Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 317-262-5907 (Indianapolis Press Center, Sept. 6-11) 202-872-6042 Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 317-262-5907 (Indianapolis Press Center, Sept. 6-11) 202-872-6293 American Chemical Society Cilantro, that favorite salsa ingredient, purifies drinking water INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 12, 2013 — Hints that a favorite ingredient in Mexican, Southeast Asian and other spicy cuisine may be an inexpensive new way of purifying drinking water are on the menu today at the 246th National Meeting & Exposition of the American ...

Alzheimer's disease is thought to be caused by the buildup of abnormal, thread-like protein deposits in the brain, but little is known about the molecular structures of these so-called beta-amyloid fibrils. A study published by Cell Press September 12th in the journal Cell has revealed that distinct molecular structures of beta-amyloid fibrils may predominate in the brains of Alzheimer's patients with different clinical histories and degrees of brain damage. The findings pave the way for new patient-specific strategies to improve diagnosis and treatment of this common and ...

The incredible burst of innovation in animals' body plans and habits during the Cambrian explosion, between 540 and 520 million years ago, can be explained by a reasonable uptick in evolutionary rates. The discovery, based on the first rigorous estimates of early evolutionary rates in arthropods, shows that evolution's "big bang" is compatible with natural selection as Darwin envisioned it, say researchers reporting their findings in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, on September 12. "This simultaneous burst of life, with few or no precursors, had seemed at ...

SEATTLE – How and why fish swim in schools has long fascinated biologists looking for clues to understand the complexities of social behavior. A new study by a team of researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center may help provide some insight. To be published online in the Sept. 12 issue of Current Biology, the study found that two key components of schooling – the tendency to school and how well fish do it – map to different genomic regions in the threespine stickleback, a small fish native to the Northern Hemisphere. That's important, said lead author Anna ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Brown University researchers have traced a genetic deficiency implicated in autism in humans to specific molecular and cellular consequences that cause clear deficits in mice in how well neurons can grow the intricate branches that allow them to connect to brain circuits. The researchers also show in their study (online Sep. 12, 2013, in Neuron) that they could restore proper neuronal growth by compensating for the errant molecular mechanisms they identified. The study involves the gene that produces a protein called NHE6. Mutation ...

For nearly 80 years, the North American cicada Okanagana viridis has received little attention in scientific literature, but a new article in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America provides the first notes on the song and ecology of this elusive species, and updates its known range. O. viridis is unusual in a large genus of 60 otherwise arid- or cold-adapted, mostly western U.S. species, in that it is found in the temperate deciduous southern forests of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas. It is almost solid bright green, and it calls from ...

SAN DIEGO – (September 12, 2013) A major new finding that will significantly advance efforts to create the world's first antibody-based AIDS vaccine was published today by researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology. La Jolla Institute scientist Shane Crotty, Ph.D., a respected vaccine researcher and member of one of the nation's top AIDS vaccine consortiums, showed that certain helper T cells are important for triggering a strong antibody response against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Helper T cells are disease-fighting immune cells key in ...

Researchers have discovered a microbe that stays forever young by rejuvenating every time it reproduces. The findings, published in Current Biology, provide fundamental insights into the mechanisms of aging. While aging remains an inevitable fact of life, an international team involving researchers from the University of Bristol and the Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Germany has found that this is not the case for a common species of yeast microbe which has evolved to stay young. The team has shown that, unlike other species, the ...

Scientists and conservators have developed a new method to diagnose painting canvases from the back, without disturbing a single fibre, to see if they can withstand the stress of handling and travel. Using the method - which is similar to the way doctors measure blood sugar without the need for needles – scientists examined 12 paintings by the surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. They assessed the 'health' of the canvases, which are known to degrade with time due to acidity and environmental conditions. Once a canvas is brittle, expensive conservation is required. While ...

A new study led by Adelaide researchers has estimated, for the first time, the rates of evolution during the "Cambrian explosion" when most modern animal groups appeared between 540 and 520 million years ago. The findings, published online today in the journal Current Biology, resolve "Darwin's dilemma": the sudden appearance of a plethora of modern animal groups in the fossil record during the early Cambrian period. "The abrupt appearance of dozens of animal groups during this time is arguably the most important evolutionary event after the origin of life," says lead ...

One of the most important and massive parts of the galaxy is the galactic bulge. This huge central cloud of about 10 000 million stars spans thousands of light-years, but its structure and origin were not well understood. Unfortunately, from our vantage point from within the galactic disc, the view of this central region — at about 27 000 light-years' distance — is heavily obscured by dense clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers can only obtain a good view of the bulge by observing longer wavelength light, such as infrared radiation, which can penetrate the dust clouds. Earlier ...

Washington, D.C.—Hydrocarbons from the Earth make up the oil and gas that heat our homes and fuel our cars. The study of the various phases of molecules formed from carbon and hydrogen under high pressures and temperatures, like those found in the Earth's interior, helps scientists understand the chemical processes occurring deep within planets, including Earth. New research from a team led by Carnegie's Alexander Goncharov hones in on the hydrocarbon methane (CH4), which is one of the most abundant molecules in the universe. Despite its ubiquity, methane's behavior ...

