have prompted a national
discussion about solar, biofuels, nuclear, wind and other
renewable sources of energy. (Lehigh U.)
Hydrogen Storage in Nanoparticles Works.
Dutch chemist Kees Baldé has demonstrated that hydrogen
can be efficiently stored in nanoparticles. This allows
hydrogen storage to be more easily used in mobile
applications. (NWO)
April 10
A Grand Canyon as Old as the Dinosaurs? The origin
of the Grand Canyon has been a topic of scientific
controversy for nearly 140 years. Now, with geochronologic
data from the canyon and surrounding plateaus, geologists
from the California Institute of Technology present
significant evidence that lends new insight into its
history of formation. (Caltech)
Researchers Mimic Bacteria to Produce Magnetic
Nanoparticles. When it comes to designing
something, it’s hard to find a better source of
inspiration than Mother Nature. Using that principle, a
diverse, interdisciplinary group of researchers at the
U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory is mimicking
bacteria to synthesize magnetic nanoparticles that could
be used for drug targeting and delivery, in magnetic inks
and high-density memory devices, or as magnetic seals in
motors. (Ames Lab.)
And the First Animal on Earth Was a ... A new
study mapping the evolutionary history of animals
indicates that Earth's first animal--a mysterious creature
whose characteristics can only be inferred from fossils
and studies of living animals--was probably significantly
more complex than previously believed. (NSF)
April 9
Would You Steal a Buck? How About a Can of Soda?
It's been a long road from being engulfed in flames in an
explosion in Israel to leaving dollar bills in dorm
refrigerators at MIT. But in an odd way, it's all
connected. (MIT)
Researchers Close in on Origins of Main Ingredient of
Alzheimer's Plaques. The ability of brain cells to
take in substances from their surface is essential to the
production of a key ingredient in Alzheimer's brain
plaques, neuroscientists at Washington University School
of Medicine in St. Louis have learned. (WUSTL)
Rocket Mystery Explained With New Imaging Technique.
There’s a strange wave phenomenon that’s plagued rocket
scientists for years, a lurking threat with the power to
destroy an engine at almost any time. For decades,
scientists have had a limited understanding of how or why
it happens because they could not replicate or investigate
the problem under controlled laboratory conditions. (GIT)
“Green” Method Decontaminates Deadly Nerve Agents.
Research by two scientists has resulted in an exciting new
method for rapidly and safely destroying toxic agents such
as chemical weapons and pesticides. (Queen's U.)
New Research Shows How Quickly the Brain Recognizes Odors.
The way we detect, identify and respond to odors became a
bit clearer when a Boston University research team
combined measurements of odor perception with optical
imaging in awake, behaving rats to shed light on how
smells are initially processed and later perceived by the
brain. (Boston U.)
Physicists Saved From Drowning in Complexities of Wetting
Theory.
The relationship between a thin liquid film or drop of
liquid and the shape of the surface that it wets is
explained with a new simplified mathematical formula
published this week in Physical Review Letters. (ICL)
Money Doesn't Grow on Trees, But Gasoline Might.
Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of
"green gasoline," a liquid identical to standard gasoline
yet created from sustainable biomass sources like
switchgrass and poplar trees. (NSF)
Regional Nuclear Conflict Would Create Near-Global Ozone
Hole. A limited nuclear weapons exchange between
Pakistan and India using their current arsenals could
create a near-global ozone hole, triggering human health
problems and wreaking environmental havoc for at least a
decade, according to a study led by the University of
Colorado at Boulder. (UCB)
Stem Cell Method Treats Parkinson's Symptoms in Rats.
A team including MIT researchers has demonstrated for the
first time that artificially created stem cells can be
used to treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease in rats. (MIT)
April 4
Newly Discovered 'Superinsulators' Promise to Transform
Materials Research, Electronics Design.
Superinsulation may sound like a marketing gimmick for a
drafty attic or winter coat. But it is actually a newly
discovered fundamental state of matter created by
scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne
National Laboratory in collaboration with several European
institutions. This discovery opens new directions of
inquiry in condensed matter physics and breaks ground for
a new generation of microelectronics. (ANL)
Graphene Gazing Gives Glimpse of Foundations of Universe.
Researchers at The University of Manchester have used
graphene to measure an important and mysterious
fundamental constant - and glimpse the foundations of the
universe. (U. Manchester)
Synthetic Molecules May Be Less Expensive Alternative to
Therapeutic Antibodies.
