Scientists on the Dark Energy Survey, using one of the world's most powerful digital cameras, have discovered eight more faint celestial objects hovering near our Milky Way galaxy. Signs indicate that they, like the objects found by the same team earlier this year, are likely dwarf satellite galaxies, the smallest and closest known form of galaxies. Satellite galaxies are small celestial objects that orbit larger galaxies, such as our own Milky Way. Dwarf galaxies can be found with fewer than 1,000 stars, in contrast to the Milky Way, an average-size galaxy containing ...

We may view our memory as being essential to who we are, but new findings suggest that others consider our moral traits to be the core component of our identity. Data collected from family members of patients suffering from neurodegenerative disease showed that it was changes in moral behavior, not memory loss, that caused loved ones to say that the patient wasn't "the same person" anymore. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "Contrary to what you might think -- and what generations of philosophers ...

WASHINGTON, August 17, 2015 -- Almost all of us have used some type of odor eliminator like Febreze to un-stink a room. These sprays can work wonders, but how do they actually work? Do they really remove the smell or just mask it? We explain the chemistry of odor elimination in this week's Reactions video. Check it out here: https://youtu.be/sNIIxzR-d_Q. Subscribe to the series at http://bit.ly/ACSReactions, and follow us on Twitter @ACSreactions to be the first to see our latest videos. INFORMATION: The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered ...

This news release is available in German. Their results have now been published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports (doi:10.1038/srep13008) and could point the way toward improvements in hybrid solar cells. The system they investigated is based on conventional n-type silicon wafers coated with the highly conductive polymer mixture PEDOT:PSS and displays a power conversion efficiency of about 14 %. This combination of materials is currently extensively investigated by many teams in the research community. "We systematically surveyed the characteristic curves, ...

Millions of tons of road salt are applied to streets and highways across the United States each winter to melt ice and snow and make travel safer, but the effects of salt on wildlife are poorly understood. A new study by biologists from Case Western Reserve University suggests exposure to road salt, as it runs off into ponds and wetlands where it can concentrate--especially during March and early April, when frogs are breeding--may increase the size of wood frogs, but also shorten their lives. Wood frog tadpoles exposed to road salt grew larger and turned into ...

In addition to melting icecaps and imperiled wildlife, a significant concern among scientists is that higher Arctic temperatures brought about by climate change could result in the release of massive amounts of carbon locked in the region's frozen soil in the form of carbon dioxide and methane. Arctic permafrost is estimated to contain about a trillion tons of carbon, which would potentially accelerate global warming. Carbon emissions in the form of methane have been of particular concern because on a 100-year scale methane is about 25-times more potent than carbon dioxide ...

Magnetism in nanoscale layers only a few tens of atoms thick is one of the foundations of the big data revolution - for example, all the information we download from the internet is stored magnetically on hard disks in server farms dotted across the World. Recent work by a team of scientists working in Singapore, The Netherlands, USA and Ireland, published on 14 August 2015 in the prestigious journal, Science, has uncovered a new twist to the story of thin-film magnetism. The team from the National University of Singapore (NUS) - Mr Li Changjian, a graduate student from ...

Bilingual children pose unique challenges for clinicians, and, until recently, there was little research on young bilinguals to guide clinical practice. In the past decade, however, research on bilingual development has burgeoned, and the scientific literature now supports several conclusions that should help clinicians as they assess bilingual children and advise their parents. In an article recently published in Seminars in Speech and Language, Erika Hoff, Ph.D., a professor of psychology in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at Florida Atlantic University, ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - One of the most common complaints about hospitals is the noise. Patients complain that they can't sleep soundly in the environment of multiple monitors, paging systems, wheelchairs and gurneys, and carts that squeak. Ongoing efforts at the University of Michigan Health System are making the hospital quieter, and the hospital has tested sound panels designed to dial down noise. During a pilot study, strategically placed sound acoustic panels helped diffuse sound in the hallways around patient rooms. The modest 3-4 sound decibel drop is recognizable ...

When researchers dream about electronics of the future, they more or less dream of pouring liquids into a beaker, stirring them together and decanting a computer out onto the table. This field of research is known as self-assembling molecular electronics. But, getting chemical substances to self-assemble into electronic components is just as complicated as it sounds. Now, a group of researchers has published their breakthrough within the field. The group consists of first-year nanoscience students from the University of Copenhagen. Thomas Just Sørensen, an associate ...

This news release is available in German. Two growth-promoting groups of substances, or phytohormones, the gibberellins and the brassinosteroids, are used independently of each other for the breeding and production of crop plants. A team of scientists at Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now discovered that the two act in concert - without brassinosteroids, a plant is unable to produce gibberellins. For their current investigations, a research group at the Technical University of Munich, supported by scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum Munich and the TU Braunschweig ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- With every breath you take, microbes have a chance of making it into your lungs. But what happens when they get there? And why do dangerous lung infections like pneumonia happen in some people, but not others? Researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School have started to answer these questions by studying the microbiome of the lungs - the community of microscopic organisms are in constant contact with our respiratory system. By studying these bacterial communities, and how they change in illness, they hope to pave the way for new ways ...

Troubling questions about multiracial congregations' potential to address racial inequality are raised by a new national study done by researchers at Baylor University, the University of Southern California and the University of Chicago. The study -- "United by Faith? Race/Ethnicity, Congregational Diversity, and Explanations of Racial Inequality" -- is published in the journal Sociology of Religion. "We find little evidence that multiracial congregations promote progressive racial views among attendees of any race or ethnicity," the researchers wrote. Views of minorities ...

