Science Daily

Next Stop: The Fourth Dimension, With Large Hadron Collider Experiments

How did the universe come to be? What is it made of? What is mass? Can science prove that there are other dimensions? We may have answers soon. On September 10, 2008, the new CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is scheduled to turn on. The first high-energy collisions are expected to take place in October 2008. Scientists are calling it the largest experiment in the world. (read more)

Changes To Embryonic Stem Cells Caused By Down Syndrome Revealed

Scientists investigating the mechanisms of Down syndrome have revealed the earliest developmental changes in embryonic stem cells caused by an extra copy of human chromosome 21 -- the aberrant inheritance of which results in the condition. (read more)

Tiny Gold Clusters Are Top-notch Catalysts

Using a pair of scanning transmission electron microscopy instruments for which spherical aberration is corrected, researchers have for the first time achieved state-of-the-art resolution of gold nanocrystals absorbed onto iron oxide surfaces that can catalyzed a variety of reactions, including the oxidation of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide. (read more)

Stem Cell Transplantation Benefits Mice With Childhood Motor Neuron Disease

The motor neuron disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is the second most common genetic disorder leading to death in childhood. There is currently no cure for SMA, but some clinicians and researchers consider stem cell transplantation as a potential therapeutic strategy. And now, work using a mouse model of SMA suggests that spinal cord neural stem cells might be a possible treatment for individuals with SMA. (read more)

Changes In Urine Could Lead To BSE Test For Live Animals

Researchers have demonstrated that protein levels in urine samples can indicate both the presence and progress of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy disease in cattle. The scientists hope that their discovery might lead to the development of a urine-based test that could prevent the precautionary slaughter of many animals as now occurs when the disease is detected. (read more)

Functional Food – Delicious And Healthy

Linseed is said to protect against cancer – but not everybody likes the taste. Researchers have now isolated the valuable components of the flax seeds. Incorporated in bread, cakes or dressings, they support the human organism without leaving an unpleasant aftertaste. (read more)

As Easy As 1, 2, 3: Number Sense Correlates With Test Scores

Knowing how precisely a high school freshman can estimate the number of objects in a group gives you a good idea how well he has done in math as far back as kindergarten. (read more)

New 'Trick' Allows HIV To Overcome A Barrier To Infection

Researchers have discovered a new 'trick' that allows HIV to overtake resting T cells that are normally highly resistant to HIV infection -- the binding of the virus to the surface of those cells sends a signal that breaks down the cells' internal skeleton, a structure that otherwise may present a significant barrier to infection. (read more)

Smoke Smudges Mexico City's Air, Chemists Identify Sources

Mexico City once topped lists of places with the worst air pollution in the world. Although efforts to curb emissions have improved the situation, tiny particles called aerosols still clog the air. Now, atmospheric scientists have sorted through the pall that hangs over the city to precisely identify aerosols that make up the haze and chart daily patterns of changes to the mix. (read more)

Cholesterol Drugs Lower Risk Of Stroke For Elderly, Too

Elderly people who take a cholesterol drug after a stroke or mini-stroke lower their risk of having another stroke just as much as younger people in the same situation, according to new research. (read more)

Role Of Aerosols In Climate Change Examined

It appears that aerosol effects on clouds can induce large changes in precipitation patterns, which in turn may change not only regional water resources, but also may change the regional and global circulation systems that constitute the Earth's climate. A group of scientists have proposed a new framework to account more accurately for the effects of aerosols on precipitation in climate models. (read more)

Child Safety Seats And Lap-and-shoulder Belts Effective In Preventing Serious Injury, Study Suggests

Study reveals that lap-and-shoulder seat belts perform as well as child safety seats in preventing serious injury. For young children, all states currently require the use of child safety seats, and the minimum age and weight requirements to graduate to seat belts has been increasing over time. A new study reveals that lap-and-shoulder seat belts perform as well as child safety seats in preventing serious injury. (read more)

Lightweight And Long-legged Males Go The Distance For Sex

A study of giant cricket-like insects suggests that sexual selection for smaller, more mobile males could be responsible for some of the impressive sexual difference in body size in this species and may explain other species where males are smaller than females. (read more)

You Can Be Replaced: Immune Cells Compensate For Defective DNA Repair Factor

A new mouse model has provided some surprising insight into XLF, a molecule that helps to repair lethal DNA damage. The research suggests that although XLF shares many properties with well known DNA repair factors, certain cells of the immune system possess an unexpected compensatory mechanism that that can take over for nonfunctional XLF. (read more)

Trichoplax Genome Sequenced: 'Rosetta Stone' For Understanding Evolution

Molecular and evolutionary biologists have produced the full genome sequence of Trichoplax, one of nature's most primitive multicellular organisms, providing a new insight into the evolution of all higher animals. (read more)

