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Friday, September 7, 2012

ScienceDaily: Top News

ScienceDaily: Top News


Lifestyle of a killer: In wild European brown shrimp, parasitic dinoflagellates have bacteria-like endosymbionts

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 05:33 PM PDT

Parasitic dinoflagellates of the genus Hematodinium are a big problem for crab, prawn and shrimp fisheries across the world. New research has found that, in wild European brown shrimp (Crangon crangon), these parasites have bacteria-like endosymbionts. The presence of these endosymbionts indicates a previously unknown side to the lifecycle of Hematodinium.

Hadley Crater provides deep insight into Martian geology

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 04:14 PM PDT

Recently engaged in providing support to the successful landing of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover, ESA's Mars Express has now returned to its primary mission of studying the diverse geology and atmosphere of the 'Red Planet' from orbit. Earlier this year, the spacecraft observed the 120 km wide Hadley Crater, providing a tantalizing insight into the martian crust. The images show multiple subsequent impacts within the main crater wall, reaching depths of up to 2600 m below the surrounding surface.

NASA Mars rover Curiosity begins arm-work phase

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 04:05 PM PDT

After driving more than a football field's length since landing, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is spending several days preparing for full use of the tools on its arm.

Biologists tag 'zombees' to track their flight

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 03:20 PM PDT

After last year's accidental discovery of "zombie"-like bees infected with a fly parasite, researchers are conducting an elaborate experiment to learn more about the plight of the honey bees.

Modeling sepsis in newborns: Technical achievement will speed the search for better diagnostics, treatments

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 03:20 PM PDT

Sepsis, or bacterial infection of the bloodstream, is a grave, hard-to-diagnose threat in premature newborns in the NICU. Even when it's detected and treated with antibiotics, its inflammatory effects can harm fragile babies' development. Now, researchers have modeled the effects of sepsis on the unique newborn immune system, using mice. They and others have begun using the model to identify diagnostic markers and better treatments.

Non-alcoholic red wine may help reduce high blood pressure

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 03:19 PM PDT

Non-alcoholic red wine was more effective at lowering blood pressure than traditional red wine or gin. Red wine's polyphenols uninhibited by alcohol seem to be the blood pressure reducing element.

Genome of malaria-causing parasite sequenced: Even when on different continents, organism features same mutations

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 03:19 PM PDT

Scientists have discovered that the parasite that causes the most common form of malaria share the same genetic variations -- even when the organisms are separated across continents. The discovery raises concerns that mutations to resist existing medications could spread worldwide, making global eradication efforts even more difficult.

Alcoholics anonymous participation promotes long-term recovery, study finds

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 03:16 PM PDT

A new study finds that recovering alcoholics who help others in 12-step programs furthers their time sober, consideration for others, step-work, and long-term meeting attendance.

Well-known protein reveals new tricks

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 03:16 PM PDT

A protein called clathrin, which is found in every human cell and plays a critical role in transporting materials within them, also plays a key role in cell division, according to new research.

Why claws come out over feral cat management: Finding common ground among 'cat people' and 'bird people'

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 03:16 PM PDT

A national survey shows that "cat people" and "bird people" have heated differences of opinion, complicating the challenge of managing more than 50 million free-roaming feral cats while protecting threatened wildlife. A new study identifies why the claws come out over feral cat management and which approaches might be useful in finding common ground among those with polarized opinions.

Weapon-wielding marine microbes may protect populations from foes

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 11:48 AM PDT

Researchers have recently found evidence that some ocean microbes wield chemical weapons that are harmless to close relatives within their own population, but deadly to outsiders.

Guantanamo Bay Lepidoptera study sets baseline for future research

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 11:48 AM PDT

Scientists publishing the first study on butterflies and moths of Guantanamo Bay Naval Station have discovered vast biodiversity in an area previously unknown to researchers.

Parents' skin cancer concern doesn't keep kids inside

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 11:48 AM PDT

Does parents' increasing skin cancer awareness make indoor, obese kids? Nope. A new study shows that skin cancer concern doesn't affect kids' time outside.

Childhood virus RSV shows promise against adult cancer

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 11:48 AM PDT

RSV, a common respiratory virus in infants and young children, is being studied as a safe, effective way to treat cancer. RSV already shows promise in anti-cancer trials overseas. US clinical trials could be on the horizon.

