This news release is available in German. A team of physicists has succeeded in performing an extraordinary experiment: They demonstrated how magnetism that generally manifests itself by a force between two magnetized objects acts within a single molecule. This discovery is of high significance to fundamental research and provides scientists with a new tool to better understand magnetism as an elementary phenomenon of physics. The researchers published their results in the latest issue of Nature Nanotechnology (doi: 10.1038/nnano.2013.133). The smallest unit of ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass- In the aftermath of Japan's earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was initially driven into shutdown by the magnitude 9.0 quake; its emergency generators then failed because they were inundated by the tsunami. But the greatest damage to the complex, and the greatest release of radiation, may have been caused by explosions of hydrogen gas that built up inside some of the reactors. That hydrogen buildup was the result of hot steam coming into contact with overheated nuclear fuel rods covered by a cladding of zirconium ...

This news release is available in German. Astronomers have long assumed that when a galaxy produces too many stars too quickly, it greatly reduces its capacity for producing stars in the future. Now, a group of astronomers that includes Fabian Walter from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy were able to obtain the first detailed images of this type of self-limiting galactic behaviour: an outflow of molecular gas, the raw material needed for star formation that is coming from star-forming regions in the Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253). The observations were made with ...

ANN ARBOR—Veterans participating in extended outdoor group recreation show signs of improved mental health, suggesting a link between the activities and long-term psychological well-being, according to results of a new University of Michigan study. Veterans were surveyed before and after a multi-day wilderness recreation experience, which involved camping and hiking in groups of between six and 12 participants. More than half of participants reported that they frequently experienced physical or mental health problems in everyday life. One week after the experience, ...

New Rochelle, NY, July 25, 2013—While ovary removal during hysterectomy protects against future risk of ovarian cancer, the decision to conserve the ovaries and the hormones they produce may have advantages for preventing heart disease, hip fracture, sexual dysfunction, and cognitive decline. Other than a woman's cancer risk, the most important factor that should determine ovarian conservation vs. removal is her age—whether she is older or younger than 50—according to a Review article published in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Bipolar disorder evolves differently in patients who also binge eat, a study by Mayo Clinic, the Lindner Center of HOPE and the University of Minnesota found. Binge eating and obesity often are present among bipolar patients, but the mood disorder appears to take a different path in those who binge eat than it does in obese bipolar patients who do not, the researchers discovered. The findings are published online in the Journal of Affective Disorders. MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Video of Dr. Frye is available for download from the Mayo Clinic News Network. Up ...

A new study has uncovered a problem in pediatrics thought to be a major issue only in adult medicine: pressure ulcers. Researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center report a higher number than expected of pressure ulcers in children, and they cite an unexpected cause: medical devices. "These devices include facemasks used in delivering mechanical ventilation to the sickest patients, tracheotomy tubes, pulse oximeters (used to measure oxygen saturation in the blood), and orthopedic casts," says Marty Visscher, PhD, director of the Skin Sciences Program ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed more accurate measurements of how efficiently a polymer called MEH-PPV amplifies light, which should advance efforts to develop a new generation of lasers and photonic devices. "By improving our understanding of this material, we get closer to the longstanding industry goal of using MEH-PPV to create cheaper, more flexible photonic technologies," says Dr. Lewis Reynolds, a teaching associate professor of materials science and engineering at NC State and senior author of a paper describing the research. MEH-PPV ...

This news release is available in German. Homing pigeons fly off from an unknown place in unfamiliar territory and still manage to find their way home. Their ability to find their way home has always been fascinating to us humans. Despite intensive research, it is not yet definitively clear where this unusual gift comes from. All we know is that homing pigeons and migratory birds determine their flight direction with the help of the Earth's magnetic field, the stars and the position of the sun. As Nicole Blaser, a doctoral student in biology at the University of Zurich ...

A new report by researchers at the University of Toronto shows that almost four million Canadians are struggling to put the food they need on the table because of food insecurity. The report, which examined the state of food insecurity in Canada, states that 3.9 million Canadians struggled to afford enough food in 2011, an increase of close to half a million compared with 2008. Of those that went hungry in 2011, 1.1 million were children. Food insecurity is the inadequate or insecure access to nutritious, healthy food because of financial constraints. For those impacted, ...

A major new technology has been developed by The University of Nottingham, which enables all of the world's crops to take nitrogen from the air rather than expensive and environmentally damaging fertilisers. Nitrogen fixation, the process by which nitrogen is converted to ammonia, is vital for plants to survive and grow. However, only a very small number of plants, most notably legumes (such as peas, beans and lentils) have the ability to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere with the help of nitrogen fixing bacteria. The vast majority of plants have to obtain nitrogen from ...

A forest full of rabbits and foxes, a bubbling vat of chemical reactants, and complex biochemical circuitry within a cell are, to a computer, similar systems: Many scenarios can play out depending on a fixed set of rules and individual interactions that can't be precisely predicted – chemicals combining, genes triggering cascades of chemical pathways, or rabbits multiplying or getting eaten. Predicting possible outcomes from a set of rules that contain uncertain factors is often done using what's called stochastic prediction. What has eluded scientists for decades is ...

