This news release is available in German. Ion channels are essential structures of life. Ion channels are specialized pores in the cell membrane and move charged atoms known as ions in and out of cells, thereby controlling a wide variety of biological processes including brain function and heartbeat. Ion channels are generally selective for certain ions, allowing specific types of ions to flow through at very high rates, while hindering the flow of others. On the basis of this selective permeability, ion channels are classified as potassium channels, sodium channels, ...

Researchers at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), of the University of Luxembourg, have, under Dr. Manuel Buttini, successfully measured metabolic profiles, or the metabolomes, of different brain regions, and their findings could help better understand neurodegenerative diseases. The metabolome represents all or at least a large part of the metabolites in a given tissue, and thus, it gives a snapshot of its physiology. „Our results, obtained in the mouse, are promising", says Manuel Buttini: "They open up new opportunities to better understand ...

The chances of being cured of breast cancer have increased in recent decades, however if the tumour has metastasised, the disease remains essentially incurable. One reason for this could be that the metastases are detected late, after they have grown enough to cause symptoms or be seen on a radiological scan. If they could be found sooner, it might be possible to treat the new tumours. Research findings from Lund University in Sweden now provide new hope for a way of detecting metastases significantly earlier than is currently possible. The discovery was made by a research ...

WASHINGTON, May 18, 2015 -- This week, Reactions takes on New York City's bagel supremacy. Many agree that the Big Apple has the best bagels in the world, but many also disagree on why. Some say it's the tap water, others say it's the dough, and a few say it's purely attitude. We dive into the chemistry of these tasty breakfast treats with the help of a top chef. Take a bite of the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrjLz207SzY. INFORMATION:Subscribe to the series at http://bit.ly/ACSReactions, and follow us on Twitter @ACSreactions to be the first to see our ...

Whether we're buying a ticket to a movie, catching a train, or shopping for groceries, the more committed we are to achieving that goal, the more likely we are to assume others have exactly the same objective, a study by New York University psychology researcher Janet Ahn shows. The findings, which appear in the European Journal of Social Psychology, point to the types of assumptions we make about others' behavior, which may have an impact on social interaction. It may be downloaded here: http://bit.ly/1bZJf1D. "If we're fixated on seeing that blockbuster film or purchasing ...

Boston, MA - In response to a new national poll on prescription painkiller abuse by The Boston Globe and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a live webcast with key government decision makers and the lead pollster will be broadcast on Monday, May 18 to discuss what the federal government and public health officials can do to mitigate the national problem of prescription painkiller abuse. Webcast details are below: WHAT: Live webcast, "Opioid Painkiller Abuse: Ending the Crisis" WHEN: Monday, May 18, 12:30-1:30 PM ET WHO: Michael Botticelli, Director of National ...

The compound eyes found in insects and some sea creatures are marvels of evolution. There, thousands of lenses work together to provide sophisticated information without the need for a sophisticated brain. Human artifice can only begin to approximate these naturally self-assembled structures, and, even then, they require painstaking manufacturing techniques. Now, engineers and physicists at the University of Pennsylvania have shown how liquid crystals can be employed to create compound lenses similar to those found in nature. Taking advantage of the geometry in which ...

WASHINGTON, May 14, 2015 -- You might be eating your lunch out of one right now, or eating your lunch with one right now. Polystyrene containers and utensils are found throughout the foodservice industry. The products are recyclable, so why does so much of this material end up in a landfill, and why have so many cities banned its use? Sophia Cai has the answers in this week's Speaking of Chemistry. Check it out here: http://youtu.be/OzTJ-SFbO2o Speaking of Chemistry is a production of Chemical & Engineering News, a weekly magazine of the American Chemical Society. The ...

Stanford University scientists have solved a long-standing mystery about methanogens, unique microorganisms that transform electricity and carbon dioxide into methane. In a new study, the Stanford team demonstrates for the first time how methanogens obtain electrons from solid surfaces. The discovery could help scientists design electrodes for microbial "factories" that produce methane gas and other compounds sustainably. "There are several hypotheses to explain how electrons get from an electrode into a methanogen cell," said Stanford postdoctoral scholar Jörg ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Parents often bring their school-aged children to check-ups or sick visits armed with questions. What should he put on that rash? What about her cough that won't go away? But when children's temper tantrums or mood swings are beyond the norm, or they are overwhelmed by homework organization, do parents speak up? Today's University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health finds that many parents of children age 5-17 wouldn't discuss behavioral or emotional issues that could be signs of potential health problems ...

Social media messaging, screening and interventions offer new tools to help colleges prevent and reduce excessive drinking, according to a report authored by a Boston University School of Public Health researcher, working with a group of experts. The report recommends that colleges use mobile technology to address heavy drinking on campuses as part of a comprehensive approach that includes consistent enforcement of drinking age and consumption laws, trained intervention specialists, and a crackdown on low-priced serving methods such as kegs and "happy hours." "Low prices ...

New research finds that misdiagnoses lead to increased risk of incorrect antibiotic use, threatening patient outcomes and antimicrobial efficacy, while increasing healthcare costs. The study was published online today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. "Antibiotic therapies are used for approximately 56 percent of inpatients in U.S. hospitals, but are found to be inappropriate in nearly half of these cases, and many of these failures are connected with inaccurate diagnoses," said Greg Filice, ...

