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A bronze matryoshka doll: The metal in the metal in the metal

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:02 -0600

A doll in a doll, and then one more, enveloping them from the outside – this is how Thomas Faessler explains his molecule. He packs one atom in a cage within an atom framework. With their large surfaces these structures can serve as highly efficient catalysts.

Source: Technische Universitaet Muenchen - Discipline: Chemistry

Warning! Collision imminent!

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:45:02 -0600

When you are about to collide into something and manage to swerve away just in the nick of time, what exactly is happening in your brain? A new study from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro, McGill University shows how the brain processes visual information to figure out when something is moving towards you or when you are about to head into a collision.

Source: McGill University - Discipline: Neuroscience

New insights into how to correct false knowledge

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:30:01 -0600

The abundance of false information available on the Internet, in movies and on TV has created a big challenge for educators.

Source: Duke University - Discipline: Psychology

How NASA Makes Those Incredible High-Res Images of Earth

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

In recent weeks, a pair of high-resolution images of the Earth has captivated the Internet. Taken by the Suomi NPP satellite, these pictures portray our planet's incredible beauty with a whopping 8,000 by 8,000 pixel and 11,500 by 11,500 pixel detail.

Source: Wired - Discipline: Space

Entire genome of extinct human decoded from fossil

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:15:01 -0600

In 2010, Dr. Svante Pääbo and his colleagues presented a draft version of the genome from a small fragment of a human finger bone discovered in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia. The DNA sequences showed that this individual came from a previously unknown group of extinct humans that have become known as Denisovans. Together with their sister group the Neandertals, Denisovans are the closest extin

Source: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft - Discipline: Genetics

Google Maps Help Predict Meth Labs Before They Open

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

The same maps that can help you find your way to the mall can help the police predict where meth labs will pop up next. Here's a look inside the strange, fascinating world of geospatial predictive analysis.

Source: FastCompany - Discipline: Technology

Why the middle finger has such a slow connection

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:00:01 -0600

The fingers on the outside – i.e. the thumb and little finger - therefore react faster than the middle finger, which is exposed to the "cross fire" of two neighbours on each side. Through targeted learning, this speed handicap can be compensated. The working group led by PD Dr. Hubert Dinse (Neural Plasticity Lab at the Institute for Neuroral Computation) report in the current issue of PNAS.

Source: Ruhr-University Bochum - Discipline: Neuroscience

Moon draws growing interest as a potential source of rare minerals

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

Remember gazing up at the moon and wondering what it’s made of? Some pretty smart people are doing the same thing today. And it’s not childlike curiosity that’s motivating them: It’s money.

Source: Washington Post - Discipline: Space

Neanderthal demise due to many influences, including cultural changes

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:45:01 -0600

As an ice age crept upon them thousands of years ago, Neanderthals and modern human ancestors expanded their territory ranges across Asia and Europe to adapt to the changing environment.

Source: Arizona State University - Discipline: Evolution

CDC: 1 in 5 kids exposed to secondhand smoke in cars

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

Texting while driving, speeding and back-seat hanky-panky aren't all that parents need to worry about when their kids are in cars: Add secondhand smoke to the list.

Source: MSNBC - Discipline: Health

Redder ladybirds more deadly, say scientists

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:30:01 -0600

A ladybird's colour indicates how well-fed and how toxic it is, according to an international team of scientists. Research led by the Universities of Exeter and Liverpool directly shows that differences between animals' warning signals reveal how poisonous individuals are to predators.

Source: University of Exeter - Discipline: Evolution

Sex-ed less effective in red states, study says

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

Sex education is failing to reduce adolescent birthrates in conservative states, according to a new study. Perhaps paradoxically, states with a majority conservative population and higher degree of religiosity tend to have higher teen birthrates.

Source: MSNBC - Discipline: Health

Our Amorphophallus is smaller

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:15:01 -0600

The famed "corpse flower" plant – known for its giant size, rotten-meat odor and phallic shape – has a new, smaller relative: A University of Utah botanist discovered a new species of Amorphophallus that is one-fourth as tall but just as stinky.

Source: University of Utah - Discipline: Plant Biology

Private spacecraft move forward as Soyuz struggles

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

All eyes are on private rocketeers after the latest problem with Russia's Soyuz spacecraft, which is now the only means of sending crews to the International Space Station

Source: New Scientist - Discipline: Space

Invasive alien predator causes rapid declines of European ladybirds

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:00:01 -0600

A new study provides compelling evidence that the arrival of the invasive non-native harlequin ladybird to mainland Europe and subsequent spread has led to a rapid decline in historically-widespread species of ladybird in Britain, Belgium and Switzerland.

