COLLEGE STATION, Nov. 4, 2010 — A centuries-old religious ceremony of an indigenous people in southern Mexico has led to small evolutionary changes in a local species of fish, according to researchers from Texas A&M University. Since before the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the New World, the Zoque people of southern Mexico would venture each year during the Easter season deep into the sulfuric cave Cueva del Azufre to implore their deities for a bountiful rain season. As part of the annual ritual, they release into the cave's waters a distinctive, leaf-bound paste ...

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 4, 2010) – Nine years ago, scientists at Cedars-Sinai's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute detected a subtle shift occurring in the molecular makeup of the most aggressive type of brain tumors, glioblastoma multiforme. With further study, they found that a specific protein called laminin-411 plays a major role in a tumor's ability to build new blood vessels to support its growth and spread. But technology did not exist then to block this protein. Now, employing new drug-engineering technology that is part of an advanced science called nanomedicine, ...

Approximately 60,000 pregnant women are hospitalized each year due to hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), an extreme form of nausea and vomiting that endangers their lives and often forces them to reluctantly terminate their pregnancies. And for women with sisters, mothers and grandmothers on either side of the family who have experienced extreme morning sickness during pregnancy, the risk of HG may be heightened, according to a new study led by researchers from UCLA and the University of Southern California. Researchers traced both the maternal and paternal family histories ...

Irvine, Calif., Nov. 4, 2010 – UC Irvine astronomers, along with scientists across the globe, are discovering hundreds of new galaxies through brighter galaxies in front of them that deflect their faint light back to the massive Herschel telescope. This effect, identified by Albert Einstein a century ago, is known as cosmic gravitational lensing. "I was surprised to learn that Herschel is so good at finding these cosmic lenses," said UCI professor of physics & astronomy Asantha Cooray, lead U.S. author of a paper about the discovery in the Nov. 5 issue of the journal ...

WASHINGTON, DC – A large national study finds that screening current or former heavy smokers with a CT scan can reduce deaths from lung cancers by 20 percent. One potential reason for the reduction is that the scan can pick up tumors at an early stage. The study was conducted by the National Cancer Institute at 33 centers around the country including Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, a part of Georgetown University Medical Center. The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) involved more than 53,000 current and former heavy smokers ages 55 to 74. More than ...

BETHESDA, MD – October 20, 2010 – Thousands of the world's top scientists and clinicians in the human genetics field will convene to present their latest research findings at the American Society of Human Genetics 60th Annual Meeting, which will be held November 2-6, 2010, in Washington, D.C. A number of scientific presentations at this year's meeting will provide information about important new research findings that advance and expand our current understanding of the issues and implications involved in direct-to-consumer and clinical genetic testing. ASHG will host ...

VIDEO: ASHG, Genetic Alliance & WJLA-TV ABC 7 Family Health History Campaign created this public service announcement video: ''Know and Share Your Family Health History.'' For more information about the Talk Health... Click here for more information. BETHESDA, MD – October 22, 2010 – Thousands of the world's top scientists and clinicians in the human genetics field will convene to present their latest research findings at the American Society of Human Genetics 60th Annual ...

November 5, 2010 (OAKLAND, Calif.) – An electronic message sent to physicians the moment they ordered a blood test for elderly patients reduced unnecessary use of the test that is often false-positive for the elderly, according to a paper published in the November edition of American Journal of Managed Care. The D-dimer test, combined with a clinical risking algorithm, can help in the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis (blood clots in veins, otherwise known as DVTs) and pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the lungs). The risk of developing a blood clot in the venous circulation ...

Chapel Hill, NC – One of the most frustrating problems faced by doctors who treat pancreatic cancer is the lack of effective therapeutic options. More than 38,000 people in the United States die of the disease each year, and new drugs and treatments are desperately needed. For almost three decades, scientists and physicians have known that a gene called the KRAS oncogene is mutated in virtually all pancreatic cancers, making it an important target for scientists looking for a way to stop the growth of pancreatic cancer tumors. The problem is that the KRAS gene triggers ...

Overweight children reported more frequent intake of healthy foods such as fruit, vegetables, fish, brown bread and potatoes as well as low-energy cheese and yoghurt compared with normal weight children. This comes from a recent study from researchers at Telemark University College, Norway and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The study showed that: Overweight children drank juice and artificially sweetened soft drinks more often, while the normal weight children drank carbonated drinks and ate unhealthy foods and processed foods such as burgers, sausages, ...

Japanese research group led by Prof. Ryusuke Kakigi and Dr. Emi Nakato (National Institute for Physiological Sciences: NIPS) and Prof. Masami K Yamaguchi (Chuo University) found that the hemispheric differences in the temporal area overlying superior temporal sulcus (STS) when processing positive (happy) and negative (angry) facial expressions in infants. Their finding was reported in NeuroImage. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is an optical imaging technique that can measure changes in the concentrations of oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb), deoxyhemoglobin (deoxy-Hb), and total ...

Most mutations in the genes of the Salmonella bacterium have a surprisingly small negative impact on bacterial fitness. And this is the case regardless whether they lead to changes in the bacterial proteins or not. This is shown by Uppsala University scientists in an article being published today in the prestigious journal Science. The researchers have examined the impact of mutations on the rate of growth of the Salmonella bacterium and show that most mutations have generally very small effects. Moreover the negative effects are of the similar magnitude for changes that ...

From apocalyptic forecasting to estimates of mass extinctions, climate change is a topic which is filled with fearful predictions for the future. In his latest research, published in WIREs Climate Change, historian Matthias Dörries examines the cultural significance of fear and how it became a central presence in current debates over climate change. Climatic change, as represented by the media, often prompts headlines predicting disastrous events, frequently adopting fear laden language including analogies with war and warnings of the imminence or irreversibility of ...

