New York University researchers have developed a method to shape solid materials using a corn starch solution. The process, devised by researchers in NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Department of Physics, offers a potential technique for material cutting and manufacturing processes. Their work is described in the journal Physical Review Letters. Manufacturers use a variety of methods for shaping solid materials, ranging from laser cutting to high-speed jets of water. While altering the shape of such materials, such as glass, metal, or stone, is ...

BATON ROUGE – Genetic diseases impact millions around the world each and every day. Complex medical conditions with genetic predispositions, such as hypertension, can also weigh heavily on our lives. Susceptibility to hypertension has many genetic components and often goes undiagnosed until a person has signs of advanced disease. Many imagine a day when science will give us the tools to discover how to work with these genetic issues and discover ways to not only diagnose, but to use them to our advantage as individuals. LSU Boyd Professor Mark Batzer and an international ...

NASA's infrared satellite imagery has confirmed that Tomas is intensifying as convection is strengthening and cloud tops within the system are getting colder. Infrared imagery helps scientists detect cold top temperatures within a tropical cyclone, and Tomas' cloud tops have grown colder over the last 24 hours. Tomas showed strong convective activity in his center as indicated by high thunderstorms that were as cold as -63 degrees Fahrenheit. The colder the cloud tops, the higher and stronger the thunderstorms are that power the tropical cyclone. The infrared imagery ...

When it comes to public issues pertaining to science and technology, "talking it out" doesn't seem to work. A new study from North Carolina State University shows that the more people discuss the risks and benefits associated with scientific endeavors, the more entrenched they become in their viewpoint – and the less likely they are to see the merit of other viewpoints. "This research highlights the difficulty facing state and federal policy leaders when it comes to high-profile science and technology issues, such as stem cell research or global warming," says Dr. Andrew ...

A common roadside plant could have the right stuff to become a new source of biofuel, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) studies. Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency, have found that field pennycress yields impressive quantities of seeds whose oil could be used in biodiesel production. Field pennycress belongs to the Brassicaceae family, along with canola, camelina and mustard—other prolific producers of oil-rich seeds. The ARS studies help support USDA's efforts to develop ...

AMES, Iowa – Patricia Thiel of Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory put a box of tissues to the right, a stack of coasters to the middle and a trinket box to the left. "Nature," she said of her table-top illustration, "doesn't want lots of little things." So Thiel grabbed the smaller things and slid them into a single pile next to the bigger tissue box. "Nature wants one big thing all together, like this." Thiel, an Iowa State Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and a faculty scientist for the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, and James Evans, an ...

Washington, DC – November 2, 2010 – Food safety problems can arise at any of multiple stages of food production, and illnesses that result from them are frequently not detected or reported, according to a new report from the American Academy of Microbiology. The report, "Global Food Safety: Keeping Food Safe from Farm to Table," is based on a colloquium convened by the Academy in 2009. Colloquium participants with expertise in microbiology, public health, food science, and economics reviewed the current state of affairs in microbiological food safety around the world. The ...

AUDIO: Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a gene linked to the spread of melanoma of the eye. Although more research is needed, the researchers... Click here for more information. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a gene linked to the spread of eye melanoma. Although more research is needed, the researchers say the discovery is an important step in understanding why some ...

(ST. LOUIS): Botanists at the Missouri Botanical Garden have described eight new plant species collected in the Madidi National Park and surrounding areas located on the eastern slopes of the Andes in northern Bolivia. The new species are from several different genera and families and are published in a recent edition of the Missouri Botanical Garden journal Novon. Missouri Botanical Garden scientists and colleagues from the National Herbarium in La Paz, Bolivia describe Prestonia leco, Passiflora madidiana, Siphoneugena minima, Siphoneugena glabrata, Hydrocotyle apolobambensis, ...

As the Arctic warms, a new cache of resources—snow goose eggs—may help sustain the polar bear population for the foreseeable future. In a new study published in an early online edition of Oikos, researchers affiliated with the Museum show that even large numbers of hungry bears repeatedly raiding nests over many years would have a difficult time eliminating all of the geese because of a mismatch in the timing of bear arrival on shore and goose egg incubation. "There have been statements in popular literature indicating that polar bears can extirpate snow geese quickly ...

Which are the best pieces of pork, what their texture is, how moist they are – the secrets pigs keep from even the most skilled butchers – are about to be revealed, thanks to a sophisticated new technique that has been developed by McGill University researchers in conjunction with Agriculture Canada and the pork industry. "This is about giving industry workers better tools to do their job," explained Dr. Michael Ngadi of McGill's Department of Bioresource Engineering. "Computer-aided analysis of meat will result in higher-quality jobs, optimal production, and exports that ...

It's commonly accepted that we appreciate something more if we have to work hard to get it, and a Johns Hopkins University study bears that out, at least when it comes to food. The study seems to suggest that hard work can even enhance our appreciation for fare we might not favor, such as the low-fat, low calorie variety. At least in theory, this means that if we had to navigate an obstacle course to get to a plate of baby carrots, we might come to prefer those crunchy crudités over the sweet, gooey Snickers bars or Peanut M&Ms more easily accessible via the office vending ...

