Researchers have discovered an extremely old anthropomorphic figure engraved in rock in Brazil, according to a report published Feb. 22 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The petroglyph, which dates to between 9,000 and 12,000 years old, is the oldest reliably dated instance of such rock art yet found in the Americas. Art from this time period in the New World is quite rare, so little is known about the diversity of symbolic thinking of the early American settlers. The authors of this study, led by Walter Neves of the University of Sao Paulo, write that their findings ...

A fundamental discovery reported in the March 1st issue of the journal Nature, uncovers the first molecular evidence linking the body's natural circadian rhythms to sudden cardiac death (SCD). Ventricular arrhythmias, or abnormal heart rhythms, are the most common cause of sudden cardiac death: the primary cause of death from heart disease. They occur most frequently in the morning waking hours, followed by a smaller peak in the evening hours. While scientists have observed this tendency for many years, prior to this breakthrough, the molecular basis for these daily patterns ...

Florida is the deadliest state in the nation for pedestrians and is extremely dangerous for cyclists, according to a national study in USA Today. The Miami area is especially prone to many of the accidents and injuries associated with high density pedestrian, cyclist and motorist traffic. The Florida Department of Transportation (DOT) is bringing awareness and a sense of urgency to the issue through its new public bicycle and pedestrian accident campaign. Important Statistics Regarding Cyclist and Pedestrian Injuries and Fatalities According to a national study ...

HOUSTON -- (Feb. 23, 2012) – Sudden cardiac death –catastrophic and unexpected fatal heart stoppage – is more likely to occur shortly after waking in the morning and in the late night. In a report in the journal Nature (http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html), an international consortium of researchers that includes Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (http://casemed.case.edu/) in Cleveland and Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu) explains the molecular linkage between the circadian clock and the deadly heart rhythms that lead to sudden death. The ...

Uncovering the network of genes regulated by a crucial molecule involved in cancer called mTOR, which controls protein production inside cells, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have discovered how a protein "master regulator" goes awry, leading to metastasis, the fatal step of cancer. Their work also pinpoints why past drugs that target mTOR have failed in clinical trials, and suggests that a new class of drugs now in trials may be more effective for the lethal form of prostate cancer for which presently there is no cure. Described this ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Problems with the correct use of the male condom, such as not wearing a condom throughout sex or putting it on upside down, are common in the U.S. and have become a major concern of public health officials. New research shows that countries around the world are facing similar challenges. An unprecedented collection of condom use studies, published in the journal Sexual Health, provides a global perspective on condom use problems and errors, along with new research on factors influencing correct condom use, how condom use programs can be more effective, ...

Never get stranded with a dead cell phone again. A promising new technology called Power Felt, a thermoelectric device that converts body heat into an electrical current, soon could create enough juice to make another call simply by touching it. Developed by researchers in the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest University, Power Felt is comprised of tiny carbon nanotubes locked up in flexible plastic fibers and made to feel like fabric. The technology uses temperature differences – room temperature versus body temperature, for instance – ...

A newly passed broadening of California's third-strike law has the legal authority to keep repeat DUI offenders -- those who have three or more DUI offenses in a ten-year period -- off the road for up to a decade. The law now grants judges the authority to revoke the driving privileges of a person convicted of three or more DUI or alcohol-related offenses in a 10-year period. Some lawmakers -- including California state assemblyman Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), who authored the bill that was passed into law -- support this measure and think that it could possibly keep up ...

Washington, DC (February 22, 2012) – Today, Marine Conservation Institute filed a formal petition to the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce, asking them to prohibit commercial fishing in America's sensitive and pristine Pacific Island marine national monuments, a ban that President George W. Bush declared when he established the monuments over three years ago. In January 2009, President Bush established three marine monuments in the central Pacific and prohibited commercial fishing in them because they are incredibly rich marine ecosystems that ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – A team of researchers has found a key to the habitat puzzle for improving long-term survival of the endangered Florida Scrub-Jay. New research published online today in The Royal Society's journal Biology Letters shows that "clustered habitat networks" are needed to maintain the genetic diversity of Florida Scrub-Jays, a species at risk of extinction with just more than 5,000 birds left in the world. The new research reveals, for the first time, a direct connection between genetic variation of Florida Scrub-Jay groups and geographic distances separating ...

Washington, D.C. — Superconductivity is a rare physical state in which matter is able to conduct electricity—maintain a flow of electrons—without any resistance. This phenomenon can only be found in certain materials at low temperatures, or can be induced under chemical and high external pressure conditions. Research to create superconductors at higher temperatures has been ongoing for two decades with the promise of significant impact on electrical transmission. New work from a team including Carnegie's Xiao-Jia Chen and Ho-kwang "Dave" Mao demonstrates unexpected superconductivity ...

MMV and partners have completed the first-ever comparative analysis of all currently available and in-development antimalarials in terms of the steps they target in the parasite's lifecycle. This information provides the missing pieces of the puzzle needed to develop future medicines able to block transmission of the parasite from person to person. Current medicines mostly target the malaria parasite at the blood stage in its lifecycle because this is the step that leads to clinical symptoms. To be able to block transmission of the parasite, however, we need to be able ...