Researchers at the Pediatric Diabetes Research Center (PDRC) at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have shown that the pancreatic protein Nkx6.1 – a beta-cell enriched transcription factor – is essential to maintaining the functional state of beta cells. Type 2 diabetes is characterized by impaired insulin secretion by pancreatic beta cells in response to a rise in blood glucose levels. The study, published in the September 26 edition of Cell Reports, shows that loss of NKx6.1 in mice caused rapid onset diabetes. UC San Diego scientists – ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Like a pea going through a straw, tiny molecules can pass through microscopic cylinders known as nanotubes. This could potentially be used to select molecules according to size — for example, to purify water by allowing water molecules to pass through while blocking salt or other substances. Now, researchers at MIT, Seoul University in Korea and Ursinus College in Pennsylvania have found that such tubes are more selective than had been thought: Molecules of a precise size can zip through five times faster than those that are a bit smaller or larger. The ...

(RENO): The Arctic is the most rapidly warming region of the globe, but warming has not been uniform and the drivers behind this warming not fully understood even during the 20th century. A new study authored by Canadian and American investigators and published in Scientific Reports, a primary research publication from the publishers of Nature, suggests that both anthropogenic and natural factors – specifically sulphate aerosols from industrial activity and volcanic emissions, in addition to greenhouse gas releases from fossil fuel burning – account for Arctic surface ...

Basic fibroblast growth factor exhibits a high affinity for heparin. Heparin combined with basic fibroblast growth factor significantly contributes to the differentiation of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells into motor neurons. Xueyuan Liu and colleagues from Liaoning Medical University found that the third passage of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells induced with heparin and basic fibroblast growth factor exhibited neuronal morphology, and Hb9 expression and acetylcholine levels increased following induction with heparin combined with basic fibroblast growth factor. ...

Sevoflurane belongs to volatile anesthetics, and preconditioning with sevoflurane has been shown to exert protective effects against ischemic injury in the brain. But the mechanism is unclear. Although studies have shown the neuroprotective effects of sevoflurane preconditioning in the transient cerebral ischemia model, its effect in the permanent focal cerebral ischemia model remains unclear. Dr. Qiu and colleagues from Sichuan University found that 60-minute sevoflurane preconditioning significantly reduced the infarct volume and the number of apoptotic cells in the ischemic ...

Since Moffat and Ramsden for the first time discovered the possibility of the auditory system in humans in 1977, over the last two decades, great progress has been made in physiopathological research on neurosensory hearing loss. Jørgensen and Mathiesen were the first authors to note the capacity for regeneration of the normal vestibular epithelium in adult Australian parrots. Later, Roberson et al studied the normal vestibular epithelium of 12-day-old white Leghorn chicks using tritiated thymidine and bromodeoxyuridine. Francisco Santaolalla and colleagues from Basurto ...

PULLMAN, Wash. – Two nearly identical softballs, both approved for league play, can have dramatically different effects when smacked into a player's head. Those are the findings from a study conducted by Professor Lloyd Smith in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and project engineer Derek Nevins that they will present at the Asia Pacific Congress on Sports Technology later this month in Hong Kong. Their work was published in the journal, Procedia Engineering. Smith's group developed a unique model of a softball that they electronically throw at a virtual ...

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed an internal combustion engine that emits less than half the CO2 compared to a regular engine without compromising performance. This corresponds to fuel consumption of less than 2.4l per 100km. This natural gas-diesel hybrid engine is based on a system of sophisticated control engineering. The global energy markets are changing. New extraction methods are tapping into oilfields and natural gas deposits that have been inaccessible until now. The US, for example, is able to cover up to 83% of its total energy needs today; the government ...

Higher costs would in turn increase the threshold for decision-makers to start the transition to a low-carbon economy. Thus, to keep climate targets within reach it seems to be most relevant to not further postpone mitigation, the researchers conclude. "The transitional economic repercussions that would result if the switch towards a climate-friendly economy is delayed, are comparable to the costs of the financial crisis the world just experienced," lead-author Gunnar Luderer says. The later climate policy implementation starts, the faster – hence the more expensive – ...

The birth of stars is an event that eludes intuitive understanding. It is the collapse of dense molecular clouds under their own weight that offers the best sites of star formation. Now, Pralay Kumar Karmakar from the Department of Physics at Tezpur University, Assam province, India, and his colleague have proposed a new model for investigating molecular cloud fluctuations at sites of star formation and thus are able to study their pulsational dynamics, in a paper published in EPJ D. Dust molecular clouds are a type of astrophysical plasmas, which are composed of a primordial ...

The DiMelli (Diabetes Mellitus Incidence Cohort Registry) study examines the frequency and characteristics of diabetes phenotypes in children and young adults below the age of 20. The study was commissioned to investigate the increasing incidence of diabetes mellitus, particularly in childhood and early adulthood. The project is funded by the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD). Bioprobe measurements were performed centrally by the Central Medical Laboratory (LMZ) at the Helmholtz Zentrum München (HMGU) so as to guarantee the high quality and comparability of laboratory ...

Using large and frequent doses of the pain-killer codeine may actually produce heightened sensitivity to pain, without the same level of relief offered by morphine, according to new research from the University of Adelaide. Researchers in the Discipline of Pharmacology have conducted what is believed to be the world's first experimental study comparing the pain relieving and pain worsening effects of both codeine and morphine. The University's Professor Paul Rolan, who is also a headache specialist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, says codeine has been widely used as ...

Designers of social robots, take note. Bring your dog to the lab next time you test a prototype, and watch how your pet interacts with it. You might just learn a thing or two that could help you fine-tune future designs. So says Gabriella Lakatos of the Hungarian Academy of Science and Eötvös Loránd University, lead author of a study¹ published in Springer's journal Animal Cognition that found that man's best friend reacts sociably to robots that behave socially towards them, even if the devices look nothing like a human. This animal behavior study tested the reaction ...