The first scientific results from Europe's Planck spacecraft were released at a press briefing today in Paris. The findings, focusing on the coldest objects in the Universe - both within our galaxy and also out to the most distant reaches of space - include an exciting variety of astronomical finds, from massive galaxy clusters to new, unidentified objects. Planck is a flagship mission of the UK Space Agency, which funds the UK's involvement in both of Planck's scientific instruments. Astronomers from around the UK are now heavily involved in the operation of Planck's ...

PROVIDENCE, RI – Does obesity tend to "cluster" among young adults? And if so, what impact does it have on both their weight and weight-related behaviors? That's what researchers from The Miriam Hospital's Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center set out to answer to better understand how social influences affect both weight status and weight loss intentions in this difficult-to-reach age group. According to the study, published online by the journal Obesity, overweight and obese young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 were more likely to have overweight romantic ...

Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced doctor who claimed a link between MMR and autism, planned secret businesses intended to make huge sums of money, in Britain and America, from his now-discredited allegations. The Wakefield scheme is exposed today in the second part of a BMJ series of special reports, "Secrets of the MMR scare", by investigative journalist Brian Deer. Last week we revealed the scientific fraud behind the appearance of a link between the vaccine and autism. Now Deer follows the money. Drawing on investigations and documents obtained under the Freedom of ...

The drugs include traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) as well as new generation anti-inflammatory drugs, known as COX-2 inhibitors. The researchers say that doctors and patients need to be aware that prescription of any anti-inflammatory drug needs to take cardiovascular risk into account. NSAIDs have been the cornerstone of managing pain in patients with osteoarthritis and other painful conditions. In 2004, the COX-2 inhibitor rofecoxib was withdrawn from the market after a trial found that the drug increased the risk of cardiovascular disease. ...

The blood test could mean that 98% of invasive procedures could be avoided, say the authors. The test uses the latest DNA technology to analyse genetic components in the mother's blood that indicate whether the foetus has Down's. Down's syndrome or trisomy 21 occurs in around 1 in 800 births and older women are at higher risk. Women in high risk groups tend to undergo a combination of scans and hormone level tests in order to determine if they need to have an invasive test such as amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling. The latter tests take samples of genetic ...

Cambridge, MASS. -- Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women's Hospital have shown that they can deliver the cancer drug cisplatin much more effectively and safely in a form that has been encapsulated in a nanoparticle targeted to prostate tumor cells and is activated once it reaches its target. Using the new particles, the researchers were able to successfully shrink tumors in mice, using only one-third the amount of conventional cisplatin needed to achieve the same effect. That could help reduce cisplatin's potentially severe side effects, which include kidney damage ...

Tom Jefferson and colleagues from the Cochrane Group argue that the current system for assessing the safety and effectiveness of drugs, based on published trial data only, is "wholly inadequate" and "ethically dubious." They propose a new approach that would allow in-depth scrutiny of the complete set of trial data for a new drug. Their call comes after they reviewed the evidence for the antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu), and were unable to find sufficient published data to support the conclusion that oseltamivir reduces complications in healthy adults. As a result, ...

CHICAGO—Hearing loss can affect anyone, at any time. But it can be especially frightening for someone who suddenly starts to lose his hearing during adulthood. Tom Groves, 77, first noticed his diminishing hearing when he was in his early 40s. He was unable to hold conversations with large groups of people; found it nearly impossible to socialize in high-background noise environments like restaurants; and couldn't enjoy radio, TV and movies unless they were captioned. Now, Groves is hearing much better than he has in 30 years, thanks to an experimental hybrid cochlear implant. ...

Gender stereotypes suggest that men are usually tough and women are usually tender. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds these stereotypes have some real bodily truth for our brains; when people look at a gender-neutral face, they are more likely to judge it as male if they're touching something hard and as female if they're touching something soft. Several studies have found recently that we understand many concepts through our bodies. For example, weight conveys importance; just giving someone ...

"Vive la difference!" Seeing foreigners as foreign encourages local coworkers to assist them finds a Rotman study. Toronto - Whether it's a company with local and ex-pat employees, countries in need of aid, or the elderly interacting with the young, a new research paper to be published in the journal Psychological Science says recognizing diversity can actually encourage people to help each other instead of sparking conflict. "The standard assumption has been that group-based differences serve as the basis for distrust, disagreement, or dispute," says Geoffrey Leonardelli, ...

(Boston) – Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), in collaboration with colleagues at Lahey Clinic and from Denmark and Germany, have found that 5a-reductase inhibitors (5a-RIs), while improving urinary symptoms in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and possible hair loss prevention, produces significant adverse effects in some individuals including loss of libido, erectile dysfunction (ED), ejaculatory dysfunction and potential depression. These findings, which currently appear on-line in Journal of Sexual Medicine, suggest that extreme ...

New research suggests eating vegetables gives you a healthy tan. The study, led by Dr Ian Stephen at The University of Nottingham, showed that eating a healthy diet rich in fruit and vegetables gives you a more healthy golden glow than the sun. The research, which showed that instead of heading for the sun the best way to look good is to munch on carrots and tomatoes, has been published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour. Dr Ian Stephen, from the School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus, led the research as part of his PhD at the University ...

