LIVERMORE, Calif. -- New research using a technique that measures the isotopes of lead and neodymium in lunar crustal rocks shows that the moon and Earth may be millions of years younger than originally thought. The common estimate of the moon's age is as old as 4.5 billion years old (roughly the same age as the solar system) as determined by mineralogy and chemical analysis of moon rocks gathered during the Apollo missions. However, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist Lars Borg and international collaborators have analyzed three isotopic systems, including ...

When it comes to improving bone health in postmenopausal women — and people of all ages, actually — a Florida State University researcher has found a simple, proactive solution to help prevent fractures and osteoporosis: eating dried plums. "Over my career, I have tested numerous fruits, including figs, dates, strawberries and raisins, and none of them come anywhere close to having the effect on bone density that dried plums, or prunes, have," said Bahram H. Arjmandi, Florida State's Margaret A. Sitton Professor and chairman of the Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise ...

A study led by Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers of 192 pharmaceutical advertisements in biomedical journals found that only 18 percent were compliant with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines, and over half failed to quantify serious risks including death. The study, is published online today in the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) One. "Marketing research has consistently shown that journal advertising is the most profitable form of drug marketing, with an estimated return on investment of five dollars for every dollar spent," said Dr. Deborah ...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – (August 17, 2011) – 23andMe, Inc., a leading personal genetics company has replicated over 180 genetic associations from a list of associations curated by the National Human Genome Research Institute's Office of Population Genomics ("GWAS Catalog") demonstrating that self-reported medical data is effective and reliable to validate known genetic associations. The results, available online in the journal PLoS ONE establish 23andMe's methodology as a significant research platform in a new era of genetic research. "In this paper we confirm that self reported ...

B chromosomes have a functional effect on sex determination in a species of cichlid fishes from Lake Victoria, according to a study by Japanese researchers to be published in open-access journal PLoS Genetics on August 18th, 2011. The researchers found sex-ratio distortions caused by B chromosomes in the breeding line of the cichlids, as well as several protein-coding genes in the B chromosomes. The resultant ratio was female biased, suggesting a role for B chromosomes in female sex determination. The B chromosome was first identified by E. B. Wilson in 1907. B chromosomes ...

Washington, D.C. – Cells with too few or too many chromosomes have long been known to be a hallmark of cancer — but the cause of this abnormal number of chromosomes has been little understood. Now, in the August 19th issue of Science, researchers at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, a part of Georgetown University Medical Center, have identified a gene that is commonly mutated in human cancers and have demonstrated its direct role in causing aneuploidy, an abnormal number of chromosomes. The researchers found that 20 percent of the brain cancer (glioblastoma ...

New research by scientists in the Department of Biology at the University of York shows that species have responded to climate change up to three times faster than previously appreciated. These results are published in the latest issue of the leading scientific journal Science. Faster distribution changes. Species have moved towards the poles (further north in the northern hemisphere, to locations where conditions are cooler) at three times the rate previously accepted in the scientific literature, and they have moved to cooler, higher altitudes at twice the rate previously ...

Philadelphia, PA, August 18, 2011 – Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have determined that the majority of primary care providers continue to recommend annual cervical cancer screening, and less than 15% would extend the screening interval when using the Papanicolaou test and human papillomavirus (HPV) test together, as some guidelines suggest. The results of the study are published online today in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology (AJOG). Current cervical cancer screening guidelines, issued by the American Cancer Society ...

VIDEO: Before they start attaching themselves to kinetochores (green), microtubules nudge chromosomes (red) into position in a "belt " around the center of the spindle. Click here for more information. Heidelberg, 19 August 2011 – When an egg cell is being formed, the cellular machinery which separates chromosomes is extremely imprecise at fishing them out of the cell's interior, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, ...

SANTA CRUZ, CA--Over the past 530 million years, the vertebrate lineage branched out from a primitive jawless fish wriggling through Cambrian seas to encompass all the diverse forms of fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. Now researchers combing through the DNA sequences of vertebrate genomes have identified three distinct periods of evolutionary innovation that accompanied this remarkable diversification. The study, led by scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and published this week in Science, focused on regulatory elements that orchestrate ...

VIDEO: The researchers found a 10 percentage point gap in research funding -- even after taking into consideration demographics, education and training, employer characteristics, NIH experience and research productivity. For example,... Click here for more information. LAWRENCE, Kan. – Black scientists were significantly less likely than their white counterparts to receive research funding from the National Institutes of Health, according to an analysis of data from 2000 to ...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—August 18, 2011—A scientist at the Gladstone Institutes has discovered how a gene known as SIRT3 contributes to a suite of health problems sweeping across America, offering new insight into how to combat these potentially fatal conditions. In a paper being published today in Molecular Cell, Gladstone Senior Investigator Eric Verdin, MD, describes how SIRT3, when switched off, accelerates the build-up of fats throughout the body. This can lead to obesity, high blood pressure and a decreased ability to process sugar—the combination of which is known as ...

Severe sepsis is common and often fatal, although evidence-based therapies have improved patient outcomes. In recent study, researchers from the Medical College of Wisconsin and Orlando Regional Medical Center found that the number of severe sepsis hospitalizations per 100,000 people increased from 143 in 2000 to 343 in 2007. The mean number of organ failures per patient during hospitalization increased from 1.6 to 1.9, although the mean length of hospital stay decreased from 17.3 to 14.9 days, and the mortality rate decreased from 39% to 27%. However, more patients with ...