Source: Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Discipline: Ecology

Planets Can "Ping Pong" From Star to Star

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

A planet in a two-star system can chaotically bounce between its stars for thousands of years before being ejected, a new study suggests.

Source: National Geographic News - Discipline: Astronomy

Researchers uncover a mechanism to explain dune field patterns

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:45:01 -0600

In a study of the harsh but beautiful White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, University of Pennsylvania researchers have uncovered a unifying mechanism to explain dune patterns. The new work represents a contribution to basic science, but the findings may also hold implications for identifying when dune landscapes like those in Nebraska's Sand Hills may reach a "tipping point

Source: University of Pennsylvania - Discipline: Geology

Pictures: "Supergiant," Shrimp-Like Beasts Found in Deep Sea

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

"It's a mystery" why giant, shrimp-like animals found off New Zealand are nearly three times larger than other amphipods, experts say.

Source: National Geographic News - Discipline: Marine Biology

School closures slow spread of pH1N1

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:30:03 -0600

Closing elementary and secondary schools can help slow the spread of infectious disease and should be considered as a control measure during pandemic outbreaks, according to a McMaster University led study.

Source: McMaster University - Discipline: Epidemiology

How to Predict The Spread of News on Twitter

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

Computer scientists have discovered the four factors that make news stories popular on Twitter

Source: Technology Review - Discipline: Technology

Domestic cats, and wild bobcats and pumas, living in same area have same diseases

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:15:01 -0600

Domestic cats, wild bobcats and pumas that live in the same area share the same diseases. And domestic cats may bring them into human homes, according to results of a study of what happens when big and small cats cross paths.

Source: National Science Foundation - Discipline: Epidemiology

They Did It! Russians Expose Lake Vostok Secrets

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

The Russian drilling team has successfully reached the waterline on Antarctica's Lake Vostok.

Source: Discovery Channel News - Discipline: Geology

3 'targeted' cancer drugs raise risk of fatal side effects

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:00:01 -0600

Treatment with three relatively new "targeted" cancer drugs has been linked to a slightly elevated chance of fatal side effects, according to a new analysis led by scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. They added that the risk remains low, but should be taken into account by physicians and patients.

Source: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute - Discipline: Cancer

Kinect-Powered Amusement Park Will Blow Your Mind

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

"Live Park 4D Art Factory" blurs the line between reality and virtual reality.

Source: Discovery Channel News - Discipline: Technology

Smoking associated with more rapid cognitive decline in men

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:45:01 -0600

Smoking in men appears to be associated with more rapid cognitive decline, according to a report published Online First by Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Source: JAMA and Archives Journals - Discipline: Neuroscience

Programming Error Doomed Russian Mars Probe

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

A computer programming error doomed Russia's Phobos-Grunt Mars spacecraft, a government board investigating the accident has determined.

Source: Discovery Channel News - Discipline: Space

Survey of elementary school student access to food in vending machines, snack bars, other venues

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:30:01 -0600

About half of all public and private elementary school students could buy food in one or more competitive venues on campus (vending machines, school stores, snack bars or a la carte lines) by the 2009-2010 school year and sugary foods were available to almost all students with access to these options, according to a report published in the February issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adole

Source: JAMA and Archives Journals - Discipline: Health

Water Pressure Turned Into Power

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

A unique device turns excess water pressure from reservoirs, water treatment plants and factories into electricity.

Source: Discovery Channel News - Discipline: Energy

Whole-genome sequencing of 2011 E. coli outbreaks in Europe provides new insight

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:15:02 -0600

Using whole-genome sequencing, a team led by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Broad Institute has traced the path of the E. coli outbreak that sickened thousands and killed over 50 people in Germany in summer 2011 and also caused a smaller outbreak in France. It is one of the first uses of genome sequencing to study the dynamics of a food-borne ou

Source: Harvard School of Public Health - Discipline: Genetics

Neuroscience the new face of warfare: experts

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

Directed energy weapons that use wave beams to cause pain, and electrical brain stimulation that boosts a soldier's combat ability - it may sound like science fiction warfare, but experts say advances in neuroscience mean it's on the horizon.

Source: Reuters - Discipline: Neuroscience

A bug's (sex) life: Diving beetles offer unexpected clues about sexual selection

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:00:01 -0600

Studying female reproductive tracts and sperm in diving beetles (Dytiscidae), researchers from the University of Arizona and Syracuse University have obtained a glimpse into a bizarre and amazing world of sperm that can take on a variety of forms – including joining together into conglomerates that navigate the twisted mazes of the female reproductive tract.

