It is often difficult to decide whether two animals belong to the same or two distinct species. This can be especially challenging for animals which externally look very similar. In a recent study, published in the open access journal Zoosystematics and Evolution, scientists from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin use genetic data and sound analysis to test if treefrogs from West and Central Africa belong to different or the same species. Due to the fact that, when external characters are used, only size is useful to distinguish these frogs the scientists employed additional ...

Scientists studying the behavior of the world's ice sheets--and the future implications of ice sheet behavior for global sea-level rise--may soon have a new airborne tool that will allow radar measurements that previously would have been prohibitively expensive or difficult to carry out with manned aircraft. In a paper published in the March/ April edition of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine, researchers at the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) at the University of Kansas noted that they have successfully tested the use of a compact radar system ...

(Millbrook, NY) Anyone that has spent time at a seaside pier has witnessed the destruction barnacles wreak on boat hulls. But biofouling animals are not limited to marine environments. A new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment estimates that the global management of freshwater mussels, clams, and other clinging animals costs $277 million U.S. dollars annually. Biofoulers are organisms that accumulate underwater on hard surfaces, to the detriment of property and economically important activities, such as shipping, power generation, ...

PRINCETON, N.J.—Non-native speakers exposed to English before moving to America are more likely to use the language in their daily lives in the United States, according to a report led by Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Such early exposure – through newspapers, books, TV and classes as well as traveling – may help determine an immigrant's socioeconomic mobility, as English proficiency is strongly tied to cultural and social assimilation. The report, featured in the journal Social Science Research, is one of the first ...

Americans used more renewable, fossil and even nuclear energy in 2013, according to the most recent energy flow charts released by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Each year, the Laboratory releases energy flow charts that illustrate the nation's consumption and use of energy. Overall, Americans used 2.3 quadrillion thermal units more in 2013 than the previous year. The Laboratory also has released a companion chart illustrating the nation's energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Americans' carbon dioxide emissions increased to 5,390 million metric tons, ...

Sirenians, or sea cows, are a particular group of mammals that superficially resembles whales in having, amongst other features, a streamlined-body and horizontal tail fluke. Though belonging to the so-called marine mammals, such as whales and seals, sea cows are members of a group having a single origin that includes their closest living relatives, the proboscideans (or elephants in the broader sense). Today, sirenians are known by only four species, but their fossil record is much more diverse documenting the transition from land-dwelling animals to fully aquatic ones. ...

MEDIA ADVISORY: Institute of Medicine Committee to Report on Ethical Guidelines For Health Standards on Next Generation of NASA Missions: Long Duration and Exploration Spaceflights WHEN: Embargoed until Wednesday April 2, 2014 11:00 AM EDT WHAT: Spaceflights beyond low earth orbit or lasting longer than 30 days, including extended stays on the International Space Station and missions to Mars, will likely expose astronauts to increased and even unknown levels of risk, and therefore would not meet NASA's current health standards. The space agency commissioned a report ...

Most drivers have experienced a traffic signal that turns yellow just as they approach an intersection, which makes it difficult for them to decide whether to stop or proceed through it. The wrong choice in this critical situation, known as the "dilemma zone," may lead to crashes, especially at high-speed intersections. A new study published in Human Factors examines how intelligent warning systems help drivers negotiate the dilemma zone and encourage safer driving behavior. "Intelligent systems could improve driver safety by potentially reducing crashes at signalized ...

Patients have substantial physical impairments even two years after being discharged from the hospital after a stay in an intensive care unit (ICU), new Johns Hopkins research suggests. The scientists found that for every day of bed rest in the ICU, muscle strength was between 3 and 11 percent lower over the following months and years. "Even a single day of bed rest in the ICU has a lasting impact on weakness, which impacts patients' physical functioning and quality of life," says Dale M. Needham, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of medicine and of physical medicine ...

VIDEO: Researchers in Drexel's College of Engineering have discovered a way to classify and predict the existence of a rare breed of electrically conductive polar metals. Click here for more information. PHILADELPHIA - Drexel University researchers are turning some of the basic tenets of chemistry and physics upside down to cut a trail toward the discovery of a new set of materials. They're called "polar metals" and, according to many of the scientific principles that govern the ...

After looking at 1.1 million online reviews for 840,000 restaurants in more than 32,000 cities across the country, Georgia Tech and Yahoo Labs researchers have found that the weather outside can be just as significant a factor for reviews as what happens inside a restaurant. Their study shows evaluations written on rainy or snowy days, or very cold or hot days, are more negative than those written on nice days. "People love to describe themselves as foodies. But in the end, it looks like we're all weather people, whether we realize it or not," said Saeideh Bakhshi, a ...

From 1997 to 2010, despite promises made by the international scientific community, pharmacogenomic research produced few studies focusing on rare, orphan and tropical diseases prevalent in developing countries. Catherine Olivier, bioethics research at the University of Montreal's School of Public Health, recently published these findings in the journal Global Public Health. Pharmcogenomics is a field of scientific research that studies the interaction between the genomic information of individuals (or populations) and their responses to drugs. In addition to its promising ...