The notion of a pain switch is an alluring idea, but is it realistic? Well, chemists at LMU Munich, in collaboration with colleagues in Berkeley and Bordeaux, have now shown in laboratory experiments that it is possible to inhibit the activity of pain-sensitive neurons using an agent that acts as a photosensitive switch. For the LMU researchers, the method primarily represents a valuable tool for probing the neurobiology of pain. (Nature Methods, 19.02.2012) The system developed by the LMU team, led by Dirk Trauner, who is Professor of Chemical Biology and Genetics, is ...

When customers visit an online shop, they want to see all parts of a product; they want to enlarge it, or visualize adjusting single elements. Until now, web developers have been dealing with a multiplicity of different programs, in order to illustrate articles on the Internet in such a complex way. The new HTML extension XML3D, which offers the capability to describe computer scenes in spatial detail directly within the website's code, simplifies that. An online shop can be extended with XML3D in just a few clicks, as researchers of the Saarland University's Intel Visual ...

Sophia Antipolis, Wednesday 22 February 2012: The next Joint European CVD Prevention Guidelines, scheduled for publication later this year at EuroPRevent 2012, will be shorter, tighter and supported by fewer references. The aim, says Professor Joep Perk, Chairperson of the Task Force of the fifth edition, is a set of guidelines whose recommendations can be readily applied and whose evidence is unequivocal. "If we had picked up where we left off with the fourth edition guidelines, we'd have ended up with a 150-page document and 2000 references," says Perk. "And with that ...

The offspring of women who were given micronutrient supplements (minerals needed in small quantities, such as iron, iodine and vitamin A) before they became pregnant had gene modifications at birth as well as when they were tested at 9 months. The changes to the genes, called methylation, have previously been associated with the development of the immune system, although this study did not provide direct evidence that the activity of these genes has changed. The research, funded by the BBSRC, was published today in the journal Human Molecular Genetics in advance online ...

An international research, involving the participation of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), provides a new perspective on the jellyfish proliferation in world's oceans. This phenomenon has noticeably impacted on beaches around the world in recent years and has provoked the concerns of fishermen and bathers. However, according to the group of experts leading this new research, there are no "conclusive evidences" that point to global increase in jellyfish population. The news rise in Mass Media on jellyfish blooms and the discrepancies in climate and science ...

Criminal gangs are increasingly using the internet to market life-threatening counterfeit medicines and some have even turned up in legitimate outlets such as pharmacies, according to a review led by Dr Graham Jackson, editor of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice, and published in the March edition. Latest estimates suggest that global sales of counterfeit medicines are worth more than $75 billion, having doubled in just five years between 2005 and 2010. Numerous studies have also reported large numbers of websites supplying prescription only drugs without ...

Texting while driving increases the likelihood of a car accident or crash. The Alaska legislature passed a law in 2008 that it thought made texting and driving a crime, but the ambiguous language has raised questions from judges across the state. A bill has been introduced to clarify the language and make it clear that texting while driving is prohibited in Alaska. The problem with the law is how it described texting. It currently states: "A person commits the crime of driving with a screen device operating if the person is driving a motor vehicle, a the vehicle ...

Researchers from the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) have studied for the first time the response of human NK cells (Natural Killer) against porcine chondrocytes (cartilage cells). The results of the research, published in The Journal of Immunology, indicate that these cells, characteristic of the innate immune system, play an important role in the rejection of xenotransplantation (transplantation from another species) of porcine chondrocytes. NK cells Together with neutrophils and macrophages, NK cells are part of the first line of cellular defence ...

Researchers from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU, Spain) have been the first to discover the presence of certain aldehydes in food, which are believed to be related to some neurodegenerative diseases and some types of cancer. These toxic compounds can be found in some oils, such as sunflower oil, when heated at a suitable temperature for frying. "It was known that at frying temperature, oil releases aldehydes that pollute the atmosphere and can be inhaled, so we decided to research into whether these remain in the oil after they are heated, and they do" ...

Sudden cardiac death is a risk for patients with heart failure because the calcium inside their heart cells is not properly controlled and this can lead to an irregular heartbeat. New findings published in PLoS ONE, which reveal mechanisms that underlie this life-threatening risk, provide new possibilities for fighting it. The study, led by researchers from the University of Bristol's School of Physiology and Pharmacology, show how two individual but very similar proteins cooperatively adjust the amount of calcium inside the heart cells, and how this dual regulation may ...

Can animals' survival instincts shed additional light on what we know about human emotion? New York University neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux poses this question in outlining a pioneering theory, drawn from two decades of research, that could lead to a more comprehensive understanding of emotions in both humans and animals. In his essay, which appears in the journal Neuron, LeDoux proposes shifting scientific focus "from questions about whether emotions that humans consciously feel are also present in other animals and towards questions about the extent to which circuits ...

A new study by researchers at The University of Nottingham has proved that assessing family medical history is a significant tool in helping GPs spot patients at high risk of heart disease and its widespread use could save lives. Previous research has suggested that family history can be an indicator of a patient's risk of heart disease but at present family medical details are not systematically collected and used by GPs in cardiovascular risk assessment. This first-ever clinical investigation into systematically collecting family history as part of cardiovascular ...

Amsterdam, February 22, 2012 – Functional foods containing bacteria with beneficial health effects, or probiotics, have long been consumed in Northern Europe and are becoming increasingly popular elsewhere. To be of benefit, however, the bacteria have to survive in the very hostile environment of the digestive tract. A group of scientists from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in Ås, Norway have developed a "model gastric system" for evaluating the survival of bacteria strains in the human digestive system, and determined that some bacteria strains survive better ...