Alexandria, VA – Diesel-soaked clothing, 90-hour work weeks, and the constant groaning of a multimillion-dollar oil rig towering overhead: Welcome to life in Williston, N.D., home of the United States' latest oil boom. In this month's issue of EARTH Magazine, R. Tyler Powers, a young geologist thrust into the middle of the new boomtown, offers his perspective on what life is like today in the new Wild West. Thousands of oil rigs sit atop the Bakken Formation, a Late Devonian to Early Mississippian rock formation that underlies parts of Montana, North Dakota, Saskatchewan ...

VIDEO: This is a 2x2x2mm extracted blood vessel structure of basal cell carcinoma in vivo exhibiting a chaotic vascular pattern (left). Virtually cut volume obtained with OCT displaying the embedded blood... Click here for more information. WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2012—The trained eye of a dermatologist can identify many types of skin lesions, but human sight only goes so far. Now an international team of researchers has developed an advanced optics system to noninvasively ...

A new twin study from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health shows that the heritability of avoidant and dependent personality disorder traits might be higher than previously reported. People with avoidant personality disorder are often anxious in the company of others, while people with dependent personality disorder feel more secure. Results from previous studies indicate that genetic factors explain about one third of the individual differences in these personality disorder traits, while the remaining variation is best explained by environmental influences. These ...

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Kansas State University researchers have discovered a molecule that may be capable of delivering drugs inside the body to treat diseases. For the first time, researchers have designed and created a membrane-bounded vesicle formed entirely of peptides -- molecules made up of amino acids, the building blocks of protein. The membrane could serve as a new drug delivery system to safely treat cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. A study led by John Tomich, professor of biochemistry at Kansas State University, has been published in the journal PLOS ONE ...

This press release is available in Spanish. VIDEO: A team of researchers at Universidad Carlos III in Madrid has developed a device that works as a windshield wiper to eliminate Mars dust from the sensors on the NASA... Click here for more information. Leading energy scientists from the UK and China are joining forces to develop green technology that will revolutionise the way electricity ...

Frequent storms and sub-zero temperatures – nature drove the marine researchers that were assessing gas outlets on the sea bed off the coast of Spitsbergen for four and a half weeks to their limits. Nevertheless the participants were very pleased when they returned: "We were able to gather many samples and data in the affected area. With the submersible JAGO we even managed to form an impression of the sea bed and the gas vents" summarised the chief scientist Professor Dr. Christian Berndt from GEOMAR | Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. The reason for the expedition ...

Putnam Valley, NY. (Sept. 24, 2012) – Two studies in the current issue of Cell Transplantation (21:6), now freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/, demonstrate how the use of magnetic particles are a factor that can positively impact on the targeted delivery of transplanted stem cells and to also provide better cell retention. A research team from the University of British Columbia used focused magnetic stem cell targeting to improve the delivery and transport of mensenchymal stem cells to the retinas of test rats while researchers from ...

Cambridge, Mass. - September 24, 2012 - It has long been known that diversity of form and function in birds' specialized beaks is abundant. Charles Darwin famously studied the finches on the Galapagos Islands, tying the morphology (shape) of various species' beaks to the types of seeds they ate. In 2010, a team of Harvard biologists and applied mathematicians showed that Darwin's finches all actually shared the same developmental pathways, using the same gene products, controlling just size and curvature, to create 14 very different beaks. Now, expanding that work to ...

DURHAM, N.H. – Four decades of active research and debate by the solar physics community have failed to bring consensus on what drives the sun's powerful coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that can have profound "space weather" effects on Earth-based power grids and satellites in near-Earth geospace. In a paper just published in Nature Physics, an international team of space scientists, including a researcher from the University of New Hampshire's Space Science Center (SSC), explains the mysterious physical mechanisms underlying the origin of CMEs. Their findings, based on ...

September 24, 2012 - People often remark that people of a different race "all look alike." However, when we have trouble recognizing people from another race, it may actually have little to do with the other person's race. Instead, new research finds that that we can improve our memory of members of another race by identifying ourselves as part of the same group. Such identification could improve everything from race relations to eyewitness identification. "One of the most robust phenomena in social perception is the finding that people are better at remembering people ...

Vanderbilt University researchers are reporting today that there is insufficient evidence to support the use of medical interventions in adolescents and young adults with autism. Despite studies that show that many adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorders are being prescribed medications, there is almost no evidence to show whether these medications are helpful in this population, the researchers said. These findings are featured in the Sept. 24 issue of Pediatrics. "We need more research to be able to understand how to treat core symptoms of autism ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The presidential debates offer viewers a lot of substance about the issues of the campaign -- but postdebate media coverage can undermine the value they have for voters, a new study suggests. Results showed that postdebate coverage that focused on the debate as a competition led viewers to think less about policy issues. By comparison, coverage that focused on the substance of the discussion increased the likelihood that viewers would come away with specific thoughts about candidates' policy proposals. The researchers conducted two different studies ...

A low-cost new material that could lead to innovative technologies to tackle global warming has been discovered by scientists at The University of Nottingham. The porous material, named NOTT-300, has the potential to reduce fossil fuel emissions through the cheaper and more efficient capture of polluting gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO2). The research, published in the scientific journal Nature Chemistry, demonstrates how the exciting properties of NOTT-300 could provide a greener alternative to existing solutions to adsorb CO2 which are expensive ...

