A person's vulnerability to nicotine addiction appears to have a genetic basis, at least in part. A region in the midbrain called the habenula (from Latin: small reins) plays a key role in this process, as Dr. Inés Ibañez-Tallon and her team from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, have now shown. They also shed light on the mechanism that underlies addiction to nicotine (Neuron, May,12, 2011, Vol. 70, Issue 3, pp: 522-535; DOI 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.04.013)*. According to the World Health Organization WHO in Geneva, it is estimated ...

The key to the survival of forestry in South Africa as well as many new possibilities for renewable bioproducts like biofuels and biopolymers may now be available with the click of a mouse. This follows on a team of international researchers, led by Prof Zander Myburg from the Department of Genetics and the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) at the University of Pretoria (UP) – in collaboration with the US Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) – making available the complete genome sequence of the forest tree species, Eucalyptus ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – In a four-decade, Holy Grail-like quest to fully understand what it means to be in a "supersolid" state, physicists have found that supersolid isn't always super solid. In other words, this exotic state of frozen helium appears to have liquid-like properties, says a new paper published in the journal Science (May 13, 2011). Why is this important? Understanding supersolid helium brings us closer to understanding its close cousins superconductivity and superfluidity. Physicists had long thought that the unusual behavior of torsion oscillators containing ...

This release is available in German. As if controlled by an invisible hand, the welding head on the robot's arm races along the sheet metal parts. Where the laser hits, sparks fly and the metal glows red hot. The process lasts just a few seconds. The outer door panel and the door frame are now welded together perfectly. A thin weld seam extends along the join, but it can only be seen on one side. From the other side of the welded car door the join is invisible. This is a perfect weld – the kind every car manufacturer dreams of, because it could be used anywhere on the ...

This release is available in German. Mongolia is a country of contrasts – in summer boiling hot, in winter freezing cold; in the north damp, in the south bone dry. One million of its three million inhabitants live tightly packed together in the capital Ulaanbaatar, while the rest of the huge country is largely populated by nomads and their cattle. Providing a clean supply of drinking water across the entire country is a difficult challenge – beginning with the need to lay freeze-proof water pipes over an area of 1.5 million square kilometers. The people in the countryside ...

May 13, 2010 – (Toronto) – A new study involving Canada's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has found a gene connected with a type of intellectual disability called Joubert syndrome. CAMH Senior Scientist Dr. John Vincent has identified this gene that, when defective, leads to Joubert syndrome. This research is published in the 13 May 2011 issue of Cell. This international study combined Dr. Vincent's gene mapping of a family with Joubert syndrome, with the use of a protein network map established by researchers at Genentech Inc., Stanford University and ...

Putting yourself first in a divorce proceeding is tempting. Whenever a husband (dad) and wife (mom) decide to dissolve their marriage, the heartache can be overwhelming. Of course, the torrent of emotional and legal problems multiplies exponentially when children are involved. Your adult problems will impact innocent and precious people who did not have a voice in your decision to give them two separate homes. Child custody (or child conservatorship as it is called in Texas) becomes one of the most important areas to resolve when finalizing the divorce details. With knowledge ...

As the Centers for Disease Control describe it, "Alcohol use by persons under age 21 years is a major public health problem." While illegal for those under 21, the statistics indicate substantial use by many minors. - 42% drank some amount of alcohol. - 24% binge drank. - 10% drove after drinking alcohol. - 28% rode with a driver who had been drinking alcohol. Virginia Laws Related to Underage Drinking The Commonwealth of Virginia has very strict laws and severe punishment for underage possession and consumption of any alcohol. - It is illegal for anyone ...

Some birth injuries are relatively minor health concerns that heal within a few days or weeks, while others are significant medical events that can carry life-long consequences for children and their parents. Sometimes no one is at fault for a birth injury that occurred during labor or delivery. However, other birth injuries result from the negligence of doctors, nurses or other medical-care providers. Reduced Oxygen Reduced oxygen is one of the main causes of brain injuries during labor and delivery. When a baby's oxygen supply is reduced or blocked, brain damage ...

The state of Florida has made it significantly more difficult for plaintiffs to prevail in slip-and-fall cases. If you or a member of your family has suffered an injury, contact a slip and fall attorney for an evaluation of the facts of the case. The Old Law Compared to the New Law The old premises liability law simply required plaintiffs to prove that an accident had taken place. The new law, which went into effect on July 1, requires plaintiffs to prove that a defendant knew of the conditions that resulted in the accident. Plaintiffs have another avenue to ...

As everyone knows, divorces can often be contentious. Add children to the mix, and it can heighten the animosity, as both parents strive to do what they feel is best for the children. Sometimes these efforts boil over into accusations that the other parent is "bad" in some way -- eventually causing the child to share one parent's dislike for the other. In extreme cases, children have become unfairly estranged from one of their parents as a result. Over the past 30 years, a name has emerged for this sort of situation -- parental alienation syndrome. Those who ...

This release is available in Spanish. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agronomist Greg McMaster has developed computer software that tells farmers when to spray pesticides. McMaster works at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Agricultural Systems Research Unit in Fort Collins, Colo. ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency. The software, called "PhenologyMMS (Modular Modeling System)," predicts the timing of plant growth stages so Central Great Plains farmers and ranchers can know how their crop is progressing and when to apply pesticides, ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- At first glance, a diagram of the complex network of genes that regulate cellular metabolism might seem hopelessly complex, and efforts to control such a system futile. However, an MIT researcher has come up with a new computational model that can analyze any type of complex network — biological, social or electronic — and reveal the critical points that can be used to control the entire system. Potential applications of this work, which appears as the cover story in the May 12 issue of Nature, include reprogramming adult cells and identifying new ...

