Tiny 'Lego brick'-style studs make solar panels a quarter more efficient Rows of aluminum studs help solar panels extract more energy from sunlight than those with flat surfaces. Most solar cells used in homes and industry are made using thick layers of ...

Lots of oxygen does not necessarily lead to the evolution of advanced life Any textbook will tell you that oxygen is essential for advanced life to evolve. For example, ancient dinosaurs and modern large-brained mammals need a lot of oxygen to keep their large and sophisticated ...

Tanning gene linked to increased risk of testicular cancer, according to NIH scientists A gene important in skin tanning has been linked to higher risk for testicular cancer in white men, according to a study led by scientists ...

The benefits of bacteria for gut health HEIDELBERG, 18 October 2013 – Scientists from the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, United States have shown that specific gut bacteria are beneficial for maintaining a healthy intestine ...

Wrangling flow to quiet cars and aircraft 'Serpentine plasma actuators' described in Journal of Applied Physics may reduce noise and drag and increase fuel efficiency for future land and air vehicles WASHINGTON D.C. Oct. 18, 2013 -- Plasmas are a soup ...

Salmonella sensing system A new approach to detecting food contamination enables real-time testing of food and processing plant equipment WASHINGTON D.C. Oct. 18, 2013 -- As anyone who has ever consumed bacteria-contaminated food and experienced "food ...

Study strengthens link between low dietary fiber intake and increased cardiovascular risk Results reported in The American Journal of Medicine Philadelphia, PA, October 18, 2013 – A new study published in the December issue of The American Journal of Medicine ...

Fires in China Oct. 18, 2013 Shuangyashan is a coal mining prefecture-level city located in the eastern part Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, bordering Russia's Khabarovsk and Primorsky krais to the east. Since China is known to have underground ...

Agricultural fires in India October 18, 2013 The Indian state of Punjab has two growing seasons—one from May to September and another from November to April. In November, Punjab farmers typically sow crops such as wheat and vegetables; but before they do that, farmers ...

Automatic speaker tracking in audio recordings A new system dispenses with the human annotation of training data required by its predecessors but achieves comparable results CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- A central topic in spoken-language-systems research is what's ...

CNIO researchers delve into the behavior of cohesins Pds5 proteins modulate the behavior of cohesins to ensure the proper division of cells -- Understanding the regulation of cohesins can improve diagnosis and treatment for some cancer patients ...

Glacial buzz-saws, gold in fool's gold, fingerprints in sea water, and fluvial iron New Geology articles posted online ahead of print 16 October 2013 Boulder, Colo., USA – New article postings for Geology cover glacial erosion and glacial slip; the work of marine organisms ...

Contact: Marie Eliasen, M.Sc. mae@niph.dk 45-6550-7777 (Denmark) University of Southern Denmark Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research Light to moderate alcohol leads to good cheer at Danish high-school parties Many people, especially young adults, engage in high-risk drinking because of the belief it will lead to positive mood effects such as cheerfulness. A new study of the association between blood alcohol content (BAC) and the subjective effects of alcohol like cheerfulness, focus distraction, and sluggishness among students in a real-life setting ...

Contact: Carmen van der Zwaluw, Ph.D. cvdzwaluw@gmail.com 31-61-4443988 (Netherlands) Radboud University Nijmegen Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research Adolescence: When drinking and genes may collide Many negative effects of drinking, such as transitioning into heavy alcohol use, often take place during adolescence and can contribute to long-term negative health outcomes as well as the development of alcohol use disorders. A new study of adolescent drinking and its genetic and environmental influences has found that different trajectories of adolescent ...

Contact: Amelia M. Arria, Ph.D. aarria@umd.edu 301-405-9795 University of Maryland School of Public Health Jennifer Read, Ph.D. jpread@buffalo.edu 716-645-0193 State University of New York at Buffalo Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research Use of false ID by youth to buy alcohol is a slippery slope toward alcohol use disorders Many underage youth use false identification (ID) to buy alcohol. A new study has found that almost two-thirds of a college student sample used false IDs. False ID use might contribute to the development of alcohol use ...

Human neutrophil peptide-1: A new anti-leishmanial drug candidate Leishmaniasis is a vector borne disease caused by different Leishmania species with different clinical manifestations. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic and widespread especially ...

Pioneering use of oral cholera vaccine during outbreak In a report publishing October 17th, 2013 in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and ...

5-year-old children are as likely to suffer from bilharzia as their mothers Children of women harboring the bilharzia (schistosomiasis) worm during pregnancy are more likely to suffer the infection by the age of five years, a new study publishing October 17th, ...

In findings that give fresh meaning to the old adage that a good night's sleep clears the mind, a new study shows that a recently discovered system that flushes waste from the brain is primarily active during sleep. This revelation could transform scientists' understanding of the biological purpose of sleep and point to new ways to treat neurological disorders. "This study shows that the brain has different functional states when asleep and when awake," said Maiken Nedergaard, M.D., D.M.Sc., co-director of the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) Center for ...

This news release is available in Spanish. Like subsurface ninjas, the cells of a particular fungus are slipping into the skins of amphibians worldwide, killing them, and now a new study hints at why this particular fungus has been so successful. In 1998, a new species of chytrid fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis was identified. In recent decades, it has contributed to rendering dozens of frog species extinct, researchers think. They know the fungus inserts itself into the skin of frogs, drying out a layer they require to be hydrated, but just how the ...

This news release is available in French and Arabic. What if the earliest members of our Homo genus—those classified as Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, Homo erectus and so forth—actually belonged to the same species and simply looked different from one another? That's precisely the implication of a new report, which describes the analysis of a complete, approximately 1.8-million-year-old skull that was unearthed in Dmanisi, Georgia. Unlike other Homo fossils, this skull, known as Skull 5, combines a small braincase with a long face and large teeth. It was ...

Scientists from Yale and Harvard have recoded the entire genome of an organism and improved a bacterium's ability to resist viruses, a dramatic demonstration of the potential of rewriting an organism's genetic code. "This is the first time the genetic code has been fundamentally changed," said Farren Isaacs, assistant professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at Yale and co-senior author of the research published Oct. 18 in the journal Science. "Creating an organism with a new genetic code has allowed us to expand the scope of biological function in ...

Increased vitamin D levels may prevent a wide range of diseases, according to recent studies. However, some previous studies led to a concern that vitamin D supplementation could increase an individual's risk of developing kidney stones. However, a study of 2,012 participants – published in the American Journal of Public Health –found no statistically relevant association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25 (OH)D) serum level in the range of 20 to 100 ng/mL and the incidence of kidney stones. This study – led by Cedric F. Garland, DrPH, adjunct professor in the Division ...

TORONTO, ON - University of Toronto research has found that purple loosestrife – an invasive species that competes with native plants for light and nutrients and can degrade habitats for wildlife – has evolved extremely rapidly, flowering about three weeks earlier as it has spread to northern Ontario. This has allowed populations of the species to thrive in the colder climate with a more than 30-fold increase in seed production. "The ability of invasive species to rapidly adapt to local climate has not generally been considered to be an important factor affecting spread," ...

Researchers, taxonomists, and students from The Field Museum and 88 other institutions around the world have provided new answers to two simple but long-standing questions about Amazonian diversity: How many trees are there in the Amazon, and how many tree species occur there? The study will be published October 17, 2013 in Science. The vast extent and difficult terrain of the Amazon Basin (including parts of Brazil, Peru, Columbia) and the Guiana Shield (Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana), which span an area roughly the size of the 48 contiguous North American states, ...