Source: University of Arizona - Discipline: Evolution

Mars 'super-drought' may make red planet too dry for alien life

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

The surface of Mars may have been arid and desolate for more than 600 million years

Source: CBSNews - Discipline: Space

Copper + love chemical = big sulfur stink

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:45:01 -0600

When Hiroaki Matsunami, Ph.D., at Duke set out to study a chemical in male mouse urine called MTMT that attracts female mice, he didn't think he would stumble into a new field of study.

Source: Duke University Medical Center - Discipline: Chemistry

Why Energy Efficiency Isn't All It's Cracked Up to Be

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

If you use more as you pay less, the planet keeps getting hotter

Source: TIME Magazine - Discipline: Environment

Video: Fossil cricket reveals Jurassic love song

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:30:01 -0600

Some 165 million years ago, the world was host to a diversity of sounds. Primitive bushcrickets and croaking amphibians were among the first animals to produce loud sounds by stridulation (rubbing certain body parts together). Modern-day bushcrickets – also known as katydids – produce mating calls by rubbing a row of teeth on one wing against a plectrum on the other wing but how their primitive

Source: University of Bristol - Discipline: Evolution

Robots Encountering Socks

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

Suppose you're a robot. If you had a camera in your head, and you could watch a human doing a simple task, like bunching a pair of socks, could you, just by watching, learn to do it too?

Source: NPR - Discipline: Robotics

Tasting fructose with the pancreas

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:15:01 -0600

Taste receptors on the tongue help us distinguish between safe food and food that's spoiled or toxic. But taste receptors are now being found in other organs, too. In a study published online the week of February 6 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) d

Source: Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute - Discipline: Molecular Biology

Did Easter Islanders Mix It Up With South Americans?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:01:13 -0600

Genetic evidence suggests that Polynesians may have mingled with pre-Columbian Native Americans

Source: Science - Discipline: Anthropology

Individual differences in anthrax susceptibility discovered

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:00:01 -0600

Susceptibility to anthrax toxin is a heritable genetic trait that may vary tremendously among individuals, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Source: Stanford University Medical Center - Discipline: Microbiology

Why bad immunity genes survive

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:45:01 -0600

University of Utah biologists found new evidence why mice, people and other vertebrate animals carry thousands of varieties of genes to make immune-system proteins named MHCs – even though some of those genes make us susceptible to infections and to autoimmune diseases.

Source: University of Utah - Discipline: Immunology

Odds of living a very long life lower than formerly predicted

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:30:02 -0600

Research just published by a team of demographers at the social science research organization NORC at the University of Chicago contradicts a long-held belief that the mortality rate of Americans flattens out above age 80.

Source: University of Chicago - Discipline: Health

Discovery predicts patient sensitivity to important drug target in deadly brain cancer

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:15:02 -0600

A recent discovery by Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) scientists enables the prediction of patient sensitivity to proposed drug therapies for glioblastoma – the most common and most aggressive malignant brain tumor in humans.

Source: Van Andel Research Institute - Discipline: Agriculture

Satellite tracking reveals sea turtle feeding hotspots

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:00:01 -0600

Satellite tracking of threatened loggerhead sea turtles has revealed two previously unknown feeding 'hotspots' in the Gulf of Mexico that are providing important habitat for at least three separate populations of the turtles, according to a study published recently in the journal Biological Conservation.

Source: United States Geological Survey - Discipline: Animal Behavior

Researchers examine consequences of non-intervention for infectious disease in African great apes

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:45:01 -0600

Infectious disease has joined poaching and habitat loss as a major threat to the survival of African great apes as they have become restricted to ever-smaller populations. Despite the work of dedicated conservationists, efforts to save our closest living relatives from ecological extinction are largely failing, and new scientific approaches are necessary to analyze major

Source: University of California - Santa Barbara - Discipline: Epidemiology

It's not solitaire: Brain activity differs when one plays against others

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:30:01 -0600

Researchers have found a way to study how our brains assess the behavior – and likely future actions – of others during competitive social interactions. Their study, described in a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to use a computational approach to tease out differing patterns of brain activity during these interactions, the resear

Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Discipline: Neuroscience

Heart hormone helps shape fat metabolism

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:15:01 -0600

It's well known that exercising reduces body weight because it draws on fat stores that muscle can burn as fuel. But a new study at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) suggests that the heart also plays a role in breaking down fat. In their study, published February 6 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Sheila Collins, Ph.D. a

Source: Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute - Discipline: Molecular Biology

Physical punishment of children potentially harmful to their long-term development

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:00:01 -0600

An analysis of research on physical punishment of children over the past 20 years indicates that such punishment is potentially harmful to their long-term development, states an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

Source: Canadian Medical Association Journal - Discipline: Development

'ROCK' off: Study establishes molecular link between genetic defect and heart malformation

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:45:01 -0600

UNC researchers have discovered how the genetic defect underlying one of the most common congenital heart diseases keeps the critical organ from developing properly. According to the new research, mutations in a gene called SHP-2 distort the shape of cardiac muscle cells so they are unable to form a fully functioning heart.

