| NASA's Aura satellite measures pollution 'Butterfly' from fires in Central Africa Posted: 15 Jul 2011 01:29 PM PDT Fires raging in central Africa are generating a high amount of pollution that is showing up in data from NASA's Aura Satellite, with the ominous shape of a dark red butterfly in the skies over southern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and northern Angola.  |
| Fires in central Africa cause pollution 'butterfly' Posted: 15 Jul 2011 12:51 PM PDT Fires raging in central Africa are generating a high amount of pollution that is showing up in data from NASA's Aura Satellite, with the ominous shape of a dark red butterfly in the skies over southern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and northern Angola.  |
| Graphene gives up more of its secrets Posted: 15 Jul 2011 10:55 AM PDT Scientists have used beamline 12.0.1 at the Advanced Light Source to investigate theories about the electronic structure of graphene never before tested by experiment. They find that near the neutral point of undoped graphene, graphene's semimetallic behavior includes very long-range interactions among electrons and other unusual properties, confirming that graphene is every bit as strange as expected -- perhaps even more so.  |
| A manganite changes its stripes: Advanced Light Source uncovers colossal conductivity changes in a special material Posted: 15 Jul 2011 10:55 AM PDT Manganites exhibiting colossal magnetoresistance and high-temperature superconductors are among materials that show their stripes, regions where electrical charges concentrate. Until now, only static stripes have been seen. A team of scientists have discovered a manganite whose stripes form or fall apart depending on the temperature, simultaneously giving rise to colossal changes in electrical conductivity.  |
| Breakthrough toward quantum computing Posted: 15 Jul 2011 10:55 AM PDT To build a quantum computer, one needs to create and precisely control individual quantum memory units, called qubits, for information processing. Scientists have made a breakthrough in the creation of massive numbers of entangled qubits, more precisely a multilevel variant thereof called Qmodes.  |
| Dynamics behind magical thinking and charismatic leadership revealed Posted: 15 Jul 2011 10:55 AM PDT New research suggests that we attribute certain leaders to be charismatic through "magical thinking." The article reveals how this deep-seated process in human cognition is involved in the attribution of charisma.  |
| Scientists discover new role for vitamin C in the eye and the brain Posted: 15 Jul 2011 10:53 AM PDT Nerve cells in the eye require vitamin C in order to function properly -- a surprising discovery that may mean vitamin C is required elsewhere in the brain for its proper functioning, according to a new study.  |
| Source of empathy in the brain? Posted: 15 Jul 2011 10:53 AM PDT Your brain works hard to help understand your fellow person -- no matter how different they may be. According to a new study, even failing to possess a full complement of limbs will not stop your brain from understanding what it is like for someone else to experience pain in one of them. It may, however, change the way your brain does so.  |
| Genetic mutation linked to Parkinson's disease Posted: 15 Jul 2011 10:53 AM PDT Researchers have discovered a new gene mutation they say causes Parkinson's disease. The mutation was identified in a large Swiss family with Parkinson's disease, using advanced DNA sequencing technology.  |
| Lymphoma drug shrinks dog tumors, could lead to human treatment Posted: 15 Jul 2011 10:53 AM PDT There are many kinds of cancers of the immune system, but one, activated B-cell diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, is particularly common and pernicious. Researchers have now shown that dogs that develop this disease spontaneously share the same aberrant activation of a critical intracellular pathway with humans. They also found that a drug designed to disrupt this pathway helps kill tumor cells in the dogs' lymph nodes.  |
| Strong El Niño could bring increased sea levels, storm surges to US East Coast Posted: 15 Jul 2011 10:53 AM PDT Coastal communities along the US East Coast may be at risk to higher sea levels accompanied by more destructive storm surges in future El Niño years, according to a new study. The study was prompted by an unusual number of destructive storm surges along the East Coast during the 2009-2010 El Niño winter.  |
| Machines to compare notes online? Posted: 15 Jul 2011 10:53 AM PDT The best way for autonomous machines, networks and robots to improve in future will be for them to publish their own upgrade suggestions on the Internet. This transparent dialogue should help humans to both guide and trust them, according to new research.  |
| Natural chemical found in grapes may protect against Alzheimer's disease Posted: 15 Jul 2011 10:52 AM PDT Researchers have found that grape seed polyphenols -- a natural antioxidant -- may help prevent the development or delay the progression of Alzheimer's disease.  |
| Fossil forensics reveals how wasps populated rotting dinosaur eggs Posted: 15 Jul 2011 10:52 AM PDT Exceptionally preserved fossils of insect cocoons have allowed researchers in Argentina to describe how wasps played an important role in food webs devoted to consuming rotting dinosaur eggs.  |
| When minor planets Ceres and Vesta rock Earth into chaos Posted: 15 Jul 2011 10:51 AM PDT A new study examines the orbital evolution of minor planets Ceres and Vesta, a few days before the flyby of Vesta by the Dawn spacecraft. A team of astronomers found that close encounters among these bodies lead to strong chaotic behavior of their orbits, as well as of Earth's eccentricity. This means, in particular, that Earth's past orbit cannot be reconstructed beyond 60 million years.  |
| New gene for intellectual disability discovered Posted: 15 Jul 2011 10:51 AM PDT A new gene linked to intellectual disability was just discovered. To date, MAN1B1 is the eighth known gene connected with recessive intellectual disability, but there are likely many more involved.  |
| New ways to measure magnetism around the sun Posted: 14 Jul 2011 04:15 PM PDT NASA researchers have made use of old mathematical techniques and new insights on how coronal mass ejections travel to devise a fresh way to measure this magnetic environment in the sun's upper atmosphere, the corona.  |
| 'Swine flu' breath test could reduce future vaccination shortages, research suggests Posted: 14 Jul 2011 04:14 PM PDT A novel breath test, measuring the immune response to the H1N1 flu virus, could help to ease future vaccine shortages by identifying the people who have already been infected with the flu virus.  |
Taming the Paper Monster
