| El Nino unusually active in the late 20th century: Is it because of global warming?  | Reliable prediction of El Nino response to global warming is difficult, as El Nino varies naturally over decades and centuries. Instrumental records are too short to determine whether recent changes are natural or attributable to increased greenhouse gases. An international team of scientists now show that recent El Nino activity is the highest for the past 700 years, possibly a response to global warming. | Read More »  Link between fear and sound perception discovered  | Researchers have discovered in an animal model how fear can increase or decrease the ability to discriminate among sounds depending on context, providing potential new insight into the distorted perceptions of victims of PTSD. | Read More » Different neuronal groups govern right-left alternation when walking  | Scientists have identified the neuronal circuits in the spinal cord of mice that control the ability to produce the alternating movements of the legs during walking. The study demonstrates that two genetically-defined groups of nerve cells are in control of limb alternation at different speeds of locomotion, and thus that the animals' gait is disturbed when these cell populations are missing. | Read More » The quantum secret to alcohol reactions in space  | Chemists have discovered that an 'impossible' reaction at cold temperatures actually occurs with vigor, which could change our understanding of how alcohols are formed and destroyed in space. | Read More » Is that bacteria dead yet? Nano and laser technology packed into small device tests antibiotic treatment in minutes  | Researchers have built a matchbox-sized device that can test for the presence of bacteria in a couple of minutes, instead of up to several weeks. This might be a crucial medical tool especially for resistant strains. | Read More » Genomic atlas of gene switches in plants provides roadmap for crop research  | What allows certain plants to survive freezing and thrive in the Canadian climate, while others are sensitive to the slightest drop in temperature? Those that flourish activate specific genes at just the right time -- but the way gene activation is controlled remains poorly understood. | Read More » Diamond catalyst shows promise in breaching age-old barrier  | In the world, there are a lot of small molecules people would like to get rid of, or at least convert to something useful. Think carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas most responsible for far-reaching effects on global climate. Nitrogen is another ubiquitous small-molecule gas that can be transformed into the valuable agricultural fertilizer ammonia. Plants perform the chemical reduction of atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia as a matter of course, but for humans to do that in an industrial setting, a necessity for modern agriculture, requires subjecting nitrogen to massive amounts of energy under high pressure. Now a new method may make a big difference. | Read More » Liver protein crucial for pregnancy  | A protein first shown to function in the liver plays a crucial role in pregnancy in mice and has a key role in the human menstrual cycle, according to researchers. | Read More » Cancer is a result of a default cellular 'safe mode,' physicist proposes  | With death rates from cancer have remained largely unchanged over the past 60 years, a physicist is trying to shed more light on the disease with a very different theory of its origin that traces cancer back to the dawn of multicellularity more than a billion years ago. | Read More » Intergalactic magnifying glasses could help astronomers map galaxy centers  | Astronomers may have found a new way to map quasars, the energetic and luminous central regions often found in distant galaxies. | Read More » Rocket-launched camera reveals highways and sparkles in the solar atmosphere  | Using an innovative new camera on board a sounding rocket, an international team of scientists have captured the sharpest images yet of the Sun's outer atmosphere. The team discovered fast-track 'highways' and intriguing 'sparkles' that may help answer a long-standing solar mystery. | Read More » Long-term cannabis use may blunt the brain's motivation system  | Long-term cannabis users tend to produce less dopamine, a chemical in the brain linked to motivation, a study has found. | Read More » New treatment for schizophrenia?  | Giving a very large dose of famotidine (200 mg daily), sufficient amounts of the drug are able to penetrate the so-called blood-brain barrier to affect the histamine system in the brain. | Read More » Can watching an avatar translate to real-life weight loss?  | An estimated two-thirds of all Americans are overweight or obese and many find it difficult to lose weight and keep it off. They've tried fad diets, exercise programs, diet pills and other methods but the battle continues. Now, a new study suggests that watching an avatar model weight-loss behavior in a virtual community might help some women shed pounds in the real world. | Read More » Climate change: Disequilibrium will become the norm in the plant communities of the future  | Global climate change will induce large changes to the plant communities on Earth, but these will typically occur with major time lags. Many plants will remain long after the climate has become unfavorable -- and many new species can take thousands of years to make an appearance. Humans will play a key role in such disequilibrium dynamics. | Read More » Discovery sheds light on why Alzheimer's drugs rarely help  | New research reveals that the likely culprit behind Alzheimer's has a different molecular structure than current drugs' target -- perhaps explaining why current medications produce little improvement in patients. | Read More » Too much of a good thing? Too many 'healing' cells delay wound healing  | New research shows that wound healing can be delayed because the body produces too many mast cells, which promote healing. Overabundance of these cells causes the overproduction of IL-10, preventing certain white blood cells from reaching the wound. The work may provide better treatments for the elderly with lower extremity skin ulcers, women with upper-extremity wounds following breast cancer surgery, and delayed healing in all skin wounds. | Read More » NASA decommissions its galaxy hunter spacecraft  | NASA has turned off its Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) after a decade of operations in which the venerable space telescope used its ultraviolet vision to study hundreds of millions of galaxies across 10 billion years of cosmic time. | Read More » DNA particles in the blood may help speed detection of coronary artery disease  | DNA fragments in your blood may someday help doctors quickly learn if chest pain means you have narrowed heart arteries, according to a new study. | Read More » Shut down of cell survival process found to influence fate of lung cancer tumors  | New research suggests that inactivation of an essential gene responsible for the cell survival process known as autophagy can suppress the growth of non-small-cell lung cancer tumors and render them more benign. The findings suggest a possible role for autophagy blockers in the treatment of this type of lung cancer, which has a five-year survival rate of only 30 to 50 percent for early-stage disease. | Read More » Tobacco control policies stop people from smoking and save lives, study finds  | Tobacco control measures put in place in 41 countries between 2007 and 2010 will prevent some 7.4 million premature deaths by 2050, according to a new study. | Read More » Observing live gene expression in the body  | Most of our physiological functions fluctuate throughout the day. They are coordinated by a central clock in the brain and by local oscillators, present in virtually every cell. Many molecular gearwheels of this internal clock have just been researched. | Read More » Teaching a computer to play concentration advances security, understanding of the mind  | Computer science researchers have programmed a computer to play the game Concentration (also known as Memory). The work could help improve computer security -- and improve our understanding of how the human mind works. | Read More » Curious mix of precision and brawn in a pouched super-predator  | A bizarre, pouched super-predator that terrorized South America millions of years ago had huge sabre-like teeth but its bite was weaker than that of a domestic cat, new research shows. To achieve a kill Thylacosmilus atrox must have secured and immobilized large prey using its extremely powerful forearms, before inserting the sabre-teeth into the windpipe or major arteries of the neck -- a mix of brute force and delicate precision. | Read More » Rate of temperature change along world's coastlines changed dramatically over past three decades  | Locally, changes in coastal ocean temperatures may be much more extreme than global averages imply. New research highlights some of the distinct regional implications associated with global climate-change. | Read More » Aging stereotypes can hurt older adults' memory  | Simply reminding older adults about stereotypes of aging and forgetfulness exacerbates real memory problems, reveals important new research from the USC Davis School of Gerontology. But the study also reveals a easy way to combat the problem. | Read More » Cloud behavior expands habitable zone of alien planets  | A new study that calculates the influence of cloud behavior on climate doubles the number of potentially habitable planets orbiting red dwarfs, the most common type of stars in the universe. | Read More » Climbing the social ladder is strongly influenced by your grandparents' class  | For the first time, a study has suggested that the position of grandparents in the British class system has a direct effect on which class their grandchildren belong to. | Read More » | |