Toronto, Ontario, November 5, 2010 – Even though most adults want to avoid looking older than their actual age, research led by St. Michael's Hospital shows that looking older does not necessarily point to poor health. The study found that a person needed to look at least 10 years older than their actual age before assumptions about their health could be made. "Few people are aware that when physicians describe their patients to other physicians, they often include an assessment of whether the patient looks older than his or her actual age," says Dr. Stephen Hwang, a ...

Evolutionary divergence of humans from chimpanzees likely occurred some 8 million years ago rather than the 5 million year estimate widely accepted by scientists, a new statistical model suggests. The revised estimate of when the human species parted ways from its closest primate relatives should enable scientists to better interpret the history of human evolution, said Robert D. Martin, curator of biological anthropology at the Field Museum, and a co-author of the new study appearing in the journal Systematic Biology. Here is a link to the article: http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2010/11/04/sysbio.syq054.full.html?ijkey=CaQif1LgTAd7xOD&keytype=ref Working ...

HOUSTON -- (Nov. 5, 2010) -- A new study by Rice University bioengineers finds that the workhorse proteins that move cargo inside living cells behave like prima donnas. The protein, called kinesin, is a two-legged molecular machine. Rice's scientists invented tools that could measure the pulling power of kinesin both singly and in pairs, and they report this week in Biophysical Journal that kinesins don't work well together -- in part because they are so effective on their own. "Researchers have been investigating the mechanical properties of individual motor proteins ...

VEHICLES -- Charge on the fly . . . A prototype charging system for electric and hybrid vehicles is helping demonstrate a technology that could one day play a key role in the electrification of America's highways. The bench-scale prototype developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is allowing researchers to quantify the power transfer parameters necessary to wirelessly charge stationary and moving vehicles. "Our laboratory tests have been successful in transmitting greater than 4 kilowatts," said Laura Marlino of the Energy and Transportation Science Division. "This ...

Tomas strengthened to hurricane status and is currently lashing Hispaniola and eastern Cuba today and the GOES-13 satellite provided a visible image of its extensive cloud cover. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite known as GOES-13 captured a visible image of Hurricane Tomas on Nov. 5 at 1331 UTC (9:31 a.m. EDT) centered over the southwestern tip of Haiti. In the image the clouds to the north of Tomas are associated with a cold front off the eastern U.S. coast. GOES satellites are operated by NOAA. The NASA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight ...

Nine years after beginning its unprecedented look at the gateway between Earth's environment and space, not to mention collecting more data on the upper atmosphere than any other satellite, NASA's Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission has been extended again. Before the launch of TIMED, the mesosphere and lower thermosphere/ionosphere -- which help protect us from harmful solar radiation -- had been one of the least explored and understood regions of our environment. "The middle part of the atmosphere was the part we kind of ignored," ...

United States and Japanese researchers have identified a key step in metabolic pathways linked to diabetes and cancer. The study on activation of the protein complex TORC 2 was published online in the journal Current Biology Oct. 28. TORC 2 activates a protein called Akt, which plays a crucial role in how cells respond to insulin, said Kazuo Shiozaki, professor of microbiology in the College of Biological Sciences at UC Davis and senior author on the paper. Normally, insulin triggers fat and muscle cells to take up sugar from the blood. Patients with type II diabetes ...

By tracking the flow of information in a cell preparing to split, Johns Hopkins scientists have identified a protein mechanism that coordinates and regulates the dynamics of shape change necessary for division of a single cell into two daughter cells. The protein, called 14-3-3, sits at an intersection where it integrates converging signals from within the cell and cues cell shape change and, ultimately, the splitting that allows for normal and abnormal cell growth, such as in tumors. In a report published Nov. 9 in Current Biology, the Hopkins team links 14-3-3 directly ...

If you name it, they will use it, according to a team of international researchers who investigated how people perceive the trustworthiness of online technology. In an experiment, participants said they trusted websites, recommendation-providing software and even computers labeled to perform specific functions more than the same Internet tools with general designations, according to S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communications, Penn State. "In general, the attribution of specialization can increase the credibility of a product or any kind of object," Sundar ...

November 5, 2010 -- The devastating 2008 Wenchuan earthquake marks a defining moment for China's earthquake science program. The focus of a special November issue of the prestigious Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA), the M 7.9 earthquake has garnered intense interest among seismologists, allowing the Chinese science community to demonstrate its capability to a global audience. The earthquake produced an enormous disaster, killing more than 80,000 people and leaving more than four million people homeless. Destruction was widespread, though recent ...

Restaurants could play an important role in helping to reduce the growing obesity epidemic by creating reduced-calorie meals, according to Penn State researchers. The researchers surveyed chefs, restaurant owners, and culinary executives from across the country to assess their perceptions of serving healthy foods in restaurants. In the survey, 72 percent of the 432 respondents said they could trim off 10 percent of the calories in meals without customers noticing differences in taste, and 21 percent said they could trim off at least 25 percent of the calories. This ...

The oldest ground-edge stone tool in the world has been discovered in northern Australia by a Monash University researcher and a team of international experts. Evidence for stone tool-use among our earliest hominid ancestors dates to 3.4 million years ago, however, the first use of grinding to sharpen stone tool edges such as axes is clearly associated with modern humans, otherwise known as Homo sapiens sapiens. Monash University archaeologist and member of the team who made the discovery, Dr Bruno David said while there have been reports of much older axes being ...