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have
developed a simple and inexpensive method to screen small
synthetic molecules and pull out a handful that might
treat cancer and other diseases less expensively than
current methods. (Southwestern MC)
A Little Anxiety Pays Sometimes, Study Shows.
Anxiety gets a lot of bad press. Dwelling on the negative
can lead to chronic stress and anxiety disorders and
phobias, but evolutionarily speaking, anxiety holds some
functional value. In humans, learning to avoid harm is
necessary not only for surviving in the face of basic
threats (such as predators or rotten food), but also for
avoiding more complex social or economic threats (such as
enemies or questionable investments). (APS)
April 2
'Focused' Solar Explosions Get Hotter. A
NASA-funded researcher has discovered that solar flares --
explosions in the atmosphere of the sun -- get much hotter
when they stay "focused". (GSFC)
New Fish Has a Face Even Dale Chihuly Could Love.
A fish that would rather crawl into crevices than swim,
and that may be able to see in the same way that humans
do, could represent an entirely unknown family of fishes,
says a University of Washington fish expert. (U.
Washington)
Working Memory Has Limited 'Slots'. A new study by
researchers at UC Davis shows how our very short-term
"working memory," which allows the brain to stitch
together sensory information, operates. The system retains
a limited number of high-resolution images for a few
seconds, rather than a wider range of fuzzier impressions. (UC
Davis)
Laser Precision Added to Search for New Earths.
Harvard scientists have unveiled a new laser-measuring
device that they say will provide a critical advance in
the resolution of current planet-finding techniques,
making the discovery of Earth-sized planets possible. (Harvard
U.)
Brain DNA 'Remodeled' in Alcoholism. Reshaping of
the DNA scaffolding that supports and controls the
expression of genes in the brain may play a major role in
the alcohol withdrawal symptoms, particularly anxiety,
that make it so difficult for alcoholics to stop using
alcohol. (UIC)
Promising New Nanotechnology for Spinal Cord Injury.
A spinal cord injury often leads to permanent paralysis
and loss of sensation below the site of the injury because
the damaged nerve fibers can't regenerate. The nerve
fibers or axons have the capacity to grow again, but don’t
because they're blocked by scar tissue that develops
around the injury. (Northwestern U.)
Emission Reduction Assumptions for Carbon Dioxide Overly
Optimistic. Reducing global emissions of carbon
dioxide (CO2) over the coming century will be more
challenging than society has been led to believe,
according to a new research commentary appearing April 3
in Nature. (UCAR)
Nano-sized Technology Has Super-sized Effect on Tumors.
Anyone facing chemotherapy would welcome an advance
promising to dramatically reduce their dose of these often
harsh drugs. Using nanotechnology, researchers at
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have
taken a step closer to that goal. (WUSTL)
Continents Loss to Oceans Boosts Staying Power.
New research suggests that the geological staying power of
continents comes partly from their losing battle with the
Earth's oceans over magnesium. The research finds
continents lose more than 20 percent of their initial mass
via chemical reactions involving the Earth's crust, water
and atmosphere. Because much of the lost mass is dominated
by magnesium and calcium, continents ultimately gain
because the lighter, silicon-rich rock that's left behind
is buoyed up by denser rock beneath the Earth's crust.. (Rice
U.)
Algae Could One Day Be Major Hydrogen Fuel Source.
As gas prices continue to soar to record highs, motorists
are crying out for an alternative that won't cramp their
pocketbooks. Scientists at U.S. Department of Energy's
Argonne National Laboratory are answering that call by
working to chemically manipulate algae for production of
the next generation of renewable fuels – hydrogen gas. (ANL)
Researcher's Nanodevice Could Cut Airport Lines.
One day soon, a biosensing nanodevice developed by ASU
researcher Wayne Frasch may eliminate long lines at
airport security checkpoints and revolutionize health
screenings for diseases such as anthrax, cancer and
antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). (Arizona
SU.)
Sandia Researchers Purposely Damage Batteries to See How
Much Abuse They Can Take. Researchers in the Power
Sources R&D group at Sandia National Laboratories have
been driving nails into batteries, heating them to extreme
temperatures, overcharging them, and putting them into
some of the most adverse conditions possible to see how
much abuse they can take before they blow up. (Sandia
Labs.)
Engineers Make First 'Active Matrix' Display Using
Nanowires. Engineers have created the first
"active matrix" display using a new class of transparent
transistors and circuits, a step toward realizing
applications such as e-paper, flexible color monitors and
"heads-up" displays in car windshields. (Purdue U.)
