DURHAM, N.C. -- The molecular machines that copy DNA in a living cell are amazingly fast and accurate at pairing up the correct bases -- G with C and A with T -- into each new double helix. They work by recognizing the shape of the right base pair combinations, and discarding those -- such as a G and a T -- that don't fit together correctly. Yet for approximately every 10,000 to 100,000 bases copied, these machines make a mistake that if uncorrected will be immortalized in the genome as a mutation. For decades, researchers have wondered how these seemingly random ...

Bacteria that live on iron were found for the first time at three well-known vent sites along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, one of the longest undersea mountain ranges in the world. Scientists report that these bacteria likely play an important role in deep-ocean iron cycling, and are dominant members of communities near and adjacent to sulfur-rich, black-smoker hydrothermal vents prevalent along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. These unique chemosynthetic communities live off the chemical components in the vent fluid, rather than sunlight used by their photosynthetic counterparts. This ...

The human-dominated geological epoch known as the Anthropocene probably began around the year 1610, with an unusual drop in atmospheric carbon dioxide and the irreversible exchange of species between the New and Old Worlds, according to new research published today in Nature. Previous epochs began and ended due to factors including meteorite strikes, sustained volcanic eruptions and the shifting of the continents. Human actions are now changing the planet, but are we really a geological force of nature driving Earth into a new epoch that will last millions of years? Scientists ...

The first 3D reconstruction of the skull of a 360 million-year-old near-ancestor of land vertebrates has been created by scientists from the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge, UK. The 3D skull, which differs from earlier 2D reconstructions, suggests such creatures, which lived their lives primarily in shallow water environments, were more like modern crocodiles than previously thought. The researchers applied high-resolution X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning to several specimens of Acanthostega gunnari, one of the 'four-footed' vertebrates known as tetrapods ...

Mutations in the methyl CpG binding protein 2 gene (MECP2) are the cause of the devastating childhood neurological disorder Rett Syndrome. Despite intense efforts spanning several decades the precise function of MECP2 has been difficult to pin down. Research primarily funded by the Rett Syndrome Research Trust (RSRT) and the National Institutes of Neurological Disease and Stroke (NINDS), and published today in the journal Nature reveals important information that could lead to new treatment approaches. The study, led by Michael Greenberg, Ph.D., Chairman of the Department ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - March 11, 2015 - Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening lung condition that affects approximately 200,000 people a year in the United States and has a higher mortality rate than breast and prostate cancer combined. The condition most often occurs in people who are critically ill or who have significant injuries; those who do survive it often experience profound skeletal muscle weakness. Over the past 30 years, efforts to fight ARDS with various drug therapies aimed at the lungs have failed. However, doctors at Wake Forest ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) - Foreign born graduate students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) disciplines who wish to pursue a career in industry or NGOs are much more likely to stay in the U.S. than those who wish to pursue a career in academia or government concludes a study by researchers at UC Santa Barbara's Center for Nanotechnology in Society. Published on March 11, 2015 in the open access journal PLOS ONE, the study provides new insight into why foreign-born graduate students in STEM fields choose to remain in the United States or return to their ...

Ask people what it takes to live a long life, and they'll say things like exercise, take Omega-3s, and see your doctor regularly. Now research from Brigham Young University shows that loneliness and social isolation are just as much a threat to longevity as obesity. "The effect of this is comparable to obesity, something that public health takes very seriously," said Julianne Holt-Lunstad, the lead study author. "We need to start taking our social relationships more seriously." Loneliness and social isolation can look very different. For example, someone may be surrounded ...

A study of the brains of rats exposed to lead has uncovered striking similarities with what is known about the brains of human schizophrenia patients, adding compelling evidence that lead is a factor in the onset of schizophrenia. Results of the study by scientists at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health appear in the journal Translational Psychiatry. The researchers found that lead had a detrimental effect on cells in three brain areas implicated in schizophrenia: the medial prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, and the striatum of rats exposed to lead ...

Storing Ebola-infected sewage for a week at 86° Fahrenheit or higher should allow enough time for more than 99.99 percent of the virus to die, though lower ambient temperatures may require a longer holding period, according to a new study by researchers at Georgia State University's School of Public Health. The study co-authored by Lisa M. Casanova, assistant professor of environmental health, and Scott R. Weaver, research assistant professor in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, used bacteriophage Φ6, a type of virus, as a stand-in to study how long Ebola and similar ...

A flu outbreak in India that has claimed over 1200 lives may not be identical to the 2009 North American strain, as recently reported in India. A comparative analysis conducted by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) shows that the flu virus in India seems to have acquired mutations that could spread more readily and therefore requires deeper studies. As flu season in India winds down, the researchers call on officials to increase surveillance of this and future flu outbreaks and rethink vaccination strategies to account for potential new viruses. ...

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (March 11, 2015)-- Ocean ecosystems around the world are threatened by overfishing, extensive shipping routes, energy exploration, pollution and other consequences of ocean-based industry. Data exist that could help protect these vulnerable ecosystems, but current management strategies often can't react quickly enough to new information, said San Diego State University biologist Rebecca Lewison. She and colleagues from several other academic, governmental and non-governmental organizations endorse a new approach called "dynamic ocean management" in a ...

