On this July 4th week, U.S. beachgoers are thronging their way to seaside resorts and parks to celebrate with holiday fireworks. Across the horizon and miles out to sea toward the north, the Atlantic Ocean's own spring and summer ritual is unfolding: the blooming of countless microscopic plant plankton, or phytoplankton. In what's known as the North Atlantic Bloom, an immense number of phytoplankton burst into color, first "greening" then "whitening" the sea as one species follows another. In research results published in this week's issue of the journal Science, ...

Copenhagen, Denmark – A landmark conference has agreed key priorities for harnessing the power of information technologies and social networks to understand better the workings of life on Earth, focussing on how biodiversity can continue to sustain human lives and livelihoods. The Global Biodiversity Informatics Conference (GBIC), gathering some 100 experts from around the world from 2-4 July, identified critical areas in which greater investment and better coordination could give society much better, innovative tools to monitor and manage biological resources. These ...

July 4, 2012, was an historic day in science with researchers at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) announcing the discovery of a new particle that is "consistent with the Higgs boson." It was also an historic day for the University of Rochester. Not only was one of its faculty members an originator of the theory for the Higgs mechanism and the Higgs boson, three of its scientists worked on one of the experiments that led to the CERN discovery. Physicist Carl Hagen's 1964 article Global Conservation Laws and Massless Particles, co-written by Gerald Guralnik ...

BOSTON, MA—Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have discovered a new vaccine candidate for the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa taking advantage of a new mechanism of immunity. The study was published online in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine on June 21, 2012. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections, particularly in patients on respirators, where it can cause so-called ventilator-associated pneumonia, which carries a very high mortality rate. Pseudomonas also causes lung infections in people ...

Bethesda, MD—In what could be a breakthrough in the practical application of epigenetic science, U.K. scientists used human tissue samples to discover that those with osteoarthritis have a signature epigenetic change (DNA methylation) responsible for switching on and off a gene that produces a destructive enzyme called MMP13. This enzyme is known to play a role in the destruction of joint cartilage, making MMP13 and the epigenetic changes that lead to its increased levels, prime targets for osteoarthritis drug development. In addition to offering a new epigenetic path toward ...

NEW YORK, July 6, 2012 -- Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) undergraduate students have developed a new privacy solution for Facebook. The Social Privacy Protector (SPP) can help parents adjust their children's profiles in one click, prevent criminals from garnering valuable personal information and keep teens safe from pedophiles. The SPP "app" has multiple levels of protection, but the most important component reviews a user's friends list in seconds to identify which have few or no mutual links and might be "fake" profiles. The app analyzes each friend and ...

Bethesda, MD—Whether from surgery or battle wounds, ugly scars can affect body and mind. Now a new research report appearing online in the FASEB Journal offers a new strategy to reduce or eliminate scars on the skin. Specifically, scientists from NYU describe how agents that block receptors for adenosine (a molecule generated from ATP which is used by the body to provide energy to muscles) can be applied topically to healing wounds to reduce scar size, yielding skin that feels more like the original, unscarred skin. "Scars can be disfiguring and, if extensive enough, ...

VIDEO: Professor Joe Lyding has recently developed a new method for sharpening probes for Scan Probe Microscopes. Using ions to sharpen the tip to an atomic level, the ultrasharp probes allow... Click here for more information. CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A simple new improvement to an essential microscope component could greatly improve imaging for researchers who study the very small, from cells to computer chips. Joseph Lyding, a professor of electrical and computer engineering ...

Rainfall and temperature affect the abundance of two mosquito species linked to West Nile Virus in storm catch basins in suburban Chicago, two University of Illinois researchers report. Marilyn O'Hara Ruiz, a professor of pathobiology, led the study with graduate student Allison Gardner. The study was conducted using mosquito larvae collected from catch basins in Alsip, a southwest suburb. The researchers examined weather factors that influenced the levels of mosquito larvae in the basins. They found that low rainfall and high temperatures are associated with high numbers ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- University at Buffalo physicists are among researchers engaged in one of modern history's most exciting scientific endeavors: The hunt for the elusive Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that could help explain why objects have mass. The particle is the last particle in the Standard Model of particle physics that scientists have yet to observe conclusively. If discovered, the Higgs boson would help validate the model, which describes how particles and forces interact with one another. The model enables physicists to describe how the world around us works. On ...

Athens, Ga. – Children need quality physical education to combat obesity and lead healthy lives. Georgia elementary schools make the grade when it comes to providing that education, but middle and high schools in the state don't even come close, according to a University of Georgia study. A study by UGA kinesiology professor Bryan McCullick examined the mandates for school-based physical education in all 50 United States. The results found only six states mandate the appropriate guidelines—150 minutes each week—for elementary school physical education. For older students, ...

Dr Changfa Guo, Professor Chunsheng Wang and their co-investigators from Zhongshan hospital Fudan University, Shanghai, China have established a novel hyperbranched poly(amidoamine) (hPAMAM) nanoparticle based hypoxia regulated vascular endothelial growth factor (HRE-VEGF) gene therapy strategy which is an excellent substitute for the current expensive and uncontrollable VEGF gene delivery system. This discovery, reported in the June 2012 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine, provides an economical, feasible and biocompatible gene therapy strategy for cardiac repair. Transplantation ...

Patients look up their illnesses online to become better informed and prepared to play an active role in their care — not because they mistrust their doctors, a new University of California, Davis, study suggests. The study surveyed more than 500 people who were members of online support groups and had scheduled appointments with a physician. "We found that mistrust was not a significant predictor of people going online for health information prior to their visit," said Xinyi Hu, who co-authored the study as part of her master's thesis in communication. "This was somewhat ...

