Researchers from North Carolina State University have created conductive wires that can be stretched up to eight times their original length while still functioning. The wires can be used for everything from headphones to phone chargers, and hold potential for use in electronic textiles. To make the wires, researchers start with a thin tube made of an extremely elastic polymer and then fill the tube with a liquid metal alloy of gallium and indium, which is an efficient conductor of electricity. "Previous efforts to create stretchable wires focus on embedding metals ...

Reappraisal is a widely-used cognitive strategy that can help people to regulate their reactions to emotionally charged events. Now, new research suggests that reappraisal may even be effective in changing people's emotional responses in the context of one of the most intractable conflicts worldwide: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Negative intergroup emotions play a crucial role in decisions that perpetuate intractable conflicts," observes lead researcher Eran Halperin of the New School of Psychology at the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel. With this in mind, ...

Planetary nebulae represent a final brief stage in the life of a star like the Sun. While consuming the last of the fuel in its core, the star expels a large portion of its outer regions, which then heats up and glows brightly, showing intricate structures that scientists are still trying to fully understand. The structure visible within NGC 5189 is particularly dramatic, and Hubble's image of the nebula is by far the most detailed yet made of this object [1]. Hubble has been a key tool for studying planetary nebulae for years, and many of its images have become famous. ...

Alexandria, VA – In 1859, the largest recorded coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun, known as the Carrington Event, disrupted what little electrical technology was used at the time. Back then, that meant the temporary disruption of the telegraph system. Today, without an effective warning mechanism in place, a solar storm of that magnitude could wreak havoc on our technology-dependent world. And with the solar maximum predicted to occur later this year, scientists and policymakers are scrambling to prepare us for when the next big solar storm hits. CMEs occur when ...

"Bah, humbug!" is the line most closely associated with Ebenezer Scrooge, the famous miser from "A Christmas Carol." But the authors of a new study on life-changing experiences give author Charles Dickens high marks for his portrayal of Scrooge's sudden switch to saintliness. Former grad student Jon Skalski and Brigham Young University psychology professor Sam Hardy conducted an in-depth study of 14 people who experienced profound, sudden and lasting change. They say the fictional Scrooge would fit right in. "Like our participants, Scrooge was suffering," Skalski ...

Humans are adept at setting goals and updating them as new situations arise — for example, a person who is playing a video game may switch to a new goal when their phone rings. Now, Princeton University researchers have identified mechanisms that govern how the brain incorporates information about new situations into our existing goals, according to research recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Using brain scans of human volunteers, researchers at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute (PNI) found that updating goals takes ...

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (12/18/2012) —The Green Revolution has stagnated for key food crops in many regions of the world, according to a study published in the Dec. 18 issue of Nature Communications by scientists with the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment and McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Led by IonE research fellow Deepak Ray, the study team developed geographically detailed maps of annual crop harvested areas and yields of maize (corn), rice, wheat and soybeans from 1961 to 2008. It found that although virtually all regions showed a yield ...

USC scientists who track Internet outages throughout the world noted a spike in outages due to Hurricane Sandy, with almost twice as much of the Internet down in the U.S. as usual. Previous research by this team has shown that on any given day, about 0.3 percent of the Internet is down for one reason or another. Just before Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, that number was around 0.2 percent in the U.S. (pretty good, by global standards) – but once the storm made landfall, it jumped to 0.43 percent and took about four days to return to normal, according to a new report ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Those considering how to maintain a healthy weight during holiday festivities, or looking ahead to New Year's resolutions, may want to think twice before reaching for traditional staples like cookies or candy – or the car keys. A new study by University of Illinois researchers, led by computer science and mathematics professor Sheldon H. Jacobson, suggests that both daily automobile travel and calories consumed are related to body weight, and reducing either one, even by a small amount, correlates with a reduction in body mass index (BMI). "We're saying ...

Researchers have found that the budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is an acceptable model system to study KP1019, an anti-cancer drug that uses ruthenium, a rare metal, a new study found. Researchers had previously been interested in studying KP1019 because it is believed to cause cancer cell death and is not known to have negative secondary side effects for healthy tissues. "We wanted to learn more about how KP1019 works on a cellular level, and how the drug acts on yeast cells can be indicative of how it will perform on mammalian cells," said Pamela Hanson, ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- People who worry constantly are at greater risk for post-traumatic stress disorder, according to new Michigan State University research published in the journal Psychological Medicine. Many people experience traumatic events such as the death of a loved one, being assaulted or witnessing violence, but only a small minority develop PTSD, said study author Naomi Breslau, a professor of epidemiology at MSU. "So the question is, 'What's the difference between those who develop PTSD and the majority who don't,'" Breslau said. "This paper says people ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Building a tunnel made up of both hard and soft materials to guide the reconnection of severed nerve endings may be the first step toward helping patients who have suffered extensive nerve trauma regain feeling and movement, according to a team of biomedical engineers. "Nerve injury in both central nervous system and peripheral nervous system is a major health problem," said Mohammad Reza Abidian, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, Penn State. "According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, there are approximately ...

DALLAS – Dec. 17, 2012 – Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have taken another step toward better understanding the metabolic functions of obesity and its connection to type 2 diabetes. Dr. Philipp Scherer, Director of the Touchstone Center for Diabetes Research at UT Southwestern, led a group of researchers in a recent multicenter study published in Nature Medicine that successfully identified ways to manipulate the protein mitoNEET. This is the first time the protein has been effectively altered to expand fat tissue in a way that allows subjects – in this ...

