New Orleans, 11 July 2012— With the conclusion of a successful meeting of the Council of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) on Community and Ecosystem Resilience in North America, North America's environment ministers Administrator Jackson, Minister Kent and Secretary Elvira, announced the modernization of the Submission on Enforcement Matters Process, a strengthened commitment to initiatives to Green the North American Economy, and a continued focus on streamlining the cooperative work program of the CEC. Council welcomed dynamic participation from universities, ...

Social birds that forgo breeding to help to raise the offspring of other group members are far more likely care for their own close relatives than for more distant kin, a new study has found. The study, which looked at a highly social species from outback Australia, the chestnut-crowned babbler, also found that these birds work much harder to care for their brothers and sisters than the young of less-related group members. The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, provide new insights into understanding why some individuals cooperate with ...

An Australian study has criticized Hollywood's portrayal of menstruation, warning it's misinforming young girls and portraying periods as overly traumatic and humiliating. Researcher Dr Lauren Rosewarne, from the University's School of Social and Political Sciences, has analyzed hundreds of representations of menstruation in film and television. "The presentation of menstruation on screen is an overwhelmingly negative one," she said. The analysis included jokes, plotlines and references from popular TV shows such as The Big Bang Theory, Mad Men, Friends and Grey's ...

VIDEO: This video shows a reconstructed skull -- revised parts put together with endocast and transparent cranium. Click here for more information. South African scientists will share the country's latest fossil discovery with the world using live virtual technology. Scientists from the Wits Institute for Human Evolution based at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg will announce the discovery of a large rock containing significant parts of a skeleton of ...

SALT LAKE CITY, July 12, 2012 – University of Utah physicists invented a new "spintronic" organic light-emitting diode or OLED that promises to be brighter, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than the kinds of LEDs now used in television and computer displays, lighting, traffic lights and numerous electronic devices. "It's a completely different technology," says Z. Valy Vardeny, University of Utah distinguished professor of physics and senior author of a study of the new OLEDs in the July 13, 2012 issue of the journal Science. "These new organic LEDs can be brighter ...

EUGENE, Ore. -- (July 12, 2012) -- Archaeological work in Oregon's Paisley Caves has found evidence that Western Stemmed projectile points -- darts or thrusting spearheads -- were present at least 13,200 calendar years ago during or before the Clovis culture in western North America. In a paper in the July 13 issue of Science, researchers from 13 institutions lay out their findings, which also include substantial new documentation, including "blind-test analysis" by independent labs, that confirms the human DNA pulled earlier from human coprolites (dried feces) and reported ...

Talk about a bait-and-switch. Male representatives of the tropical fish known as swordtail characins have flag-like sex ornaments that catch mates just like the bait on a fishing rod would. What's more, a study reported online on July 12 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, shows just what any good fly-fisherman would know: Lures work best if they mimic the foods that fish most often eat. For some characins in the study, that means males are waving pretend ants around in hopes of getting a bite. "This is a natural example of a fishing lure designed to maximize ...

We all know that humans have domesticated plants and animals for our sustenance and enjoyment, but we've tamed various microbes as well. Now researchers reporting online on July 12 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, show that the mark of that domestication on microbes, and specifically on the mold used for thousands of years to brew sake and soy sauce from rice and soybeans, looks rather unique. While changes brought by domestication to plants and animals have rested largely on exaggerating physical traits, changes to microbes have occurred instead via extensive ...

The calorie-burning and heat-generating brown fat found in full-grown humans is actually not quite brown; it's beige. So says a new study reported on July 12th in the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, in which researchers fully characterize this promising obesity-fighting tissue in both mice and humans for the first time. The findings could lead to more specific ways to address the epidemic of obesity and diabetes by giving those beige fat cells a boost, the researchers say. "We've identified a third type of fat cell," said Bruce Spiegelman of Harvard Medical ...

A century ago, the South Pole was one of Earth's last frontiers, but now the Antarctic is under threat from human activity. Led by Monash University's Professor Steven Chown, a multidisciplinary team of experts from around the globe has set out the current and future conservation challenges facing the Antarctic in a Policy Forum article published today in Science. The team analysed the effectiveness of the existing Antarctic Treaty System for protecting the region, one of the world's largest commons, from the threats of climate change and, as technology improves, increasing ...

Washington, DC —Scientists have long believed that comets and, or a type of very primitive meteorite called carbonaceous chondrites were the sources of early Earth's volatile elements—which include hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon—and possibly organic material, too. Understanding where these volatiles came from is crucial for determining the origins of both water and life on the planet. New research led by Carnegie's Conel Alexander focuses on frozen water that was distributed throughout much of the early Solar System, but probably not in the materials that aggregated to ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new study of Oregon's Paisley Caves confirms that humans used the site as early as 12,450 radiocarbon years ago, and the projectile points they left behind were of the "Western Stemmed" tradition and not Clovis – which suggests parallel technological development of early inhabitants to the Americas. The study, published this week in the journal Science, could have a major impact on theories of how the Western Hemisphere was populated. The research was funded by multiple organizations, including the National Science Foundation. Lead author Dennis ...