Changes in water chemistry leave lake critters defenseless

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 11:18 AM PDT

Changes in Canadian lake water chemistry have left small water organisms vulnerable to ambush by predators, according to a new study. Low calcium levels affect the exoskeleton development of water fleas, which are food for fish and keep lakes clean. Plankton in the world's oceans may also be affected.

Genetic discovery in Montreal for a rare disease in Newfoundland

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 11:18 AM PDT

Researchers have discovered the genetic cause of a rare disease reported only in patients originating from Newfoundland: Hereditary spastic ataxia. This condition is characterized by lower-limb spasticity (or stiffness) and ataxia (lack of coordination), the latter leading to speech and swallowing problems, and eye movement abnormalities.

Quantum world only partially melts: Ultracold atoms reveal surprising new quantum effects

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 11:18 AM PDT

Scientists are investigating the transition of quantum systems as they approach thermal equilibrium. Scientists have now detected an astonishingly stable intermediate state between order and disorder.

Protein critical to gut lining repair identified

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 11:11 AM PDT

Scientists have identified a protein essential to repairing the intestine's inner lining.

Nutritional supplement offers promise in treatment of unique form of autism

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 11:11 AM PDT

An international team of researchers has identified a form of autism with epilepsy that may potentially be treatable with a common nutritional supplement.

What light through yonder tiny window breaks? Researchers optimize photoluminescent probes to study dna and more

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 10:14 AM PDT

Sorting good data from bad is critical when analyzing microscopic structures like cells and their contents, according to researchers. The trick is to find the right window of time through which to look. A new paper offers a methodology to optimize the sensitivity of photoluminescent probes using time-resolved spectroscopy. Researchers found their technique gave results nearly twice as good as standard fluorescence spectroscopy does when they probed for specific DNA sequences.

People who get kidney stones more likely to develop kidney failure

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 10:13 AM PDT

People who have had kidney stones are twice as likely to need dialysis or a kidney transplant later in life, demonstrates recent findings.

Mining the blogosphere: Researchers develop tools that make sense of social media

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 10:13 AM PDT

Can a computer "read" an online blog and understand it? Several computer scientists are helping to get closer to that goal.

In Rochester, a tale of tainted tattoos: Outbreak highlights new source of infection -- tattoo ink

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 10:13 AM PDT

A recent study documents 19 cases of tattoos infected with a type of bacteria often found in tap water. Evidence points to a premixed gray ink, the type used in portrait tattoos, as the culprit. Physicians who treated the patients believe that tattoo-associated infections are probably more common than we think and that doctors should think about infectious causes if patients aren't responding to topical treatments that would typically dispel any allergic reactions to tattoos.

'I knew it all along ... didn't I?' -- Understanding hindsight bias

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 09:33 AM PDT

The situation may be different each time, but we hear ourselves say it over and over again: "I knew it all along." The problem is that too often we actually didn't know it all along, we only feel as though we did. In a new article, psychological scientists explore existing research on "hindsight bias," identifying the factors that make us susceptible to the phenomenon and identifying some ways we might be able to combat it.

Predicting how patients respond to therapy: Brain scans could help doctors choose treatments for people with social anxiety disorder

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 09:33 AM PDT

A new study has found that brain scans of patients with social anxiety disorder can help predict whether they will benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy.

Childhood sexual abuse linked to later heart attacks in men

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 09:32 AM PDT

Men who experienced childhood sexual abuse are three times more likely to have a heart attack than men who were not sexually abused as children, according to a new study. The researchers found no association between childhood sexual abuse and heart attacks among women.

Storm of 'awakened' transposons may cause brain-cell pathologies in ALS, other illnesses

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 09:32 AM PDT

A team of neuroscientists and informatics experts reports important progress in an effort to understand the relationship between transposons -- sequences of DNA that can jump around within the genome, potentially causing great damage -- and mechanisms involved in serious neurodegenerative disorders including ALS, FTLD (frontotemporal lobar degeneration) and Alzheimer's disease.

Destroyed coastal habitats produce significant greenhouse gas

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 09:32 AM PDT

Destruction of coastal habitats may release as much as one billion tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere each year, 10 times higher than previously reported, according to a new study.

Master gene affects neurons that govern breathing at birth and in adulthood

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 09:32 AM PDT

When mice are born lacking the master gene Atoh1, none breathe well and all die in the newborn period. Why and how this occurs could provide new answers about sudden infant death syndrome, but the solution has remained elusive until now.

