ScienceDaily: Latest Science News
Breaking science news and articles on global warming, extrasolar planets, stem cells, bird flu, autism, nanotechnology, dinosaurs, evolution -- the latest discoveries in astronomy, anthropology, biology, chemistry, climate & environment, computers, engineering, health & medicine, math, physics, psychology, technology, and more -- from the world's leading universities and research organizations.
02/09/2010 01:00 AM
Link between advanced maternal age and autism confirmed
Advanced maternal age is linked to a significantly elevated risk of having a child with autism, regardless of the father's age, according to an exhaustive study of all births in California during the 1990s.
02/09/2010 01:00 AM
The Stars behind the Curtain
Astronomers have obtained a new image of the giant stellar nursery surrounding NGC 3603, in which stars are continuously being born. Embedded in this scenic nebula is one of the most luminous and most compact clusters of young, massive stars in our Milky Way, which therefore serves as an excellent “local” analogue of very active star-forming regions in other galaxies. The cluster also hosts the most massive star to be “weighed” so far.
02/09/2010 01:00 AM
Test could predict which idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients will become severely ill
A simple blood test could predict which patients with the lung-scarring disease known as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are soon to get far worse, an indicator that could one day influence their treatment, according to researchers. Their findings indicate that the body's immune cells attack healthy lung tissue, suggesting that IPF is in fact an immunologic disease.
02/09/2010 01:00 AM
Month of birth determines who becomes a sports star
The month of your birth influences your chances of becoming a professional sportsperson, an Australian researcher has found. Scientists studied the seasonal patterns of population health and found the month you were born in could influence your future health and fitness.
02/08/2010 10:00 PM
Bees recognize human faces using feature configuration
Bees can be trained to recognize human faces, so long as the insects are tricked into thinking that the faces are oddly shaped flowers, new research shows. The insects use the arrangement of facial features to recognize and distinguish one face from another.
02/08/2010 10:00 PM
'Starving' fat suppresses appetite
Peptides that target blood vessels in fat and cause them to go into programmed cell death (termed apoptosis) could become a model for future weight-loss therapies, say researchers.
02/08/2010 10:00 PM
Argonautes: A big turn-off for proteins
Scientists believe they may have figured out how genetic snippets called microRNAs are able to shut down the production of some proteins.
02/08/2010 10:00 PM
Hackers at the movies
Researchers in Ireland have analyzed 50 non-documentary movies from the last four decades featuring hackers and come to some intriguing conclusions about the hacker stereotype with implications for policy makers and education.
02/08/2010 07:00 PM
Transforming human fat into stem cells using virus-free technique
Tiny circles of DNA are the key to a new and easier way to transform stem cells from human fat into induced pluripotent stem cells for use in regenerative medicine, say scientists. Unlike other commonly used techniques, the method, which is based on standard molecular biology practices, does not use viruses to introduce genes into the cells or permanently alter a cell's genome.
02/08/2010 07:00 PM
Promising results shown for kidney cancer drug
The drug pazopanib (Votrient) slowed the progression of advanced renal cell carcinoma, a form of kidney cancer, in patients by 54 percent, according to a new study.
02/08/2010 07:00 PM
Carbonate veins reveal chemistry of ancient seawater
The chemical composition of our oceans is not constant but has varied significantly over geological time. In a new study, researchers describe a novel method for reconstructing past ocean chemistry using calcium carbonate veins that precipitate from seawater-derived fluids in rocks beneath the seafloor.
02/08/2010 04:00 PM
Inhibiting serotonin in gut could cure osteoporosis
An investigational drug that inhibits serotonin in the gut, administered orally once daily, effectively cured osteoporosis in mice and rats, reports a new article. Serotonin in the gut has been shown in recent research to stall bone formation. The finding could lead to new therapies that build new bone; most osteoporosis drugs only prevent the breakdown of old bone.
02/08/2010 04:00 PM
Cells send dirty laundry home to mom
Understanding how aged and damaged mother cells manage to form new and undamaged daughter cells is one of the toughest riddles of aging, but scientists now know how yeast cells do it. In a groundbreaking study, researchers in Sweden show how the daughter cell uses a mechanical "conveyor belt" to dump damaged proteins in the mother cell.
02/08/2010 04:00 PM
Biofilms: Discovery of a new mechanism of virus propagation
Researchers have shown for the first time that certain viruses are capable of forming complex biofilm-like assemblies, similar to bacterial biofilms. These extracellular infectious structures may protect viruses from the immune system and enable them to spread efficiently from cell to cell. "Viral biofilms" would appear to be a major mechanism of propagation for certain viruses. They are therefore emerging as new and particularly attractive therapeutic targets.
02/08/2010 04:00 PM
Winning the war on weight
An Australian study into the health beliefs and behaviors of obese people has found that the more severely obese a person is, the less likely they feel they can reduce their weight.
