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Science15 Sep 2014

Researchers control surface tension to manipulate liquid metals

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 ...

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Medicine15 Sep 2014

Neuroscientists identify key role of language gene

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 ...

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Medicine15 Sep 2014

Network measures predict neuropsychological outcome after brain injury

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 ...

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Medicine15 Sep 2014

Cells simply avoid chromosome confusion

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 ...

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Environment15 Sep 2014

NASA's TRMM satellite sees Hurricane Odile strike Baja California

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 ...

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Medicine15 Sep 2014

IU study: Combining epilepsy drug, morphine can result in less pain, lower opioid doses

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 ...

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Engineering15 Sep 2014

'Squid skin' metamaterials project yields vivid color display

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 ...

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Science15 Sep 2014

Researchers discover new producer of crucial vitamin

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 ...

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Medicine15 Sep 2014

X-rays unlock a protein's SWEET side

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, ...

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Science15 Sep 2014

Pitt chemical biologist finds new halogenation enzyme

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 ...

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Environment15 Sep 2014

Satellite sees Tropical Depression 16-E remnants scooped by Hurricane Odile

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 ...

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Environment15 Sep 2014

Satellites show Edouard's transition into an Atlantic Hurricane

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 ...

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Space15 Sep 2014

NASA sees Typhoon Kalmaegi as a whirlpool of clouds in the South China Sea

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 ...

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Science15 Sep 2014

Number-crunching could lead to unethical choices, says new study

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 ...

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Medicine15 Sep 2014

Researchers develop improved means of detecting mismatched DNA

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 ...

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Medicine15 Sep 2014

Freshman girls know how to eat healthy but lack confidence in their ability to do it

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 ...

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Science15 Sep 2014

Study: Web-based training can reduce campus rape

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 ...

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Science15 Sep 2014

Study indicates hunting restrictions for tapirs may not be enough

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. ...

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Social Science15 Sep 2014

Northeastern University Researchers Develop Novel Method for Working with Nanotubes

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 ...

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Science15 Sep 2014

iPhone Chemistry: Elements of a smartphone

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. ...

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Medicine15 Sep 2014

Oregon researchers urge psychologists to see institutional betrayal

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. ...

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Science15 Sep 2014

When rulers can't understand the ruled

Johns Hopkins University political scientists wanted to know if America's unelected officials have enough in common with the people they govern to understand them. The answer: Not really. Surveying 850 people who either work in the federal government or directly with it, researchers found that the inside-the-Beltway crowd has very little in common with America at large. Washington insiders are more likely to be white. They are more educated. Their salaries are higher, they vote more often and they have more faith in the fairness of elections. They are probably Democrat ...

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Science15 Sep 2014

Early Earth less hellish than previously thought

Conditions on Earth for the first 500 million years after it formed may have been surprisingly similar to the present day, complete with oceans, continents and active crustal plates. This alternate view of Earth's first geologic eon, called the Hadean, has gained substantial new support from the first detailed comparison of zircon crystals that formed more than 4 billion years ago with those formed contemporaneously in Iceland, which has been proposed as a possible geological analog for early Earth. The study was conducted by a team of geologists directed by Calvin ...

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Medicine15 Sep 2014

Decoding virus-host interactions in the oxygen-starved ocean

For multicellular life—plants and animals—to thrive in the oceans, there must be enough dissolved oxygen in the water. In certain coastal areas, extreme oxygen-starvation produces "dead zones" that decimate marine fisheries and destroy food web structure. As dissolved oxygen levels decline, energy is increasingly diverted away from multicellular life into microbial community metabolism resulting in impacts on the ecology and biogeochemistry of the ocean. Over the past 50 years, oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) have expanded due to climate change and increased waste run-off ...

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Medicine15 Sep 2014

Report urges individualized, cholesterol-targeted approach to heart disease and stroke

PORTLAND, Ore. – A recent guideline for using statins to reduce atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease has wavered too far from the simple cholesterol goals that have saved thousands of lives in the past decade, and doesn't adequately treat patients as individuals, experts said today in a national report. An expert panel coordinated by the National Lipid Association has created its own outline for how to best treat people at risk for cardiovascular disease, which they say focuses on reducing cholesterol to an appropriate level, and puts less emphasis on whether or not ...

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