Supermassive black holes: every large galaxy's got one. But here's a real conundrum: how did they grow so big? A paper in today's issue of Science pits the front-running ideas about the growth of supermassive black holes against observational data — a limit on the strength of gravitational waves, obtained with CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope in eastern Australia. "This is the first time we've been able to use information about gravitational waves to study another aspect of the Universe — the growth of massive black holes," co-author Dr Ramesh Bhat from the Curtin University ...

AMES, Iowa – Using data from NASA's Kepler space telescope, an international team of astronomers has discovered a distant planetary system featuring multiple planets orbiting at a severe tilt to their host star. Such tilted orbits had been found in planetary systems featuring a "hot Jupiter," a giant planet in a close orbit to its host star. But, until now, they hadn't been observed in multiplanetary systems without such a big interloping planet. The discovery is reported in a paper, "Stellar Spin-Orbit Misalignment in a Multiplanet System," published in the Oct. 18 ...

AMHERST, Mass. – In a new review of how psychology research has illuminated the causes of war and violence, three political psychologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst say this understanding can and should be used to promote peace and overturn the belief that violent conflict is inevitable. Writing in the current special "peace psychology" issue of American Psychologist, lead author Bernhard Leidner, Linda Tropp and Brian Lickel of UMass Amherst's Psychology of Peace and Violence program say that if social psychology research focuses only on how to soften ...

A good night's rest may literally clear the mind. Using mice, researchers showed for the first time that the space between brain cells may increase during sleep, allowing the brain to flush out toxins that build up during waking hours. These results suggest a new role for sleep in health and disease. The study was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the NIH. "Sleep changes the cellular structure of the brain. It appears to be a completely different state," said Maiken Nedergaard, M.D., D.M.Sc., co-director of the Center ...

In recent years, studies have reported inconsistent findings regarding whether calcium supplements used to prevent fractures increase the risk of heart attack. Now, in an assessment of the scientific literature, reported as a perspective piece in the October 17, 2013 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, a UC San Francisco researcher says patients and health care practitioners should focus on getting calcium from the diet, rather than supplements, when possible. "Osteoporosis may result from inadequate calcium intake and it's quite common for certain segments ...

(SALT LAKE CITY)—A 30-year-old woman with a history of upper respiratory infections had no idea she carried an immunodeficiency disorder – until her 6-year-old son was diagnosed with the same illness. After learning she has common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), a disorder characterized by recurrent infections, such as pneumonia, and decreased antibodies, the woman, her husband, their three children and parents joined a multidisciplinary University of Utah study and researchers identified a novel gene mutation that caused the disease in the mom and two of her children. ...

A team of researchers has identified a novel mutation in the hepatitis B virus (HBV) in Korea that appears only in men and could help explain why HBV-infected men are roughly five times more likely than HBV-infected women to develop liver cancer. Although some women do progress to cirrhosis and liver cancer, the mutation is absent in HBV in women. The research is published ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology. "This is the first mutation found that can explain the gender disparity in incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma," says Bum-Joon Kim of Seoul ...

WASHINGTON, DC (October 17, 2013)—The District of Columbia Department of Health (DOH) has released a study by the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS) investigating prescribing of antipsychotics to District seniors. The study combines pharmaceutical marketing data collected by the District with publicly available data on nursing home quality and Medicare drug claims. "The good news is that nursing homes in the District of Columbia generally are not prescribing antipsychotic medication at rates higher than the rest of the country," ...

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. – Almost a year after Hurricane Sandy, parts of New York and New Jersey are still recovering from billions of dollars in flood damage. Tufts University geologist Andrew Kemp sees the possibility of damage from storms smaller than Sandy in the future. "Rising sea levels exacerbate flooding," says Kemp. "As sea level rises, smaller and weaker storms will cause flood damage." An assistant professor in Tufts' Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Kemp co-authored a study on sea-level change close to New York that was published recently in the Journal ...

Lebanon, N.H. (October 15, 2013) – A new report from the Dartmouth Atlas Project shows that the use of both effective and risky drug therapies by Medicare patients varies widely across U.S. regions, offering further evidence that location is a key determinant in the quality and cost of the medical care that patients receive. In their first look at prescription drug use, Dartmouth researchers also find that the health status of a region's Medicare population accounts for less than a third of the variation in total prescription drug use, and that higher spending is not ...

A simple, color-coded system for labeling food items in a hospital cafeteria appears to have increased customer's attention to the healthiness of their food choices, along with encouraging purchases of the most healthy items. In their report in the October issue of Preventive Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators describe customer responses to surveys taken before and after the 2010 implementation of a system using green, yellow or red "traffic light" labels to reflect the nutritional quality of items. "Several small, experimental studies have ...

Tropical Depression 15-E formed on Oct. 12 at 11 p.m. EDT and strengthened into Tropical Storm Octave. Four days later NASA's Terra satellite saw the weakened storm headed for landfall in western Mexico. TD15-E formed about 470 miles/755 km south of the southern tip of Baja California, near 16.1 north and 110.2 west. By 5 a.m. EDT on Oct. 13, TD15-E became Tropical Storm Octave. Octave's maximum sustained winds peaked at 65 mph/100 kph at 11 p.m. EDT on Oct. 13 when it was about 215 miles/345 km northwest of Socorro Island, near 20.6 north and 113.7 west. The Moderate ...