Change In HER2 Status Found After Treating Breast Cancer Patients With Herceptin

Researchers have discovered that when treated with Herceptin prior to surgery, 50 percent of HER2 positive, breast cancer patients showed no signs of disease at the time of surgery. However, of those women who had residual disease, about one-third had tumors that converted from HER2 positive to HER 2 negative status -- possibly indicating a resistance to the targeted therapy. (read more)

New Evidence On The Robustness Of Metabolic Networks

Biological systems evolve in ways that increase their fitness for survival amidst environmental fluctuations and internal errors. Now researchers have found new evidence that evolution has produced cell metabolisms that are especially well suited to handle potentially harmful changes like gene deletions and mutations. The team developed a mathematical model, which could be useful in bioengineering, medicine and the design of synthetic networks, describing the cascading failure phenomenon as a percolation-like process. (read more)

Age, Income And Marital Status: Socio-demographic Factors Influence Costs Of Back Pain

It is well-known that back pain belongs to the most frequent health problems in the industrial nations and, it is also well-known that it is the cause of considerable costs for health insurance schemes and the economy. Researchers have now scrutinized socio-demographic variables of patients as potential cost-influencing parameters. (read more)

Atomic Structure Of The Mammalian 'Fatty Acid Factory' Determined

Mammalian fatty acid synthase is one of the most complex molecular synthetic machines in human cells. It is also a promising target for the development of anti-cancer and anti-obesity drugs and the treatment of metabolic disorders. Now researchers have determined the atomic structure of a mammalian fatty acid synthase. (read more)

How STDs Increase The Risk Of Becoming Infected With HIV

Individuals who have a sexually transmitted disease and women with yeast and bacterial vaginal infections have an increased risk of becoming infected with HIV if exposed to the virus through sexual contact. New research has provided a new explanation as to how and why STDs have this effect. (read more)

Last-ever Look At ESA's Gravity Satellite GOCE

As preparations for the launch of GOCE Sept. 10 continue on schedule, an important milestone has just been achieved as engineers say farewell to the satellite as it is encapsulated in the two half-shells of the launcher's fairing. (read more)

AMD and Vision Loss: Low-Luminance Study Yields a New Predictive Tool

Scientists have discovered a simple and inexpensive way to predict the rapid loss of visual acuity, the ability to see detail, in “dry” AMD patients. (read more)

Driving The Future Of In-vehicle ICT

Information and communications systems in road vehicles are progressing steadily, but the research community behind these developments remains fragmented. Now a European initiative has linked key knowledge centers and is paving the way for the next generation of ‘joined up’ intelligent vehicle research. (read more)

Free Drug Samples May End Up Costing Uninsured More

Free drug samples provided to physicians by pharmaceutical companies could actually be costing uninsured patients more in the long run, according to a new study. (read more)

Bad Sign For Global Warming: Thawing Permafrost Holds Vast Carbon Pool

Permafrost blanketing the northern hemisphere contains more than twice the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, making it a potentially mammoth contributor to global climate change depending on how quickly it thaws (read more)

Scientists Identify Genetic Link That May Neutralize HIV

A genetic target may provide a significant new opportunity for vaccine or therapeutic development. Scientists have uncovered new evidence that strengthens the link between a host-cell gene called Apobec3 and the production of neutralizing antibodies to retroviruses. The finding adds a new dimension to the set of possible explanations for why most people who are infected with HIV do not make neutralizing antibodies that effectively fight the virus. (read more)

Artificial Meadows And Robot Spiders Reveal Secret Life Of Bees

Many animals learn to avoid being eaten by predators. Now ecologists have discovered that bumblebees can even learn to outwit color-changing crab spiders. Bumblebees learn to avoid camouflaged predators by sacrificing foraging speed for predator detection, according to new research. (read more)

Defibrillators Save Lives, Don't Diminish Quality Of Life, Researchers Find

Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators reduce the risk of death from sudden cardiac arrest among patients with heart failure, and they do so without significantly altering a person's quality of life, say researchers from Duke University Medical Center. (read more)

A Light Bulb And A Few Chemicals: Scientists Find A Way To Help Make New Reactions

Scientists have discovered a way of stimulating organic molecules that they expect will prompt researchers to create materials from new kinds of chemical reactions. The method of catalysis, when used, could lead to groundbreaking kinds of drugs and agricultural chemicals and will provide a shortcut to standard multi-step methods of chemical production. (read more)

Sexologists Can Infer A Woman's History of Orgasms By The Way She Walks

A new study found that trained sexologists could infer a woman's history of vaginal orgasm by observing the way she walks. (read more)

Fatal Protein Interactions May Explain Neurological Diseases

Researchers have investigated how proteins involved in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease interact to form unique complexes. Their findings explain why Alzheimer's patients might develop Parkinson's, and vice versa. The new and unique molecular structures they discovered can now be used to model and develop new drugs for these devastating neurological diseases. (read more)