Immune cell death safeguards against autoimmune disease

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 09:32 AM PDT

Researchers have discovered that a pair of molecules work together to kill so-called 'self-reactive' immune cells that are programmed to attack the body's own organs. The finding is helping to explain how autoimmune diseases develop.

Stem-cell-protecting drug could prevent the harmful side effects of radiation therapy

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 09:32 AM PDT

Radiation therapy is one of the most widely used cancer treatments, but it often damages normal tissue and can lead to debilitating conditions. A class of drugs known as mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors can prevent radiation-induced tissue damage in mice by protecting normal stem cells that are crucial for tissue repair, according to a preclinical study.

Rare autoimmune disease attacks people of Asian descent

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 09:29 AM PDT

There has been an outbreak of an adult-onset immunodeficiency syndrome in Southeast Asia. The autoimmune disease causes AIDS-like symptoms but is not associated with HIV and is not contagious.

Germ cell-supporting embryonic Sertoli-like cells created from skin cells

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 09:29 AM PDT

Using a stepwise trans-differentiation process, researchers have turned skin cells into embryonic Sertoli-like cells.

Atypical skin mole may provide means to test for new cancer syndrome

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 08:26 AM PDT

Researchers have discovered germline BAP1 mutations are associated with a novel cancer syndrome characterized by malignant mesothelioma, uveal melanoma, cutaneous melanoma and atypical melanocytic tumors. Germline mutations are hereditary gene defects that are present in every cell.

Pint-size molecules show promise against obesity

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 08:26 AM PDT

Tiny strands of RNA affect how our cells burn fat and sugar -- a finding that gives biologists a place to start in the quest for therapies to treat obesity and related health problems, say scientists.

Brain filter for clear information transmission: Neuronal inhibition is key for memory formation

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 08:26 AM PDT

Every activity in the brain involves the transfer of signals between neurons. Frequently, as many as one thousand signals rain down on a single neuron simultaneously. To ensure that precise signals are delivered, the brain possesses a sophisticated inhibitory system. Researchers have illuminated how this system works.

Mars's dramatic climate variations are driven by the Sun

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 08:26 AM PDT

On Mars's poles there are ice caps of ice and dust with layers that reflect to past climate variations on Mars. Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute have related the layers in the ice cap on Mars's north pole to variations in solar insolation, thus established the first dated climate history for Mars, where ice and dust accumulation has been driven by variations in insolation.

Chikyu sets a new world drilling-depth record of scientific ocean drilling

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 08:22 AM PDT

Scientific deep sea drilling vessel Chikyu sets a world new record by drilling down and obtains rock samples from deeper than 2,111 meters below the seafloor off Shimokita Peninsula of Japan in the northwest Pacific Ocean.

Breast cancer screening saves lives, new study shows

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 08:22 AM PDT

Women who undergo screening halve their risk of dying from breast cancer, a new study has found. The study is the largest of its kind in Australia and one of the largest in the world. It followed about 4,000 women in a study of the BreastScreen program in Western Australia.

Weighing the Ocean: Solving the biggest problem in sea level science

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 08:19 AM PDT

Oceanographers have thought of a novel way to measure the global ocean – weigh it.  Scientists have proposed an idea that will assess the mass of the world ocean by weighing at a single point.

Novel therapeutic targets identified for small cell lung cancer

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 08:17 AM PDT

• If validated, may have the potential to produce first targeted therapy for this disease. • Molecular profile of small cell lung cancer distinct from nonsmall cell lung cancer.

Thickening of the heart's right ventricle could foreshadow heart failure and cardiovascular death

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 08:17 AM PDT

Researchers report in a new study that thickening of the heart's right ventricle is associated with an increased risk of heart failure and cardiovascular death in patients without clinical cardiovascular disease at baseline. The study is published online ahead of print in the journal Circulation.

Forcing the molecular bond issue: New and improved model of molecular bonding

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 06:28 AM PDT

Researchers have developed a first-of-its-kind model for providing a comprehensive description of the way in which molecular bonds form and rupture. This model enables researchers to predict the "binding free energy" of a given molecular system, a key to predicting how that molecule will interact with other molecules.

Math tree may help root out fraudsters: Applying algorithm to social networks can reveal hidden connections criminals use to commit fraud

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 06:28 AM PDT

Fraudsters beware: The more your social networks connect you and your accomplices to the crime, the easier it will be to shake you from the tree. The Steiner tree, that is. In a new article, researchers outlined the connection linking fraud cases and the algorithm designed by Swiss mathematician Jakob Steiner.

