| Excessive Facebook use can damage relationships, study suggests  | Individuals who use Facebook excessively are far more likely to experience Facebook–related conflict with their romantic partners, which then may cause negative relationship outcomes including emotional and physical cheating, breakup and divorce. | Read More »  Insights into a debilitating brain disease  | From the neurons that enable thought to the keratinocytes that make toenails grow -- a complex canopy of sugar molecules, commonly known as glycans, envelop every living cell in the human body. These complex carbohydrate chains perform a host of vital functions, providing the necessary machinery for cells to communicate, replicate and survive. It stands to reason, then, that when something goes wrong with a person's glycans, something goes wrong with them. | Read More » Quantum teleportation between atomic systems over long distances  | Researchers have been able to teleport information from light to light at a quantum level for several years. In 2006, researchers succeeded in teleporting between light and gas atoms. Now the research group has succeeded in teleporting information between two clouds of gas atoms and to carry out the teleportation -- not just one or a few times, but successfully every single time. | Read More » Molecular Velcro for chromosome stability  | Scientists have functionally dissected the molecular processes that ensure the stability of chromosomes. They show how three proteins interact on the repetitive sequences at the chromosomal ends (the telomeres) to form a powerful protein scaffold required for telomere homeostasis. | Read More » Predicting the future of coral reefs in a changing world  | Scientists have described for the first time the biological process of how corals create their skeletons, which form massive and ecologically vital coral reefs in the world's oceans. They identified specific proteins secreted by corals that precipitate carbonate to form the corals' characteristic skeleton. | Read More » Tumors disable immune cells by using up sugar  | Cancer cells' appetite for sugar may have serious consequences for immune cell function, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have learned. | Read More » Earthquake acoustics can indicate if a massive tsunami is imminent  | Scientists have identified key acoustic characteristics of the 2011 Japan earthquake that indicated it would cause a large tsunami. The technique could be applied worldwide to create an early warning system for massive tsunamis. | Read More » Stalagmites provide new view of abrupt climate events over 100,000 years  | A new set of long-term climate records based on cave stalagmites collected from tropical Borneo shows that the western tropical Pacific responded very differently than other regions of the globe to abrupt climate change events. | Read More » 3 billion-year-old microfossils include plankton  | Spindle-shaped inclusions in 3 billion-year-old rocks are microfossils of plankton that probably inhabited the oceans around the globe during that time, according to scientists. | Read More » How brain circuits can become miswired during development  | Researchers have uncovered a mechanism that guides the exquisite wiring of neural circuits in a developing brain -- gaining unprecedented insight into the faulty circuits that may lead to brain disorders ranging from autism to mental retardation. | Read More » Spooky action put to order: Different types of 'entanglement' classified  | A property known as "entanglement" is a fundamental characteristic of quantum mechanics. Physicists and mathematicians have now shown how different forms of this phenomenon can be efficiently and systematically classified into categories. The method should help to fully exploit the potential of novel quantum technologies. | Read More » Conflict-of-interest restrictions needed to ensure strong FDA review  | A 2012 law that loosened conflict-of-interest restrictions for FDA advisory panels could weaken the agency's review system and could allow more drugs with safety problems to gain market approval, says a new analysis. | Read More » Facebook: A confidence boost for first-gen college students  | Facebook connections can help first-generation college applicants believe in their abilities to both apply to school and excel once they've enrolled, according to a new study. | Read More » Gannets don't eat off each other's plates  | Colonies of gannets maintain vast exclusive fishing ranges despite doing nothing to defend their territory from rival colonies, scientists have discovered. | Read More » Metabolic model of E. coli reveals how bacterial growth responds to temperature change  | Bioengineers have developed a computational model of 1,366 genes in E. coli that includes 3D protein structures and has enabled them to compute the temperature sensitivity of the bacterium's proteins. The study opens the door for engineers to create heat-tolerant microbial strains for production of commodity chemicals, therapeutic proteins and other industrial applications. | Read More » Gene variant may provide novel therapy for several cancer types  | A novel gene variant found in human and animal tissue may be a promising treatment for cancer, including breast and brain cancer. | Read More » Normal molecular pathway affected in poor-prognosis childhood leukemia identified  | Through genetic engineering of laboratory models, researchers have uncovered a vulnerability in the way cancer cells diverge from normal regenerating cells that may help treat children with leukemia. | Read More » Math technique de-clutters cancer-cell data, revealing tumor evolution, treatment leads  | Scientists have developed a mathematical method of simplifying and interpreting genome data bearing evidence of mutations, such as those that characterize