Human impact on Earth produces a unique kind of biosphere Changes to life may be the greatest for the past half billion years Earth may be entering a new kind of planetary state Human beings are pushing the planet in an entirely new direction with revolutionary implications for its life, a new study by researchers at the University of Leicester has suggested. The research team led by Professor Mark Williams from the University of Leicester's Department of Geology has published their findings in a new paper entitled 'The Anthropocene Biosphere' in The Anthropocene ...

A new study of 33 Kepler stars with solar-like oscillations to be published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The 33 Kepler stars have been selected for their solar like oscillations and a set of basic parameters have been determined with high precision showing that stars even older than 11 billion years have Earth-like planets. According to lead author of the article Victor Silva Aguirre from the Stellar Astrophysics Centre at Aarhus University, Denmark: " Our team has determined ages for individual host stars before with similar levels of accuracy, ...

Marijuana is the most prevalent drug in the U.S. Approximately 70% of the 2.8 million individuals who initiated use of illicit drugs in 2013 reported that marijuana was their first drug. Despite extensive research examining potential links between marijuana use and other drug use, the literature is currently lacking data regarding which illicit marijuana users are most likely to engage in use of other illicit drugs. A new study, published in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse by researchers affiliated with New York University's Center for Drug Use and HIV ...

Using the Subaru Telescope, researchers at the Special Astrophysical Observatory in Russia and Kyoto University in Japan have found evidence that enigmatic objects in nearby galaxies - called ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) - exhibit strong outflows that are created as matter falls onto their black holes at unexpectedly high rates. The strong outflows suggest that the black holes in these ULXs must be much smaller than expected. Curiously, these objects appear to be "cousins" of SS 433, one of the most exotic objects in our own Milky Way Galaxy. The team's observations ...

New research from the University of Exeter has shown that the sexually antagonistic gene for resistance to the pesticide DDT, which increases fitness in female flies but simultaneously decreases fitness in male flies, helps to maintain genetic variation. The findings contribute to the understanding of evolutionary dynamics and have important implications for pest management. The researchers used a genetic model and multiple experimentally evolving populations of the fly Drosophila melanogaster to test whether sexual conflict can maintain genetic variation. Their findings ...

University of Southampton scientists have discovered a link between coronary heart disease and osteoporosis, suggesting both conditions could have similar causes. In one of the first studies of its kind to use a special scanning technique, researchers found that people with a history of heart disease had substantially lower cortical volumetric bone mineral density in their wrist bone (the distal radius) than those without. Using a state-of-the-art technique called 'high resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography', researchers from Southampton's Medical Research ...

MELBOURNE, FLA. -- A new study led by Florida Institute of Technology Professor Ningyu Liu has improved our understanding of a curious luminous phenomenon that happens 25 to 50 miles above thunderstorms. These spectacular phenomena, called sprites, are fireworks-like electrical discharges, sometimes preceded by halos of light, in earth's upper atmosphere. It has been long thought that atmospheric gravity waves play an important role in the initiation of sprites but no previous studies, until this team's recent findings, provided convincing arguments to support that idea. ...

New research identifies the types of investors who are vigilant about corporate fraud, but finds that most of those investors are tracking the wrong red flags - meaning the warning signs they look for are clear only after it's too late to protect their investment. The work was performed by researchers at North Carolina State University, George Mason University, the University of Virginia and the University of Cincinnati. "Individual investors get hurt if they own stock in fraudulent companies that cook the books, such as Enron," says Dr. Joe Brazel, a professor of accounting ...

This news release is available in Spanish. A technique to increase the flow of blood from the umbilical cord into the infant's circulatory system improves blood pressure and red blood cell levels in preterm infants delivered by Cesarean section, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study, published online in Pediatrics, was conducted by researchers at the Neonatal Research Institute at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women and Newborns in San Diego, and Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, Calif. It was supported by NIH's Eunice Kennedy ...

Boston, MA -- Longer secondary schooling substantially reduces the risk of HIV infection--especially for girls--and could be a very cost-effective way to halt the spread of the virus, according to researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In a study in Botswana, researchers found that, for each additional year of secondary school, students lowered their risk of HIV infection by 8 percentage points about a decade later, from 25% to about 17% infected. "These findings confirm what has been fiercely debated for more than two decades--that secondary schooling ...

Longer secondary schooling substantially reduces the risk of contracting HIV, particularly for girls, according to new research from Botswana published in The Lancet Global Health journal. The researchers estimate that pupils who stayed in school for an extra year of secondary school had an 8 percentage point lower risk of HIV infection about a decade later, from about 25% to about 17% infected. The study, which also shows expanding secondary schooling to be a very cost effective HIV prevention measure, used a recent school policy reform as a 'natural experiment' to ...

The day will officially be a bit longer than usual on Tuesday, June 30, 2015, because an extra second, or "leap" second, will be added. "Earth's rotation is gradually slowing down a bit, so leap seconds are a way to account for that," said Daniel MacMillan of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Strictly speaking, a day lasts 86,400 seconds. That is the case, according to the time standard that people use in their daily lives -- Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC. UTC is "atomic time" -- the duration of one second is based on extremely predictable electromagnetic ...