Two New Star Systems Are First Of Their Kind Ever Found.
Astronomers have spied a faraway star system that is so
unusual, it was one of a kind -- until its discovery
helped them pinpoint a second one that was much closer to
home. (OSU)
Stem Cells
from Hair Follicles May Help "Grow" New Blood Vessels.
For a rich source of stem cells to be engineered into new
blood vessels or skin tissue, clinicians may one day look
no further than the hair on their patients' heads,
according to new research published earlier this month by
University at Buffalo engineers. (U. Buffalo)
March 27
Foldable and Stretchable, Silicon Circuits Conform to Many
Shapes. Scientists have developed a new form of
stretchable silicon integrated circuit that can wrap
around complex shapes such as spheres, body parts and
aircraft wings, and can operate during stretching,
compressing, folding and other types of extreme mechanical
deformations, without a reduction in electrical
performance. (UIUC)
Researchers Link Genetic Errors to Schizophrenia.
A team of researchers at the University of Washington and
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories has uncovered genetic
errors that may shed light on the causes of schizophrenia. (U.
Washington)
McEuen and Ralph Put New Spin On Quantum Computing in
Carbon Nanotubes.
Researchers hoping to use carbon nanotubes for quantum
computing -- in which the spin of a single electron would
represent a bit of data -- may have to change their
approaches, according to new Cornell research. (Cornell
U.)
March 25
Study Heats Up 'Snowball Earth' Debate. Research
by University Professor Richard Peltier of physics reveals
that the Earth’s surface 700 million years ago may have
been warmer than previously thought. (U.
Toronto)
Spit Tests May Soon Replace Many Blood Tests. One
day soon patients may spit in a cup, instead of bracing
for a needle prick, when being tested for cancer, heart
disease or diabetes. A major step in that direction is the
cataloguing of the “complete” salivary proteome, a set of
proteins in human ductal saliva, identified by a
consortium of three research teams, according to an
article published today in the Journal of Proteome
Research. Replacing blood draws with saliva tests promises
to make disease diagnosis, as well as the tracking of
treatment efficacy, less invasive and costly. (U.
Rochester)
Buried Treasure: Proceed with Caution. Locked
beneath the world’s ocean floors, sealed off by low
temperatures and high pressure, lies a frozen reservoir of
natural gas that could one day help satisfy the world’s
ever-growing demand for energy. (Lehigh U.)
Ancient Lemur Bones Present a Puzzle. Initial
analysis of recently discovered hand bones belonging to an
ancient lemur has revealed a mysterious joint structure
that has scientists puzzled. (U. Alberta)
Fly Flight Simulators Reveal Secrets of Decision Making.
Even flies like video games--and it's not just child's
play, say scientists at the California Institute of
Technology. With the help of a unique bug-sized flight
simulator, Caltech researchers are deciphering the secrets
of behavior and decision making in the fly brain, and,
ultimately, in our own. (Caltech)
Scientists Map Medulla Circuitry in Fruit Flies, Setting
Stage for Understanding How Color Vision Is Processed.
New York University biologists have mapped the medulla
circuitry in fruit flies, setting the stage for subsequent
research on how color vision is processed. The work, which
appeared in the journal Current Biology, will allow future
scholarship to explore how color vision is processed in
the optic lobe of the fruit fly Drosophila, providing a
paradigm for more complex systems in vertebrates. (NYU)
Antarctic Ice Shelf Disintegrating As Result Of Climate
Change, Scientists Say. Satellite imagery from the
University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice
Data Center shows a portion of Antarctica's massive
Wilkins Ice Shelf has begun to collapse because of rapid
climate change in a fast-warming region of the continent. (UCB)
Columbia Scientists Discover New Way of Selectively
Killing Cancer Cells.
A Columbia University professor has discovered a chemical
mechanism that can selectively kill cancer cells while
leaving normal cells unharmed. Brent R. Stockwell, an
associate professor in the department of biological
sciences and the department of chemistry at Columbia
University, found two new lethal compounds, RSL3 and RSL5,
that act through a cellular pathway unique to certain
cancers. (Columbia U.)
March 24
'Superdense' Coding Gets Denser. The record for
the most amount of information sent by a single photon has
been broken by researchers at the University of Illinois.
