Once famously described as "orphan diseases, too small to be noticed, too small to be funded" in the Hollywood drama Lorenzo's Oil, rare diseases are getting unprecedented attention today among drug manufacturers, who are ramping up research efforts and marketing new medicines that promise fuller lives for children and other patients with these heartbreaking conditions. That's the finding of a major examination, published today in the weekly newsmagazine of the world's largest scientific society, of the status of new drugs for the 7,000 conditions that affect 200,000 ...

Cancún, Mexico -- It's very hard to convict a murderer if the victim's body can't be found. And the best way to hide a body is to bury it. Developing new tools to find those clandestine graves is the goal of a small community of researchers spread across several countries, some of whom are presenting their work on Tuesday, May 14, at the Meeting of the Americas in Cancún, Mexico, a scientific conference organized and co-sponsored by the American Geophysical Union. "Nowadays, there are thousands of missing people around the world that could have been tortured and killed ...

A recent study indicated that the urbanization in eastern China has significant impact on the observed surface warming and the temporal-spatial variations of urbanization effect have been comprehensively detected. This work was led by YANG XiuQun, professor of meteorology in the Institute for Climate and Global Change Research, School of Atmospheric Sciences at Nanjing University. The article entitled "Urbanization and heterogeneous surface warming in eastern China" was published in Chinese Science Bulletin, 2013, No. 12. Urbanization, as one of the most significant processes ...

Researchers at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle (USA) and the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) at the University of Luxembourg have jointly developed a revolutionary method to analyse the genomes of yeast families. The team of Dr. Aimée Dudley from the ISB and Dr. Patrick May from LCSB published their paper in the renowned scientific journal Nature Methods on May 12th. It describes a new method called BEST: Barcode Enabled Sequencing of Tetrads (DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.2479). Baker's yeast is one of the most powerful and widely used organisms in ...

How active a living cell is can be seen by its oxygen consumption. The method for determining this consumption has now been significantly improved by chemists in Bochum. The problem up to now was that the measuring electrode altered the oxygen consumption in the cell's environment much more than the cell itself. "We already found that out twelve years ago," says Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schuhmann from the Department of Analytical Chemistry at the Ruhr-Universität. "Now we have finally managed to make the measuring electrode an spectator." Together with his team, he reports in ...

This news release is available in German. Quantum computers work by manipulating quantum objects as, for example, individual photons, electrons or atoms and by harnessing the unique quantum features. Not only do quantum computers promise a dramatic increase in speed over classical computers in a variety of computational tasks; they are designed to complete tasks that even a supercomputer would not be able to handle. Although, in recent years, there has been a rapid development in quantum technology the realization of a full-sized quantum computer is still very challenging. ...

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have developed a smart phone app that helps users lose weight by carefully recording their food consumption. The app was developed in response to research from the University's Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, which showed that paying attention to what you eat while you eat it helps reduce food intake and prevents consuming excess calories at future meals. Researchers conducted a feasibility study using the app with 12 overweight and obese participants They found that over a four week period the average weight ...

This news release is available in Spanish. These conclusions were the most notable of those drawn by ISVA's evaluation of the vehicle inspections carried out in 2011. A total of 14,858,585 vehicles were inspected, 2,864,070 of which were rejected, which constitutes a 19.27% rejection rate The study also highlights the impact caused by the fact that one fifth of Spain's vehicle fleet does not undergo the obligatory inspection. If 20% of those vehicles that did not have a technical inspection had done so, at least 7,100 accidents, 7,000 injuries and 110 deaths more ...

It is not just our sense of taste that determines what a foodstuff "tastes" like. In fact, the tongue can recognize basic tastes like sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami (savory). But to get that "rounded" taste experience, we also use our sense of smell – and strawberries provide a good example of this. The characteristic aroma of a fresh strawberry is the result of around a dozen different aroma compounds. One of these plays a particularly important role: HDMF (4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-3(2H)-furanone), which is also known under the brand name Furaneol. Prof. Wilfried ...

On 31 March 2013, the Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission announced human cases of novel H7N9 influenza virus infections. A group of scientists, led by Professor Chen Hualan of the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, has investigated the origins of this novel H7N9 influenza virus and published their results in Springer's open access journal Chinese Science Bulletin (SpringerOpen). Following analysis of H7N9 influenza viruses collected from live poultry markets, it was found that these viruses circulating ...

Scientists have known for some time that exercise induces neurogenesis in a specific brain region, the hippocampus. However, until this study, the underlying mechanism was not fully understood. The hippocampus plays an important role in learning and in memory and is one of the brain regions where new neurons are generated throughout life. Serotonin facilitates precursor cell maturation The researchers demonstrated that mice with the ability to produce serotonin are likely to release more of this hormone during exercise, which in turn increases cell proliferation of ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Most Americans want the U.S. to place more emphasis on developing solar power, recent polls suggest. A major impediment, however, is the cost to manufacture, install and maintain solar panels. Simply put, most people and businesses cannot afford to place them on their rooftops. Fortunately, that is changing because researchers such as Qiaoqiang Gan, University at Buffalo assistant professor of electrical engineering, are helping develop a new generation of photovoltaic cells that produce more power and cost less to manufacture than what's available today. One ...

