This news release is available in Japanese. Variations in the percentage of atmospheric oxygen may have influenced climate in the past 500 million years, according to new calculations by Christopher Poulsen and colleagues. Since oxygen isn't a greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide, it typically hasn't been included in studies of past climate change. But the proportion of atmospheric oxygen has varied between 10 percent and 35 percent over the past 500 million years, and Poulsen and colleagues have developed a model to show how those fluctuations might impact climate. ...

This news release is available in Japanese. How do nocturnal insects forage so successfully in the twilight and darkness? A new study by Simon Sponberg and colleagues suggests that the vision of the hawkmoth, Manduca sexta, which hovers in place while it feeds on nectar at dawn and dusk, is finely attuned to the swaying of flowers in the breeze. These findings imply that both the sight and flight of the hawkmoth likely evolved to match the movements of flowers -- their only source of food -- perfectly, helping to explain how the nimble insects are able ...

A new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine found that synchronized physiological interactions between remote brain regions have genetic underpinnings. The research was performed at Stanford but was made possible by collaborations with the Seattle-based Allen Institute for Brain Science and the IMAGEN Consortium, a multicenter European project, said the study's senior author, Michael Greicius, M.D., an associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences. The study will be published June 11 in Science. An emerging consensus among ...

This news release is available in German. It has been hypothesized that globalization of human-mediated dispersal of species may break down biogeographic boundaries. However, empirical tests had been lacking until recently. An international research team has now discovered a comprehensive biogeographic reorganization for 175 species of alien gastropods across 56 countries. The data shows that homogenization is indeed happening. Geographic barriers to dispersal have fallen down but climate still limits how species colonize new areas. The study was published in the ...

Investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard have added another piece to the puzzle of how a small group of individuals known as elite controllers are able to control HIV infection without drug treatment. In their paper published in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens, the research team reports finding that dendritic cells of elite controllers are better able to detect the presence of HIV - paradoxically through a greater susceptibility to HIV infection - which enables them to stimulate the generation of T cells ...

The concept sounds like the stuff of science fiction: take a pill, and suddenly new tissues grow to replace damaged ones. Researchers at Case Western Reserve and UT Southwestern Medical Center this week announced that they have taken significant steps toward turning this once-improbable idea into a vivid reality. In a study published in the June 12 edition of Science, they detail how a new drug repaired damage to the colon, liver and bone marrow in animal models -- even going so far as to save the lives of mice who otherwise would have died in a bone marrow transplantation ...

This news release is available in Japanese. Researchers in Japan have found, for the first time in vertebrates, a genetic switch that determines whether germ cells become sperm or eggs. The gene is named foxl3, and has been identified using a small fish called medaka (Oryzias latipes). In medaka without this gene's functionality, surprisingly, sperm are produced in the ovaries of females. The sperm that are produced function normally, and have been confirmed to produce normal offspring. These results will be announced in the journal Science through Science Express ...

EDMONTON, Canada, June 11 -- In this summer's much anticipated blockbuster Jurassic World, actor Chris Pratt joins forces with a pack of swift and lethal velociraptors. 'Velociraptor belongs to a group of predatory dinosaurs called the deinonychosaurs, or simply the 'raptors',' says University of Alberta paleontologist Scott Persons. 'Raptors are characterized by particularly nasty feet. Their big toes each bore an enlarged and wickedly hooked talon, which makes raptors well suited for Hollywood fight scenes.' Persons and University of Alberta alumnus Lida Xing are part ...

A NASA mission led by UCLA professor Christopher Russell has released new images of the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. The photos were produced by the spacecraft Dawn, which is now observing Ceres from 2,700 miles above its surface; NASA has also produced a one-minute video animation that sheds new light on this mysterious and heavily cratered world. 'Everything we learn from Ceres will be absolutely new,' said Christopher Russell, a UCLA professor of space physics and planetary science, and the Dawn mission's principal investigator. ...

Philadelphia, June 11 -- The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that results in browned foods like seared steaks and toasted bread. When proteins and sugars are mixed together and heated, new chemical compounds are formed. Some are responsible for new flavors and some, according to a new study published in the Journal of Dairy Science®, may protect us against cardiovascular disease. Researchers at the R&D Center, Seoul Dairy Cooperative, the College of Life Science & Biotechnology, Korea University, and the BK21 Plus Graduate ...

People with autism are often described as "seeing the world differently." They tend to show superior perception for details, like, for example, the autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire's highly accurate representations of cityscapes drawn from memory. Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on June 11 show that those differences in perceptual skill are present very early in infancy, before the onset of clinical symptoms of autism. The researchers say that the findings may shift scientists' view of autism by suggesting that changes in perception ...

Sometimes it takes a long time to solve a puzzle: In 1893, German surgeon G. Reinbach discovered that tumor tissue is often infiltrated by special cells of the immune system called eosinophils. Ever since then, scientists have been trying to figure out if and how these cells, which are part of the innate immune system, are involved in cancer rejection. "There are many studies that link the presence of eosinophils in a tumor with an improved prognosis of the disease. However, even 120 years after Reinbach's discovery, it still remained elusive whether or not eosinophils ...

ANN ARBOR--We've all been there: We eat an entire sleeve of fat-free, low-calorie cookies and we're stuffing ourselves with more food 15 minutes later. One theory to explain this phenomenon is that artificial sweeteners don't contain the calories or energy that evolution has trained the brain to expect from sweet-tasting foods, so they don't fool the brain into satisfying hunger. However, until now, nobody understood how organisms distinguish between real sugar and artificial sweetener. Now, a researcher at the University of Michigan has discovered how the brain of ...