The importance of fizz, more technically known as effervescence, in sparkling wines and champagnes is not to be underestimated — it contributes to the complete sensory experience of a glass, or flute, of fine bubbly. A scientist has now closely examined the factors that affect these bubbles, and he has come up with an estimate of just how many are in each glass. The report appears in ACS' The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. Gérard Liger-Belair notes that effervescence plays an important role in the look, taste, aroma and mouth feel of champagne and other sparkling wines. ...

After struggling with anxiety and depression since her teens, Lana Berry hit bottom at age 26. Divorced, unemployed and back living with her parents, she found herself in a dark place—"as sick as I'd ever been." Berry persevered, pouring her energy into getting better. She found work, met the love of her life, remarried and, six years after her low point, found out she was going to be a mom. Given her past, she was understandably anxious about what to expect. "I did have worries, but I didn't have regular conversations with doctors about depression. They would only ...

MANHATTAN, Kan. — Researchers have discovered that microscopic "bubbles" developed at Kansas State University are safe and effective storage lockers for harmful isotopes that emit ionizing radiation for treating tumors. The findings can benefit patient health and advance radiation therapy used to treat cancer and other diseases, said John M. Tomich, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics who is affiliated with the university's Johnson Cancer Research Center. Tomich conducted the study with Ekaterina Dadachova, a radiochemistry specialist at Albert Einstein ...

After 18 months on Mars, the rover Curiosity has taken more than 120,000 measurements of surface rocks and soil, painting a more detailed image of how much water was once on the Red Planet. An article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) describes the technique scientists are using to analyze the rocks and what they've found. Celia Arnaud, a senior editor at C&EN, notes that Curiosity has traveled nearly 4 miles since it landed in 2012 and is more than halfway to its destination, Mount Sharp. But in the meantime, its onboard equipment is collecting a treasure trove of ...

People with schizophrenia often misinterpret what they see and experience in the world. New research provides insight into the brain mechanisms that might be responsible for this misinterpretation. The study from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro - at McGill University and McGill University Health Centre, reveals that certain errors in visual perception in people with schizophrenia are consistent with interference or 'noise' in a brain signal known as a corollary discharge. Corollary discharges are found throughout the animal kingdom, from bugs ...

Lyme disease, if not treated promptly with antibiotics, can become a lingering problem for those infected. But a new study led by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania has some brighter news: Once infected with a particular strain of the disease-causing bacteria, humans appear to develop immunity against that strain that can last six to nine years. The finding doesn't give people who have already had the disease license to wander outside DEET-less, however. At least 16 different strains of the Lyme disease bacterium have been shown to infect humans in the United ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Members of the media and others often have attributed violence in video games as a potential cause of social ills, such as increased levels of teen violence and school shootings. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found that media acceptance of video game violence has increased as video game technology has improved over time. Greg Perreault, a doctoral student at the MU School of Journalism, examined the coverage of violent video games throughout the 1990s by GamePro Magazine, the most popular video game news magazine during that time period. Perreault ...

URBANA, Ill. - Many food-insecure families also struggle to afford basic non-food household goods, such as personal care, household, and baby-care products, according to a new University of Illinois study published in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues. "These families often make trade-offs with other living expenses and employ coping strategies in an effort to secure such household items as toilet paper, toothpaste, soap, or disposable diapers. What's more, nearly three in four low-income families have cut back on food in the past year in order to afford these ...

In the ongoing search for new materials for fuel cells, batteries, photovoltaics, separation membranes, and electronic devices, one newer approach involves applying and managing stresses within known materials to give them dramatically different properties. This development has been very exciting, says MIT associate professor of nuclear science and engineering Bilge Yildiz, one of the pioneers of this approach: "Traditionally, we make materials by changing compositions and structures, but we are now recognizing that strain is an additional parameter that we can change, ...

The molecular details of how zinc, an essential trace element of human metabolism, interacts with the enzyme caspase-3, which is central to apoptosis or cell death, have been elucidated in a new study led by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University. The study is featured on the cover of the April issue of the journal Angewandte Chemie's International Edition. Dysregulation of apoptosis is implicated in cancer and neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's disease. Zinc is known to affect the process by inhibiting the activity of caspases, which are important ...

This news release is available in German. Although Neanderthals are extinct, fragments of their genomes persist in modern humans. These shared regions are unevenly distributed across the genome and some regions are particularly enriched with Neanderthal variants. An international team of researchers led by Philipp Khaitovich of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and the CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology in Shanghai, China, show that DNA sequences shared between modern humans and Neanderthals are specifically ...

Men who started smoking regularly before the age of 11 had sons who, on average, had 5-10kg more body fat than their peers by the time they were in their teens, according to new research from the Children of the 90s study at the University of Bristol. The researchers say this could indicate that exposure to tobacco smoke before the start of puberty may lead to metabolic changes in the next generation. The effect, although present, was not seen to the same degree in daughters. Many other factors, including genetic factors and the father's weight, were taken into account ...

In a first-of-its-kind study, a team of environmental engineers from the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin found that infants are exposed to high levels of chemical emissions from crib mattresses while they sleep. Analyzing the foam padding in crib mattresses, the team found that the mattresses release significant amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), potentially harmful chemicals also found in household items such as cleaners and scented sprays. The researchers studied samples of polyurethane foam and polyester foam padding ...