Over the last twenty years, astronomers have found that almost all galaxies have a huge black hole at their centre. Some of these black holes are growing by drawing in matter from their surroundings, creating in the process the most energetic objects in the Universe: active galactic nuclei (AGN). The central regions of these brilliant powerhouses are ringed by doughnuts of cosmic dust [1] dragged from the surrounding space, similar to how water forms a small whirlpool around the plughole of a sink. It was thought that most of the strong infrared radiation coming from AGN ...

LA JOLLA, CA – June 20, 2013 – Neuroscientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have filled in a significant gap in the scientific understanding of how neurons mature, pointing to a better understanding of some developmental brain disorders. In the new study, the researchers identified a molecular program that controls an essential step in the fast-growing brains of young mammals. The researchers found that this signaling pathway spurs the growth of neuronal output connections by a mechanism called "mitochondrial capture," which has never been described before. "Mutations ...

Lumosity, the leading brain training company, today announced a new web-based, big data methodology for conducting human cognitive performance research. Lumosity's research platform, the Human Cognition Project, contains the world's largest and continuously growing dataset of human cognitive performance, which currently includes more than 40 million people who have been tracked for up to 6 years. The study, published today in the open-access journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, examined how Lumosity's dataset can provide insights into the lifestyle correlates of cognitive ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Human sleeping and waking patterns are largely governed by an internal circadian clock that corresponds closely with the 24-hour cycle of light and darkness. This circadian clock also controls other body functions, such as metabolism and temperature regulation. Studies in animals have found that when that rhythm gets thrown off, health problems including obesity and metabolic disorders such as diabetes can arise. Studies of people who work night shifts have also revealed an increased susceptibility to diabetes. A new study from MIT shows that a gene ...

CHAPEL HILL – The trillions of harmful bacteria that populate the human gut represent a continuous threat to our health. Proper intestinal immune function creates a protective barrier between us and the extensive microbial ecosystem in our intestines. Now, researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have identified the structures that serve as the foundation for the development of the human intestinal immune system. Specialized immune structures in the intestines, referred to as gut-associated lymphoid tissues, or GALT, are critical components ...

OAKLAND, Calif., June 20, 2013 — A more accurate and reliable stroke prediction model has been developed to help physicians decide whether to start blood-thinning treatment for patients with atrial fibrillation, as described in the current online issue of the Journal of the American Heart Association. Atrial fibrillation affects millions of Americans. Because the heart-rhythm disturbance promotes the formation of blood clots that can travel to the brain and block an artery, atrial fibrillation independently increases the risk of ischemic stroke four-to-five-fold. The ...

Almost half of the mobile apps running on Apple's iOS operating system access the unique identifier of the devices where they're downloaded, computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have found. In addition, more than 13 percent access the devices' location and more than 6 percent the address book. The researchers developed a new app that detects what data the other apps running on an iOS device are trying to access. The findings are based on a study of 130,000 users of jailbroken iOS devices, where users have purposefully removed restrictions that ...

Scientist describe a new striking species of moth from China with an engaging wing pattern. The new species Stenoloba solaris has its name inspired by the orange circular patch on its wings that resembles the rising sun. The study was published in the open access journal Zookeys. "During a spring expedition to north-west Yunnan, a striking specimen of an undescribed Stenoloba was collected.", explain the authors Drs Pekarsky and Saldaitis. "Only a single male was caught at ultraviolet light on 24 May 2012 near Zhongdian in northwest China's Yunnan province in the remote ...

The Indian monsoon is a complex system which is likely to change under future global warming. While it is in the very nature of weather to vary, the question is how much and whether we can deal with it. Extreme rainfall, for example, bears the risk of flooding, and crop failure. Computer simulations with a comprehensive set of 20 state-of-the-art climate models now consistently show that Indian monsoon daily variability might increase, according to a study just published by scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. "Increased variability – this ...

Does your salad know what time it is? It may be healthier for you if it does, according to new research from Rice University and the University of California at Davis. "Vegetables and fruits don't die the moment they are harvested," said Rice biologist Janet Braam, the lead researcher on a new study this week in Current Biology. "They respond to their environment for days, and we found we could use light to coax them to make more cancer-fighting antioxidants at certain times of day." Braam is professor and chair of Rice's Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Braam's ...

This news release is available in Spanish. Bacterial resistance to drugs leads pharmaceutical labs to be in constant search for new antibiotics to treat the same diseases. For the last thirty years, the sea bottom has yielded a wealth of substances with properties of interest to the pharmaceutical industry. Isolated from a marine microorganism off the coast of Alicante by the company BioMar, baringolin shows promising antibiotic activity at a very low concentration. The Combinatorial Lab headed by Fernando Albericio at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB ...

Quebec City, June 20, 2013—Université Laval researchers have developed a highly effective method for converting CO2 into methanol, which can be used as a low-emissions fuel for vehicles. The team led by Professor Frédéric-Georges Fontaine presents the details of this discovery in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Researchers have been looking for a way to convert carbon dioxide into methanol in a single step using energy-efficient processes for years. "In the presence of oxygen, methanol combustion produces CO2 and water," explained Professor ...