Pint-size gene switches show promise against weighty problem

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 06:27 AM PDT

New findings establish a connection between microRNAs and cellular metabolism, suggesting that a drug designed to inhibit these tiny molecules -- once considered to be "junk" DNA -- would have a positive effect against obesity.

Turning ideas into products faster

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 06:27 AM PDT

Scienitists have engineered and built a system which produces reverse osmosis membrane elements for water treatment in record time. Virtual engineering allowed research and development to proceed simultaneously.

Odd galaxy couple on space voyage

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 06:25 AM PDT

Two very different galaxies drift through space together in a new image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The peculiar galaxy pair is called Arp 116.

Mathematicians offer unified theory of dark matter, dark energy, altering Einstein field equations

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 06:20 AM PDT

A pair of mathematicians have proposed a unified theory of dark matter and dark energy that alters Einstein's equations describing the fundamentals of gravity. They suggest the law of energy and momentum conservation in spacetime is valid only when normal matter, dark matter and dark energy are all taken into account. For normal matter alone, energy and momentum are no longer conserved, they argue.

Plants cry for help when an attack can be expected

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 05:43 AM PDT

Eggs of insect pests deposited on plants trigger the production of scents by plants that affect different plant community members probably helping the plant to get rid of the pest before it becomes harmful, according to new research.

Bacteria on marine sponges can develop capacity to move and inhibit biofilm formation

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 04:42 AM PDT

A new study shows that when enough bacteria get together in one place, they can make a collective decision to grow an appendage and swim away. This type of behavior has been seen for the first time in marine sponges, and could lead to an understanding of how to break up harmful bacterial biofilms, such as plaque on teeth or those found on internal medical devices like artificial heart valves.

Acidic microenvironments in tumors aid tumor cell survival, researchers find

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 04:42 AM PDT

Researchers have discovered that tumor cell survival relies on adaptation to acidic conditions in the tumor microenvironment. Their research investigating the effects of acidity on breast and pancreatic cancer cell lines revealed the importance of autophagy in acidic microenvironments and suggests that a successful treatment strategy might be based on this autophagic dependence.

Deep-sea crabs grab grub using UV vision: Some crabs on the sea floor can see UV light and use the ability to select healthy food

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 04:42 AM PDT

Crabs living half-a-mile down in the ocean, beyond the reach of sunlight, have a sort of color vision combining sensitivity to blue and ultraviolet light. Their detection of shorter wavelengths may give the crabs a way to ensure they grab food, not poison.

North America's Rocky Mountains affect Norway’s climate

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 04:40 AM PDT

Both the Gulf Stream and the Norwegian Sea have a major impact on Norway's climate. However, it turns out that weather conditions are also influenced by geographical elements from much farther away. North America's Rocky Mountains, for instance, play a major role in weather in Norway.

In quest of the cosmic origins of silver: Silver and gold materialized in different stellar explosions

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 04:40 AM PDT

In the quest for the cosmic origins of heavy elements, a researcher has established that silver can only have materialized during the explosion of clearly defined types of star. These are different from the kind of stars producing gold when they explode. The evidence for this comes from the measurement of various high-mass stars with the help of which the stepwise evolution of the components of all matter can be reconstructed.

Advanced maternal age not harmful for adult children, study suggests

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 04:40 AM PDT

Previously existing ideas on how advanced maternal age affects adult health of children have to be reconsidered. It had been thought that mothers delivering later in life have children that are less healthy as adults, because the body of the mother had already degenerated due to physiological effects like decreasing oocyte quality or a weakened placenta. In fact, what affects the health of the grown-up children is not the age of their mother but her education and the number of years she survives after giving birth and thus spends with her offspring, according to a new study.

Cool idea: Potential one-third cut in data centres' energy bills

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 04:39 AM PDT

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Toshiba have developed an advanced cooling technology that will enable data centers to be more energy efficient, cutting energy bills by one-third. Researchers are now test-bedding a new data center that combines Toshiba's air cooling technology with NTU's advanced info-communications technology.

Malay Archipelago bat not one, but two species

Posted: 06 Sep 2012 04:37 AM PDT

Genetic studies of Myotis muricola, otherwise known as the Wall-roosting Mouse-eared bat or Nepalese Whiskered Myotis, suggest that it consists of not one, but two distinct species.

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