Using the direction of “wiggling” and “twisting” of a pair
of hyper-entangled photons, they have beaten a fundamental
limit on the channel capacity for dense coding with linear
optics. (UIUC)
Physicists Show Electrons Can Travel More Than 100 Times
Faster in Graphene. University of Maryland
physicists have shown that in graphene the intrinsic limit
to the mobility, a measure of how well a material conducts
electricity, is higher than any other known material at
room temperature. Graphene, a single-atom-thick sheet of
graphite, is a new material which combines aspects of
semiconductors and metals. (U. Maryland)
Cosmologists Probe Mystery of Dark Energy with South Pole
Telescope.
Something is pulling the universe apart. What is it, and
where will it take us from here? Scientists at the Kavli
Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago,
seek answers to those questions with the
newly-commissioned South Pole Telescope. (U. Chicago)
March 21
First Study Hints at Insights to Come from Genes Unique to
Humans.
Among the approximately 23,000 genes found in human DNA,
scientists currently estimate that there may be as few as
50 to 100 that have no counterparts in other species.
Expand that comparison to include the primate family known
as hominoids, and there may be several hundred unique
genes. (WUSTL)
March 20
New Research Dives into Details of Supernova.
Astronomers have made the best determination of the power
of a supernova explosion long after it was visible from
Earth. This technique, using X-ray and optical
observations, may help reveal the details of how some
stars come to a cataclysmic deathr. (LLNL)
Tiny Buckyballs Squeeze Hydrogen Like Giant Jupiter.
Hydrogen could be a clean, abundant energy source, but
it's difficult to store in bulk. In new research,
materials scientists at Rice University have made the
surprising discovery that tiny carbon capsules called
buckyballs are so strong they can hold volumes of hydrogen
nearly as dense as those at the center of Jupiter. (Rice
U.)
New Method Offers Insight into Radiation Damage to DNA.
A new technique for assessing the damage radiation causes
to DNA indicates that the spatial arrangement of damaged
sites, or lesions, is more important than the number of
lesions in determining the severity of the damage. The
technique, developed by scientists at the U.S. Department
of Energy (DOE)'s Brookhaven National Laboratory, helps
reveal why high-energy charged particles such as the heavy
ions in outer space are more potentially harmful than
lower-energy forms of radiation such as x-rays and gamma
rays. The research could help clarify the risks faced by
future astronauts flying long-term missions to the moon or
Mars. (BNL)
Stanford Researchers Unmask Proteins in Telomerase, a
Substance that Enables Cancer. One of the more
intriguing workhorses of the cell, a protein conglomerate
called telomerase, has in its short history been
implicated in some critical areas of medicine including
cancer, aging and keeping stem cells healthy. With such a
resume, telomerase has been the subject of avid interest
by basic scientists and pharmaceutical companies alike, so
you’d think at the very least people would know what it is. (Stanford
SM)
Researchers Achieve Dramatic Increase in Thermoelectric
Efficiency.
Researchers at Boston College and MIT have used
nanotechnology to achieve a major increase in
thermoelectric efficiency, a milestone that paves the way
for a new generation of products - from semiconductors and
air conditioners to car exhaust systems and solar power
technology - that run cleaner. (MIT)
March 19
Robot Fetches Objects With Just a Point and a Click.
Robots are fluent in their native language of 1 and 0
absolutes but struggle to grasp the nuances and imprecise
nature of human language. While scientists are making
slow, incremental progress in their quest to create a
robot that responds to speech, gestures and body language,
a more straightforward method of communication may help
robots find their way into homes sooner. (GIT)
How Iron Gets into the North Pacific. Most
oceanographers have assumed that, in the areas of the
world's oceans known as High Nutrient, Low Chlorophyll
(HNLC) regions, the iron needed to fertilize infrequent
plankton blooms comes almost entirely from wind-blown
dust. Phoebe Lam and James Bishop of the Earth Sciences
Division at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory have now shown that in the North
Pacific, at least, it just ain't so. (LBNL)
Brains Are Hardwired to Act According to the Golden Rule.
Wesley Autrey, a black construction worker, a Navy veteran
and 55-year-old father of two, didn’t know the young man
standing beside him. But when he had a seizure on the
subway platform and toppled onto the tracks, Autrey jumped
down after him and shielded him with his body as a train
bore down on them. Autrey could have died, so why did he
put his life on the line — literally — to save this
complete stranger? (Rockefeller U.)