The prevalence of physician-diagnosed asthma is increasing partly because of a link between asthma and obesity. Several factors lead to asthma-like symptoms in obese patients, including the mechanical effect of increased body mass index on lung volumes, which increases the work required for breathing. Researchers from the Countess of Chester Hospital and the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom recently found that obese patients may be more at risk for asthma misdiagnosis due to the similarity of symptoms experienced, such as breathlessness. Out of 91 subjects, ...

A new drug which offers a radically different approach to treating certain types of heart failure has been shown to improve cardiac function in heart failure patients in its first clinical trials. Current treatments for heart failure are aimed at a wide range of targets, but omecamtiv mercabil is the first of a new class of drugs – called cardiac myosin activators – which target the motor proteins that cause muscle contraction. Cardiac myosin activators prolong the interaction between the motor proteins myosin and actin to prolong the contraction of the left ventricle, ...

A single flexible sigmoidoscopy screening between the ages of 55-64 years is associated with a lower level of colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence and mortality, according to a study published online August 18 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Multiple randomized controlled trials have shown that fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) in CRC screening can reduce the mortality rate of patients diagnosed with CRC. Observational studies and a prior, randomized trial from the U.K., known as SCORE have shown a reduction in incidence and mortality for cancer in the ...

Boston, MA (August 18, 2011) — In health care, more choice may not always lead to better choices, particularly for the elderly. In a new study, researchers from Harvard Medical School's Department of Health Care Policy found that the large variety of managed care plans offered by the Medicare Advantage program may be counter-productive. Elderly patients, particularly those with low cognitive ability, often make poor decisions—or no decisions at all—when faced with an overwhelming number of complex insurance choices. Ironically, those with impaired cognition may benefit ...

The presence of calcium in coronary arteries is a much better predictor of heart attack and stroke than C-reactive protein among people with normal levels of LDL cholesterol, according to a study of more than 2,000 people led by a Johns Hopkins heart specialist. Results of the study, published in the August 19, 2011 issue of The Lancet, have important implications for deciding whether cholesterol-lowering statin medication should be prescribed for people who have heart disease risk factors but normal levels of LDL, the so-called "bad" cholesterol. An estimated 6 million ...

Leaders in biomedical education at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine are calling for a radical new approach to post-graduate training in the life sciences to address significant challenges, including an avalanche of new discoveries in the last decade and the need to transcend traditional departmental boundaries to understand biological processes at multiple levels. In a Leading Edge commentary published in the August 19, 2011 edition of Cell, the authors present a new model for biomedical education that would break down current silos of particular disciplines, ...

Malawian villagers have found an unlikely platform to expose injustice and abuse of power and bring their leaders to task, according to research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Malawi's public radio station broadcasts are providing an alternative programme of news stories. The programme features contributions by ordinary Malawians, highlighting their everyday experiences of abuse and violation. In a country where radio is the main form of mass media, the daily programme broadcast in Chichewa, the language spoken by most Malawians, has become ...

In cancer, tumors aren't uniform: they are more like complex societies, each with a unique balance of cancer cell types playing different roles. Understanding this "social structure" of tumors is critical for treatment decisions in the clinic because different cell types may be sensitive to different drugs. A common theory is that tumors are a hierarchical society, in which all cancer cells descend from special self-renewing cancer stem cells. This view predicts that killing the cancer stem cells might suffice to wipe out a cancer. New findings by scientists at the Broad ...

Irvine, Calif. — A vast network of previously unmapped glaciers on the move from thousands of miles inland to the Antarctic coast has been charted for the first time by UC Irvine scientists (http://www.ess.uci.edu/). The findings will be critical to tracking future sea rise from climate change. "This is like seeing a map of all the oceans' currents for the first time. It's a game changer for glaciology," said UCI earth system science professor Eric Rignot, lead author of a paper on the ice flow published online today in Science Express. "We're seeing amazing flows from ...

Boston, Mass. (Aug. 19, 2011)—Researchers at Harvard Medical School have discovered that structural elements in the cell play a crucial role in organizing the motion of cell-surface receptors, proteins that enable cells to receive signals from other parts of the organism. This discovery, published in the Aug. 19 issue of the journal Cell, fills a fundamental gap in the understanding of how cells relate to biochemical signals, including pharmaceuticals, and could have profound implications for drug development and the treatment of cancer and other diseases. The findings ...

Washington, DC (August 18, 2011) — High blood phosphate levels can set chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients on a rapid path to kidney failure, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). To make matters worse, phosphate appears to interfere with the effectiveness of important kidney medications. The kidneys of patients with CKD cannot efficiently get rid of wastes such as excess phosphate in the blood. As a result, the kidneys become overloaded with phosphate. Carmine Zoccali, MD (CNR-IBIM, Clinical Epidemiology ...

A new lower-limb prosthetic developed at Vanderbilt University allows amputees to walk without the leg-dragging gait characteristic of conventional artificial legs. The device uses the latest advances in computer, sensor, electric motor and battery technology to give it bionic capabilities: It is the first prosthetic with powered knee and ankle joints that operate in unison. It comes equipped with sensors that monitor its user's motion. It has microprocessors programmed to use this data to predict what the person is trying to do and operate the device in ways that facilitate ...