Montreal, January 10, 2011 – A research team from the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and McGill University has demonstrated that private rooms in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) play a key role in reducing hospital infections like C-difficile. The study, published today in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, also suggests that length of stay would be shorter and this could lead to cost savings to the healthcare system. Infection control in hospitals is a worldwide health concern that can have a serious impact on patient morbidity, mortality and the cost of ...

Many futurists envision a world in which polymer membranes with molecular-sized channels are used to capture carbon, produce solar-based fuels, or desalinating sea water, among many other functions. This will require methods by which such membranes can be readily fabricated in bulk quantities. A technique representing a significant first step down that road has now been successfully demonstrated. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have developed a solution-based ...

Cancer researchers at The Peggy and Charles Stephenson Oklahoma Cancer Center have found a way to stop early stage pancreatic cancer in research models – a result that has far-reaching implications in chemoprevention for high-risk patients. The research already has sparked a clinical trial in California, and the FDA-approved drug, Gefitinib, should be in clinical trials at OU's cancer center and others nationwide in about a year. The research appears in the latest issue of Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. C.V. Rao, ...

The results of a study recently published in the journal Biology Letters indicate that giant pandas need old-growth forests as much as bamboo forests. This work, which was completed through the collaborative efforts of scientists from the Chinese Academy of Science, San Diego Zoo Global, China West Normal University, China Wildlife Conservation Association and the Sichuan Forestry Department, could assist conservationists in creating strategic plans that help conserve this critically endangered bear species. "In this study we show that pandas are associated with old-growth ...

A worldwide research consortium that includes the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center has proven that a new drug is more effective and easier to use than current medicines in the prevention of blood clots following hip replacement surgery. The results reveal a better way to prevent the formation of blood clots in the deep veins of the legs – a condition known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT). The blood clots become life-threatening pulmonary embolisms (PE) when they break free and travel to the lungs. Gary Raskob, Ph.D., an internationally recognized DVT expert ...

Montreal, 11 January 2011—What is the future for North America's environment? Much of the answer is up to us. A new report examines the major forces and underlying trends likely to shape the environment of North America in 2030 and outlines nine areas where decisions today will affect our environmental future in varying degrees. In fact, while the pressures on North America's environment will continue to increase over the next 20 years, the report emphasizes that it would be a mistake to assume that our choices today can't influence environmental quality down the road. North ...

Analysis by a UCLA-led team of scientists has confirmed the discovery of the oldest complete wine production facility ever found, including grape seeds, withered grape vines, remains of pressed grapes, a rudimentary wine press, a clay vat apparently used for fermentation, wine-soaked potsherds, and even a cup and drinking bowl. The facility, which dates back to roughly 4100 B.C. — 1,000 years before the earliest comparable find — was unearthed by a team of archaeologists from Armenia, the United States and Ireland in the same mysterious Armenian cave complex where an ...

Adding to the national debate on the state of dental research in U.S. dental schools, an article released today titled "Total NIH Support to U.S. Dental Schools, 2005-2009", published in the International and American Associations for Dental Research's Journal of Dental Research, authors J.A. Lipton and D.F. Kinane conclude that the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) has played a diminishing role in funding research at U.S. dental schools between 2005 and 2009. Utilizing the online NIH RePORT, comprehensive award data were obtained for U.S. ...

Employees who have to maintain a neutral disposition while they are on the clock tend to spend more energy to meet that requirement; therefore, they have less energy to devote to work tasks, according to new research from Rice University, the University of Toronto and Purdue University. The researchers found that workers who must avoid appearing either overly positive or negative -- such as journalists, health care professionals, social workers, lawyers and law enforcement officers -- suppress expressions of emotion more than workers in other service-oriented professions, ...

Researchers at North Carolina State University have created the first coils of silicon nanowire on a substrate that can be stretched to more than double their original length, moving us closer to incorporating stretchable electronic devices into clothing, implantable health-monitoring devices, and a host of other applications. "In order to create stretchable electronics, you need to put electronics on a stretchable substrate, but electronic materials themselves tend to be rigid and fragile," says Dr. Yong Zhu, one of the researchers who created the new nanowire coils ...

University of British Columbia researchers are part of European Space Agency's Plank satellite mission that is revealing thousands of "exotic" astronomical objects, including extremely cold dust clouds, galaxies with powerful nuclei, and giant clusters of galaxies. The international collaboration of scientists from 15 countries is presenting more than 25 scientific papers today in Paris, France, on the first results from the Planck mission. Launched in 2009, the Planck satellite is probing the entire sky at microwave wavelengths from 0.35 millimetre to one centimetre. ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University researchers have found a genetic mutation that allows a plant to better endure drought without losing biomass, a discovery that could reduce the amount of water required for growing plants and help plants survive and thrive in adverse conditions. Plants can naturally control the opening and closing of stomata, pores that take in carbon dioxide and release water. During drought conditions, a plant might close its stomata to conserve water. By doing so, however, the plant also reduces the amount of carbon dioxide it can take in, ...

In this winter of heavy snows--with more on the way this week--nature's bull's-eye might be Oswego, N.Y., and the nearby Tug Hill Plateau. There the proximity of the Great Lakes whips wind and snow into high gear. Old Man Winter then blows across New York state, burying cities and towns in snowdrifts several feet high. This season, however, something is standing in his way. The Doppler-on-Wheels (DOW), a data-collecting radar dish, is waiting. This month and next, scientists inside the DOW are tracking snowstorms in and around Oswego to learn what drives lake-effect ...