STANFORD, Calif. — In a breakthrough that could have wide-ranging applications in molecular medicine, Stanford University researchers have created a bioengineered peptide that enables imaging of medulloblastomas, among the most devastating of malignant childhood brain tumors, in lab mice. The researchers altered the amino acid sequence of a cystine knot peptide — or knottin — derived from the seeds of the squirting cucumber, a plant native to Europe, North Africa and parts of Asia. Peptides are short chains of amino acids that are integral to cellular processes; knottin ...

When gathering public input on policy questions, scientists can speak with authority about facts, but must remember that everyone is an expert when it comes to values. "Using climate change as an example, a scientist could say, 'The climate is changing.' That's a fact that can be checked," said Thomas Dietz, a member of the MSU Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS) and professor of sociology, environmental science and policy, and animal studies. "But if a scientist says, 'We need to take these actions to halt climate change because it's affecting what ...

Research by scientists at The University of Manchester and Lancaster shows maintaining healthy soil biodiversity can play an important role in optimising land management programmes to reap benefits from the living soil. The findings, published in the latest edition of the journal PNAS, extend the understanding about the factors that regulate soil biodiversity. The team says more research on soil food webs – the community of organisms living all or part of their lives in the soil - and their response to land use and climate change could also improve predictions of climate ...

The ability of cities to combat the cause of climate change and to adapt to future weather patterns depends on where we live, new research suggests. Scientists at Newcastle University, UK, have revealed a "postcode lottery of preparedness" across the UK based on what each city is doing to not only reduce greenhouse emissions but also adapt to future climate change and extremes of weather such as flooding and drought. Devising a new way of ranking cities - the 'Urban Climate Change Preparedness Scores' - the team scored 30 cities based on four levels of readiness: Assessment, ...

Pile driving during construction of wind farms and the use of airguns when searching for oil and gas unavoidably result in noise pollution in the surrounding area. To ensure that marine mammals are not harmed when in the close vicinity of these activities, regulatory authorities request so-called mitigation measures for their protection. One of such measures requires airguns to be switched off or pile driving to be stopped when whales approach the respective sound source too closely. Yet how to monitor the surrounding seas for whales around the clock - and that for weeks ...

ANN ARBOR -- New irrigation systems in arid regions benefit farmers but can increase the local malaria risk for more than a decade -- which is longer than previously believed -- despite intensive and costly use of insecticides, new University of Michigan-led study in northwest India concludes. The study's findings demonstrate the need to include a strong, binding commitment to finance and implement long-term public health and safety programs when building large-scale irrigation projects, according to the researchers. "In these dry, fragile ecosystems, where increase ...

A team including Dartmouth researchers has uncovered a protein that plays a vital role in how plant roots use water and nutrients, a key step in improving the production and quality of crops and biofuels. The findings appear this week in the journal PNAS. The team included researchers from Dartmouth, the University of Aberdeen and the University of Lausanne. Plant roots use their endodermis, or inner skin, as a cellular gatekeeper to control the efficient use and movement of water and nutrients from the soil to the above-ground parts of the plant. A key part of that ...

Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have developed a new model to simulate with unprecedented accuracy on the computer the way cloth and light interact. The new model can be used in animated movies and in video games to make cloth look more realistic. Existing models are either too simplistic and produce unrealistic results; or too complex and costly for practical use. Researchers presented their findings at the SIGGRAPH 2013 conference held July 21 to 25 in Anaheim, Calif. "Not only is our model easy to use, it is also more powerful ...

Scientists have long believed that healthy brain cells, once damaged by radiation designed to kill brain tumors, cannot regenerate. But new Johns Hopkins research in mice suggests that neural stem cells, the body's source of new brain cells, are resistant to radiation, and can be roused from a hibernation-like state to reproduce and generate new cells able to migrate, replace injured cells and potentially restore lost function. "Despite being hit hard by radiation, it turns out that neural stem cells are like the special forces, on standby waiting to be activated," says ...

LIVERMORE, Calif. – Outbreaks such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS) have afflicted people around the world, yet many people think these trends are on the decline. Quite the opposite is true. The efforts to combat this epidemic are being spearheaded by a team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists. Led by Monica Borucki, a principal investigator (PI) in LLNL's Biosciences and Biotechnology Division in the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate (PLS), the Lab researchers has recently ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Scientists have discovered a super-charged methane seep in the ocean off New Zealand that has created its own unique food web, resulting in much more methane escaping from the ocean floor into the water column. Most of that methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming our atmosphere, is likely consumed by biological activity in the water, the scientists say. Thus it will not make it into the atmosphere, where it could exacerbate global warming. However, the discovery does highlight scientists' limited understanding of ...

Once a hurricane, Henriette weakened to a depression in the Central Pacific Ocean on Sunday, Aug. 11 and dissipated by Aug. 12 as two other low pressure areas continued to struggle. NASA's TRMM satellite noticed that Henriette's weakening trend began on Aug. 8. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite flew over Henriette again on August 9, 2013 at 0122 UTC (~ 4 p.m. local time). During a TRMM orbit overpass on August 8, 2013 at 1709 UTC. (1:09 a.m. EDT), Henriette's eye that was visible but disappeared from view on Aug. 9. At NASA's Goddard Space ...

