Gamma-ray bursts are the brightest explosions in the Universe [1]. They are first spotted by orbiting observatories that detect the initial short burst of gamma rays. After their positions have been pinned down, they are then immediately studied using large ground-based telescopes that can detect the visible-light and infrared afterglows that the bursts emit over the succeeding hours and days. One such burst, called GRB 090323 [2], was first spotted by the NASA Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Very soon afterwards it was picked up by the X-ray detector on NASA's Swift satellite ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A Rhode Island Hospital physician/researcher will present findings from a study investigating whether legalizing medical marijuana in Rhode Island will increase its use among youths. Lead author Esther Choo, M.D., M.P.H., will present the findings of the study at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting and Exposition on November 2. Choo, an emergency medicine physician with Rhode Island Hospital, and her coauthors explain that the state-level legalization of medical marijuana has raised concerns about increased accessibility and appeal ...

(Deerfield, Ill., USA – November 2, 2011) Researchers conducting influenza-like illness surveillance in Cambodia have confirmed a rare incidence of individuals becoming infected with a seasonal influenza and the pandemic strain at the same time, a reminder of the ongoing risk of distinct flu viruses combining in human hosts to produce a more lethal strain, according to a report in the November issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. A pandemic strain is a type of flu against which people have little or no natural immunity. While the individuals ...

Visiting family and friends is part of the holiday season. Changes in routines, crowded rooms, unattended food and excited children can often lead to miscommunication between the resident dog and guests. Doggone Safe offers tips to keep kids and dogs safe over the holidays. Public service announcements for radio are available for live reads or as WAV files for download from www.doggonesafe.com. Family gatherings at a relative's house are the source of fond memories for many. The relative's dog may not enjoy these events as much as the rest of the family. Noise, confusion ...

MONTREAL, November 2, 2011 – We must stop considering the different brain structure of autistic individuals to be a deficiency, as research reveals that many autistics – not just "savants" – have qualities and abilities that may exceed those of people who do not have the condition, according to a provocative article published today in Nature by Dr. Laurent Mottron at the University of Montreal's Centre for Excellence in Pervasive Development Disorders. "Recent data and my own personal experience suggest it's time to start thinking of autism as an advantage in some spheres, ...

Age and body mass index (BMI)are important risk factors for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) particularly amongst South Asian and Black African women finds new research published today (02 November) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The study looked at the link between maternal age, BMI and racial origin with the development of GDM and how they interact with each other. Data were collected on 585,291 pregnancies in women attending for antenatal care and delivery at 15 maternity units in North West London from 1988-2000.The study included ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Paleontologist Guillermo Rougier, Ph.D., professor of anatomical sciences and neurobiology at the University of Louisville, and his team have reported their discovery of two skulls from the first known mammal of the early Late Cretaceous period of South America. The fossils break a roughly 60 million-year gap in the currently known mammalian record of the continent and provide new clues on the early evolution of mammals. Details of their find will be published Nov. 3 in Nature. Co-authors are Sebastián Apesteguía of Argentina's Universidad Maimónides ...

Was it humans or climate change that caused the extinctions of the iconic Ice Age mammals (megafauna) such as the woolly rhinoceros and woolly mammoth? For decades, scientists have been debating the reasons behind these enigmatic Ice Age mass extinctions, which caused the loss of a third of the large mammal species in Eurasia and two thirds of the species in North America. Now an extensive, inter-disciplinary research team, involving over 40 academic institutions around the world and led by Professor Eske Willerslev's Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History ...

CHESTNUT HILL, MA (11/2/11) – Research carried out at Boston College, in collaboration with scientists at MIT and the University of Oxford, has led to the development of an efficient and highly selective catalyst for ring-closing olefin metathesis, one of the most widely used reactions in chemical synthesis, the team reports in this week's issue of the journal Nature. The team used the new catalyst, part of a large and important class of carbon-carbon double bonds, to synthesize epothilone C and nakadomarin A, both of which are molecules that have been shown to be potent ...

The history of six large herbivores -- the woolly rhinoceros, woolly mammoth, wild horse, reindeer, bison, and musk ox -- is the subject of a study by an international group of scientists investigating how climate fluctuations and human activity affected mammal populations at the end of the last ice age. According to Beth Shapiro, the Shaffer Associate Professor of Biology at Penn State University and a member of the research team, both climate change and humans were responsible for the extinction of some cold-adapted animals and the near extinction of others. The results ...

The world's first commercially available, fully automated system for isolating and growing bacterial colonies is now available from Hudson Robotics, Inc. (www.hudsonrobotics.com), a leading innovator and provider of lab automation solutions. The isolated bacteria, which are excellent vehicles for growing modified DNA, are used in the process of antibody development. Because the new RapidPick ACIS Automated Colony Isolation System is fully automated, it can reduce by up to one-third the time required to produce an antibody to combat new bacterial infections such as MRSA, ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered why measles, perhaps the most contagious viral disease in the world, spreads so quickly. The virus emerges in the trachea of its host, provoking a cough that fills the air with particles ready to infect the next host. The findings may also help in the fight against ovarian, breast and lung cancers. The findings, published online Nov. 2 in the journal Nature, give researchers insight into why some respiratory viruses spread more quickly and easily than others: They found the measles virus uses a protein (called ...

