A key requirement when performing scientific experiments is the accessibility of material resources, including the reagents or model organisms, needed to address a specific hypothesis. The published scientific literature is a source of this valuable information, but frequently lacks sufficient detail to the extent that researchers are unable to identify material resources used to perform experiments. A study, published today in PeerJ, demonstrates the magnitude of the problem – a problem that negatively affects the ability of scientists to reproduce and extend reported ...

Stanford, CA— Coral reefs are tremendously important for ocean biodiversity, as well as for the economic and aesthetic value they provide to their surrounding communities. Unfortunately they have been in great decline in recent years, much of it due to the effects of global climate change. One such effect, called bleaching, occurs when the symbiotic algae that are essential for providing nutrients to the coral either lose their identifying photosynthetic pigmentation and their ability to perform photosynthesis or disappear entirely from the coral's tissue. Without a healthy ...

Monash University researchers have found an important safety mechanism in the immune system that may malfunction in people with autoimmune diseases, such as Multiple Sclerosis, potentially paving the way for innovative treatments. Published today in Immunity, the research, led by Head of the Monash Department of Immunology Professor Fabienne Mackay, described for the first time how the body manages marginal zone (MZ) B cells, which form a general first line of attack against germs, but are potentially harmful. MZ B cells are integral to our defenses as they rapidly ...

A study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has shown that neurons in our brain 'mirror' the space near others, just as if this was the space near ourselves. The study, published in the scientific journal Current Biology, sheds new light on a question that has long preoccupied psychologists and neuroscientists regarding the way in which the brain represents other people and the events that happens to those people. "We usually experience others as clearly separated from us, occupying a very different portion of space," says Claudio Brozzoli, lead author of the study at ...

A study of the photovoltaic industries in the US and China shows that China's dominance in solar panel manufacturing is not driven solely by cheaper labour and government support, but by larger-scale manufacturing and resulting supply-chain benefits. But the researchers say a balance could be achieved through future innovations in crystalline solar cell technology, which have the potential to equalise prices by enhancing access to materials and expanding manufacturing scale across all regions. The study is published today in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Energy ...

How many different molecules can be created when you release one of the universe's most reactive substances, hydrogen cyanide, in the lab? And will the process create some particularly interesting molecules? That is what scientists call a good question, because hydrogen cyanide seems to have played a role in creating some of life's building blocks. Hydrogen cyanide is an organic compound and it is found in large quantities in the universe. It may have helped in producing amino acids and DNA bases, some of life's basic molecules. If hydrogen cyanide can lead to the formation ...

Metro Manila – the world's 10th largest megacity and 6th largest conurbation, based on official statistics – is not a place one would normally expect to discover new species, even in a country that is known as a biodiversity hotspot. In a 83-hectare green island amidst the unnatural ocean of countless man-made edifices, researchers of the Ateneo de Manila University have discovered a tiny new species of aquatic beetle, aptly named Hydraena ateneo. It was named after the University, a 154-year-old Jesuit-run institution that is recognized as one of the premier universities ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The immune system is normally known for protecting the body from illness. But a subset of immune cells appear to be doing more harm than good. A new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center found that these cells, called myeloid derived suppressor cells, provide a niche where the cancer stem cells survive. Cancer stem cells are thought to be resistant to current chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and researchers believe that killing the cancer stem cells is crucial for eliminating cancer. At the same ...

Drought shriveled crops in the Midwest, massive wildfires raged in the West and East Coast cities sweltered. The summer of 2012 was a season of epic proportions, especially July, the hottest month in the history of U.S. weather record keeping. And it's likely that we'll continue to see such calamitous weather. In the north-central and northeastern United States, extreme weather is more than four times as likely to occur than it was in the pre-industrial era, according to a new study by Noah Diffenbaugh, a Stanford associate professor of environmental Earth system science, ...

Ever been trading a flurry of text messages when there's an awkward pause? Well, new research shows you probably should be suspicious. A Brigham Young University study finds when people lie in digital messages – texting, social media or instant messaging – they take longer to respond, make more edits and write shorter responses than usual. "Digital conversations are a fertile ground for deception because people can easily conceal their identity and their messages often appear credible," says Tom Meservy, BYU professor of information systems. "Unfortunately, humans are ...

Water and wastewater managers are missing substantial opportunities to save energy and money, according to a report published Wednesday (Sept. 4) by Water in the West, a research center at Stanford University. The report, "Water and Energy Nexus: A Literature Review," also identifies the amount of water used to extract resources such as natural gas, oil and coal, and to generate electricity. The report finds "robust opportunities for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, as well as for the conservation of scarce water resources, coupled with the potential for generating ...

Scientists in Melbourne, Australia, have revealed the structure of a protein that is essential for triggering a form of programmed cell death, making possible the development of new drugs to treat chronic inflammatory diseases such as Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Dr James Murphy, Associate Professor John Silke, Dr Joanne Hildebrand, Dr Peter Czabotar, Professor Warren Alexander and colleagues from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have shown that the protein MLKL plays a crucial role in the signalling pathways that trigger a recently discovered cell death ...

New research from the University of Adelaide has shown for the first time that pregnant women who smoke as well as having asthma are greatly increasing the risk of complications for themselves and their unborn children. In the first study of its kind in the world, researchers from the University's Robinson Institute compared data from more than 170,000 Australian women over 10 years. The results have been published online ahead of print in the European Respiratory Journal. Lead author Dr Nicolette Hodyl says: "We know that being pregnant and having asthma poses risks ...