AMHERST, Mass. – Physicists Benjamin Brau, Carlo Dallapiccola and Stephane Willocq at the University of Massachusetts Amherst were instrumental in this week's preliminary observation of a new particle, possibly the long-sought Higgs boson, announced by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) particle physics laboratory. The Standard Model of particle physics can correctly explain the elementary particles and forces of nature after more than four decades of experiments. But it cannot, without the Higgs boson, explain how most of these particles acquire their ...

Detroit - A Wayne State University researcher has found that an extract from algae could become a key to regulating cardiovascular disease. In a study funded by Health Enhancement Products of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Smiti Gupta, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of nutrition and food science in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has found that dietary intake of ProAlgaZyme increased the level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in an animal model. While medications for the control of high plasma cholesterol levels such as statins and numerous dietary ...

BETHESDA, MD – July 6, 2012 – Yona Goldshmit, Ph.D., is a former physical therapist who worked in rehabilitation centers with spinal cord injury patients for many years before deciding to switch her focus to the underlying science. "After a few years in the clinic, I realized that we don't really know what's going on," she said. Now a scientist working with Peter Currie, Ph.D., at Monash University in Australia, Dr. Goldshmit is studying the mechanisms of spinal cord repair in zebrafish, which, unlike humans and other mammals, can regenerate their spinal cord following ...

BETHESDA, MD – July 6, 2012 – Zebrafish, popular as aquarium fish, now have an important place in research labs as a model organism for studying human diseases. At the 2012 International Zebrafish Development Conference, held June 20-24 in Madison, Wisconsin, numerous presentations highlighted the utility of the zebrafish for examining the basic biological mechanisms underlying human disorders and identifying potential treatment approaches for an impressive array of organ and systemic diseases. Inflammatory Bowel Disease Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), while rarely ...

Real-time data that will be used in everything from weather forecasts to disaster response is now being beamed down to Earth from a cone-shaped appendage aboard the nation's newest Earth-observing satellite. The High Rate Data (HRD) link is an antenna aboard the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite that provides 'direct broadcast' data to users in real-time. Researchers world-wide are then able to use customized algorithms, or mathematical formulas, turning raw data into images to help manage quickly changing regional events, such as rapidly spreading ...

On July 11, NASA scientists will launch into space the highest resolution solar telescope ever to observe the solar corona, the million degree outer solar atmosphere. The instrument, called HI-C for High Resolution Coronal Imager, will fly aboard a Black Brant sounding rocket to be launched from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The mission will have just 620 seconds for its flight, spending about half of that time high enough that Earth's atmosphere will not block ultraviolet rays from the sun. By looking at a specific range of UV light, HI-C scientists hope ...

NASA's TRMM satellite revealed that Tropical Storm Daniel's most concentrated rainfall is occurring around the storm's center. When the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed over Tropical Storm Daniel on July 6, 2012 at 0034 UTC, data revealed heavy rain falling around the southern periphery of the center of circulation. The heavy rain was falling at a rate of more than 2 inches/50 mm per hour. TRMM is jointly managed by both NASA and the Japanese Space Agency, JAXA. Daniel remains no threat to land, however, as the storm is expected to continue ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — An evaluation of national data by UC Davis researchers has found that extra weight is not necessarily linked with a higher risk of death. When compared to those with normal weight, people who were overweight or obese had no increased risk of death during a follow-up period of six years. People who were severely obese did have a higher risk, but only if they also had diabetes or hypertension. The findings, which appear in the July-August issue of The Journal of American Board of Family Medicine, call into question previous studies -- using data ...

Richmond, Va. (July 6, 2012) – Researchers have created the first mouse model demonstrating the role of a cancer promoting gene, Astrocyte elevated gene-1 (AEG-1), in hepatocellular carcinoma, or liver cancer. The mouse model represents a critical step in understanding the molecular mechanisms of liver cancer progression and could lead to novel therapies for the disease. Insights from the mouse model were recently published in the journal Hepatology by a team of researchers led by Devanand Sarkar, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., Harrison Scholar at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) ...

Richmond, Va. (July 9, 2012) –Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Massey Cancer Center's Bone Marrow Transplant Program have demonstrated that the use of antibodies derived from rabbits can improve the survival and relapse outcomes of leukemia and myelodysplasia patients receiving a stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor. Recently published in the journal Bone Marrow Transplantation, a study led by Amir Toor, M.D., hematologist-oncologist in the Bone Marrow Transplant Program and member of the Developmental Therapeutics program at VCU Massey Cancer ...

Watches and Jewellery Pty Ltd, one of Australia's fastest growing online Watch and Jewellery Stores with a wide choice of leading brands., today announced that it has been awarded Outstanding Achievement in Website Development by the Interactive Media Awards for its work on the Watches and Jewellery Online Store. The honor recognizes that the project met and surpassed the basic standards of excellence that comprise the web's most professional work. The site was honored specifically for excellence in E-Commerce. The judging consisted of various criteria, including design, ...

Are you looking for a new home? One that would be able to go with the lifestyle changes that we are seeing today. Sustainability, affordability and livability--these are three words that not only describe what the future of real estate needs, but also the kind of new homes Vancouver WA that builders have to offer for potential new home buyers. Living in comfort doesn't require a massive carbon footprint. There are many things that you can do in order to minimize consumption and become a greener homeowner. Of course, it all begins inside the home. These days, more and ...