Human skin and gut microbes influence processes from digestion to disease resistance. Despite the fact that tropical forests are the most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems on the planet, more is known about belly-button bacteria than bacteria on trees in the tropics. Smithsonian scientists and colleagues working on Panama's Barro Colorado Island discovered that small leaf samples from a single tree were home to more than 400 different kinds of bacteria. The combined sample from 57 tree species contained more than 7,000 different kinds. Bacteria in tropical forests may ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (September 15, 2014) – The so-called central dogma of molecular biology—that DNA makes RNA which makes protein—has long provided a simplified explanation for how genetic information is deciphered and translated in living organisms. In reality, of course, the process is vastly more complicated than the schema first articulated nearly 60 years ago by Nobel Laureate Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the DNA's double-helix structure. For one, there are multiple types of RNA, three of which—messenger RNA (mRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA), and ribosomal RNA (rRNA)—are ...

UC San Francisco researchers have used brain scans to predict how young children learn to read, giving clinicians a possible tool to spot children with dyslexia and other reading difficulties before they experience reading challenges. In the United States, children usually learn to read for the first time in kindergarten and become proficient readers by third grade, according to the authors. In the study, researchers examined brain scans of 38 kindergarteners as they were learning to read formally at school and tracked their white matter development until third grade. ...

An international team of researchers has designed decoys that mimic female emerald ash borer beetles and successfully entice male emerald ash borers to land on them in an attempt to mate, only to be electrocuted and killed by high-voltage current. "Our new decoy and electrocution process may be useful in managing what the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service claims to be the most destructive forest pest ever seen in North America," said Michael Domingue, postdoctoral fellow in entomology, Penn State. According to the Forest Service, the emerald ash borer was ...

VIDEO: Liquid metals have very large surface tensions that causes them to assume a spherical shape. Researchers have shown that the deposition of a surface oxide lowers the surface tension... Click here for more information. Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a technique for controlling the surface tension of liquid metals by applying very low voltages, opening the door to a new generation of reconfigurable electronic circuits, antennas and other ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Neuroscientists have found that a gene mutation that arose more than half a million years ago may be key to humans' unique ability to produce and understand speech. Researchers from MIT and several European universities have shown that the human version of a gene called Foxp2 makes it easier to transform new experiences into routine procedures. When they engineered mice to express humanized Foxp2, the mice learned to run a maze much more quickly than normal mice. The findings suggest that Foxp2 may help humans with a key component of learning language ...

Cognitive neuroscience research has shown that certain brain regions are associated with specific cognitive abilities, such as language, naming, and decision-making. How and where these specific abilities are integrated in the brain to support complex cognition is still under investigation. However, researchers at the University of Iowa and Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, believe that several hub regions may be especially important for the brain to function as an integrated network. In research published online Sept. 15 in the Early Edition of the Proceedings ...

Reproductive cell division has evolved a simple, mechanical solution to avoid chromosome sorting errors, researchers report in the Sept. 11 Science Express. This natural safeguard prevents incorrect chromosome counts and misalignments that lead to infertility, miscarriage, or congenital conditions. "Mistakes during reproductive cell division cause these problems, but what exactly goes wrong is often not understood," said Adele Marston of the Wellcome Trust Center for Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and lead author of the study. Understanding ...

VIDEO: This animation of NOAA's GOES-West satellite imagery from Sept. 13 through Sept. 15 shows Hurricane Odile's movement and landfall near Cabo San Lucas on Mexico's Baja California. TRT 0:42... Click here for more information. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite known as TRMM captured data on powerful Hurricane Odile revealing heavy rainfall from powerful thunderstorms as it made landfall in Baja California. Odile tied a record for strongest hurricane to hit ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Adding a common epilepsy drug to a morphine regimen can result in better pain control with fewer side effects. Moreover, the combination can reduce the dosage of the opioid needed to be effective, according to a team of pain researchers at Indiana University. The result could bring significant relief to many patients with neuropathic pain, a difficult-to-treat condition often felt in the arms and legs and associated with nerve tissue damage. "There is a huge unmet need for better treatments for neuropathic pain," said Fletcher A. White, Ph.D., the Vergil ...

The quest to create artificial "squid skin" -- camouflaging metamaterials that can "see" colors and automatically blend into the background -- is one step closer to reality, thanks to a breakthrough color-display technology unveiled this week by Rice University's Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP). The new full-color display technology uses aluminum nanoparticles to create the vivid red, blue and green hues found in today's top-of-the-line LCD televisions and monitors. The technology is described in a new study that will be posted online this week in the Early Edition ...

New research has determined that a single group of microorganisms may be responsible for much of the world's vitamin B12 production in the oceans, with implications for the global carbon cycle and climate change. Although vitamin B12 is an essential molecule required by most life on this planet, it is only produced by a relatively small group of microorganisms because it is so large and complex. For humans, vitamin B12 plays a key role in maintaining the brain and nervous systems, as well as DNA synthesis in cells throughout the body. Professors Andew Doxey and Josh ...

Sugar is a vital source of energy for both plants and animals alike. Understanding just how sugar makes its way into the cell could lead to the design of better drugs for diabetes patients and an increase in the amount of fruits and vegetables farmers are able to grow. Stanford University researchers have recently uncovered one of these "pathways" into the cell by piecing together proteins slightly wider than the diameter of a strand of spider silk. To determine the size, shape and orientation of one of the newest (and smallest) of these proteins, the sugar transporter, ...