02/08/2010 01:00 PM
Growing cartilage: bioactive nanomaterial promotes growth of new cartilage
Researchers have designed a bioactive nanomaterial that promotes the growth of new cartilage in vivo and without the use of expensive growth factors. The therapy is minimally invasive, utilizes bone marrow stem cells and produces natural cartilage. Unlike bone, cartilage does not grow back, and it cannot effectively be replaced. Countless people learn this all too well when they bring their bad knees, shoulders and elbows to an orthopedic surgeon.
02/08/2010 01:00 PM
Road mapping could be key to curing TB
The complex chain of metabolic events in bacteria that lead to fatal diseases such as tuberculosis may be better understood using mathematical models, according to a new article.
02/08/2010 01:00 PM
Targeting cancer stem cells in the lab
Understanding of the particular cancer cells within a tumour that drive its growth could now advance more rapidly, thanks to new research. Scientisist now show how a crucial class of cancer cell, called cancer stem cells, can be investigated in the lab in ways that should greatly speed their study, and allow the development of drugs targeted against them.
02/08/2010 01:00 PM
Novel theory for mammalian stem cell regulation
Researchers propose a model of mammalian adult stem cell regulation that may explain how the coexistence of two disparate stem cell states regulates both stem cell maintenance and simultaneously supports rapid tissue regeneration.
02/08/2010 01:00 PM
Moms influence how children develop advanced cognitive functions
Executive functioning is a set of advanced cognitive functions -- such as the ability to control impulses, remember things, and show mental flexibility -- that help us plan and monitor what we do to reach goals. A new study of 80 infant-mother pairs finds that the ways moms act when they're playing and solving puzzles with their babies can explain some of the differences in children's development of executive functioning.
02/08/2010 10:00 AM
Second 'quantum logic clock' based on aluminum ion is now world's most precise clock
Physicists have built an enhanced version of an experimental atomic clock based on a single aluminum atom that is now the world's most precise clock, more than twice as precise as the previous pacesetter based on a mercury atom. The new aluminum clock would neither gain nor lose one second in about 3.7 billion years.
02/08/2010 10:00 AM
New way to study how enzymes repair DNA damage
Researchers have found a new way to study how enzymes move as they repair DNA sun damage -- and that discovery could one day lead to new therapies for healing sunburned skin. Ultraviolet (UV) light damages skin by causing chemical bonds to form in the wrong places along the DNA molecules in our cells.
02/08/2010 10:00 AM
Screening for spinal muscular atrophy not cost effective, study finds
New findings suggest that it is not cost effective to screen for spinal muscular atrophy. Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is the most common genetic cause of infant mortality and the second most common inherited autosomal recessive disorder. There is controversy about whether prenatal carrier detection should be routinely offered to couples.
02/08/2010 10:00 AM
Genetic analysis helps spot sugarcane rusts
Scientists have analyzed rust fungi from more than 160 sugarcane samples from 25 countries to provide a valuable resource for plant breeders and pathologists who are searching for genetic resistance to the deadly orange and brown rusts.
02/08/2010 07:00 AM
Migrating insects fly in the fast lane
Scientists shed new light on the flight behaviors that enable insects to undertake long-distance migrations, and highlights the remarkable abilities of these insect migrants.
02/08/2010 07:00 AM
Uncorrelated activity in the brain
Interconnected networks of neurons process information and give rise to perception by communicating with one another via small electrical impulses known as action potentials. In the past, scientists believed that adjacent neurons synchronized their action potentials. However, researchers now show that this synchronization does not happen.
02/08/2010 07:00 AM
Preventing pancreatic islet loss after transplantation
Although transplantation of pancreatic islets is an attractive way to treat type 1 diabetes, early islet loss soon after transplantation has limited its clinical use. By studying islet transplantation in a mouse model of diabetes, researchers have now identified a potential new set of targets to improve the efficiency of pancreatic islet transplantation.
02/08/2010 07:00 AM
Many surgeons suffer injuries from minimally invasive techniques
Surgeons who engage in minimally invasive, laparoscopic surgery are providing great benefits to their patients, but possibly to their own detriment. That's the finding of the largest survey ever conducted of surgeons in North America who perform laparoscopic procedures. The survey found that 87 percent of laparoscopic surgeons have experienced physical symptoms or discomfort. This was especially true among those with high case volumes.
02/08/2010 05:00 AM
Carcinogens form from third-hand smoke
Nicotine in third-hand smoke, the residue from tobacco smoke that clings to virtually all surfaces long after a cigarette has been extinguished, reacts with the common indoor air pollutant nitrous acid to produce dangerous carcinogens.
02/08/2010 05:00 AM
Drug shows promise for Huntington's disease
An early stage clinical trial of the experimental drug dimebon (latrepirdine) in people with Huntington's disease appears to be safe and may improve cognition.
02/08/2010 05:00 AM
Complete chemokine profile of a cell
Chemokines are a large group of proteins whose predominant function is to direct cell migration. They regulate many physiological and pathophysiological processes, in particular in the immune system. Researchers have now developed a simple method to efficiently identify all the chemokines produced by a single cell type, something that has not been possible before.