BOSTON, Aug. 17, 2015 --Native North Americans have long adorned themselves and their homes with fragrant sweetgrass (Hierochloe odorata), a native plant used in traditional medicine, to repel biting insects, and mosquitoes in particular. Now, researchers report that they have identified the compounds in sweetgrass that keep these bugs at bay. The team will describe their approach in one of more than 9,000 presentations at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society, taking place here through Thursday. Mosquitoes ...

BOSTON, Aug. 17, 2015 -- Hand-written letters and printed photos seem quaint in today's digital age. But there's one thing that traditional media have over hard drives: longevity. To address this modern shortcoming, scientists are turning to DNA to save unprecedented amounts of digital data for posterity. One team has demonstrated that DNA they encapsulated can preserve information for at least 2,000 years, and they're now working on a filing system to make it easier to navigate. The researchers present their work today at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the ...

BOSTON, Aug. 17, 2015 -- A blood clot is a dangerous health situation with the potential to trigger heart attacks, strokes and other medical emergencies. To treat a blood clot, doctors need to find its exact location. But current clinical techniques can only look at one part of the body at a time, slowing treatment and increasing the risk for complications. Now, researchers are reporting a method, tested in rats, that may someday allow health care providers to quickly scan the entire body for a blood clot. The team will describe their approach in one of more than 9,000 ...

BOSTON, Aug.17, 2015 -- In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers have determined that natural sunlight triggers the release of smog-forming nitrogen oxide compounds from the grime that typically coats buildings, statues and other outdoor surfaces in urban areas. The finding confirms previous laboratory work using simulated sunlight and upends the long-held notion that nitrates in urban grime are "locked" in place. The scientists will present their findings based on field studies conducted in Leipzig, Germany, and Toronto, Canada, at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition ...

New Internet-based technology may aid criminal justice agencies through tools such as better criminal databases, remotely conducted criminal trials and electronic monitoring of parolees in the community, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Top criminal justice priorities for new Internet tools include developing a common criminal history record that can be shared across agencies, developing real-time language translation tools and improved video displays for law enforcement officers to adapt to changing needs, according to the analysis. "The criminal justice ...

During the deer's breeding season, or rut, the researchers from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and ETH Zürich, played male fallow deer (bucks) in Petworth Park in West Sussex, a variety of different calls that had been digitally manipulated to change the pitch and length and analysed their responses. The bucks treated lower pitched and longer calls as more threatening, by looking towards source of the call sooner and for longer, than others. Fallow bucks attracted the attention of the researchers because of their intriguing calling behaviour. Males are silent ...

BOSTON, Aug. 16, 2015 -- Sunlight can be brutal. It wears down even the strongest structures, including rooftops and naval ships, and it heats up metal slides and bleachers until they're too hot to use. To fend off damage and heat from the sun's harsh rays, scientists have developed a new, environmentally friendly paint out of glass that bounces sunlight off metal surfaces -- keeping them cool and durable. The researchers present their work today at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS, the world's largest scientific ...

Findings from Nationwide Children's Hospital physicians demonstrate that headaches increase in fall in children, a trend that may be due to back-to-school changes in stress, routines and sleep. Although it may be difficult for parents to decipher a real headache from a child just wanting to hold onto summer a little longer and avoid going back to school, there is a variety of other common triggers including poor hydration and prolonged screen time that could contribute to a child's discomfort. "When we saw many of our families and patients in clinic, the families would ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Medicare Part D provides help to beneficiaries struggling with the cost of prescriptions drugs, but the plan's coverage gap hits some populations harder than others, particularly African-Americans age 65 and older. Reaching, or even approaching, the gap affects access to medication and influences whether those medications are taken as prescribed. "Don't assume that the existence of Part D means that people aren't having a difficult time affording their meds," says Louanne Bakk, an assistant professor in the University at Buffalo School of Social Work. "There ...

SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 14, 2015 - Software may appear to operate without bias because it strictly uses computer code to reach conclusions. That's why many companies use algorithms to help weed out job applicants when hiring for a new position. But a team of computer scientists from the University of Utah, University of Arizona and Haverford College in Pennsylvania have discovered a way to find out if an algorithm used for hiring decisions, loan approvals and comparably weighty tasks could be biased like a human being. The researchers, led by Suresh Venkatasubramanian, ...

Discovered in 1982, Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a disease-causing bacterium that survives in our stomachs despite the harsh acidic conditions. It is estimated that one in two people have got it, though most won't ever experience any problems. Even so, it is considered one of the most common bacterial infections worldwide and a leading cause of dyspepsia, peptic ulceration and gastric cancer. Through unique evolutionary adaptations, H. pylori is able to evade the antiseptic effect of our stomach acid by hiding within the thick acid-resistant layer of mucus that ...

Washington, DC - August 14, 2015 - Tungsten is exceptionally rare in biological systems. Thus, it came as a huge surprise to Michael Adams, PhD., and his collaborators when they discovered it in what appeared to be a novel enzyme in the hot spring-inhabiting bacterium, Caldicellulosiruptor bescii. The researchers hypothesized that this new tungstoenzyme plays a key role in C. bescii's primary metabolism, and its ability to convert plant biomass to simple fermentable sugars. This discovery could ultimately lead to commercially viable conversion of cellulosic (woody) biomass ...