New Haven, Conn. -- Kidneys from deceased donors that have acute injuries are frequently discarded instead of being used for transplant. However, a Yale-led study finds that such kidneys may be more viable than previously thought, and should be considered to meet the growing demand for organ transplants. Donated kidneys with acute injury are often discarded for fear of poor outcomes such as delayed function and even premature kidney transplant failure. Given the growing need for transplant organs, the Yale-led team embarked on the largest multicenter observational study ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Since December, an outbreak of swine flu in India has killed more than 1,200 people, and a new MIT study suggests that the strain has acquired mutations that make it more dangerous than previously circulating strains of H1N1 influenza. The findings, which appear in the March 11 issue of Cell Host & Microbe, contradict previous reports from Indian health officials that the strain has not changed from the version of H1N1 that emerged in 2009 and has been circulating around the world ever since. With very little scientific data available about the new ...

This news release is available in French. A team led by Afsaneh Gaillard (Inserm Unit 1084, Experimental and Clinical Neurosciences Laboratory, University of Poitiers), in collaboration with the Institute of Interdisciplinary Research in Human and Molecular Biology (IRIBHM) in Brussels, has just taken an important step in the area of cell therapy: repairing the cerebral cortex of the adult mouse using a graft of cortical neurons derived from embryonic stem cells. These results have just been published in Neuron. The cerebral cortex is one of the most complex structures ...

UCLA researchers have provided the first evidence that a simple blood test could be developed to confirm the presence of beta amyloid proteins in the brain, which is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. Although approximately 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's, no reliable blood-based test currently exists for the neurodegenerative disorder that is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. Using blood-based biomarkers -- a signature of proteins in the blood that indicate the presence of a disease -- to diagnose Alzheimer's could be a key advance. "Blood-based ...

DENVER - Patients treated with definitive concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy (CCRT) for stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have longer overall survival when treated by highly experienced facilities, whether or not they are academic or community cancer centers. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related death in the US with 159,000 deaths and 224,000 diagnoses each year, with NSCLC accounting for 85% of the cases. The stage of lung cancer is determined based on the size of the tumor, the extent and location of lymph node involvement, and whether ...

Birth outcomes for babies whose mothers used assisted reproductive technology (ART) are better in some cases, and worse in others, than for subfertile women who did not use ART, according to a first-of-its-kind study led by Boston University School of Public Health researchers. Those findings, published online in the journal Fertility and Sterility, suggest that underlying subfertility, distinct from the use of ART, may account for some of the elevated risks in birth outcomes attributed to the use of in vitro fertilization and other ART procedures. Researchers found ...

This news release is available in German. Time perception is highly subjective and usually depends on the relevant situation so that, for instance, your sense of how fast or slow time is passing can be influenced by whether you are waiting for something or if a deadline is approaching. Patients suffering from depression appear to experience time differently than healthy individuals. Statements made by corresponding patients indicate that for them time seems to pass extremely slowly or even stands still. Psychologists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have ...

AMHERST, Mass. - Scientists have long known that leatherback sea turtles travel thousands of miles each year through open ocean to get from foraging habitats to nesting beaches and tropical wintering grounds, but how the wanderers find their way has been "an enduring mystery of animal behavior," says marine biologist Kara Dodge. "Adult turtles can pinpoint specific nesting beaches even after being away many years," she notes. Sea turtles' ability to identify and maintain appropriate headings affect migration distance, duration and, for reproductively-active adults, breeding ...

Dental diseases, which are caused by the overgrowth of certain bacteria in the mouth, are among the most common health problems in the world. Now scientists have discovered that a material called graphene oxide is effective at eliminating these bacteria, some of which have developed antibiotic resistance. They report the findings in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Zisheng Tang and colleagues point out that dentists often prescribe traditional antibiotics to get rid of bacteria that cause tooth decay or gum disease. But with the rise in antibiotic resistance, ...

Cigarette use among white teenagers is substantially higher than among black and Hispanic teenagers, especially at 18 years old, according to Penn State researchers. Alcohol and marijuana use are also higher in white teenagers, and the numbers continue to increase until age 20. Throughout their 20s, blacks and Hispanics are more likely to pick up a cigarette-smoking habit, while the numbers start to decrease for whites. At 18.5 years old, 44 percent of whites surveyed smoked cigarettes, 27 percent of Hispanics did and 18 percent of blacks. However at 29 years old, ...

HEIDELBERG, 11 March 2015 - Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Columbia University in the United States have developed a way to study the functions of hard-to-grow bacteria that contribute to the composition of the gut microbiome. The new method is published in the journal Molecular Systems Biology. "Our method, TFUMseq, is a powerful tool for understanding how the wealth of microbes that we harbour in our bodies are so successful at colonizing us. It provides a general high-throughput approach to identify genes that enhance the fitness of microbes over time as ...

Researchers trying to understand wheat-related health problems have found new clues to how the grain's proteins, including gluten, change when cooked and digested. They report in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that boiling pasta releases some of its potential allergens, while other proteins persist throughout cooking and digestion. Their findings lend new insights that could ultimately help celiac patients and people allergic to wheat. Gianfranco Mamone and colleagues point out that pasta is one of the most popular foods in Europe and the U.S. Most people ...

Lithium-ion batteries have enabled many of today's electronics, from portable gadgets to electric cars. But much to the frustration of consumers, none of these batteries last long without a recharge. Now scientists report in the journal ACS Nano the development of a new, "green" way to boost the performance of these batteries -- with a material derived from silk. Chuanbao Cao and colleagues note that carbon is a key component in commercial Li-ion energy storage devices including batteries and supercapacitors. Most commonly, graphite fills that role, but it has a limited ...