September 5, 2013, Shenzhen, China – BGI in collaboration with Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other Chinese institutes, have completed the genome sequencing of 161 Mycobacterium tuberculosis that can cause an infectious disease tuberculosis (TB). The study published online in Nature Genetics provides an invaluable resource for researchers to better understand the genetic basis underlying drug resistance TB. TB is one of the deadliest infectious diseases. The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world's population is infected ...

The Sun is a magnetically active star. Its activity manifests itself as dark sunspots and bright faculae on its visible surface, as well as violent mass ejections and the acceleration of high-energy particles resulting from the release of magnetic energy in its outer atmosphere. The frequency with which these phenomena occur varies in a somewhat irregular activity cycle of about 11 years, during which the global magnetic field of the Sun reverses. The solar magnetic field and the activity cycle originate in a self-excited dynamo mechanism based upon convective flows and ...

It is widely believed that bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells are highly adherent fibroblastic cells, defined as colony-forming unit-fibroblasts. Nevertheless, a few reports have shown that the non-adherent bone marrow cells can give rise to colony-forming unit-fibroblasts in vitro, and possess a certain differentiation potential. According to a recent study from Dr. Xiaoming Ben and colleagues, non-adherent bone marrow cell-derived mesenchymal stem cells from C57BL/6J mice cultured using the "pour-off" method developed colony-forming unit-fibroblasts, and could be expanded ...

Increased brain cell apoptosis in intrauterine growth-restricted fetal rats is a key reason for unfavorable long-term prognosis of the nervous system. The harmful effects of intrauterine growth restriction on fetal brain development originate in the womb. Therefore, it is difficult to obtain ideal outcomes through postnatal intervention. Taken together, active prenatal intervention is of great importance to the optimal prognosis of the intrauterine growth restricted fetus. Prof. Jing Liu and colleagues from the General Hospital of Beijing Military Command found that taurine ...

Death of neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus and locus coeruleus is a pathological characteristic of the disease. Previous studies concerning the pathological characteristic of Alzheimer's disease mainly focus on learning and memory-related hippocampus, and less attention has been paid to the locus coeruleus. Noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus can produce norepinephrine that has excitatory effects on the hippocampus and cortex, suggesting that the locus coeruleus has an important role for learning, memory and other cognitive functions. A recent study published ...

A new research study has revealed that the cheetah, the world's fastest land animal, matches and may even anticipate the escape tactics of different prey when hunting, rather than just relying on its speed and agility, as previously thought. The study, which has just been published in the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters was carried out by a team of researchers from Queen's University Belfast, in collaboration with other Institutions in the UK (University of Aberdeen, University of Swansea, Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, University of Oxford), ...

Washington D.C. -- A study published in the September 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that young adults with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have more difficulty transitioning into employment than their peers with different disabilities. Using data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2 (NLTS2; a longitudinal nationally-representative survey of youth ages 13-16 years as of December 2000 and receiving special education services), a group of researchers led by Dr. Paul Shattuck of Washington University ...

No two human beings are the same. Although we all possess the same genes, our genetic code varies in many places. And since genes provide the blueprint for all proteins, these variants usually result in numerous differences in protein function. But what impact does this diversity have? Bioinformatics researchers at Rutgers University and the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have investigated how protein function is affected by changes at the DNA level. Their findings bring new clarity to the wide range of variants, many of which disturb protein function but have no ...

Leaders of the major world religions can play a key role in preserving biological diversity. A new study carried out by ecologists at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), among others, indicates that if the world's religious leaders wished to bring about a change, they would be ideally positioned to do so. – Our study investigates how the various religions are distributed around the world and how they overlap areas that are important for global biological diversity, says Grzegorz Mikusinski, a researcher at SLU who directs the project. Our analysis indicates ...

Philadelphia, PA, September 5, 2013 – We live in the most exciting and unsettling period in the history of psychiatry since Freud started talking about sex in public. On the one hand, the American Psychiatric Association has introduced the fifth iteration of the psychiatric diagnostic manual, DSM-V, representing the current best effort of the brightest clinical minds in psychiatry to categorize the enormously complex pattern of human emotional, cognitive, and behavioral problems. On the other hand, in new and profound ways, neuroscience and genetics research in psychiatry ...

ANN ARBOR—University of Michigan researchers today released seven technical reports that together form the most comprehensive Michigan-focused resource on hydraulic fracturing, the controversial natural gas and oil extraction process commonly known as fracking. The studies, totaling nearly 200 pages, examine seven critical topics related to the use of hydraulic fracturing in Michigan, with an emphasis on high-volume methods: technology, geology and hydrogeology, environment and ecology, public health, policy and law, economics, and public perceptions. While considerable ...

A new approach to calculating the cost of damage caused by flooding is to be presented at the International Conference of Flood Resilience: Experiences in Asia and Europe at the University of Exeter this week. The methodology combines information on land use with data on the vulnerability of the area to calculate the cost of both past and future flooding events. Climate change, along with increased building on flood plains, has led to both a greater likelihood and a higher impact of flooding across the globe. The method has already been employed to estimate the damage ...