Recent widespread news coverage heralded the success of a United Nations' goal of greatly improving access to safe drinking water around the world. But while major progress has been made, a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill indicates that far greater challenges persist than headline statistics suggested. Earlier this month (March 6), UNICEF and the World Health Organization issued a report stating that the world had met the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goal target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water, ...

Pasadena, CA--Astronomers have begun to blast 3 million cubic feet of rock from a mountaintop in the Chilean Andes to make room for what will be the world's largest telescope when completed near the end of the decade. The telescope will be located at the Carnegie Institution's Las Campanas Observatory—one of the world's premier astronomical sites, known for its pristine conditions and clear, dark skies. Over the next few months, more than 70 controlled blasts will break up the rock while leaving a solid bedrock foundation for the telescope and its precision scientific instruments. The ...

Nodding off in class may not be such a bad idea after all. New research from the University of Notre Dame shows that going to sleep shortly after learning new material is most beneficial for recall, Titled "Memory for Semantically Related and Unrelated Declarative Information: The Benefit of Sleep, the Cost of Wake," the study was published March 22 in PLOS One. Notre Dame Psychologist Jessica Payne and colleagues studied 207 students who habitually slept for at least six hours per night. Participants were randomly assigned to study declarative, semantically ...

WASHINGTON—Most of us walk and carry items in our hands every day. These are seemingly simple activities that the majority of us don't question. But an international team of researchers, including Brian Richmond at the George Washington University, have discovered that human bipedalism, or walking upright, may have originated millions of years ago as an adaptation to carrying scarce, high-quality resources. This latest research was published in this month's "Current Biology." The team of researchers from the U.S., England, Japan and Portugal investigated the behavior ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- By analyzing vegetation information collected by satellites over time instead of for just one day, scientists in the Michigan State University Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS) have developed a novel procedure to assess the composition of plant species in an area. Researchers long have used multi-spectral images (which include radiation outside human perception, such as infrared) and other remotely sensed data to create maps of vegetation around the globe. But seasonal changes in vegetation can limit the usefulness of these ...

Shortly after a mouse embryo starts to form, some of its stem cells undergo a dramatic metabolic shift to enter the next stage of development, Seattle researchers report today. These stem cells start using and producing energy like cancer cells. This discovery is published today in EMBO, the European Molecular Biology Organization journal. "These findings not only have implications for stem cell research and the study of how embryos grow and take shape, but also for cancer therapy," said the senior author of the study, Dr. Hannele Ruohola-Baker, University of Washington ...

At the heart of the immune system that protects our bodies from disease and foreign invaders is a vast and complex communications network involving millions of cells, sending and receiving chemical signals that can mean life or death. At the heart of this vast cellular signaling network are interactions between billions of proteins and other biomolecules. These interactions, in turn, are greatly influenced by the spatial patterning of signaling and receptor molecules. The ability to observe signaling spatial patterns in the immune and other cellular systems as they evolve, ...

West Orange, NJ. March 23, 2012. In 2011, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) convened the Stroke Progress Review Group (SPRG) to conduct a final 10-year review of the state of stroke research. The goal is to set priorities and shape future NINDS programs and policies. While SPRG found much available data for maximizing stroke rehabilitation outcomes, translation to clinical practice is inadequate. To realize the enormous potential for improving rehabilitation and recovery, more resources should be applied to implementing and directly supporting ...

TAMPA, Fla. (March 23, 2012) – Studying the role of social stigma in depression for lung cancer patients, researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., have found that depression can be heightened by a lung cancer patient's sense of social rejection, internalized shame and social isolation. These factors may contribute to depression at rates higher than experienced by patients with other kinds of cancer. Their study was published in a recent issue of Psycho-Oncology (21:2012). "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship ...

SAN DIEGO, March 23, 2012 — More than a dozen symposia and other events at the American Chemical Society (ACS) 243rd National Meeting & Exposition are being sponsored or recommended by noted science communicator and ACS President Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, Ph.D. They range from a science outreach event for children at PETCO Park to news from an emerging field of chemistry that promises to produce medicines inside patients' bodies, as well as a symposium on communicating science to the public. Communicating science is a major part of Shakhashiri's presidential theme for the ...

BOSTON, MA—Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), also known as coronary angioplasty or angioplasty, is a procedure used to treat acute coronary syndromes. PCI involves opening a blocked blood vessel by threading and inflating a balloon-tipped tube into the vessel. Sometimes a stent is also inserted to keep the blood vessel open. While undergoing PCI treatment, doctors usually give patients medicine to prevent complications that may occur from the procedure. In a new study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), types and timing of cardiovascular ...

Use of a patient's bone marrow cells for treating chronic ischemic heart failure did not result in improvement on most measures of heart function, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being published early online to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Cardiology's annual scientific sessions. Cell therapy has emerged as an innovative approach for treating patients with advanced ischemic heart disease, including those with heart failure. "In patients with ischemic heart disease and heart failure, treatment with autologous [derived from ...