Alexandria, VA – For more than 35 years, scientists from the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) program have been scouring glacial landscapes in search of meteorites. Since 1976, teams of physicists, meteorite specialists, and mountaineers have recovered thousands of untouched specimens from meteoroids, the moon and even Mars. Despite subzero temperatures and razor-sharp winds, scientists are lining up for the chance to experience the ultimate hunt for alien objects in the alien environment. ANSMET teams either conduct systematic searches of a region or work as ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- A plant may start to prime its defenses as soon as it gets a whiff of a male fly searching for a mate, according to Penn State entomologists. Once tall goldenrod plants smell a sex attractant emitted by true fruit fly males, they appear to prepare chemical defenses that make them less appealing to female flies that could damage the plants by depositing eggs on them, the researchers said. "It's become increasingly clear in recent years that plants are responsive to odors," said Mark Mescher, assistant professor of entomology. "But previous examples ...

Highlights, including authors and their institutions The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL). In this release: 1. First satellite detection of volcanogenic carbon monoxide 2. Antarctic sea ice thickness affects algae populations 3. Central European Summer Temperature Variability to Increase 4. Global ocean salinity changing due to anthropogenic climate change 5. Chamber measurements find plants potentially important methane sink 6. Low-frequency radio emissions from high-altitude ...

PITTSBURGH—African American adolescents tend to have more success in school if their parents instill in them a sense of racial pride, reducing their vulnerability to the effects of racial discrimination from teachers and peers. This is the conclusion of a University of Pittsburgh study published this fall in the journal Child Development. Titled "Parental Racial Socialization as a Moderator of the Effects of Racial Discrimination on Educational Success Among African American Adolescents," the research article shows that when African American parents use racial socialization—talking ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Just 20 years ago, the soils of the Amazon basin were thought unsuitable for large-scale agriculture, but then industrial agriculture — and the ability to fertilize on a massive scale — came to the Amazon. What were once the poorest soils in the world now produce crops at a rate that rivals that of global breadbaskets. Soils no longer seem to be the driver — or the limiter — of agricultural productivity. But a new Brown University-led study of three soybean growing regions, including Brazil, finds that soils have taken on a new role: ...

Physicians should not prescribe cognitive enhancers to healthy individuals, states a report being published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). Dr. Eric Racine and his research team at the IRCM, the study's authors, provide their recommendation based on the professional integrity of physicians, the drugs' uncertain benefits and harms, and limited health care resources. Prescription stimulants and other neuropharmaceuticals, generally prescribed to treat attention deficit disorder (ADD), are often used by healthy people to enhance concentration, memory, ...

Imagine riding in an airplane as the plane is jolted back and forth by gusts of wind that you can't prove exist but are there nonetheless. Similar turbulence exists in space, and a research team led by the University of Iowa reports to have directly measured it for the first time in the laboratory. "Turbulence is not restricted to environments here on Earth, but also arises pervasively throughout the solar system and beyond, driving chaotic motions in the ionized gas, or plasma, that fills the universe," says Gregory Howes, assistant professor of physics and astronomy ...

There's a reason emergency personnel train for the aftermath of a dirty bomb or an explosion at a nuclear power plant. They'll be faced with a deluge of urgent tasks, such as identifying who's been irradiated, who has an injury-induced infection, and who's suffering from both. Unfortunately, there isn't a quick way to screen for people exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. There also isn't a quick way to distinguish between people suffering from radiation exposure versus an infection due to an injury or chemical exposure. The most common way to measure exposure ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Global travel and climate warming could be creating the right conditions for outbreaks of a new virus in this country, according to a new Cornell University computer model. The model predicts that outbreaks of chikungunya, a painful virus transported by travelers and spread by the invasive Asian tiger mosquito, could occur in 2013 in New York City during August and September, in Atlanta from June through September, and year-round in Miami. The probability of a disease outbreak is correlated with temperature, as warmer weather allows the Asian tiger mosquito ...

A surprising number of microorganisms – 99 percent more kinds than had been reported in findings published just four months ago – are leaping the biggest gap on the planet. Hitching rides in the upper troposphere, they're making their way from Asia across the Pacific Ocean and landing in North America. For the first time researchers have been able to gather enough biomass in the form of DNA to apply molecular methods to samples from two large dust plumes originating in Asia in the spring of 2011. The scientists detected more than 2,100 unique species compared to only ...

TORONTO, Dec. 17, 2012—New research has answered one of the most common questions parents ask their doctors: How much milk should I be giving my children? The answer is two cups per day. "We started to research the question because professional recommendations around milk intake were unclear and doctors and parents were seeking answers," said Dr. Jonathon Maguire, a paediatrician at St. Michael's Hospital and the lead author of the study. Dr. Maguire and his team looked at how cow's milk affected body stores of iron and vitamin D – two of the most important nutrients ...

Along with pollutants from Asia, transpacific dust plumes deliver vast quantities of microbes to North America, according to a manuscript published online ahead of print in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. "We detected thousands of unique microbial species, many of which seem particularly well-suited for atmospheric transport," says first author David J. Smith, a graduate student at the University of Washington, Seattle. "We also detected archaea, a domain of life that has never before been sampled at high altitude. We are just starting to understand ...