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) wireless technology promises to support high-bandwidth content at speeds exceeding 10 gigabits per second--a thousand times today's current mobile phone download speeds--but with that promise comes public concern about the health risks associated with utilizing the high-frequency radio waves in that spectrum. A multidisciplinary team of NYU researchers notes that unlike X-rays and gamma rays, which are called "ionizing radiation" and are known to cause genetic mutations due to their excessive energy levels, millimeter waves are "non-ionizing," ...

With age, postmenopausal women with osteoporosis are at greater risk of losing their teeth. But what treatment for tooth loss provides women with the highest degree of satisfaction in their work and social lives? A new study by Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine researchers suggests dental implants may be the best route to take, according to Leena Palomo, associate professor of periodontics and corresponding author of "Dental Implant Supported Restorations Improve the Quality of Life in Osteoporotic Women." Their findings were reported in the ...

URBANA, Ill. - Threonine is an indispensable amino acid, which is often provided in supplement form in swine diets. With U.S. production of crystalline amino acids increasing, more co-products from amino acid production are becoming available, and these co-products can also be fed to pigs. Researchers at the University of Illinois are investigating a co-product of synthetic threonine as a lower-cost alternative protein source to fish meal. "To create synthetic threonine, you ferment a carbohydrate substrate using selected strains of bacteria, then extract the crystalline ...

Having had community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) greatly increases the risk of long-term morbidity and mortality compared to the general population who have never had CAP, according to a new study from researchers in Canada, the longest and largest outcomes study of patients with CAP reported to date. "Although the short-term adverse health consequences of CAP are well known, the long-term effects of the disease are less clear," said Dean T. Eurich, PhD, MSc, BSP, of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. "In our large population-based study of more than ...

A "look back" study of Medicare fee-for-service claims for more than 1.2 million patients over age 65 has directly affirmed and quantified a long-suspected link between lower rates of coordinated health care services and higher rates of unnecessary medical tests and procedures. In a report on the study published online May 18 in JAMA Internal Medicine, a trio of Johns Hopkins researchers say they analyzed 5 percent of Medicare claims using a previously validated set of 19 over-used procedures and a measure of so-called continuity of care. Their results showed that 14.7 ...

An analysis of extended follow-up data from the Women's Health Initiative clinical trials suggests that postmenopausal women who were overweight and obese had an increased risk of invasive breast cancer compared to women of normal weight, according to an article published online by JAMA Oncology. Obesity is a major public health problem in the United States and obesity has been associated with breast cancer risk in observational studies, systematic reviews and meta-analyses. However, questions remain. Marian L. Neuhouser, Ph.D., R.D., of the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research ...

DARIEN, IL - A new study suggests that students who initiate and/or continue drinking and engage in binge drinking in college have more delayed sleep timing and more variable sleep schedules. Results show that heavier drinkers had later bedtimes and rise times, and more day-to-day variability in sleep length, bedtime and rise time. "These data indicate that students who initiate drinking and engage in binge drinking in college have more delayed sleep timing and a greater mismatch between circadian phase and sleep timing," said lead author Eliza Van Reen, assistant professor, ...

The third tropical depression of the active Eastern Pacific Ocean hurricane season formed and NASA's RapidScat saw its winds coming together as it formed. NASA's Terra satellite provided an image of the storm's cloud extent showing bands of thunderstorms wrapping into its center. RapidScat is a scatterometer instrument that flies aboard the International Space Station and can measure surface winds over the ocean. On June 10 from 07:28 to 09:01 UTC (3:28 to 5:01 a.m. EDT) RapidScat collected wind data on the strengthening tropical low pressure area known as System 94E. ...

Researchers have identified two critical mutations allowing the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus to transmit from bats to humans. The findings were published in the most recent edition of the Journal of Virology. Leading the research was Fang Li, Ph.D., associate professor of Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Graduate students Yang Yang and Chang Liu from Professor Fang Li's lab participated in the research. The study was conducted in collaboration with Shibo Jiang, M.D. , Ph.D., and Lanying Du, Ph.D., from the New York Blood ...

Comparing the genomes of different species -- or different members of the same species -- is the basis of a great deal of modern biology. DNA sequences that are conserved across species are likely to be functionally important, while variations between members of the same species can indicate different susceptibilities to disease. The basic algorithm for determining how much two sequences of symbols have in common -- the "edit distance" between them -- is now more than 40 years old. And for more than 40 years, computer science researchers have been trying to improve upon ...

PHILADELPHIA -- More than one-third of counties in the Unites States are located more than 50 miles from the nearest gynecologic oncologist, making access to specialty care for ovarian and other gynecologic cancers difficult for nearly 15 million women. While most of these "low access" counties are located in the Mountain-West and Midwest regions, the findings of a recent study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania also reveal that 47 states have at least one county located more than 50 miles from the nearest gynecologic oncologist. ...

PHILADELPHIA - According to a new study, women experiencing difficulty with time management, attention, organization, memory, and problem solving - often referred to as executive functions - related to menopause may find improvement with a drug already being used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The study led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania is the first to show that lisdexamfetamine (LDX) improved subjective and objective measures of cognitive decline commonly experienced in menopausal women. Results ...