CHICAGO— Cell therapy may present an option for patients with ischemic heart disease to use their own bone marrow cells to repair the damaged areas of their hearts, and may pave the way for future treatment options, according to the FOCUS trial, which will be presented as a late-breaking clinical trial March 24 at the 61st annual American College of Cardiology (ACC) scientific session. This is the largest study to date to look at stem cell therapy, using a patient's own stem cells, to repair damaged areas of the heart in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and ...

CHICAGO – Researchers from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital discovered that blockages in the right coronary artery and those in bending areas of the coronary artery are the most common places for dissection, a tear in the artery that can occur during balloon angioplasty of the coronary arteries. They will present their findings at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting in Chicago on Saturday, March 24 at 9 AM. A 'controlled tear' is the mechanism by which angioplasty dilates the blocked vessels. A large tear, or spiral dissection, that continues ...

SAN DIEGO, March 25, 2012 — Popcorn's reputation as a snack food that's actually good for health popped up a few notches today as scientists reported that it contains more of the healthful antioxidant substances called "polyphenols" than fruits and vegetables. They spoke at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society, being held here this week. Joe Vinson, Ph.D., a pioneer in analyzing healthful components in chocolate, nuts and other common foods, explained that the polyphenols are more concentrated ...

SAN DIEGO, March 25, 2012 — Scientists are enlisting the living, self-propelled microbes found in pond scum — the pea-green surface slicks that form on ponds — in the development of a long-awaited new test to detect the cells that spread cancer through the bloodstream from the original tumor to new sites in the body. In a report here today at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society, they described how the test is intended to not only identify the spreading of cells, but allow lab analysis of ...

SAN DIEGO, March 25, 2012 — A preservative in toothpastes, hand soaps, underarm deodorants and other everyday products is getting a second life, helping crime scene investigators preserve evidence of arson, scientists reported here today at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The preservative, triclosan, would be the first evidence preservative for traces of gasoline and other ignitable fluids, or flame "accelerants," commonly used in arson, according to John V. Goodpaster, Ph.D., an international expert who reported on evidence ...

SAN DIEGO, March 25, 2012 — The long-sought technology for enabling the fabled "hydrogen economy" — an era based on hydrogen fuel that replaces gasoline, diesel and other fossil fuels, easing concerns about foreign oil and air pollution — has been available for decades and could begin commercial production of hydrogen in this decade, a scientist reported here today. Speaking at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society, Ibrahim Khamis, Ph.D., described how heat from existing nuclear plants could ...

SAN DIEGO, March 25, 2012 —Just as aspiring authors often read hundreds of books before starting their own, scientists are using decades of knowledge garnered from sequencing or "reading" the genetic codes of thousands of living things to now start writing new volumes in the library of life. J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., one of the most renowned of those scientists, described the construction of the first synthetic cell and many new applications of this work today at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific ...

SAN DIEGO, March 25, 2012 — Medicine's recipe for keeping older people active and functioning in their homes and workplaces — and healing younger people injured in catastrophic accidents — may include "noodle gels" and other lab-made invisible filaments that resemble uncooked spaghetti with nanoscale dimensions, a scientist said here today at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The world's largest scientific society, ACS is meeting here this week with reports on more than 11,000 reports on new advances in science on its schedule. Samuel ...

SAN DIEGO, March 25, 2012 — Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, Ph.D., president of the American Chemical Society (ACS) — the world's largest scientific society — today described initiatives on climate science, the education of future scientists and commemoration of a landmark federal law that engendered some of the nation's greatest universities. Those initiatives will be the theme of Shakhashiri's presidential year. A chemistry professor who holds the William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Shakhashiri discussed the projects ...

SAN DIEGO, March 25, 2012 — Combining the secrets that enable water striders to walk on water and give wood its lightness and great strength has yielded an amazing new material so buoyant that, in everyday terms, a boat made from 1 pound of the substance could carry five kitchen refrigerators, about 1,000 pounds. One of the lightest solid substances in the world, which is also sustainable, it was among the topics of a symposium here today at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. The symposium ...

A new interventional radiology treatment, prostatic artery embolization, may bring hope to men with debilitating symptoms caused by an enlarged prostate, say the group of researchers who pioneered its use. The findings were presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 37th Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco, Calif. "Having an enlarged prostate is very common in many men over the age of 50, and these new findings provide hope for those who might not be candidates for transurethral resection of the prostate, or TURP—and may allow them to avoid serious ...

Researchers who investigated the connection between chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (a reported condition characterized as a blockage in the veins that drain blood from the brain and spinal cord and returns it to the heart) and multiple sclerosis indicate that a minimally invasive endovascular treatment for CCSVI, is safe and may produce "significant," short-term improvement in physical- and mental health-related quality of life in individuals with MS. These findings were presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 37th Annual Scientific Meeting in ...

Researchers report that performing angioplasty (a treatment that involves temporarily inserting and blowing up a tiny balloon inside a clogged artery to help widen it) on veins in the neck and chest is safe—and may be an effective way to treat the venous abnormalities found in those with multiple sclerosis and provide symptom relief. The findings were presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 37th Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco, Calif. "Our results are important because there are an estimated 400,000 individuals affected by multiple sclerosis ...