There are disorders and conditions that entail increased itching and can be extremely troublesome for those suffering from it. The mechanisms behind itching are not well understood today. For one thing, what is it about scratching that relieves itching? In the current study, which was performed on mice, the research team led by Professor Klas Kullander at the Department of Neuroscience examined the nerve cells that transfer heat pain. When these nerve cells had lost its capacity to signal, the mice reacted less to heat, as expected, but surprisingly they also started ...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The University of Maryland-led EPOXI mission successfully flew by comet Hartley 2 at 10 a.m. EDT today, and the spacecraft has begun returning images. Hartley 2 is the fifth comet nucleus visited by any spacecraft and the second one visited by the Deep Impact spacecraft. Scientists and mission controllers are studying never-before-seen images of Hartley 2 appearing on their computer terminal screens. See images at: http://epoxi.umd.edu/ "We are all holding our breath to see what discoveries await us in the observations near closest approach," said ...

Quebec City, November 4, 2010—A team of Université Laval and Danisco researchers has just unlocked the secret of bacteria's immune system. The details of the discovery, which may eventually make it possible to prevent certain bacteria from developing resistance to antibiotics, are presented in today's issue of the scientific journal Nature. The team led by Professor Sylvain Moineau of Université Laval's Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Bioinformatics showed that this mechanism, called CRISPR/Cas, works by selecting foreign DNA segments and inserting them ...

Can you forge an emotional bond with a brand so strong that, if forced to buy a competitor's product, you suffer separation anxiety? According to a new study from the USC Marshall School of Business, the answer is yes. In fact, that bond can be strong enough that consumers are willing to sacrifice time, money, energy and reputation to maintain their attachment to that brand. "Brand Attachment and Brand Attitude Strength: Conceptual and Empirical Differentiation of Two Critical Brand Equity Drivers," a study published in the November issue of the Journal of Marketing, ...

Menlo Park, Calif.—Calcium regulates many critical processes within the body, including muscle contraction, the heartbeat, and the release of hormones. But too much calcium can be a bad thing. In excess, it can lead to a host of diseases, such as severe muscle weakness, a fatal reaction to anesthesia or sudden cardiac death. Now, using intense X-rays from the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, researchers have determined the detailed structure of a key part of the ryanodine receptor, a ...

Nanoparticles could help smuggle drugs into the gut, according to a study published this month in the International Journal of Nanotechnology. There are several drugs that would have more beneficial therapeutic effects if they could be targeted at absorption by the lower intestine. However, in order to target the colon for treating colon cancer for instance, medication delivered by mouth must surmount several barriers including stomach acidity, binding to mucus layers, rapid clearance from the gut, and premature uptake by cells higher up the gastrointestinal tract. Being ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In a major new study announced today by the National Cancer Institute, researchers including Brown University biostatistian Constantine Gatsonis and his colleagues found that screening for lung cancer using helical CT scanning reduced lung cancer deaths by 20 percent compared to using chest X-rays. "The findings we're announcing today offer the first definitive evidence for the effectiveness of helical CT screening smokers for lung cancer " said Gatsonis, a lead biostatistician in the study and director of the American College of ...

A study funded by the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association, in collaboration with the Medical Research Council (MRC), has identified a common signature of nerve damage in the brains of MND patients. The study's exciting findings have been published in the prestigious journal Neurology (2 November 2010). These are the first results to be published from the ongoing Oxford Study for Biomarkers in MND/ALS (BioMOx). MND research is being held back by the lack of an early diagnostic test and predictable markers of the progression of the disease – biomarkers. Patients ...

Most people are familiar with the concept that sentences have syntax. A verb, a subject, and an object come together in predictable patterns. But actions have syntax, too; when we watch someone else do something, we assemble their actions to mean something, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "There are oceans and oceans of work on how we understand languages and how we interpret the things other people say," says Matthew Botvinick of Princeton University, who cowrote the paper with his ...

The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres (JGR-D), and Journal of Geophysical Research - Earth Surface (JGR-F). 1. Exploring climate patterns linking stratosphere, lower atmosphere Roughly every 28 months, the zonal winds in the stratosphere at the equator cycle from easterly to westerly and then back to easterly. Known to atmospheric scientists as the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO), these shifting wind patterns result when the energy from ...

November 4, 2010 – (BRONX, NY) -- A team of scientists has found a way to eliminate a debilitating side effect associated with one of the main chemotherapy drugs used for treating colon cancer. The strategy used in their preclinical research—inhibiting an enzyme in bacteria of the digestive tract—could allow patients to receive higher and more effective doses of the drug, known as CPT-11 or Irinotecan. The study, spearheaded by scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and involving collaborators at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University ...

Scientists have long known that large volcanic explosions can affect the weather by spewing particles that block solar energy and cool the air. Some suspect that extended "volcanic winters" from gigantic eruptions helped kill off dinosaurs and Neanderthals. In the summer following Indonesia's 1815 Tambora eruption, frost wrecked crops as far away as New England, and the 1991 blowout of the Philippines' Mount Pinatubo lowered average global temperatures by 0.7 degrees F--enough to mask the effects of greenhouse gases for a year or so. Now, in research funded by the ...

Clement Loo, a University of Cincinnati doctoral student in the philosophy program, was one of the featured researchers at the biennial meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association Nov. 4-6 in Montreal, Quebec. The association promotes research, teaching and free discussion of issues in the philosophy of science. Loo presented research themed around a Nov. 4 session on biology, evolution and selection. His paper was titled, "Invasive Species and Evaluating the Relative Significance of the Shifting Balance Theory." The paper focused on the R.A. Fisher and Sewall ...