WASHINGTON, Dec. 18, 2012 — For everyone with holiday visions of snowflakes dancing in their heads, the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, today issued a video explaining how dust, water, cold and air currents collaborate to form these symbols of the season. It's all there in an episode of Bytesize Science, the award-winning video series produced by the ACS Office of Public Affairs at www.BytesizeScience.com. The video tracks formation of snowflakes from their origins in bits of dust in clouds that become droplets of water falling to Earth. ...

On the surface, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) appear very similar, with impaired attention, memory, or behavioral control. But Prof. Reuven Dar of Tel Aviv University's School of Psychological Sciences argues that these two neuropsychological disorders have very different roots — and there are enormous consequences if they are mistaken for each other. Prof. Dar and fellow researcher Dr. Amitai Abramovitch, who completed his PhD under Prof. Dar's supervision, have determined that despite appearances, OCD and ACHD ...

HERSHEY, Pa.--The spread of cancer cells may be slowed by targeting the protein km23-1, according to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine. A motor protein that transports cargo within the cell, km23-1 is also involved in the movement or migration of cells. Migration is necessary for cancer to spread, so understanding this cell movement is important for development of better cancer treatments. Kathleen Mulder, Ph.D., professor, biochemistry and molecular biology, looked for partner proteins that bind to and cooperate with km23-1 during cell movement, which ...

Chapel Hill, NC – CHAPEL HILL – Hepatitis C virus has evolved to invade and hijack the basic machinery of the human liver cell to ensure its survival and spread. Researchers at the University of North have discovered how hepatitis C binds with and repurposes a basic component of cellular metabolism known as a microRNA to help protect and replicate the virus. In a paper published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Dec. 17, researchers in the laboratory of Stanley M. Lemon, MD, professor of medicine and microbiology and immunology and member of ...

DETROIT – Brain surgery for certain difficult forms of epilepsy often reduces or eliminates seizures for more than 15 years after the procedure, according to new research by neurologists at Henry Ford Hospital. Drugs are not effective in controlling seizures in 30 out of 100 people with epilepsy, and resective surgery is the most common alternative treatment. During resective surgery, the portion of the brain responsible for the seizures is removed, usually reducing their frequency and sometimes eliminating them. "Our study shows that a significant number of patients ...

Despite earlier signs that a less-invasive surgery is safer and better than "open" operations to repair potentially lethal abdominal aortic aneurysms, a study led by a Johns Hopkins professor shows survival rates after four years are similar for both procedures. In an extended follow-up of patients in the OVER (Open Versus Endovascular Repair) Trial, researchers found that, contrary to expectations, the two procedures carried about the same long-time survival after four years, even though survival was higher in the endovascular group at the two-year mark. Moreover, among ...

Amsterdam, December 18, 2012 - Sexual and reproductive morbidities are not a priority in health policy. They do not feature among donors favourite health initiatives and remain outside the global health agenda. In many parts of the world practice is stubbornly failing to catch up with national policies, leaving shortfalls in every area of care. This, despite the enormous impact such morbidities have on the lives of women, men and their families, is something that is illustrated in a number of papers published in the latest issue of Reproductive Health Matters (RHM) which ...

Rosemont, Ill. - The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), and the American Dental Association (ADA) found that there is insufficient evidence to recommend the routine use of antibiotics for patients with orthopaedic implants to prevent infections prior to having dental procedures because there is no direct evidence that routine dental procedures cause prosthetic joint infections. The AAOS and ADA's recommendations are based on a collaborative evidence-based clinical practice guideline that focuses on the possible linkage between orthopaedic implant infection ...

CHAMPAIGN, lll. — In the early 1900s, an archaeologist, William Mills, dug up a treasure-trove of carved stone pipes that had been buried almost 2,000 years earlier. Mills was the first to dig the Native American site, called Tremper Mound, in southern Ohio. And when he inspected the pipes, he made a reasonable – but untested – assumption. The pipes looked as if they had been carved from local stone, and so he said they were. That assumption, first published in 1916, has been repeated in scientific publications to this day. But according to a new analysis, Mills was wrong. In ...

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 ...