Cardiac Cell Transplant Studies Show Promise In Cardiac Tissue Repair

Two studies involving cardiac cell transplantation have shown an evolving role for bone marrow cells in cardiac cell therapy. The implantation of heart muscle cells and subsequent restoration of cardiac function was enhanced when bone marrow cells were implanted along with the cardiomyocytes. Researchers also found that mesenchymal stem cells derived from bone marrow provided an advantage over fetal amniotic fluid derived cells when differentiating into appropriate cells for cardiac cell transplantation and repair. (read more)

Major Flooding Risk Could Span Decades After Chinese Earthquake

Up to 20 million people, thousands of whom are already displaced from their homes following the devastating Chinese earthquake, are at increased risk from flooding and major power shortages in the massive Sichuan Basin over the next few decades and possibly centuries. A geographer from Durham University makes the observations on returning from carrying out investigative fieldwork in the China earthquake zone. (read more)

What A Sleep Study Can Reveal About Fibromyalgia

Research engineers and sleep medicine specialists from two Michigan universities have joined technical and clinical hands to put innovative technologies to work in the sleep lab. (read more)

Plant-parasitic Nematode Genome Sequenced

The annotated genome of one of the most destructive nematodes -- Meloidogyne incognita -- the southern root-knot nematode, has just been published in the journal Nature Biotechnology. (read more)

Chemobrain Treatment? Potential Remedy For The 'Mental Fog' In Cancer Patients

Cancer patients have complained for years about the mental fog known as chemobrain. Now in animal studies, researchers have discovered that injections of N-acetyl cysteine, an antioxidant, can prevent the memory loss that breast cancer chemotherapy drugs sometimes induce. . (read more)

Long-held Assumptions Of Flightless Bird Evolution Challenged By New Research

Large flightless birds of the southern continents -- African ostriches, Australian emus and cassowaries, South American rheas and the New Zealand kiwi -- do not share a common flightless ancestor as once believed. (read more)

Exercise Reduces Damage After Therapeutic Irradiation To The Brain

Researchers has shown for the first time that exercise helps restore stem cell growth and improves behavior in young mice that suffered damage to the brain induced by a clinically relevant dose of radiation. The researchers believe that these results are also applicable to children that have suffered damage due to radiotherapy of brain tumors. (read more)

A Virtuous Cycle: Safety In Numbers For Bicycle Riders

It seems paradoxical but the more people ride bicycles on our city streets, the less likely they are to be injured in traffic accidents. International research reveals that as cycling participation increases, a cyclist is far less likely to collide with a motor vehicle or suffer injury and death - and what's true for cyclists is true for pedestrians. (read more)

Add-On Therapy Improves Depressive Symptoms In Bipolar Disorder

Lingering depression is a serious and common problem in bipolar disorder, and does not resolve well with existing treatments. Because individuals with both depression and bipolar disorder experience a glutathione deficiency, an antioxidant that protects cells from toxins, researchers sought to evaluate whether N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), an over-the-counter supplement that increases brain glutathione, might help alleviate depressive symptoms. (read more)

Oxidative Stress: Mechanism Of Cell Death Clarified

Scientists have decrypted the molecular mechanism through which the death of cells is caused by oxidative stress. This knowledge opens novel perspectives to systematically explore the benefit of targeted therapeutic interventions in the cure of aging and stress-related degenerative diseases. (read more)

Social Psychology Can Be Used To Understand Nuclear Restraint

Social psychology is the study of how people and groups interact. A new study shows how social psychology can help us better understand the puzzle of nuclear restraint and uses the case of Japan to illustrate social psychology on nuclear decision-making. (read more)

New Once-a-week Treatment For Type 2 Diabetes Developed

Researchers have reported that a new once-weekly treatment for type 2 diabetes could replace the more common twice-daily injection. (read more)

Living Sensor Can Warn Of Arsenic Pollution

Scientists studying arsenic pollution have discovered a living sensor that can spot contamination. They have also discovered new bacteria that can clean up arsenic spills even in previously untreatable cold areas. (read more)

Milk May Help Bacteria Survive Against Low Levels Of Antibiotics

Milk may help prevent potentially dangerous bacteria like Staphylococcus from being killed by antibiotics used to treat animals. (read more)

Rattlesnake-type Poisons Used By Superbug Bacteria To Beat Our Defenses

Colonies of hospital superbugs can make poisons similar to those found in rattlesnake venom to attack our bodies' natural defenses, according to new research. (read more)

A New 'Pyrex' Nanoparticle

Researchers in Switzerland have developed a new method to fabricate borosilicate glass nanoparticles. Used in microfluidic systems, these "Pyrex"-like nanoparticles are more stable when subjected to temperature fluctuations and harsh chemical environments than currently used nanoparticles made of polymers or silica glass. Their introduction could extend the range of potential nanoparticle applications in biomedical, optical and electronic fields. (read more)

How Plants Fine Tune Their Natural Chemical Defenses

Even closely related plants produce their own natural chemical cocktails, each set uniquely adapted to the individual plant's specific habitat. Comparing antifungals produced by tobacco and henbane, researchers have discovered that only a few mutations in a key enzyme are enough to shift the whole output to an entirely new product mixture. (read more)

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