WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Sept. 19, 2012 – A genetic mutation that occurred thousands of years ago might be the answer to how early humans were able to move from central Africa and across the continent in what has been called "the great expansion," according to new research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. By analyzing genetic sequence variation patterns in different populations around the world, three teams of scientists from Wake Forest Baptist, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, demonstrated ...

CLEMSON — Clemson University psychology professor June Pilcher returned recently from Austria, where she worked with University of Vienna researchers to study ways college students' sleep habits affect how they function socially. Pilcher received a Fulbright-Freud Award to work with the Social, Cognitive, Affective and Neuroscience Unit (SCAN) at the University of Vienna. She also worked with the Sigmund Freud Museum, giving a series of talks and lectures. Pilcher participated in research with the university's SCAN unit, a center that conducts research in the fields ...

Former Hurricane Lane has fizzled and its remnant circulation was spotted in a blanket of low clouds in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. NOAA's GOES-15 satellite sits in a fixed orbit over the western U.S. and captures continuous visible and infrared imagery of the western U.S. and the Eastern Pacific Ocean. On Sept. 19 at 11:45 a.m. EDT, GOES-15 captured a visible image of post-tropical Lane's remnants that appear as a small circulation center. The center was located over 1,000 miles from Baja California in an extensive field of stratocumulus clouds. Stratocumulus clouds are ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A team of researchers at Michigan State University has documented the step-by-step process in which organisms evolve new functions. The results, published in the current issue of Nature, are revealed through an in-depth, genomics-based analysis that decodes how E. coli bacteria figured out how to supplement a traditional diet of glucose with an extra course of citrate. "It's pretty nifty to see a new biological function evolve," said Zachary Blount, postdoctoral researcher in MSU's BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action. "The first ...

NEW YORK - September 19, 2012 - Sally and Harry are about to invest in their company's 401(k) plan. Sally chooses the best performing mutual fund, which has high risks but boasts a 25 percent year-to-date return. Harry, after considering the tradeoffs between risks and rewards, opts for a lower performing fund with an 8 percent year-to-date return. When they receive their next quarterly performance reports, both Sally and Harry discover that their funds have met their initial expectations. Are they satisfied? If not, why? And how could their levels of satisfaction be improved? One ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– A multi-university team has employed a high-powered laser based at UC Santa Barbara to dramatically improve one of the tools scientists use to study the world at the atomic level. The team used their amped-up electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometer to study the electron spin of free radicals and nitrogen atoms trapped inside a diamond. The improvement will pull back the veil that shrouds the molecular world, allowing scientists to study tiny molecules at a high resolution. The team, which includes researchers from UCSB, University ...

Athens, Ga. - Nanoparticles have shown great promise in the targeted delivery of drugs to cells, but researchers at the University of Georgia have refined the drug delivery process further by using nanoparticles to deliver drugs to a specific organelle within cells. By targeting mitochondria, often called "the powerhouse of cells," the researchers increased the effectiveness of mitochondria-acting therapeutics used to treat cancer, Alzheimer's disease and obesity in studies conducted with cultured cells. "The mitochondrion is a complex organelle that is very difficult ...

With the combined power of NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes as well as a cosmic magnification effect, a team of astronomers led by Wei Zheng of The Johns Hopkins University has spotted what could be the most distant galaxy ever detected. Light from the young galaxy captured by the orbiting observatories shone forth when the 13.7-billion-year-old universe was just 500 million years old. The far-off galaxy existed within an important era when the universe began to transit from the so-called "Dark Ages." During this period, the universe went from a dark, starless ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers at Oregon State University for the first time have confirmed some of the mechanisms by which overfishing and nitrate pollution can help destroy coral reefs – it appears they allow an overgrowth of algae that can bring with it unwanted pathogens, choke off oxygen and disrupt helpful bacteria. These "macroalgae," or large algal species, are big enough to essentially smother corals. They can get out of control when sewage increases nitrate levels, feeds the algae, and some of the large fish that are most effective at reducing the algal buildup ...

It's an age old question: Why do we do good? What makes people sometimes willing to put "We" ahead of "Me?" Perhaps our first impulse is to be selfish, and cooperation is all about reining in greed. Or maybe cooperation happens spontaneously, and too much thinking gets in the way. Harvard scientists are getting closer to an answer, showing that people's first response is to cooperate and that stopping to think encourages selfishness. David Rand, a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Psychology, Joshua Greene, the John and Ruth Hazel Associate Professor of the Social Sciences ...

New Rochelle, NY, September 19, 2012-- Researchers have successfully developed a stable population of neural crest cells derived from mice that can be grown in large quantities in the laboratory and that demonstrates the potential to develop into many different cell types needed throughout the body. This powerful new research tool for understanding stem cell biology and human development and disease is described in an article published in Stem Cells and Development, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Stem ...

New Rochelle, NY, September 19, 2012— Many biotech observers maintain that the future of healthcare will largely be based on the field of personalized medicine, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN) (http://genengnews.com). Although drug discovery efforts require access to increasingly larger arrays of biosamples, demand is exceeding supply, fueling the growth of the biobanking market, according to a recent issue of GEN (http://genengnews.com/gen-articles/biobanking-confronts-growing-pains/4481). "Personalized medicine is all about tailoring specific ...