Practice may not make perfect, but visualization might. New research shows that people who imagined a visual target before having to pick it out of a group of distracting items were faster at finding the target than those who did an actual practice run beforehand. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "The idea that we can train our brains to work better is all the rage across society, but our research suggests that the human brain may benefit as much, or even more, from imagining performing a task, ...

HANOVER, N.H. - Opening the way for new applications of smart devices, Dartmouth researchers have created the first form of real-time communication that allows screens and cameras to talk to each other without the user knowing it. Using off-the-shelf smart devices, the new system supports an unobtrusive, flexible and lightweight communication channel between screens (of TVs, laptops, tablets, smartphones and other electronic devices) and cameras. The system, called HiLight, will enable new context-aware applications for smart devices. Such applications include smart glasses ...

Singapore, 18 May 2015 - A seven-year scientific study has revealed that microbial communities in urban waterways has the potential to play an important role in cleansing Singapore's waterways and also act as raw water quality indicators. The study found that canals designed to channel rainwater host microbial communities that could remove and neutralise organic pollutants in raw water. These organic pollutants are currently at trace levels in raw water - well below the United States-Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) drinking water standards - which is removed ...

In a letter to the Medical Journal of Australia published today, a Monash University-led team is asking for hepatitis C virus patients to gain improved access to drugs to prevent liver related deaths. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major public health burden in Australia, with estimates of 230,000 people chronically infected. The research team are calling for the government to subsidise a new therapy which has high cure rates, known as direct acting antiviral (DAA) therapy. Monash University Professor William Sievert said a delay in access to DAA treatment ...

Washington, DC (May 18, 2015) -- Patients faced with a choice of surgical options want to engage their physicians and take a more active role in decision-making, according to a study (abstract 567) released at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2015. Further, those physicians must provide better support tools to help patients participate in the decision-making process. The study found that patients consult multiple sources (Internet, family, friends, doctors, etc.) and say that while doctors provide the most believable information, it was also the least helpful. "In this ...

The historical past is important when we seek to understand environmental conditions as they are today and predict how these might change in the future. This is according to researchers from Umeå University, whose analyses of lake-sediment records show how lake-water carbon concentrations have varied depending on long-term natural dynamics over thousands of years, but also in response to human impacts over the past several hundred years. The study has been published in PNAS (the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). Environmental monitoring programmes ...

Just as alchemists always dreamed of turning common metal into gold, their 19th century physicist counterparts dreamed of efficiently turning heat into electricity, a field called thermoelectrics. Such scientists had long known that in conducting materials the flow of energy in the form of heat is accompanied by a flow of electrons. What they did not know at the time is that it takes nanometric-scale systems for the flow of charge and heat to reach a level of efficiency that cannot be achieved with larger scale systems. Now, in a paper published in EPJ B Barbara Szukiewicz ...

The grounding of a giant iceberg in Antarctica has provided a unique real-life experiment that has revealed the vulnerability of marine ecosystems to sudden changes in sea-ice cover. UNSW Australia scientists have found that within just three years of the iceberg becoming stuck in Commonwealth Bay - an event which dramatically increased sea-ice cover in the bay - almost all of the seaweed on the sea floor had decomposed, or become discoloured or bleached due to lack of light. "Understanding the ecological effect of changes in sea-ice is vital for understanding the future ...

Scientists are attempting to mimic the memory and learning functions of neurons found in the human brain. To do so, they investigated the electronic equivalent of the synapse, the bridge, making it possible for neurons to communicate with each other. Specifically, they rely on an electronic circuit simulating neural networks using memory resistors. Such devices, dubbed memristor, are well-suited to the task because they display a resistance, which depends on their past states, thus producing a kind of electronic memory. Hui Zhao from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, ...

An international team of scientists have discovered a new species of typhlogammarid amphipod in the limestone karstic caves of Chjalta mountain range -- the southern foothills of the Greater Caucasus Range. The study was published in the open access journal Subterranean Biology. The new amphipod, which belongs to the genus Zenkevitchia, is the second species known from this group. This new addition to the genus is named Zenkevitchia yakovi after the famous Russian biospeleologist Prof Yakov Birstein. Typhlogammarid amphipods are a group blind and unpigmented endemic ...

Radiotherapy used in cancer treatment is a promising treatment method, albeit rather indiscriminate. Indeed, it affects neighbouring healthy tissues and tumours alike. Researchers have thus been exploring the possibilities of using various radio-sensitizers; these nanoscale entities focus the destructive effects of radiotherapy more specifically on tumour cells. In a study published in EPJ D, physicists have now shown that the production of low-energy electrons by radio-sensitizers made of carbon nanostructures hinges on a key physical mechanism referred to as plasmons ...

This news release is available in German. Scientists from Paris and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin have been able to switch ferromagnetic domains on and off with low voltage in a structure made of two different ferroic materials. The switching works slightly above room temperature. Their results, which are published online in Scientific Reports, might inspire future applications in low-power spintronics, for instance for fast and efficient data storage. Information can be written as a sequence of bit digits, i.e. "0" and "1". Materials which display ferromagnetism ...

Bowel cancer is often driven by mutations in one of several different genes, and a patient can have a cancer with a different genetic make-up to another patient's cancer. Identifying the molecular alterations involved in each patient's cancer enables doctors to choose drugs that best target specific alterations. However, it is also becoming clear that while some cancers may be driven by a single gene mutation, individual tumours are often composed of groups of cancer cells, with each group having different molecular alterations from the others. This is known as intra-tumour ...