People with AIDS are at increased risk for developing esophageal and stomach carcinoma as well as non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs), according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. "People diagnosed with AIDS are living longer due to improved therapies. However, they remain at increased risk of developing a number of different cancers," said E. Christina Persson, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute and lead author of this study. "An elevated risk of esophageal and stomach cancers had been observed before, ...

This press release is available in Spanish. Getting a head start on stopping soil copper buildup will now be a bit easier, thanks to studies by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists. This research could help Pacific Northwest farmers develop long-term irrigation management strategies to protect crops from potentially dangerous soil copper levels. Scientists with USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) conducted a laboratory investigation to assess how copper levels in wastewater used for irrigation affected crop performance and soil microbial activities. ...

A team of scientists with The Cancer Genome Atlas program reports their genetic characterization of 800 breast tumors, including finding some of the genetic causes of the most common forms of breast cancer, providing clues for new therapeutic targets, and identifying a molecular similarity between one sub-type of breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Their findings, which offer a more comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms behind each sub-type of breast cancer, are reported in the September 23, 2012 online edition of the journal Nature. The researchers, including ...

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 23, 2012 – A University of Utah study suggests something amazing: Periodic changes in winds 15 to 30 miles high in the stratosphere influence the seas by striking a vulnerable "Achilles heel" in the North Atlantic and changing mile-deep ocean circulation patterns, which in turn affect Earth's climate. "We found evidence that what happens in the stratosphere matters for the ocean circulation and therefore for climate," says Thomas Reichler, senior author of the study published online Sunday, Sept. 23 in the journal Nature Geoscience. Scientists ...

Instead, researchers were able to pin down a number of factors explaining the pronounced imbalances between emission importers and exporters, the US current account deficit being one of them. Their conclusion: interventions in world trade, like CO2 tariffs, would probably have only a small impact on global emissions. Steadily growing world trade leads – as earlier research has shown – to a substantial transfer of CO2 from one country to another. The traded goods effectively contain the greenhouse gas, as it originates from the energy used during their production. "Typically, ...

One subtype of breast cancer shares many genetic features with high-grade serous ovarian cancer, a cancer that is very difficult to treat, according to researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health. The findings suggest that the two cancers are of similar molecular origin, which may facilitate the comparison of therapeutic data for subtypes of breast and ovarian cancers. The researchers, using data generated as part of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), described new insights into the four standard molecular subtypes based on a comprehensive characterization ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers and an international team of scientists have developed a highly-efficient means of editing zebrafish genomes for research purposes, eliminating a bottleneck that has stymied biomedical scientists from using the fish as a model for human disease. The details appear online today in the journal Nature. For many researchers, zebrafish are becoming the model of choice for genetic studies. However, the inability to efficiently target genetic modifications has delayed their use by some. The Mayo team used an improved variant of artificial ...

Bangkok, 24 September 2012 - A study of almost 200 major international water-related projects over the past 20 years has identified a suite of existing and emerging challenges and how science can offer remedies. The Global Environment Facility (GEF), the largest public funder of projects to improve the global environment and promote sustainable development, partnered with the United Nations University and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to extract lessons from a portfolio of major transboundary water projects involving investments of more than US$7 billion. Insufficient ...

DURHAM, N.C. – In their quest for a cancer cure, researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute made a serendipitous discovery -- a molecule necessary for cheaper and greener ways to produce nylon. The finding, described in the Sept. 23, 2012, issue of the journal Nature Chemical Biology, arose from an intriguing notion that some of the genetic and chemical changes in cancer tumors might be harnessed for beneficial uses. "In our lab, we study genetic changes that cause healthy tissues to go bad and grow into tumors. The goal of this research is to understand how the tumors ...

Germinal centers are sites in the organs of the lymphatic system, formed during the course of an immune response to infection, where B cells intensely proliferate and modify their DNA in order to produce antibodies specific for the pathogen. However, it is known that the vast majority of lymphomas derive from the B cells at the germinal centers. Now, Dr. Dinis Pedro Calado and Dr. Klaus Rajewsky of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch have identified subgroups of B cells in germinal centers in which the proto-oncogene Myc, a critical regulator ...

The most comprehensive analysis yet of breast cancer shows that one of the most deadly subtypes is genetically more similar to ovarian tumors than to other breast cancers. The findings, published online Sept. 23 in Nature, suggest that most basal-like breast tumors and ovarian tumors have similar genetic origins and potentially could be treated with the same drugs, says the study's co-leader Matthew J. Ellis, MD, PhD, the Anheuser-Busch Chair in Medical Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The other co-leader is Charles M. Perou, PhD, at ...

Many survivors of adolescent and young adult cancers avoid routine medical care because it's too expensive, despite the fact that most have health insurance. That is the conclusion of a new study published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The results indicate that expanding insurance coverage for young cancer survivors may be insufficient to safeguard their long-term health without efforts to reduce their medical cost burdens. Medical care in the years after a cancer diagnosis is particularly important for detecting any long-term ...