Source: University of North Carolina School of Medicine - Discipline: Molecular Biology

The right recipe: Engineering research improves laser detectors, batteries

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:30:01 -0600

Think of it as cooking with carbon spaghetti: A Kansas State University researcher is developing new ways to create and work with carbon nanotubes -- ultrasmall tubes that look like pieces of spaghetti or string.

Source: Kansas State University - Discipline: Materials Science

Sharp images from the living mouse brain

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:15:01 -0600

To explore the most intricate structures of the brain in order to decipher how it functions – Stefan Hell's team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen has made a significant step closer to this goal. Using the STED microscopy developed by Hell, the scientists have, for the first time, managed to record detailed live images inside the brain of a living mo

Source: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft - Discipline: Neuroscience

Nanorod-assembled order affects diffusion rate and direction

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:00:01 -0600

Some of the recent advancements in nanotechnology depend critically on how nanoparticles move and diffuse on a surface or in a fluid under non-ideal to extreme conditions. Georgia Tech has a team of researchers dedicated to advancing this frontier.

Source: Georgia Institute of Technology - Discipline: Materials Science

What drives public opinion on climate change?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:45:01 -0600

Public concern about climate change has varied widely over the past few decades. For example, Gallup has been polling individuals about how much they personally worry about climate change. In 2004, 26 percent of the respondents stated that they worried "a great deal." By 2007, this proportion had risen to 41 percent. But by 2010, this fraction dropped to 28 percent. Why?

Source: Springer - Discipline: Environment

Gender wage gap shrunk faster than previously thought

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:30:01 -0600

The gap in wages between men and women has decreased sharply over the past 30 years, and a new University of Georgia study reveals that decline was even greater than previously recognized.

Source: University of Georgia - Discipline: Sociology

Time = money = less happiness

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:15:01 -0600

What does "free time" mean to you? When you're not at work, do you pass the time -- or spend it?

Source: University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management - Discipline: Psychology

Zinc control could be path to breast cancer treatment

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:00:01 -0600

The body's control mechanisms for delivering zinc to cells could be key to improving treatment for some types of aggressive breast cancer.

Source: Cardiff University - Discipline: Cancer

Engineers weld nanowires with light

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:45:01 -0600

One area of intensive research at the nanoscale is the creation of electrically conductive meshes made of metal nanowires. Promising exceptional electrical throughput, low cost and easy processing, engineers foresee a day when such meshes are common in new generations of touch-screens, video displays, light-emitting diodes and thin-film solar cells.

Source: Stanford School of Engineering - Discipline: Materials Science

Researchers develop method of directing stem cells to increase bone formation and bone strength

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:30:01 -0600

A research team led by UC Davis Health System scientists has developed a novel technique to enhance bone growth by using a molecule which, when injected into the bloodstream, directs the body's stem cells to travel to the surface of bones. Once these cells are guided to the bone surface by this molecule, the stem cells differentiate into bone-forming cells and synthesize proteins to enhance bone g

Source: University of California - Davis Health System - Discipline: Stem cells

Combined approach to global health has benefits

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:15:02 -0600

The great paradox of global health efforts is that regions of the world most plagued by poverty, poor infrastructure and rampant disease are often the most difficult to deliver care to. In addition, when development and public health agencies focus their efforts on one individual disease or another, instead of taking a unified approach, their programs can work at cross-purposes, contributing to ri

Source: University of California - San Francisco - Discipline: Epidemiology

Online dating research shows cupid's arrow is turning digital

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:00:01 -0600

Online dating has not only shed its stigma, it has surpassed all forms of matchmaking in the United States other than meeting through friends, according to a new analysis of research on the burgeoning relationship industry.

Source: University of Rochester - Discipline: Sociology

Researchers discover key to immune cell's 'internal guidance' system

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:45:04 -0600

University of British Columbia researchers have discovered the molecular pathway that enables receptors inside immune cells to find, and flag, fragments of pathogens trying to invade a host.

Source: University of British Columbia - Discipline: Immunology