BOSTON—Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have isolated a new type of energy-burning fat cell in adult humans which they say may have therapeutic potential for treating obesity. Called "beige fat," the cells are found in scattered pea-sized deposits beneath the skin near the collarbone and along the spine in adult humans. Because this type of fat can burn off calories – rather than store them, as "white fat" cells do – beige fat cells might spawn new therapies for obesity and diabetes, according to researchers led by Bruce Spiegelman, PhD, of Dana-Farber. Spiegelman ...

A clever new imaging technique discovered at the University of California, Berkeley, reveals a possible plan of attack for many bacterial diseases, such as cholera, lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients and even chronic sinusitis, that form biofilms that make them resistant to antibiotics. By devising a new fluorescent labeling strategy and employing super-resolution light microscopy, the researchers were able to examine the structure of sticky plaques called bacterial biofilms that make these infections so tenacious. They also identified genetic targets for potential ...

What do beer, dogs and cats, and corn all have in common? All of them are the end products of the process of domestication. Almost everybody knows that a number of different animals and plants have been bred for qualities that benefit humans. But few people realize that a number of microbes have undergone a similar transformation. Take brewer's yeast, for example. It is the quintessential ingredient in beer making: genetically altered to convert the sugars in malted barley into alcohol and to produce metabolic byproducts that give beer its unique taste. In fact, dozens ...

Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered a chemical that offers a completely new and promising direction for the development of drugs to treat metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes—a major public health concern in the United States due to the current obesity epidemic. Their discovery, detailed in a paper published July 13 in an advance online issue of the journal Science, initially came as a surprise because the chemical they isolated does not directly control glucose production in the liver, but instead affects the activity of a key protein that regulates the ...

Obesity is not to blame for poor educational performance, according to early findings from research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). In a study that combines statistical methods with genetic information, researchers dispel the false idea that being overweight has damaging educational consequences. Previous studies have shown that children who are heavier are less likely to do well at school. However, Dr Stephanie von Hinke Kessler Scholder from University of York argues it's vital to understand what drives this association. "We sought to test ...

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can stay with us for life. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy explains how these events can be tied up with adult smoking patterns, especially for women, and suggests that treatment and strategies to stop smoking need to take into account the psychological effects of childhood trauma. ACEs can range from emotional, physical, and sexual abuse to neglect and household dysfunction and affect a large range of people. In one of the largest studies of ACEs survey ...

Receptor The protein in question is the adenosine A2A receptor, the main receptor for caffeine in the human body. This receptor is also linked to Parkinson's disease. The class of around 800 proteins to which the adenosine A2A receptor belongs forms the target for roughly half of all medicines. 'No wonder that researchers across the globe have been trying for decades to find out more about these proteins,' comments IJzerman. Crystallizing the protein To find out whether medicines are effective, you need to understand how the receptors in the cell wall work. An important ...

Research: Reoperation rates after breast conserving surgery for breast cancer among women in England: retrospective study of hospital episode statistics One in five women with breast cancer who opt for breast conserving surgery rather than a mastectomy have a reoperation, according to a national study published on bmj.com today. This information on the risk of reoperation should help women in making the decision about whether to undergo breast conserving surgery or mastectomy. 45,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in England and in 2008, 58% chose ...

Research: Impact of age and sex on primary preventative treatment for cardiovascular disease in the West Midlands, UK: cross sectional study. More patients aged 75 and over should be prescribed drugs to help lower their risk of cardiovascular disease, a study published today on bmj.com suggests. The researchers argue that older people are being "largely ignored" by current guidance, yet as the population ages, greater use of these drugs could reduce disability and prolong healthy life expectancy. Cardiovascular diseases such as stroke, heart attack and heart failure ...

Diagnosis is key to the control and prevention of endemic livestock diseases in developing regions. New research has found the use of a low-cost diagnostic decision support tool could lead to the improvement in clinical practice by veterinary and animal health officers in sub-Saharan Africa. An international team, led by Professor Mark Eisler, Chair in Global Farm Animal Health in the School of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Bristol, evaluated the effectiveness of a low-cost decision support tool as a diagnostic aid by observing whether its introduction to ...

Who were the first humans to enter the North American continent? Were they humans who founded what is known as the Clovis culture over 13,000 years ago? Or did other, totally unrelated peoples precede the Clovis immigrants? This issue has been intensely, if not bitterly debated for decades. The Clovis culture has been seen as the cradle of North American indigenous culture. Now new international research shows that people of another culture and technology were present concurrently or even previous to those of Clovis. Scientists have added a new and dramatic chapter to the ...

VANCOUVER, B.C. – July 11, 2012 – For centuries, people made wine by stomping grapes with their bare feet. But now, the art of winemaking is going high-tech at The University of British Columbia's Wine Research Centre. Have you ever gotten a headache or a rash from a single glass of wine? Has one glass of Merlot or Shiraz resulted in a painful hangover? If yes, you may be one of the 30 percent of people who are allergic to compounds that are in some of the world's most popular wines. A team of researchers at UBC's Wine Research Centre – which has received funding from ...

As thousands of Americans await a life-saving kidney or liver transplant, medical teams are paying close attention to another organ: their hearts. This month the American Heart Association attempts to bring harmony to the varied cardiac evaluation policies created at U.S. hospitals that assess a patient's overall health before transplant surgery. Approximately 85,000 people are on the waiting list for a kidney transplant and 16,000 are waiting for a liver. It's not unusual for these transplant candidates to be well over age 50 and at increased risk for heart disease. The ...