specific cancers. | Read More » Astronomers gear up to discover Earth-like planets  | Dust clouds around stars are thought to hide many undiscovered planets with conditions suitable for life, but observations have been hampered by the fact that only the brightest such clouds can be detected with current technology. Astronomers are developing a technique to detect faint dust clouds, many of which might hide Earth-like planets. | Read More » How similar are the gestures of apes and human infants? More than you might suspect  | A new study used naturalistic video data for the first time to compare gestures in a female chimpanzee, bonobo and human infant. | Read More » By trying it all, predatory sea slug learns what not to eat  | Researchers found that a type of predatory sea slug with a simple nervous system has more complex cognitive abilities than previously thought, allowing it to learn the warning cues of dangerous prey and avoid them in the future. | Read More » Rapid change in China brings significant improvements in health  | In China between 1990 and 2010, communicable disease and child mortality decreased while life expectancy increased. But China faces significant challenges. The top five causes of health loss are dietary risks, high blood pressure, tobacco use, ambient air pollution, and household air pollution. Non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer increased in the past 20 years. China has five cancers in its top 15 causes of premature mortality, more than any G20 country. | Read More » The swing of architect genes  | Architect genes are responsible for organizing structures of the body during embryonic development. Some of them, namely the Hox genes, are involved in the formation of forelimbs. They are activated in two successive waves, enabling the formation of the arm, then the hand. Scientists are uncovering the workings of this complex process. | Read More » How young genes gain a toehold on becoming indispensable: Tracking a gene from its birth through to its pathway to purpose and evolutionary importance  | Scientists have, for the first time, mapped a young gene's short, dramatic evolutionary journey to becoming essential, or indispensable. The researchers detail one gene's rapid switch to a new and essential function in the fruit fly, challenging the long-held belief that only ancient genes are important. | Read More » Pollution in Northern Hemisphere helped cause 1980s African drought  | Air pollution in the Northern Hemisphere in the mid-20th century cooled the upper half of the planet and pushed rain bands south, contributing to the prolonged and worsening drought in Africa's Sahel region. Clean air legislation in the 1980s reversed the trend and the drought lessened. | Read More » Studies showing how bird flu viruses could adapt to humans offer surveillance and vaccine strategies  | Bird flu viruses are potentially highly lethal and pose a global threat, but relatively little is known about why certain strains spread more easily to humans than others. Two studies identify mutations that increase the infectivity of H5N1 and H7N9 viruses through improved binding to receptors in the human respiratory tract. The findings offer much-needed strategies for monitoring the emergence of dangerous bird flu strains capable of infecting humans and for developing more effective vaccines. | Read More » Brain imaging study eliminates differences in visual function as a cause of dyslexia  | A new brain imaging study of dyslexia shows that visual system differences do not cause the disorder, but instead are likely a consequence. | Read More » Magpies make decisions faster when humans look at them  | Researchers have found that wild birds appear to "think faster" when humans, and possibly predators in general, are directly looking at them. | Read More » Common genetic disease linked to father's age  | Scientists have unlocked the mystery of why new cases of the genetic disease Noonan syndrome are so common; a mutation that causes the disease disproportionately increases a normal father's production of sperm carrying the disease trait. | Read More » Stranded orcas hold critical clues for scientists  | The development of a standardized killer-whale necropsy system has boosted the complete data from killer-whale strandings from two percent to about 33 percent, according to a recent study. | Read More » Whispering light hears liquids talk  | Researchers have developed optomechanical sensors in which extremely minute forces exerted by light are used to generate and control high-frequency mechanical vibrations of microscale and nanoscale devices that will help unlock vibrational secrets of chemical and biological samples at the nanoscale. | Read More » Better screens made of organic light diodes: OLED brings out the shine  | Screens made of organic light diodes promise unfathomable possibilities. Yet high production costs often prevent their widespread use. A new kind of production saves not only costs, but also improves the radiance of the OLED. | Read More » Glove shows its true colors: Identifies poisons on contact  | Security takes top priority in laboratories and in production. In the future, employees exposed to risks will only have to put on a glove in order to receive a toxic substance warning: This textile identifies poisonous substances, and points them out immediately. | Read More » 2011 Draconid meteor shower deposited a ton of meteoritic material on Earth  | About a ton of material coming from comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner was deposited in the Earth's atmosphere on October 8th and 9th, 2011 during one of the most intense showers of shooting starts in the last decade, which registered an activity of more than 400 meteors per hour. | Read More » | |
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