The Global Innovation Imperatives (Gii) program, administered by the American Chemical Society (ACS) Office of International Activities, today issued a white paper outlining possible solutions for increasing access to safe drinking water in the rural areas of the world. Although focused on the community of Chocontá, in Colombia, the suggested solutions have broader application. Chocontá residents rely on rural aqueducts for their water, but supplies are vulnerable to pollution from nearby agriculture and largely go untreated. City officials asked ACS, the world's largest ...

VIDEO: This video shows a control mouse doing a task to test cognitive skills. The mouse must start the test, then scan and touch the screen at the spot where... Click here for more information. A line of genetically modified mice that Western University scientists call "Forrest Gump" because, like the movie character, they can run far but they aren't smart, is furthering the understanding of a key neurotransmitter called acetylcholine (ACh). Marco Prado and his team at Robarts ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Rhode Island Hospital has reduced the incidence of hospital-associated Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infections by 70 percent and reduced annual associated mortality in patients with hospital-associated C. difficile by 64 percent through successive implementation of five rigorous interventions , as reported in the July 2013 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. Clostridium difficile is a toxin-producing bacterium that lives in the colon. A major cause of morbidity and mortality in the U.S., it can cause life-threatening ...

A combination of the myxoma virus and the immune suppressant rapamycin can kill glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and deadliest malignant brain tumor, according to Moffitt Cancer Center research. Peter A. Forsyth, M.D., of Moffitt's Neuro-Oncology Program, says the combination has been shown to infect and kill both brain cancer stem cells and differentiated compartments of glioblastoma multiforme. The finding means that barriers to treating the disease, such as resistance to the drug temozolomide, may be overcome. The study, by Forsyth and colleagues in Canada, ...

Bumblebees searching for nectar go for signposts on flowers rather than the bull's eye. A new study, by Levente Orbán and Catherine Plowright from the University of Ottawa in Canada, shows that the markings at the center of a flower are not as important as the markings that will direct the bees to the center. The work is published online in Springer's journal, Naturwissenschaften - The Science of Nature. The first time bees go out looking for nectar, which visual stimuli do they use to identify that first flower that will provide them with the reward they are looking ...

JUPITER, FL-- Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a compound that could counter Parkinson's disease in two ways at once. In a new study published recently online ahead of print by the journal ACS Chemical Biology, the scientists describe a "dual inhibitor"- two compounds in a single molecule-- that attacks a pair of proteins closely associated with development of Parkinson's disease. "In general, these two enzymes amplify the effect of each other," said team leader Phil LoGrasso, a TSRI professor who has been a pioneer ...

A new study by Queen's University researchers has determined that adults who accumulated 150 minutes of exercise on a few days of the week were not any less healthy than adults who exercised more frequently throughout the week. Ian Janssen and his graduate student Janine Clarke studied 2,324 adults from across Canada to determine whether the frequency of physical activity throughout the week is associated with risk factors for diabetes, heart disease and stroke. "The findings indicate that it does not matter how adults choose to accumulate their 150 weekly minutes of ...

New Rochelle, NY, June 20, 2013—At least half of all cases of deafness that develop from birth through infancy in developed countries have a genetic basis, as do many cases of later onset progressive hearing loss. To date, at least 1,000 mutations occurring in 64 genes in the human genome have been linked to hearing loss. Next-generation DNA sequencing technologies are enabling the identification of these deafness-causing genetic variants, as described in a Review article in Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – June 20, 2013 – African-Americans with Medicaid as their primary insurance were less likely to receive a living kidney transplant (LKT) than patients with private insurance, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The study is published on the Early View online edition of Clinical Transplantation. "Living kidney transplantation is the optimal treatment for patients with end-stage renal disease, offering the best quality of life and longest survival," said Amber Reeves-Daniel, D.O., assistant professor of nephrology ...

AUSTIN, Texas — Physicists at The University of Texas at Austin have built a tabletop particle accelerator that can generate energies and speeds previously reached only by major facilities that are hundreds of meters long and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build. "We have accelerated about half a billion electrons to 2 gigaelectronvolts over a distance of about 1 inch," said Mike Downer, professor of physics in the College of Natural Sciences. "Until now that degree of energy and focus has required a conventional accelerator that stretches more than the length ...

June 20, 2013, New York, NY and Oxford, UK — An advanced tumor is a complex ecosystem. Though derived from a single cell, it evolves as it grows until it contains several subspecies of cells that vary dramatically in their genetic traits and behaviors. This cellular heterogeneity is what makes advanced tumors so difficult to treat. Publishing their findings in today's online issue of Cancer Cell, an international team of scientists led jointly by Professors Colin Goding from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research who is based at the University of Oxford and José Neptuno ...

Changing ocean water temperatures and circulation patterns have profoundly affected key Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf zooplankton species in recent decades, and may be influencing the recovery of Atlantic cod and other fish stocks in the region. NOAA researcher Kevin Friedland and colleagues looked at the distribution and abundance of important zooplankton species, sea surface water temperatures, and cod abundance. They found that zooplankton species critical for the survival of Atlantic cod larvae have declined in abundance in the same areas where Atlantic cod stocks ...

VIDEO: Surgical Theater aims to allow each and every neurosurgeon the ability to "Pre-Live the Future. " The Surgical Rehearsal Platform (SRP) supports a neurosurgeon's goal of providing patients with the best... Click here for more information. Surgical Theater's Surgical Rehearsal Platform™ (SRP) provided neurosurgeons the opportunity to rehearse a complicated cerebral case before entering the operating room, saving the surgical team critical seconds on a time-sensitive ...