Virginia Tech College of Engineering researchers are part of a national study that has cracked how jellyfish move with the lowest cost of transport of any animal. The findings will be used as researchers continue to design bio-inspired jellyfish for the U.S. Navy. Published in a recent issue of the Proceedings of National Academy of the Sciences, the study highlights jellyfish as one of the most energetically efficient natural propulsors on the planet. Researchers found that rather than moving continuously through water while swimming, jellyfish use a critical pause between ...

Tropical Storm Priscilla lived just 3 days in the eastern Pacific Ocean making for one of the shortest-lived tropical storms of the season. Priscilla skipped the depression phase and went from a low pressure area to a full-blown tropical storm at 5 a.m. EDT/0900 UTC on Oct. 14. Priscilla formed near 14.3 north and 115.7 west, about 705 miles/1,135 km southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. Priscilla moved north-northeast and had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph/65 kph at birth. On Oct. 15 Priscilla had already weakened to a depression because of wind shear ...

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Typhoon Francisco on Oct. 17 after it had passed the eastern side of Guam and started to head on a track that would take it past the western side of Guam. Tropical Storm Warnings are in effect for Guam on Oct. 17 and 18 (local time). The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of Typhoon Francisco on Oct. 17 at 04:05 UTC in the Pacific Ocean as it started turning to the northwest after passing the eastern side Guam. The MODIS image clearly showed Francisco's eye, indicating ...

Statin, osteoporosis drug combo may help treat parasitic infections Athens, Ga. – Researchers at the University of Georgia have discovered that a combination of two commonly prescribed drugs used to treat high cholesterol and osteoporosis may serve as the foundation of a new treatment ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — As the nation's health care system prepares for uninsured Americans to gain health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, a question hangs over crowded hospital emergency departments: Will the newly insured make fewer ER visits than they do today? According to the results of a new University of Michigan Medical School study in teens and young adults, the answer likely reflects a balance of ER care versus clinic visits. While the number of ER visits will likely stay about the same, clinic visits will likely go up. The results, from the ...

This news release is available in German. This is the best-preserved fossil find yet from the early era of our genus. The particularly interesting aspect is that it displays a combination of features that were unknown to us before the find. The skull, found in Dmanisi by anthropologists from the University of Zurich as part of a collaboration with colleagues in Georgia funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, has the largest face, the most massively built jaw and teeth and the smallest brain within the Dmanisi group. It is the fifth skull to be discovered ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Meteorologists often use information about warm and cold fronts to determine whether a tornado will occur in a particular area. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found that the temperature of the Pacific Ocean could help scientists predict the type and location of tornado activity in the U.S. Laurel McCoy, an atmospheric science graduate student at the MU School of Natural Resources, and Tony Lupo, professor and chair of atmospheric science in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, surveyed 56,457 tornado-like events from 1950 ...

Alexandria, VA - The Center for Geoscience Education and Public Understanding at the American Geosciences Institute has released a landmark report on the status of Earth Science education in U.S. middle and high schools, describing in detail significant gaps between identified priorities and lagging practice. The report, "Earth and Space Sciences Education in U.S. Secondary Schools: Key Indicators and Trends," offers baseline data on indicators of the subject's status since the release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in April 2013. Establishing clear aims ...

Montreal combo plate cuts weight and health risks in obese individuals High-intensity interval training combined with Mediterranean diet counselling 'supersizes' heart health Montreal − Lifestyle programs focused on high-intensity interval ...

Overnight dialysis boosts kidney health -- while reducing risk of heart disease Treatment shows promise for improving artery function Montreal– Receiving dialysis at home while sleeping not only improves kidney health and quality of life for ...

High blood pressure during pregnancy could elevate the risk of a future stroke Women with this pregnancy complication may benefit from blood pressure monitoring to avoid longer-term risks, researchers say Montreal – High blood pressure during ...

Contact: Kim Newman sciencenews@einstein.yu.edu 718-430-3101 Albert Einstein College of Medicine Helene Guss hguss@montefiore.org 718-920-4011 Montefiore Medical Center Miscarriage perceptions vs. reality: Public understanding not in sync with facts National survey brings miscarriage misconceptions out into the open, rescue karyotyping provides critical information about causes of miscarriage NEW YORK (October 16, 2013) – The majority of Americans inaccurately believe miscarriage is rare and misunderstand its causes, creating an often isolating and guilt-ridden ...

Chicago(October 16, 2013): Traumatic injuries can be more severe for older adults, yet they often do not get the right level of care, according to a study appearing in the October issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Instead of going to a trauma center, many elderly patients end up in facilities without specialized expertise in trauma care that can treat all of their injuries. The top cause of traumatic injuries for elderly patients is an unintentional fall, according to the National Trauma Data Bank of the American College of Surgeons (ACS).1 Such ...