A Tangled Web: CEE Researchers Unravel the Secrets of
Spider Silk's Strength. The strength of a
biological material like spider silk lies in the specific
geometric configuration of structural proteins, which have
small clusters of weak hydrogen bonds that work
cooperatively to resist force and dissipate energy,
researchers in Civil and Environmental Engineering have
revealed. (MIT)
Floating a Big Idea. Oceangoing sailing rafts
plied the waters of the equatorial Pacific long before
Europeans arrived in the Americas, and carried tradegoods
for thousands of miles all the way from modern-day Chile
to western Mexico, according to new findings by MIT
researchers in the Department of Materials Science and
Engineering. (MIT)
MIT Tests Unique Approach to Fusion Power.
An MIT team has successfully tested a novel reactor that
could chart a new path toward nuclear fusion, which could
become a safe, reliable and nearly limitless source of
energy. (MIT)
March 18
Wind Patterns Could Mask Effects of Global Warming in
Ocean. Scientists at the University of Liverpool
have found that natural variability in the earth's
atmosphere could be masking the overall effect of global
warming in the North Atlantic Ocean. (U. Liverpool)
Satellites Can Help Arctic Grazers Survive Killer Winter
Storms. Rain falling on snow sounds like a
relatively harmless weather event, but when it happens in
the far north it can mean lingering death for reindeer,
musk oxen and other animals that normally graze on the
Arctic tundra. (U. Washington)
Tell Them Where it Hurts. For statues, stress
injuries come from standing in place for hundreds of
years. Using a novel technique, researchers have now
developed a way to predict such fracturing, applying the
procedure to Michelangelo's David in an analysis that
proved simpler, faster and more accurate than previous
methods. (NSF)
Crab-like Robot Could Benefit Undersea Exploration.
Underwater exploration may become easier in the future
thanks to a new prototype crab-like robot invented by a
University of Bath postgraduate student. (Bath U.)
Work With Power Grids Leads to Cell Biology Discovery.
Gene therapy, in which a working gene is inserted into a
cell to replace a faulty or absent gene, is a promising
experimental technique for the prevention and treatment of
disease. (Northwestern U.)
Tug of War in the Cells. Logistics is a key part
of life. Nutrition, tools and information constantly have
to be transported from one place to another in cells.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and
Interfaces have now discovered how molecular motors
transport cargos in cells. Two competing teams of motors
pull in opposite directions, like in a tug-of-war contest.
The winning team determines the direction of transport
after the competition. (MPG)
Chemical Engineers Discover New Way To Control Particle
Motion. A new way to control the motion of fluid
particles through tiny channels, potentially aiding the
development of micro- and nano-scale technologies such as
drug delivery devices, chemical and biological sensors,
and components for miniaturized biological "lab-on-a-chip"
applications has been discovered by chemical engineers at
The University of Texas at Austin. (UTA)
March 17
Researchers Discover Second Depth-Perception Mechanism in
Brain. It's common knowledge that humans and other
animals are able to visually judge depth because we have
two eyes and the brain compares the images from each. But
we can also judge depth with only one eye, and scientists
have been searching for how the brain accomplishes that
feat. (U. Rochester)
Anthropologists Confirm Link Between Diet and Teeth of
Chimpanzees and Orangutans. For the first time,
anthropologists at the University of California, Santa
Cruz, have measured the mechanical properties of foods
eaten in the wild by orangutans and chimpanzees to test
assumptions about the link between diet and the teeth of
primates. (UCSC)
Gecko's Tail Key to Preventing Falls, Aerial Maneuvers.
How useful is an animal's tail? For the gecko, unlike most
animals, it could be a matter of life or death, according
to new research from the University of California,
Berkeley. (UC Berkeley)
Fake Diamonds Help Jet Engines Take The Heat. Ohio
State University engineers are developing a technology to
coat jet engine turbine blades with zirconium dioxide --
commonly called zirconia, the stuff of synthetic diamonds
-- to combat high-temperature corrosion. (OSU)
Fountain of Youth Comes in a Pill? There is no
drug that can turn back the hands of time, but a Harvard
researcher may have stumbled upon one that slows the
onward ticking. (U. Alberta)
Nitrogen Controls a Plant's Circadian Rhythms. A
group of researchers, which includes faculty from
Dartmouth, has determined that organic nitrogen controls a
genetic network in plants that regulates both the plant's
nitrogen metabolism and its circadian clock. (Darmouth C.)
First 'Rule' of Evolution Suggests that Life is Destined
to Become More Complex.