On May 12, 2013, the sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 10 p.m. EDT. This flare is classified as an X1.7, making it the first X-class flare of 2013. The flare was also associated with another solar phenomenon, called a coronal mass ejection (CME) that can send solar material out into space. This CME was not Earth-directed. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the ...

New Rochelle, NY, May 13, 2013—New approaches to applying noninvasive imaging tests such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR), and positron emission tomography (PET) may play a bigger role in evaluating and managing patients with diabetes. Advances in noninvasive imaging technology can assess important changes in fat composition and distribution in the body that may affect the metabolic complications and diseases associated with diabetes, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. A forward-looking Review article on "Obesity and Diabetes: Newer Concepts ...

This news release is available in German. They promise to do their bit for the environment and stick eco labels on their products. But sooner or later someone will point out that they sell products that are pesticide-ridden or that contain palm oil sourced from endangered rainforests. Did the entrepreneurs reach their decision after a rational cost/benefit analysis? Or does unconscious behavior play a bigger role in entrepreneurial decision-making than is often assumed? What are the triggers that cause entrepreneurs to act against their own values? To find the answers ...

CLEMSON, S.C. — Although knowing an actor is gay significantly affected ratings of his masculinity, there was no significant effect on ratings of his acting performance, researchers say. A team of researchers tested the hypothesis claimed by recent news columns that an "out" actor cannot convincingly play a heterosexual because knowing someone is gay will bias perceptions of his or her performance. Led by Paul Merritt, a professor in the psychology department at Clemson University, the researchers published their findings in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture. "Early ...

Earthquakes similar in magnitude to the 2004 Sumatra earthquake could occur in an area beneath the Arabian Sea at the Makran subduction zone, according to recent research published in Geophysical Research Letters. The research was carried out by scientists from the University of Southampton based at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOCS), and the Pacific Geoscience Centre, Natural Resources Canada. The study suggests that the risk from undersea earthquakes and associated tsunami in this area of the Western Indian Ocean – which could threaten the coastlines ...

Some parts of the body, like the liver, can regenerate themselves after damage. But others, such as our nervous system, are considered either irreparable or slow to recover, leaving thousands with a lifetime of pain, limited mobility, or even paralysis. Now a team of Tel Aviv University researchers, including Dr. Shimon Rochkind of TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Prof. Zvi Nevo of TAU's Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry have invented a method for repairing damaged peripheral nerves. Through a biodegradable ...

People are worse at predicting whether a sports team will win, lose, or tie when they bet on the final score than when they bet on the overall outcome, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Examining sports betting data from both the real world and the lab, psychological scientist Kwanho Suk and colleagues at Korea University Business School found that people who relied on more detailed information were actually less accurate in their predictions about sports match outcomes. These results ...

Researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden can now reveal the mechanism behind the curved path of a curling stone. The discovery by the researchers, who usually study friction and wear in industrial and technical applications, is now published in the scientific journal Wear. In the curling sport, the players shoot their stones along the ice so that they slowly slide towards the target area, almost 30 m away. The game has its name from the slightly curved "curled" path taken by the stone, when released with a slow rotation. This curled path is important since it is ...

New York University physicists have uncovered how energy is released and dispersed in magnetic materials in a process akin to the spread of forest fires, a finding that has the potential to deepen our understanding of self-sustained chemical reactions. The study, which appears in the journal Physical Review Letters, also included researchers from the University of Barcelona, City College of New York, and the University of Florida. It may be downloaded here: http://bit.ly/18FKwFO. Forest fires spread because an initial flame or spark will heat a substance—a trunk or ...

The first tropical cyclone in the Northern Indian Ocean this season has been getting better organized as seen in NASA satellite imagery. Tropical Cyclone Mahasen is projected to track north through the Bay of Bengal and make landfall later this week. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Cyclone Mahasen in the Northern Indian Ocean on May 15 at 07:55 UTC (3:55 a.m. EDT). The image was created by NASA's MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, ...

Tropical Cyclone Jamala ran into some harsh atmospheric conditions on May 11 in the Southern Indian Ocean and vertical wind shear tore the storm apart. NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of the remnants while the more powerful, more organized Tropical Cyclone Mahasen continued to strengthen to the north. When NASA's Aqua satellite flew over the Indian Ocean on May 13 at 0747 UTC (3:47 a.m. EDT), the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured an image of both the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Jamala in the Southern Indian Ocean, and Tropical Cyclone Mahasen ...

Today's image of southern Australia showing New South Wales and Victoria shows a series of controlled fires. Fires are often deliberately set by fire officials and controlled in order to clean out dry underbrush and accumulations of debris. The fire burns away the detritus which could otherwise be the ignition for a devastating bushfire that may easily get out of control. In this image, it appears all of the fires have been planned and are under control. This natural-color satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard ...

Copenhagen, Denmark – Climate change could dramatically reduce the geographic ranges of thousands of common plant and animal species during this century, according to research using data made freely available online through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Research published today in the journal Nature Climate Change looked at nearly 50,000 globally widespread and common species and found that nearly two-thirds of the plants and almost half of animal species could lose more than half of their climatic range by 2080 if nothing is done to limit greenhouse ...