Companies around the world rely on various marketing strategies to make their brands more appealing to customers, and now, according to a study published in the online journal PLoS ONE, they may have an actual physiological method they can use to test their success. Many marketing strategies rely on self-reporting by consumers, which can be biased and unreliable. To combat these shortcomings, the authors of the recent work, led by Peter Walla of University of Newcastle in Australia, showed that the brains' emotional and motivational reaction accurately reflect whether ...

Honey bee populations have been mysteriously falling for at least five years in the United States, but the cause of so-called colony collapse disorder (CCD) is still largely unknown. In a report published Nov. 2 in the online journal PLoS ONE, researchers report that a widely used in-hive medication may make bees more susceptible to toxicity of commonly used pesticides, and that this interaction may be at least partially responsible for the continuing honey bee population loss. The researchers, led by David Hawthorne of University of Maryland, pre-treated healthy honey ...

Lions' and tigers' fearsome roars are due to their unusual vocal cords, according to a study published in the Nov. 2 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE. The authors report that the big cats' vocal cards have an odd square shape and can withstand strong stretching and shearing. That shape "makes it easier for the tissue to respond to the passing airflow," allowing louder roars at lower lung pressure, says University of Utah researcher Tobias Riede, one of the researchers involved in the project. These findings contradict a theory that lions roar deeply because the vocal ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Researchers at Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayoclinic.org) have shown that eliminating cells that accumulate with age could prevent or delay the onset of age-related disorders and disabilities. The study, performed in mouse models, provides the first evidence that these "deadbeat" cells could contribute to aging and suggests a way to help people stay healthier as they age. The findings appear in the journal Nature,(http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html) along with an independent commentary on the discovery. "By attacking these cells and what they produce, ...

MADISON – Cutting out short auto trips and replacing them with mass transit and active transport would yield major health benefits, according to a study just published in the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives. The biggest health benefit was due to replacing half of the short trips with bicycle trips during the warmest six months of the year, saving about $3.8 billion per year from avoided mortality and reduced health care costs for conditions like obesity and heart disease. The report calculated that these measures would save an estimated $7 billion, ...

Laurence Fishburne will be the narrator of an upcoming PBS documentary about black workers in the post-slavery South. The film, titled "Slavery by Another Name," is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas A. Blackmon. Blackmon's composition is a powerful account of how America surreptitiously maintained slavery under the guise of peonage and forced labor from 1863 to the 1960s. The narrative brings to light one of the darkest and most shameful moments in American history, exposing the awful truth about the interminable abuse of power and continued ...

A piece of jawbone excavated from a prehistoric cave in England is the earliest evidence for modern humans in Europe, according to an international team of scientists. The bone first was believed to be about 35,000 years old, but the new research study shows it to be significantly older -- between 44,000 and 41,000 years old, according to the findings that will be published in the journal Nature. The new dating of the bone is expected to help scientists pin down how quickly the modern humans spread across Europe during the last Ice Age. It also helps confirm the much-debated ...

The workshops, entitled 'Act your Age! Challenging Stereotypes', form part of the Economic and Social Research Council's (ESRC) Festival of Social Science 2011 and are organised by the University of Sheffield's New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) research programme. Sarah Howson and Charlotte Jones, who are co-ordinating the workshops, say: "Stereotyping in the media can lead to a negative understanding of older people. The workshop will use a variety of hands-on activities to help the children to consider their perceptions of older people. They will be asked to apply these ...

CLEVELAND -- Results of the pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial published in the Nov. 3, 2011 (embargoed 5 pm ET, Nov. 2, '11) New England Journal of Medicine, find that the oral medication ivacaftor (VX-770) provides major, sustained improvement in lung function, growth and other signs and symptoms for cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. The multi-site study marks the first time a drug has been shown to work on the disease process rather than on the symptoms. CF, which has no cure, is the most common lethal genetic disease in Caucasians. "Ivacaftor represents a significant advancement ...

Around 4,000 deaths could be prevented every year if the UK population adopted the average diet eaten in England, concludes research published in BMJ Open. Death rates for cardiovascular disease and cancer are higher in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland than they are in England, and it is well known that these diseases are associated with a poor diet that is high in saturated fats and salt and low in fibre, fruits and vegetables. The researchers therefore looked at mortality data for coronary heart disease, stroke, and 10 cancers associated with diet, including ...

Disco Science is better than no music at all at helping to deliver the required number of chest compressions (CPR) to save a heart attack victim's life before s/he gets to hospital, reveals research published online in Emergency Medicine Journal. But Disco Science, which featured in the soundtrack to Guy Ritchie's film Snatch in 2000, still doesn't improve the depth of compression, leading the authors to suggest that it's time to give up on trying to find the best musical track to aid the procedure. The annual UK incidence of heart attacks occurring outside hospital ...

(Toronto – Nov. 3, 2011) – Men with locally advanced or high-risk prostate cancer who receive combined radiation and hormone therapy live longer and are less likely to die from their disease, shows clinical research led by radiation oncologists at the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) Cancer Program, University Health Network. The findings are published online today in The Lancet (doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61095-7). Principal investigator Padraig Warde, deputy head, PMH radiation medicine program, says: "The study shows combining radiation and hormone therapy improves ...

The timing, process and archeology of the peopling of Europe by early modern humans have been actively debated for more than a century. Reassessment of the anatomy and dating of a fragmentary upper jaw with three teeth from Kent's Cavern in southern England has shed new light on these issues. Originally found in 1927, Kent's Cavern and its human fossil have been reassessed by an international team, including Erik Trinkaus, PhD, professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and the results published in Nature. The Kent's Cavern human ...