ScienceDaily: Top Science News |
- New insights into origin of birds focuses on key characteristics that preceded flight: Body size, forelimb length
- Mysterious polio-like illness found in five California children
- 'Microbial Pompeii:' 1,000 year old plaque preserves bacteria, microscopic particles of food on skeleton teeth, creating mineral tomb for microbiomes
- Brain region essential for social memory identified
- Oldest bit of crust firms up idea of cool early earth
- Undergraduate invention aims to lower costs of organ cell printing
- Tissue-penetrating light releases chemotherapy inside cancer cells
| Posted: 23 Feb 2014 06:51 PM PST The key characteristics of birds which allow them to fly -- their wings and their small size -- arose much earlier than previously thought, according to new research that examined closely the Paraves, the first birds, and their closest dinosaurian relatives which lived 160 to 120 million years ago. Researchers investigated the rates of evolution of the two key characteristics that preceded flight: body size and forelimb length. In order to fly, hulking meat-eating dinosaurs had to shrink in size and grow much longer arms to support their feathered wings.  |
| Mysterious polio-like illness found in five California children Posted: 23 Feb 2014 06:51 PM PST Researchers have identified a polio-like syndrome in a cluster of children from California over a one-year period, according to a case report released. Polio is a contagious disease that sometimes caused paralysis. The United States experienced a polio epidemic in the 1950s, until a vaccine was introduced. The five children experienced paralysis of one or more arms or legs that came on suddenly and reached the height of its severity within two days of onset. Three of the children had a respiratory illness before the symptoms began. All of the children had been previously vaccinated against poliovirus. The children were treated but their symptoms did not improve and they still had poor limb function after six months.  |
| Posted: 23 Feb 2014 10:16 AM PST A 'microbial Pompeii' has been discovered, preserved on the teeth of skeletons around 1,000 years old. The research team discovered that the ancient human oral cavity carries numerous opportunistic pathogens and that periodontal disease is caused by the same bacteria today as in the past, despite major changes in human diet and hygiene. "The study of ancient microbiomes helps us understand the evolutionary history of human health and disease," says a senior author of the study. "It informs modern medicine."  |
| Brain region essential for social memory identified Posted: 23 Feb 2014 10:16 AM PST A small region of the hippocampus known as CA2 is essential for social memory, the ability of an animal to recognize another of the same species, a new study concludes. In humans, the importance of the hippocampus for social memory was famously illustrated by the case of Henry Molaison, who had much of his hippocampus removed by surgeons in 1953 in an attempt to cure severe epilepsy. Molaison was subsequently unable to form new memories of people. A better grasp of the function of CA2 could prove useful in understanding and treating disorders characterized by altered social behaviors, such as autism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.  |
| Oldest bit of crust firms up idea of cool early earth Posted: 23 Feb 2014 10:16 AM PST With the help of a tiny fragment of zircon extracted from a remote rock outcrop in Australia, the picture of how our planet became habitable to life about 4.4 billion years ago is coming into sharper focus. New research reveals data that confirms that Earth's crust first formed just 160 million years after the formation of our solar system. It also confirms that the timeframe that the planet was a fiery ball covered in a magma ocean came earlier, and that in order to become habitable, Earth cooled and formed its crust during the first geologic eon of the planet. The research may help scientists to understand how other habitable planets may form.  |
| Undergraduate invention aims to lower costs of organ cell printing Posted: 20 Feb 2014 05:30 AM PST A specialized 3-D printing extruder developed by a sophomore and his collaborator could lower the costs of printing cellular structures for use in drug testing. "We're using the sugar molecules in a form of reverse 3-D printing," says the student. "In this process, we first make the structures we want and then we embed them into a cellular matrix." After cells held in suspension in an agarose solution are grown around the vascular structure, a solvent can be used to wash the sugar away. The result is a cell mass that contains vessels like a human organ would.  |
| Tissue-penetrating light releases chemotherapy inside cancer cells Posted: 20 Feb 2014 05:30 AM PST An innovative technique that can carry chemotherapy safely and release it inside cancer cells when triggered by two-photon laser in the infrared red wave length has been developed. A light-activated drug delivery system is particularly promising, because it can accomplish spatial and temporal control of drug release. Finding ways to deliver and release anticancer drugs in a controlled manner that only hits the tumor can greatly reduce the amount of side effects from treatment, and also greatly increase the cancer-killing efficacy of the drugs. The difficulty of treating cancer often derives from the difficulties of getting anticancer chemotherapy drugs to tumor cells without damaging healthy tissue in the process. Many cancer patients experience treatment side effects that are the result of drug exposure to healthy tissues.  |
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