If you've never been in a car accident count perhaps you should count yourself lucky. Motor vehicle accident statistics suggest that one in four people will be involved in a car accident at least once during their lifetimes. If you are one of those four people already, you know the inconvenience that even a minor fender-bender can bring. Between police reports, conversations with insurance companies, body shop estimates and medical bills, being involved in a car accident is not a simple or cheap matter. And expenses stemming from car accidents are not just limited to ...

This release is available in German. Neural stem cells can do a lot, but not everything. For example, brain and spinal cord cells are not usually generated by neural stem cells of the peripheral nervous system, and it is not possible to produce cells of the peripheral nervous system from the stem cells of the brain. However, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt and the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have now succeeded in producing central nervous system cells from neural stem cells of the peripheral ...

On January 18, 2011, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published a rule establishing procedures for handling nuclear and environmental whistleblower retaliation complaints. This rule aligns retaliation complaints under the Energy Reorganization Act (ERA) of 1974 and the six environmental statutes with other OSHA whistleblower provisions. The rule allows employees to file oral or written complaints in English and other languages, making complaint filing more accessible to all employees. The ERA provision serves to protect employees who are retaliated ...

Writing in the scientific journal Nature, scientists have called for increased discussion of independent monitoring of deep-sea hydrocarbon industry activity with the aim of obtaining a better understanding of its ecological impact. The hydrocarbon industry is increasingly searching for hydrocarbon resources at much greater depths and developing drilling technology to exploit them. However, drilling the seafloor at great depths is technically very challenging and carries with it poorly known risks. "The Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico last year and ...

Satellite tracking of olive ridley sea turtles off the coast of Central Africa has revealed that existing protected areas may be inadequate to safeguard turtles from fishing nets, according to scientists with the University of California-Santa Cruz, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Exeter, and others. Scientists involved in the study recommended the extension of an international marine park that spans the waters of Gabon and the Republic of Congo and better international cooperation to manage this threatened species. The study was published May 11 ...

One of the most important persons in your life takes his or her most prominent role after your death. The personal representative of your estate will settle your affairs for you after you are gone. He or she -- or it, if you choose a bank or trust company to act for you -- will have the responsibility to see that the wishes you express in your will are carried out for the benefit of your beneficiaries. In simple terms, your will is the legal document that gives you the opportunity to direct how the most important parts of your life will be wrapped up upon your demise. ...

For the first time, in 2007, a new law allowed true no-fault divorce for couples with irreconcilable differences in New Jersey. Understanding the provisions of the state's no-fault divorce law and how marital property is divided among former spouses is essential for people undergoing or considering divorce in New Jersey. New Jersey No-Fault Divorce Under previous New Jersey law, a complaint for divorce had to state a specific ground for dissolving a marriage, such as extreme cruelty or separation. To obtain a divorce, one spouse had to allege that the other spouse ...

When they dive together, sperm whales make patterns of clicks to each other known as "codas". Recent findings suggest that, not only do different codas mean different things, but that whales can also tell which member of their community is speaking based on the sound properties of the codas. Just as we can tell our friends apart by the sounds of their voices and the way they pronounce their words, different sperm whales make the same pattern of clicks, but with different accents. Caribbean and Pacific whales have different repertoires of codas, like a regional dialect, ...

Every year, between 3000 and 3500 children are physically abused in Germany. Many more, some 12,000 to 13,000, suffer sexual abuse. These are the figures from official criminal statistics, but in fact a high proportion of unreported cases is assumed for both offenses. The latest edition of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International contains an article in which Winfried Häuser of the Technical University of Munich and his co-authors present the findings of their representative survey of a sample of the German population, conducted with the goal of quantifying the true dimensions ...

In 2003, Texas implemented the Texas Driver Responsibility Program. The Texas legislature thought the program would be an optimal way to combat problems like drunk-driving accidents, and budget shortfalls. However, critics say the program has been a failure and are now urging the legislature to repeal the program. What is the Texas Driver Responsibility Program? The Texas Driver Responsibility Program requires drivers who accumulate points on their driver's license for certain traffic citations or who are convicted of certain traffic offenses to pay a fine known ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Rising salinity in the primary source for desalinated tap water in North Carolina's Outer Banks has been traced to fossil seawater, not – as some have feared – to recent seawater intrusion. This means the saline groundwater in the Yorktown aquifer can remain a valuable source of desalination for decades to come, without Dare County communities having to switch to the much more costly alternative of desalinating seawater, says Duke University researcher Avner Vengosh. Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke's Nicholas School of the ...

A dollar is a dollar is a dollar, so goes the economic theory of fungibility. But do people really act that way? In a new working paper, Brown University economist Justine Hastings and Jesse Shapiro of Chicago Booth School of Business find striking evidence that basic consumer choice behavior violates this bedrock theory. "Fungibility is an important assumption in many economic models, but we have a lot of laboratory evidence suggesting that people don't, in fact, treat a dollar as a dollar," said Hastings, associate professor of economics. "People instead try to manage ...