Researchers at RIKEN, Japan's flagship research organization, have developed a ground-breaking new aqueous reagent which literally turns biological tissue transparent. Experiments using fluorescence microscopy on samples treated with the reagent, published this week in Nature Neuroscience, have produced vivid 3D images of neurons and blood vessels deep inside the mouse brain. Highly effective and cheap to produce, the reagent offers an ideal means for analyzing the complex organs and networks that sustain living systems. Our understanding of biological organisms and how ...

PHILADELPHIA - A new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows that declines in hearing ability may accelerate gray mater atrophy in auditory areas of the brain and increase the listening effort necessary for older adults to successfully comprehend speech. When a sense (taste, smell, sight, hearing, touch) is altered, the brain reorganizes and adjusts. In the case of poor hearers, researchers found that the gray matter density of the auditory areas was lower in people with decreased hearing ability, suggesting a ...

Tropical Depression 12 strengthened into tropical storm Katia as daylight broke in the eastern Atlantic this morning. Stunning satellite imagery from the GOES-13 satellite revealed a well-formed tropical storm as the sun's first rays reached it. The National Hurricane Center named Katia a tropical storm today, August 30, 2011, at 5 a.m. EDT. As newborn Katia speeds west-northwest the current track projects it moving north of the Leeward Islands on the weekend. Because wind shear is light and sea surface temperatures are warm in the area where Katia is headed, the National ...

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) has been busy doing just that: measuring the massive amounts of rainfall left in the wake of Hurricane Irene as she ravaged the Caribbean and U.S. East coast this past week. TRMM is a satellite that is managed by both NASA and the Japanese Space Agency, and provides inside looks at rainfall rates occurring in tropical weather, including hurricanes. Over the life of Irene, TRMM also calculated cloud heights, which indicated strengthening or weakening of the hurricane. TRMM noticed that whenever "hot towers" or towering high ...

GREENBELT, Md. -- Two of the most destructive natural disasters of 2010 were closely linked by a single meteorological event, even though they occurred 1,500 miles (2,414 km) apart and were of completely different natures, a new NASA study suggests. The research finds that the same large-scale meteorological event — an abnormal Rossby wave — sparked extreme heat and persistent wildfires in Russia as well as unusual downstream wind patterns that shifted rainfall in the Indian monsoon region and fueled heavy flooding in Pakistan. Although the heat wave started before the ...

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6042 (Before Aug. 25) Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6293 (Before Aug. 25) American Chemical Society A 'nano,' environmentally friendly, and low toxicity flame retardant protects fabric DENVER, Aug. 31, 2011 — The technology in "fire paint" used to protect steel beams in buildings and other structures has found a new life as a first-of-its-kind flame retardant for children's cotton sleepwear, terrycloth bathrobes and other apparel, ...

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6042 (Before Aug. 25) Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6293 (Before Aug. 25) American Chemical Society Potatoes reduce blood pressure in people with obesity and high blood pressure DENVER, Aug. 31, 2011 — The potato's stereotype as a fattening food for health-conscious folks to avoid is getting another revision today as scientists report that just a couple servings of spuds a day reduces blood pressure almost as much as oatmeal without ...

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6042 (Before Aug. 25) Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6293 (Before Aug. 25) American Chemical Society A step toward a saliva test for cancer DENVER, Aug. 31, 2011 — A new saliva test can measure the amount of potential carcinogens stuck to a person's DNA — interfering with the action of genes involved in health and disease — and could lead to a commercial test to help determine risks for cancer and other diseases, scientists reported ...

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6042 (Before Aug. 25) Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6293 (Before Aug. 25) American Chemical Society 'Plastic bottle' solution for arsenic-contaminated water threatening 100 million people DENVER, Aug. 31, 2011 — With almost 100 million people in developing countries exposed to dangerously high levels of arsenic in their drinking water, and unable to afford complex purification technology, scientists today described a simple, inexpensive ...

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6042 (Before Aug. 25) Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6293 (Before Aug. 25) American Chemical Society Cutting soot emissions: Fastest, most economical way to slow global warming DENVER, Aug. 31, 2011 — A new study of dust-like particles of soot in the air — now emerging as the second most important — but previously overlooked — factor in global warming provides fresh evidence that reducing soot emissions from diesel engines and other ...

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6042 (Before Aug. 25) Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6293 (Before Aug. 25) American Chemical Society Not tonight deer: A new birth control vaccine helps reduce urban deer damage DENVER, Aug. 31, 2011 — A new birth control vaccine for white-tailed deer — a growing nuisance in urban areas for gardens and landscaping — eliminates the dangerous reproductive behavior behind the annual autumn surge in automobile-deer collisions. The vaccine, ...

ST. PAUL, Minn. – New research suggests brain tumor patients who take the seizure drug valproic acid on top of standard treatment may live longer than people who take other kinds of epilepsy medications to control seizures. The research is published in the August 31, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "Despite some limitations, our results suggest that the choice of seizure medications in brain tumor patients should be carefully considered as it may give people a few more months with their loved ones," said study ...

An investigation into the mysterious inner workings of the malaria parasite has revealed that it survives and proliferates in the human bloodstream thanks in part to a single, crucial chemical that the parasite produces internally. According to scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Stanford Medical School, reporting today in the journal PLoS Biology, this insight immediately provides a powerful new tool for discovering and designing drugs to treat malaria, which infects hundreds of millions of people around the world each year and claims ...