NEW YORK -- New research from scholars at Columbia Business School and the University of Pittsburgh questions the sustainability of Twitter, the social network that has more than 500 million registered users. The research was recently published in the journal Marketing Science. Columbia Business School Professor Olivier Toubia has a thought-provoking, 140-character-limit comment about the research he co-authored with University of Pittsburgh's Assistant Professor Andrew T. Stephen. "Get ready for a TV-like Twitter," said Toubia. The research examined the motivations ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new study published this week in the journal Nature reveals for the first time how the mixing of cold, deep waters from below can change sea surface temperatures on seasonal and longer timescales. Because this occurs in a huge region of the ocean that takes up heat from the atmosphere, these changes can influence global climate patterns, particularly global warming. Using a new measurement of mixing, Jim Moum and Jonathan Nash of the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University have obtained the first multi-year records ...

One of the keys to commercialization of advanced biofuels is the development of cost-competitive ways to extract fermentable sugars from lignocellulosic biomass. The use of enzymes from thermophiles - microbes that thrive at extremely high temperatures and alkaline conditions – holds promise for achieving this. Finding the most effective of these microbial enzymes, however, has been a challenge. That challenge has now been met by a collaboration led by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). Working with a compost-derived ...

University of British Columbia researchers have apprehended tiny, elusive parasites that have plagued oysters from British Columbia to California. First reported in 1960, Denman Island disease is caused by Mikrocytos mackini, a parasite that infects mainly Pacific oysters, and leads to unsightly green lesions and death. "M. mackini has eluded capture for more than 50 years because it lives inside the oyster's cells and has proved impossible to grow and study in a lab," says Patrick Keeling a professor in UBC's Department of Botany who led the microbial investigative ...

Most pro basketball fans would assume that TV executives want to see teams from the largest markets go the furthest in the playoffs. But in college basketball, however, the most fans tune in for teams they probably hadn't heard of a month ago. BYU statistics professor Scott Grimshaw's research found that a NCAA Men's Final Four game featuring a Cinderella team, or an underdog from a smaller school, will have a 35 percent larger TV audience than a game featuring two national powerhouse schools. That 35 percent jump translates to 3 million more viewers for a semifinal ...

AUSTIN, Texas — For decades, the movement of an ancient ape species called Oreopithecus bambolii has been a matter of debate for scientists. Did it walk like a human across its swampy Mediterranean island or did it move through the trees like other apes? According to a new study, led by University of Texas at Austin anthropologists Gabrielle A. Russo and Liza Shapiro, the 9- to 7-million-year-old ape from Italy did not, in fact, walk habitually on two legs. The findings refute a long body of evidence, suggesting that Oreopithecus had the capabilities for bipedal (moving ...

DENVER – Malignant mesothelioma is a rare asbestos-associated malignancy with limited therapeutic options. Despite advances in the treatment, the median survival remains 12 months from the time of diagnosis. Increased understanding of the molecular basis for the diverse signaling pathways involved in cancer progression should promote the discovery of novel biomarkers for early diagnosis and potentially lead to more effective therapeutic tools for the disease. In the September issue of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer's journal, the Journal of ...

DENVER – Significant advances have taken place in the management of patients with advanced and metastatic non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) over the last 5 years. Traditionally, all advanced NSCLC patients were treated in a similar manner. More recently, the importance of pathologic subtype has been recognized. Data from several randomized trials demonstrate that epidermal growth factor (EGFR) mutation status is predictive of improved survival and quality of life with selected systemic therapies. Researchers in Canada examined the barriers to the initial implementation ...

DENVER – Obesity increases health risks for many things. Researchers wanted to know the impact of obesity on outcomes of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. In the September issue of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer's journal, the Journal of Thoracic Oncology (JTO), researchers conclude that obese patients had superior outcomes early on in the study, but then experienced increased hazards. During the period from 1993 to 2004, the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group enrolled 2684 patients to three phase III trials of first-line ...

Agriculture alters the landscape more than any other human activity, with trickle-down effects on water, soil, climate, plant and wildlife diversity, wildfire, and human health. Crop and rangeland occupies nearly 40 percent of earth's ice-free land, and mountains and deserts make much of the remaining surface unwelcoming to agriculture. Our increasing population applies constant pressure for further conversion of wild lands to agricultural production. With yields plateauing in many parts of the world, managers, both private and public, are looking for new ideas to get the ...

MINNEAPOLIS – People who stop taking cholesterol drugs may be at an increased risk for developing Parkinson's disease, according to research that appears in the July 24, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Previous studies on the relationship between cholesterol drugs called statins and the risk of Parkinson's disease have had inconsistent results. The current study involved 43,810 people in Taiwan who were taking statins and did not have Parkinson's disease. Taiwan's compulsory national health insurance program ...

Getting the undivided attention of a female is tough at the best of times but it's even harder when surrounded by other male suitors. It's no wonder males often resort to ostentatious displays to distinguish themselves from the crowd, and nowhere is this clearer than in peacocks. Sexual selection has driven the evolution of their showy iridescent trains, whose main purpose is to attract females. But what is it about this train of colourful feathers that attracts peahens? Is it the characteristic eyespots or perhaps the green scale-like feathers? Researchers have tried to ...

Criminal psychopathy can be both repulsive and fascinating, as illustrated by the vast number of books and movies inspired by this topic. Offenders diagnosed with psychopathy pose a significant threat to society, because they are more likely to harm other individuals and to do so again after being released. A brain imaging study in the Netherlands shows individuals with psychopathy have reduced empathy while witnessing the pains of others. When asked to empathize, however, they can activate their empathy. This could explain why psychopathic individuals can be callous and ...