Discovery's Edge online issue

Research features from Mayo Clinic

2013-06-04

(Press-News.org) Here are highlights from the online issue of Discovery's Edge, Mayo Clinic's research magazine. You may cite and link to this publication as often as you wish. Republication is allowed with proper attribution. Please include the following subscription information as your editorial policies permit: Visit Discovery's Edge for subscription information.

Regenerating Heart Tissue Through Stem Cell Therapy Read the details of how Mayo Clinic's unique stem cell technique restored strength and endurance to heart attack patients in three European countries. This groundbreaking study shows the feasibility of healing the heart from within, potentially avoiding transplants in some cases.

Reducing Radiation Exposure One Image at a Time A Mayo Clinic team of researchers is finding new ways to use modern diagnostic tools such as CT scans, but with a fraction of prior levels of radiation. It's all about making patients safer while restoring their health.

A Full-Court Press on Understanding and Preventing Glaucoma It's the leading cause of blindness in the world, sending thousands into darkness every year. A Mayo researcher is taking his search to the molecular level to discover better treatments, drugs, and approaches to glaucoma.

Eviction Notice for Biofilms and Prosthetic Joint Infections Biofilms are the sticky infections that can occur on implanted devices and artificial joints. Mayo infectious disease experts are finding new ways to combat them and prevent them from happening.

### Discovery's Edge, Mayo Clinic's online research magazine, highlights stories of leading medical investigators. Many features cover ongoing projects long before they reach the journals. Science writers and medical reporters seeking story ideas will want to check out the articles, which span a wide range of conditions and feature visuals they can use in their own publications.

About Mayo Clinic Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit http://www.mayoclinic.org/about and http://www.mayoclinic.org/news.

Journalists can become a member of the Mayo Clinic News Network for the latest health, science and research news and access to video, audio, text and graphic elements that can be downloaded or embedded.

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Manipulating memory in the hippocampus

2013-06-04

In the brain, cell-to-cell communication is dependent on neurotransmitters, chemicals that aid the transfer of information between neurons. Several proteins have the ability to modify the production of these chemicals by either increasing or decreasing their amount, or promoting or preventing their secretion. One example is tomosyn, which hinders the secretion of neurotransmitters in abnormal amounts. Dr. Boaz Barak of Tel Aviv University's Sagol School of Neuroscience, in collaboration with Prof. Uri Ashery, used a method for modifying the levels of this protein in the ...

Powerhouse Fire, California

2013-06-04

NASA's Terra satellite captured this natural-color satellite image of California's Powerhouse Fire with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on June 1, 2013. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red. According to the CBSnews.com, "Nearly 3,000 people from some 700 homes were under evacuation orders Monday as a wildfire north of Los Angeles kept growing, feeding on old, dry brush, some of which hadn't burned in decades. The blaze had burned about 46 square miles in the mountains and canyons of the ...

Tres Lagunas Fire, New Mexico

2013-06-04

NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of a large light-brown colored plume of smoke blowing east-southeast from the Tres Lagunas Fire burning in New Mexico. On June 3, the smoke is forecast to blow in a more northerly and easterly direction, affecting Las Vegas, I-25 and surrounding communities. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite has infrared capabilities that can detect heat from the various wildfires. This image was captured on May 31, 2013 21:00 UTC (5 p.m. EDT/3p.m. MT). In the MODIS images, fires, or ...

Women reject sexually promiscuous peers when making female friends

2013-06-04

ITHACA, N.Y. – College-aged women judge promiscuous female peers – defined by bedding 20 sexual partners by their early 20s – more negatively than more chaste women and view them as unsuitable for friendship, finds a study by Cornell University developmental psychologists. Notably, participants' preference for less sexually active women as friends remained even when they personally reported liberal attitudes about casual sex or a high number of lifetime lovers. Men's views, on the other hand, were less uniform – favoring the sexually permissive potential friend, the ...

June 2013 story tips

2013-06-04

TRANSPORTATION – Better, cleaner engines . . . Air in the United States could be cleaner in years to come because of a laboratory researchers expect will help in the development of new standards for fuel economy and emissions evaluations. The Vehicle Systems Integration Laboratory provides unprecedented capabilities that will be invaluable to manufacturers of diesel and conventional engines, transmissions, and other drivetrain and emissions components. The payoff is that manufacturers can test different designs under real-world conditions, saving time and money. "We can ...

NTRK1: A new oncogene and target in lung cancer

2013-06-04

To the list of oncogenic drivers of lung cancer that includes ALK, EGFR, ROS1 and RET, results of a University of Colorado Cancer Center study presented at ASCO 2013 show that mutations in the gene NTRK1 cause a subset of lung cancers. "We're reconceptualizing lung cancer as many, related diseases. And we need to learn to identify and treat each individually. We can treat the forms of the disease that depend on ALK and EGFR mutations. We're getting very close to treating lung cancers that depend on ROS1 and RET. And now we show another oncogenic driver of the disease ...

Are smartphones disrupting your sleep? Mayo Clinic study examines the question

2013-06-04

BALTIMORE -- Smartphones and tablets can make for sleep-disrupting bedfellows. One cause is believed to be the bright light-emitting diodes that allow the use of mobile devices in dimly lit rooms; the light exposure can interfere with melatonin, a hormone that helps control the natural sleep-wake cycle. But there may be a way to check your mobile device in bed and still get a good night's sleep. A Mayo Clinic study suggests dimming the smartphone or tablet brightness settings and holding the device at least 14 inches from your face while using it will reduce its potential ...

Butterfly on the brink: First Schaus female found in a year raises hope for revival of species

2013-06-04

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The fate of a species may rest upon a single butterfly captured in late May by University of Florida lepidopterists. A UF research technician netted a female Schaus swallowtail in Biscayne National Park on Elliott Key, the first capture of a female since a multi-agency work group got a permit to do so last year. The Schaus population has declined so much that last year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) issued UF an emergency permit to collect eggs. That effort ended without a single female sighting last summer but got off to a promising ...

Dense hydrogen in a new light

2013-06-04

Washington, D.C.—Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. The way it responds under extreme pressures and temperatures is crucial to our understanding of matter and the nature of hydrogen-rich planets. New work from Carnegie scientists using intense infrared radiation shines new light on this fundamental material at extreme pressures and reveals the details of a surprising new form of solid hydrogen. Under normal conditions hydrogen is a gas consisting of diatomic molecules. The hydrogen molecules start to change as the pressure increases. These different ...

Lose weight between babies, Saint Louis University study suggests

2013-06-04

ST. LOUIS -- The time between pregnancies is a golden window for obese women to lose weight, a Saint Louis University study finds. The research, led by Arun Jain, M.D., visiting scholar in SLU's department of obstetrics, gynecology and women's health, also found that obese women should be counseled not to gain excessive weight during pregnancy. "This data suggested that the interval between pregnancies is a crucial period for obese women to lose weight," Jain said. "In addition, the pregnancy and postpartum periods provide a unique opportunity for behavior change because ...

World's first practical surface-emitting laser for optical fiber communications developed: advancing miniaturization, energy efficiency, and cost reduction of light sources

Discovery's Edge online issue

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