Scientists funded in part by BBSRC have revealed what may
well be the first pervasive 'rule' of evolution. In a
study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences researchers have found evidence which suggests
that evolution drives animals to become increasingly more
complex. (Bath U.)
March 14
MicroRNAs Help Fins Regenerate in Zebrafish.
Biologists have discovered a molecular circuit breaker
that controls a zebrafish's remarkable ability to regrow
missing fins, according to a new study from Duke
University Medical Center. (DUMC)
March 13
How
Alligators Rock and Roll. Without a ripple in the
water, alligators dive, surface or roll sideways, even
though they lack flippers or fins. University of Utah
biologists discovered gators maneuver silently by using
their diaphragm, pelvic, abdominal and rib muscles to
shift their lungs like internal floatation devices: toward
the tail when they dive, toward the head when they surface
and sideways when they roll. (U. Utah)
Chemical in Bug Spray Works by Masking Human Odors.
Fifty years have passed since the United States Department
of Agriculture and the U.S. Army invented DEET to protect
soldiers from disease-transmitting insects (and, in the
process, made camping trips and barbecues more pleasant
for the rest of us civilians). But despite decades of
research, scientists still didn’t know how it worked. Now,
by pinpointing DEET’s molecular target in insects,
researchers at Rockefeller University have definitively
shown that the widely used bug repellent acts like a
chemical cloak, masking human odors that blood-feeding
insects find attractive. (Rockefeller U.)
Nature or Nurture - Why Do Some of Us See Red?
University of Manchester researchers are investigating why
some people remain calm in the face of life's niggles,
while others 'flip' with little provocation. (U.
Manchester)
Cornell Sets Record for Creating High-frequency
Microresonator in Silicon.
Many researchers in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)
have focused on resonators -- tiny devices that vibrate at
radio frequencies -- to replace quartz crystals and other
oscillators and can be economically integrated directly
into a silicon chip. (Cornell U.)
March 12
ORNL Study Shows Hybrid Effect on Power Distribution.
A growing number of plug-in hybrid electric cars and
trucks could require major new power generation resources
or none at all— depending on when people recharge their
automobiles. (ORNL)
Astronomers Find Grains of Sand around Distant Stars.
In a find that sheds light on how Earth-like planets may
form, astronomers this week reported finding the first
evidence of small, sandy particles orbiting a newborn
solar system at about the same distance as the Earth
orbits the sun. The report will be published online this
week in the journal Nature. (Rice U.)
A Protein that Triggers Aggressive Breast Cancer.
SATB1 is a nuclear protein well known for its crucial role
in regulating gene expression during the differentiation
and activation of T cells, making it a key player in the
immune system. But SATB1 has now revealed a darker side:
it is an essential contributing factor in the most
aggressive forms of breast cancer. (LBNL)
Shell Shock.
DNA biologists may have to go back to the drawing board
when it comes to explaining the body’s ability to detect
errors during the translation of genetic information into
proteins. (U. Texas)
March 11
Gender Differences in Language Appear Biological.
Although researchers have long agreed that girls have
superior language abilities than boys, until now no one
has clearly provided a biological basis that may account
for their differences. (Northwestern U.)
Domestication of the Donkey. An international
group of researchers, led by Fiona Marshall, Ph.D.,
professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, has found
evidence for the earliest transport use of the donkey and
the early phases of donkey domestication, suggesting the
process of domestication may have been slower and less
linear than previously thought. (WUSTL)
Short-term Stress Can Affect Learning and Memory.
Short-term stress lasting as little as a few hours can
impair brain-cell communication in areas associated with
learning and memory, University of California, Irvine
researchers have found. (UCI)
Shell Shock.
An MIT materials scientist's research on sea snails has
helped transform battery technology and may end the era
when cell phones die if they're dropped and PDAs must be
replaced if they get dunked in the tub. (MIT)
March 10
Finally, the 'Planet' in Planetary Nebulae?
Astronomers at the University of Rochester, home to one of
the world's largest groups of planetary nebulae
specialists, have announced that low-mass stars and
possibly even super-Jupiter-sized planets may be
responsible for creating some of the most breathtaking
objects in the sky. (U. Rochester)
Researchers Confirm Discovery of Earth's Inner, Innermost
Core. Geologists at the University of Illinois
have confirmed the discovery of Earth’s inner, innermost
core, and have created a three-dimensional model that
describes the seismic anisotropy and textu