Four NASA satellites provided data on Super-Typhoon Utor before and after the storm made landfall in the Philippines. Satellite imagery from NASA's Aqua, Terra, TRMM and CloudSat satellites captured information about the powerful Super-Typhoon on Aug. 11 and 12. That data was used by forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center before and after Utor hit the Philippines. On Sunday, Aug. 11 at 0719 UTC (3:19 a.m. EDT) NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite captured rates of heavy rainfall around the storm's center and western quadrant near 1.4 ...

NASA's Aqua satellite captured this image of Idaho's two large fires on August 10, 2013. The fires consist of the Pony Complex fire (left) and the Beaver Creek Complex fire (right). Both sets of fires were started by lightning strikes on Aug. 7 and 8. The 119,543 acre Pony Complex is now 20 percent contained. Two cabins and an outbuilding in Syrup Creek were destroyed this morning as a result of the extreme fire behavior. Evacuations were ordered for the Syrup Canyon area. Multiple residences in Syrup Canyon and Miller Ranch were defended today. Evacuations were ordered ...

Studying lampreys allows biologists to envision the evolutionary past, because they represent an early offshoot of the evolutionary tree, before sharks and fish. Despite their inconspicuous appearance, lampreys have a sophisticated immune system with three types of white blood cell that resemble our B and T cells, researchers have discovered. Scientists at Emory University School of Medicine and the Max Planck Institute of Immunology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have identified a type of white blood cell in lampreys analogous to the "gamma delta T cells" found in mammals, ...

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered a unique new twist to the story of graphene, sheets of pure carbon just one atom thick, and in the process appear to have solved a mystery that has held back device development. Electrons can race through graphene at nearly the speed of light – 100 times faster than they move through silicon. In addition to being superthin and superfast when it comes to conducting electrons, graphene is also superstrong and superflexible, making it a potential superstar ...

URBANA, Ill. – A successful program that increased the number of fruits and vegetables eaten and decreased sugar-sweetened beverage consumption by 50 percent among Latino children had two secret weapons, according to a University of Illinois researcher. "First, we got mothers and other relatives involved because family togetherness is a very important value for Latinos. Many programs, delivered at school, target only the child, but we know that kids have very little ability to choose the foods they eat at home—they don't purchase or prepare them," said Angela Wiley, ...

Some adolescents who suffer with symptoms of depression also may be at risk for developing anxiety, according to a new study of children's mental health. The study found that among youth who have symptoms of depression, the risk is most severe for those who have one or more of three risk factors, said psychologist Chrystyna D. Kouros, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, who led the study. Specifically, those who are most vulnerable are those who have a pessimistic outlook toward events and circumstances in their lives; those who have mothers with a history of an ...

Both basic scientists and clinicians have an interest in how the cells of our body move. Cells must be mobile in order for organisms to grow, to heal, to transmit information internally, to mount immune responses and to conduct a host of other activities necessary for survival. But if cell mobility is unregulated, tumors can grow and spread throughout the body. A new multi-disciplinary study by University of Pennsylvania researchers has now illuminated a crucial step in the process of cell movement. The protein they examined, Exo70, induces a reshaping of the cell's plasma ...

Researchers have probed deep into the cell’s genome, beyond the basic genetic code, to begin learning the “grammar” that helps determine whether or not a gene gets switched on to make the protein it encodes. Their discovery -- that the ordering of specific DNA sequences in key regions of the genome affects the activity of genes -- might advance efforts to use gene and cell-based therapies to treat disease, said UCSF molecular biologist Nadav Ahituv, PhD, senior scientist on the study. The findings were published online in the journal Nature Genetics on July 28 ...

Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rise and fall each year as plants, through photosynthesis and respiration, take up the gas in spring and summer, and release it in fall and winter. Now the range of that cycle is expanding as more carbon dioxide is emitted from burning fossil fuels and other human activities, according to a study led by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO). The findings come from a multi-year airborne survey of atmospheric chemistry called HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations, or HIPPO. Results of the study are reported ...

Climate change is already affecting the spread of infectious diseases--and human health and biodiversity worldwide--according to disease ecologists reporting research results in this week's issue of the journal Science. Modeling disease outcomes from host and parasite responses to climate variables, they say, could help public health officials and environmental managers address the challenges posed by the changing landscape of infectious disease. "Earth's changing climate and the global spread of infectious diseases are threatening human health, agriculture and wildlife," ...

Climate change alters the way in which species interact with one another--a reality that applies not just to today or to the future, but also to the past, according to a paper published by a team of researchers in this week's issue of the journal Science. "We found that, at all time scales, climate change can alter biotic interactions in very complex ways," said paleoecologist Jessica Blois of the University of California, Merced, the paper's lead author. "If we don't incorporate this information when we're anticipating future changes, we're missing a big piece of the ...

Lightning ignited the Gold Pan Complex Fire on July 16, 2013, in the River of No Return Wilderness, Idaho. As of August 9, the fire had burned 17,103 acres of mixed conifer forest. Many of the burned trees may have already been dead as a result of insects. The fire has a high potential for growth. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite acquired this false color image of the fire on August 8, 2013. Newly burned land is dark red. Hot spots glow orange. Paler red areas may be old burn scars or forest infested with insects, such as the ...

One thing that sets humans apart from other animals is our ability to intelligently and rapidly adapt to a wide variety of new challenges — using skills learned in much different contexts to inform and guide the handling of any new task at hand. Now, research from Washington University in St. Louis offers new and compelling evidence that a well-connected core brain network based in the lateral prefrontal cortex and the posterior parietal cortex — parts of the brain most changed evolutionarily since our common ancestor with chimpanzees — contains "flexible hubs" that coordinate ...