Hamilton, ON (August 31, 2011) – Scientists were surprised at how fast bacteria developed resistance to the miracle antibiotic drugs when they were developed less than a century ago. Now scientists at McMaster University have found that resistance has been around for at least 30,000 years. Research findings published today in the science journal Nature show antibiotic resistance is a natural phenomenon that predates the modern clinical antibiotic use. Principal investigators for the study are Gerry Wright, scientific director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious ...

In this month's edition of Physics World, David Wilkinson, visiting fellow at Nottingham Trent University and former project manager in the UK Home Office Scientific Development Branch, explains how physics is at the forefront of police weapons testing, making sure that potential devices meet the strict criteria set out by the UK government. Modern police weapons, such as CS gas and TASERs, are often referred to as "less-lethal weapons" because they are designed to effectively stop people with minimum risk to both suspects and officers, and are less brutal than traditional ...

A study involving nearly 10,000 cardiac arrest patients from 10 North American regions has shown that extending the period of initial cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by paramedics and firefighters from one to three minutes provides no benefit. The study, led by Dr. Ian Stiell of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) and the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC), resolves a worldwide controversy about cardiac arrest care. It is the largest randomized cardiac arrest trial in the world, published in the New England Journal ...

Researchers have undertaken the most comprehensive investigation of genetic variance in human metabolism and discovered new insights into a range of common diseases. Their work has revealed 37 new variants that are associated with concentrations of metabolites in the blood. Many of these match variants associated with diseases such as chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes and blood clotting. The team conducted the largest ever study of the human genome for genetic variants associated with metabolites - the biochemical compounds representing the start or end of metabolic ...

A new study suggests that Homo erectus, a precursor to modern humans, was using advanced toolmaking methods in East Africa 1.8 million years ago, at least 300,000 years earlier than previously thought. The study, published this week in Nature, raises new questions about where these tall and slender early humans originated and how they developed sophisticated tool-making technology. Homo erectus appeared about 2 million years ago, and ranged across Asia and Africa before hitting a possible evolutionary dead-end, about 70,000 years ago. Some researchers think Homo erectus ...

A faint star in the constellation of Leo (The Lion), called SDSS J102915+172927 [1], has been found to have the lowest amount of elements heavier than helium (what astronomers call "metals") of all stars yet studied. It has a mass smaller than that of the Sun and is probably more than 13 billion years old. "A widely accepted theory predicts that stars like this, with low mass and extremely low quantities of metals, shouldn't exist because the clouds of material from which they formed could never have condensed," [2] said Elisabetta Caffau (Zentrum fur Astronomie der Universitat ...

For the first time, researchers at the University of California, Davis, have demonstrated that forest trees have the ability to tap into nitrogen found in rocks, boosting the trees' growth and their ability to pull more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Given that carbon dioxide is the most important climate-change gas, the nitrogen in rocks could significantly affect how rapidly the earth will warm in the future, the researchers say. They report their findings in the Sept. 1 issue of the scientific journal Nature. If trees can access more nitrogen than previously ...

VIDEO: This three-dimensional reconstruction of part of a human colorectal tumor shows widespread infection with oncolytic vaccinia virus (green). Click here for more information. Researchers from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), the University of Ottawa (uOttawa), Jennerex Inc. and several other institutions today reported promising results of a world-first cancer therapy trial in renowned journal Nature. The trial is the first to show that an intravenously-delivered ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Memo to mature, health-minded vampires: You might want to consider limiting your treats to victims under age 30. In a study to be published Sept. 1 in Nature, Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have found substances in the blood of old mice that makes young brains act older. These substances, whose levels rise with increasing age, appear to inhibit the brain's ability to produce new nerve cells critical to memory and learning. The findings raise the question of whether it might be possible to shield the brain from aging by eliminating ...

(BOSTON) – Judith A. Linden, MD, associate professor of emergency medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and vice chair for education in the department of emergency medicine at Boston Medical Center (BMC), has written an review article on the treatment of adult victims of sexual assault in an acute care setting that will run in the Sept. 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The article, which utilizes a clinical vignette to illustrate evaluation and treatment protocols, was written to educate primary care and emergency physicians about the best ...

Just one second, one heartbeat. That's what is needed for a new, noninvasive functional imaging technology to record data for locating the source in the heart of a dangerous cardiac arrhythmia called ventricular tachycardia (VT). VT is an abnormal, fast beating of the heart, which, if ignored, can lead to ventricular fibrillation, which causes some 400,000 cases of sudden death yearly in the United States alone. The technique, developed by a Washington University in St. Louis scientist, is called Electrocardiographic Imaging (ECGI). It combines computerized tomography ...

The green anole lizard is an agile and active creature, and so are elements of its genome. This genomic agility and other new clues have emerged from the full sequencing of the lizard's genome and may offer insights into how the genomes of humans, mammals, and their reptilian counterparts have evolved since mammals and reptiles parted ways 320 million years ago. The researchers who completed this sequencing project reported their findings August 31 online in the journal Nature. The green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis) – a native of the Southeastern United States – ...