City College of New York researchers led by chemist George John have developed an eco-friendly biodegradable green "herding" agent that can be used to clean up light crude oil spills on water. Derived from the plant-based small molecule phytol abundant in the marine environment, the new substance would potentially replace chemical herders currently in use. According to John, professor of chemistry in City College's Division of Science, "the best known chemical herders are chemically stable, non-biodegradable, and hence remain in the marine ecosystem for years." "Our ...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Low flu vaccination rates, medication compliance and limited access to primary care providers have contributed to the high pediatric asthma rates in California, say UC Davis pediatricians Ulfat Shaikh and Robert Byrd, who have published an extensive study describing the challenges faced by children with asthma in California. Analyzing data from the 2011-12 California Health Interview Survey, the study details several issues affecting asthma care and offers a number of public policy strategies that could help remedy these shortcomings. The research ...

Research led by Michigan State University could someday lead to the development of new and improved semiconductors. In a paper published in the journal Science Advances, the scientists detailed how they developed a method to change the electronic properties of materials in a way that will more easily allow an electrical current to pass through. The electrical properties of semiconductors depend on the nature of trace impurities, known as dopants, which when added appropriately to the material will allow for the designing of more efficient solid-state electronics. The ...

Athens, Ga. -- Despite heavy development, the U.S. still has millions of acres of pristine wild lands. Coveted for their beauty, these wilderness areas draw innumerable outdoor enthusiasts eager for a taste of primitive nature. But University of Georgia researchers say these federally protected nature areas have a problem: Their boundaries have become prime real estate. As the country's population continues to grow, people have built homes close to national parks, forests and wilderness areas for the same reasons these systems have been left protected from development. ...

Baltimore, June 26 -- The flu virus can be lethal. But what is often just as dangerous is the body's own reaction to the invader. This immune response consists of an inflammatory attack, meant to kill the virus. But if it gets too aggressive, this counterattack can end up harming the body's own tissues, causing damage that can lead to death. Now, a University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) researcher has for the first time uncovered new details about how this response plays out. Furthermore, he has identified a "decoy" molecule that can rein in this runaway inflammatory ...

When the new iPhone came out, customers complained that it could be bent -- but what if you could roll up your too big 6 Plus to actually fit in your pocket? That technology might be available sooner than you think, based on the work of USC Viterbi engineers. For many decades, silicon has been the heart of modern electronics -- but as a material, it has its limits. As our devices get smaller and smaller, the basic unit of these devices, a transistor, must also get tinier and tinier. Bottom line: the size of the silicon transistor is reaching its physical limit. As silicon ...

Toxic environmental contaminants are increasingly known to cause a number of severe health problems, in particular on fetuses, including heart failure, low cognitive ability, delayed development, and neurobehavioral disorders. A new research featured in the Environmental Science and Technology published by the American Chemical Society suggests that the fetus is more vulnerable to some pollutants with certain properties because they penetrate further into the feto-maternal system. The research found that distributions of pollutants and the mechanisms of distributions ...

Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered a self-regulating loop in the Hippo pathway, a signaling channel garnering increased attention from cancer researchers due to its role in controlling organ size, cell proliferation and cell death. The finding, published June 26 online in the journal Genes & Development, provides new insights about how the Hippo pathway maintains cellular balance, a subject of growing interest since its malfunction can lead to uncontrolled cell growth and inhibition of cell death - two hallmarks of cancer. ...

Nashville, Tenn., June 26, 2015--Daily bathing of pediatric patients with disposable cloths containing 2 percent chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) reduced central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) by 59 percent and saved approximately $300,000 in one hospital over a six-month period, according to a new study. The study, to be presented on Saturday, June 27, at the 42nd Annual Conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), examined the impact of implementing a daily CHG bathing protocol for all pediatric patients ...

New research reveals that it only takes two weeks of not using their legs for young people to lose a third of their muscular strength, leaving them on par with a person who is 40-50 years their senior. The Center for Healthy Aging and the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen conducted the research. Time and again, we are told that we need to stay physically active and exercise daily. But how quickly do we actually lose our muscular strength and muscle mass if we go from being averagely active to being highly inactive? For example when we are ...

Scientists at Newcastle University have documented for the first time the DNA damage which can occur to skin across the full range of ultraviolet radiation from the sun providing an invaluable tool for sun-protection and the manufacturers of sunscreen. Testing on human skin cell lines, this study published today in The Society for Investigative Dermatology, documents the action spectrum of ultraviolet damage in cells derived from both the upper layer (dermis) and lower layer (epidermis) of the skin. This will allow manufacturers of sunscreen to develop and test products ...

A watershed is a basic unit of the land-surface system and also is a system that exchanges material, energy, and information with the external world while remaining relatively closed within a clear boundary, thereby making it the best unit for theory study and practical applications. Watershed science is an Earth system science practiced on a watershed scale and it has developed rapidly over the previous two decades. The goal of watershed science is to understand and predict the behavior of complex watershed systems and support the sustainable development of watersheds. ...

Food allergies now impacting children of all races and incomes Hispanic children have highest rise in emergency visits for food allergies Peanut and tree nuts followed by milk reactions were the most frequent cause of visits CHICAGO --- Emergency room visits and hospitalizations of children with severe, potentially life-threatening food allergy reactions increased nearly 30 percent in Illinois over five years, reports a Northwestern Medicine study. Hispanic children, who previously had the lowest reported cases of food allergies, had the biggest increase of emergency ...