PITTSBURGH—Molecules containing carbon-halogen bonds are produced naturally across all kingdoms of life and constitute a large family of natural products with a broad range of biological activities. The presence of halogen substituents in many bioactive compounds has a profound influence on their molecular properties. One of the Holy Grails in chemical science has been to find the late-stage, site-specific incorporation of a halogen atom into a complex natural product by replacing an sp³ C-H bond (one of the most inert chemical bonds known in an organic compound) with ...

At 11 p.m. EDT on Sunday, September 14, Tropical Depression 16-E was officially a remnant low pressure area. NOAA's GOES-West satellite showed the clouds associated with the remnants being drawn into the massive circulation of nearby Hurricane Odile. At 5 a.m. on Sunday, September 14, Tropical Depression 16-E (TD 16-E) was still holding together despite being close to the circulation of Hurricane Odile. At that time, the center of tropical depression 16-E was located near latitude 14.9 north and longitude 115.3 west. That's about 655 miles (1,055 km) south-southwest ...

VIDEO: This GOES-East satellite image animation of Edouard from Sept. 13 through 15 showed the storm consolidating. The eye of the hurricane became visible on and off during Sept. 14 in... Click here for more information. NASA's Terra satellite passed over Tropical Storm Edouard each day from September 12 through 14 and captured imagery of the storm as it grew into a hurricane. NOAA's GOES-East satellite covers the Atlantic Ocean and takes visible images during the day and infrared ...

NASA's Aqua satellite observed Typhoon Kalmaegi crossing the South China Sea and a satellite image from the MODIS instrument aboard made it look like a whirlpool of clouds. On Sunday, September 14, Kalmaegi passed over northern Luzon, Philippines and emerged into the South China Sea. Typhoon Kalmaegi's maximum sustained winds were near 65 knots (75 mph) making it a category one hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale as it moved over the Philippines. On September 15 at 05:15 UTC (1:15 a.m. EDT) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard NASA's Aqua satellite ...

Toronto – Calculating the pros and cons of a potential decision is a way of decision-making. But repeated engagement with numbers-focused calculations, especially those involving money, can have unintended negative consequences, including social and moral transgressions, says new study co-authored by a professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. Based on several experiments, researchers concluded that people in a "calculative mindset" as a result of number-crunching are more likely to analyze non-numerical problems mathematically and not take ...

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified a highly sensitive means of analyzing very tiny amounts of DNA. The discovery, they say, could increase the ability of forensic scientists to match genetic material in some criminal investigations. It could also prevent the need for a painful, invasive test given to transplant patients at risk of rejecting their donor organs and replace it with a blood test that reveals traces of donor DNA. In a report in the September issue of The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, the research team says laboratory tests already show that ...

URBANA, Ill. – Female college freshmen understand the benefits of eating healthy foods and know which foods they should include in their diets. But they lack confidence in their ability to act on that knowledge, especially when it comes to getting enough calcium, says a new University of Illinois study. "The women in our study weren't very confident about their ability to eat a healthful diet, especially if they had to do something physical like chop vegetables or go shopping. The motivation just wasn't strong if they were at a party or in places where there were other ...

Web-based training targeted at college-aged men is an effective tool for reducing the number of sexual assaults on U.S. campuses, according to a researcher in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. The RealConsent program reduced sexually violent behavior and increased the likelihood a male student would intervene to prevent a sexual assault, said Dr. Laura Salazar, associate professor of health promotion and behavior, who published the findings in the paper, "A Web-Based Sexual Violence Bystander Intervention for Male College Students: Randomized Controlled ...

A published study indicates that lowland tapir populations may continue to drop in French Guiana, despite recent restrictions on hunting. Researchers from the Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage in French Guiana and San Diego Zoo Global reviewed data retrieved from camera traps in the Nouragues National Reserve over the last four years and compared this data to current harvest rates in the region. "In 2011, restrictions were placed on hunting tapirs in French Guiana," said Matthias Tobler, a scientist with the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. ...

An interdisciplinary team of researchers led by Northeastern University has developed a novel method for controllably constructing precise inter-nanotube junctions and a variety of nanocarbon structures in carbon nanotube arrays. The method is facile and easily scalable, which will allow the researchers to tailor the physical properties of nanotube networks for use in applications ranging from electronic devices to CNT-reinforced composite materials found in everything from cars to sports equipment. Their findings were published in the journal Nature Communications in ...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2014 — By now, we've got all the details about Apple's latest iPhone, and the lines are probably forming somewhere for the Sept. 19 launch. But what do you really know about the guts of the iPhone 6, or any smartphone for that matter? Reactions teamed up once again with the Compound Interest blog to reveal the chemical elements found inside your smartphone. Learn all about it at http://youtu.be/66SGcBAs04w. INFORMATION: Subscribe to the series at Reactions YouTube, and follow us on Twitter @ACSreactions to be the first to see our latest videos. ...

EUGENE, Ore. -- Clinical psychologists are being urged by two University of Oregon researchers to recognize the experiences of institutional betrayal so they can better treat their patients and respond in ways that help avoid or repair damaged trust when it occurs in their own institutions. The call to action for clinicians as well as researchers appears in a paper in the September issue of the American Psychologist, the leading journal of the American Psychological Association. In their paper, UO doctoral student Carly P. Smith and psychology professor Jennifer J. ...