DNA barcoding developed by University of Guelph researchers has proven up to 88 per cent effective in authenticating natural health products, according to a new U of G study. The study appears in the latest issue of Food Research International. It's a crucial finding because the health product industry is under-regulated worldwide and mislabelling poses economic, health, legal and environmental implications, says study author Mehrdad Hajibabaei. "Currently there is no other broadly applicable tool that can identify the species used in both animal and plant natural ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – September 19, 2012 – The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy's (ASGE) Preservation and Incorporation of Valuable Endoscopic Innovations (PIVI) initiative addresses the use of endoscopy simulators for training and assessing skills in an article appearing in the September issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, ASGE's monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal. This PIVI is one in a series of statements defining the diagnostic or therapeutic threshold that must be met for a technique or device to become considered appropriate for incorporation ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – September 19, 2012 – A new study from researchers at the Mayo Clinic Arizona showed that system-wide implementation of a split-dose preparation as the primary choice for colonoscopy significantly improved both polyp detection rates and adenoma (precancerous polyp) detection rates, overall quality of the preparation, and colonoscopy completion rates. The study appears in the September issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE). Colorectal cancer develops ...

One of the big mysteries of AIDS is why some HIV-positive people take more than a decade to progress to full-blown AIDS, if they progress at all. Although the average time between HIV infection and AIDS in the absence of antiretroviral treatment is about 10 years, some individuals succumb within two years, while so-called slow progressors can stay healthy for 20 years or longer. Researchers already know that many slow progressors carry a gene called HLA-B*57 (B57), an immune gene variant that is found in less than 5 percent of the general population but in 40 to ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Sept. 19, 2012 – New research shows that a special population of stem cells found in cord blood has the innate ability to migrate to the intestine and contribute to the cell population there, suggesting the cells' potential to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). "These cells are involved in the formation of blood vessels and may prove to be a tool for improving the vessel abnormalities found in IBD," said lead author Graca Almeida-Porada, M.D., Ph.D., a professor at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine. The ...

Childhood vaccines do not cause autism. Barack Obama was born in the United States. Global warming is confirmed by science. And yet, many people believe claims to the contrary. Why does that kind of misinformation stick? A new report published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, explores this phenomenon. Psychological scientist Stephan Lewandowsky of the University of Western Australia and colleagues highlight the cognitive factors that make certain pieces of misinformation so "sticky" and identify some ...

Pasadena, CA— With the combined power of NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes, as well as a cosmic magnification effect, a team of astronomers, including Carnegie's Daniel Kelson, have spotted what could be the most distant galaxy ever seen. Light from the young galaxy captured by the orbiting observatories was emitted when our 13.7-billion-year-old universe was just 500 million years old. Their work is published September 20 by Nature. The far-off galaxy existed within an important era when the universe just emerged from the so-called cosmic Dark Ages. During this ...

No question about it… they're very good at what they do. But they don't take well to orders, especially those to carry out inspection work in oily or dangerous environments, or in any kind of harsh environment, for that matter. Still, they're one of the fastest and most maneuverable creatures on the planet, having extraordinary abilities at both high and low speeds due to their streamlined bodies and a finely tuned muscular/sensory/control system. This impressive creature is the humble tuna fish. The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Science and Technology ...

Tropical Storm Nadine continues to bring rains and winds to the Azores in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, but that rainfall continues to diminish according to data from NASA satellites. NASA's unmanned Global Hawk aircraft is also exploring the storm today, Sept. 19. A tropical storm warning is in effect on Sept. 19 for the islands of Flores, Corvo, Faial, Pico, Sao Jorge, Graciosa, Terceira, Sao Miguel and Santa Maria in the Azores. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite flew over Nadine on Sept. 19 at 1013 UTC (6:13 a.m. EDT) and captured data on rainfall ...

The frozen cap of the Arctic Ocean appears to have reached its annual summertime minimum extent and broken a new record low on Sept. 16, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has reported. Analysis of satellite data by NASA and the NASA-supported NSIDC at the University of Colorado in Boulder showed that the sea ice extent shrunk to 1.32 million square miles (3.41 million square kilometers). The new record minimum measures almost 300,000 square miles less than the previous lowest extent in the satellite record, set in mid-September 2007, of 1.61 million square ...

Climate-prediction models show skills in forecasting climate trends over time spans of greater than 30 years and at the geographical scale of continents, but they deteriorate when applied to shorter time frames and smaller geographical regions, a new study has found. Published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, the study is one of the first to systematically address a longstanding, fundamental question asked not only by climate scientists and weather forecasters, but the public as well: How good are Earth system models at predicting the surface air temperature ...

Kelsey McBride, president of Kelsey McBride PR, officially announced today that Robert Radcliffe, author of 180 Degrees, signed on for her agency's PR services. 180 Degrees, by Robert Radcliffe, is an inspiring true story of a once homeless kid addicted to drugs, turned sober, self made millionaire by the age of 30. "I turned my life around 180 degrees. I went from being a daily-using drug addict and occasional 'big shot' dealer to, eventually, a homeless junkie living on the streets. Today I am a completely sober, self-reliant, self-employed husband, father, ...

Acclaimed multi-media entertainer Jade Esteban Estrada will bring his special Latin flavor of stand-up comedy to National Hispanic Heritage Month, with a national tour and a special deal on his first comedy DVD. During September and October, the comedian will offer his stand-up comedy DVD, "That Is So Gay!", for a discounted price of only $10. The deal - dubbed the HA!lapeño Especial - comes as Estrada prepares to launch his HA!lapeño Tour, which will include an appearance at the Ventura Harbor Comedy Club in Ventura, California on Thursday, September 27, as ...