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ScienceDaily: Most Popular News

Immunity: A secret to making macrophages

Biologists have worked out the details of a mechanism that leads undifferentiated blood stem cells to become macrophages -- immune cells that attack bacteria and other foreign pathogens. The process involves an unexpected cycle in which cell division slows, leading to an increased accumulation of a particular regulatory protein that in turn slows cell division further. The finding provides new insight into how stem cells are guided to generate one cell type as opposed to another.

Good vibrations: Mediating mood through brain ultrasound

Researchers have developed a novel technique to affect mood through ultrasound vibrations applied to the brain. Their findings could potentially lead to new treatments for psychological and psychiatric disorders.

Facebook for molecules

Social media has expanded to reach an unlikely new target: molecules. Scientists have created networks of molecular data similar to Facebook's recently debuted graph search feature.

Unusual material expands dramatically under pressure

If you squeeze a normal object in all directions, it shrinks in all directions. But a few strange materials will actually grow in one dimension when compressed. Chemists have now discovered a structure that takes this property to a new level, expanding more dramatically under pressure than any other known material.

Graphene 'onion rings' have delicious potential

Hexagonal graphene "onion rings" are the product of growing two-dimensional carbon in a high-pressure, hydrogen-rich environment.

How Mars' atmosphere got so thin: Reports detail Curiosity clues to atmosphere's past

A pair of new papers report measurements of the Martian atmosphere's composition by NASA's Curiosity rover, providing evidence about loss of much of Mars' original atmosphere.

Cellular channels vital for hearing identified

Researchers identified two proteins in the inner ear, critical for hearing that cause hearing loss when damaged by genetic mutations. The findings from 30 years' research shows that the proteins encoded by the genes form channels that turn mechanical sound waves into electrical signals that talk to the brain. A tiny point mutation -- a change in one base or "letter" in the genetic sequence -- is enough to cause deafness.

Gene mutation linked to obesity: Mice gain weight even when fed normal amounts of food

Researchers have identified a genetic cause of severe obesity that, though rare, raises new questions about weight gain and energy use in the general obese population. The research involved genetic surveys of several groups of obese humans and experiments in mice.

Snow in an infant solar system: A frosty landmark for planet and comet formation

A snow line has been imaged in a far-off infant solar system for the very first time. The snow line, located in the disc around the Sun-like star TW Hydrae, promises to tell us more about the formation of planets and comets, the factors that decide their composition, and the history of the Solar System.

Best romantic singers are male bats

Male bats appear to be the sexy singers of the animal world: they have learned to vocalize in a specific way to attract females, but once they have their attention, they change their tune – literally. They then produce a more creative array of sounds to entertain and keep the females interested.

Marriage rate lowest in a century

Fewer women are getting married and they're waiting longer to tie the knot when they do decide to walk down the aisle.

Microbes can influence evolution of their hosts

Contrary to current scientific understanding, it appears that our microbial companions play an important role in their hosts' evolution. A new study provides the first direct evidence that these microbes can contribute to the origin of new species by reducing the viability of hybrids produced between males and females of different species.

Computer system automatically generates TCP congestion-control algorithms

Computer-designed algorithms for controlling network congestion yield transmission rates two to three times as high as those designed by humans.

Evolutionary changes could aid fisheries

Sustainable fishing practices could lead to larger fishing yields in the long run, according to a new study that models in detail how ecology and evolution affect the economics of fishing.

Widely used pesticide toxic to honeybees

New research concludes that the absence of mortality does not always indicate functional integrity.

How smoking increases vulnerability to alcohol abuse

Smoking is a well-known risk factor for subsequent alcohol abuse, but the mechanisms underlying this link are unknown. Now researchers show in a study conducted in rats that even a single exposure to nicotine temporarily changes how the brain's reward system responds to alcohol and increases the reinforcing properties of alcohol via stress hormones.

European fish stocks poised for recovery

The results of a major international effort to assess the status of dozens of European fish stocks find that many of those stocks in the northeast Atlantic are being fished sustainably today and that, given time, those populations should continue to recover. The findings come as surprisingly good news amid widespread criticism that the European Union's Common Fisheries Policy is failing, the researchers say.

Endoplasmic reticulum: Scientists image 'parking garage' helix structure in protein-making factory

The endoplasmic reticulum is the protein-making factory within cells consisting of tightly stacked sheets of membrane studded with the molecules that make proteins. Now, researchers have refined a new microscopy imaging method to visualize exactly how the ER sheets are stacked, revealing that the 3D structure of the sheets resembles a parking garage. This structure allows for the dense packing of ER sheets, maximizing the amount of space available for protein synthesis.

Hubble shows link between stars' ages and their orbits in dense cluster

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have determined the orbital motion of two distinct populations of stars in an ancient globular star cluster, offering proof they formed at different times and providing a rare look back into the Milky Way galaxy's early days.

Chimpanzees and orangutans remember distant past events

We humans can remember events in our lives that happened years ago, with those memories often surfacing unexpectedly in response to sensory triggers like flavor or scent. Now, researchers have evidence to suggest that chimpanzees and orangutans have similar capacities. In laboratory tests, both primate species were clearly able to recollect a tool-finding event that they had experienced just four times three years earlier and a singular event from two weeks before, the researchers show.

How mice teach us about disease: Open access resource reveals new genes and pathways linked to human disease

To power research into a wide range of diseases, more than 900 genes in mice have been individually switched off. Using this resource, the team has already identified new disease-related genes and revealed new functions for known genes. This new resource, known as the Mouse Genetics Project, provides researchers and clinicians with a wealth of freely available information that will help find new treatment strategies and options for a wide range of diseases.

Simple way to reduce healthcare costs identified

A new study provides a case study of a simple action that can reduce healthcare costs, without compromising care.

Movement without muscles study in insects could inspire robot and prosthetic limb developments

Neurobiologists have shown that insect limbs can move without muscles -- a finding that may provide engineers with new ways to improve the control of robotic and prosthetic limbs.

Exercise can reduce stroke risk

A new study is one of the first to study the relationship of exercise and stroke in a large biracial cohort of men and women in the U.S.

Bearing witness to the phenomenon of symmetric cell division

For more than 125 years, scientists have been peering through microscopes, carefully watching cells divide. Until now, however, none has actually seen how cells manage to divide precisely into two equally-sized daughter cells during mitosis. Such perfect division depends on the position of the mitotic spindle (chromosomes, microtubules, and spindle poles) within the cell, and it's now clear that human cells employ two specific mechanisms during the portion of division known as anaphase to correct mitotic spindle positioning.

New approach to protecting prion protein from altering shape, becoming infectious

Scientists have identified a mechanism that can prevent the normal prion protein from changing its molecular shape into the abnormal form responsible for neurodegenerative diseases.

Complete description of gene expression in the human retina

Investigators have published the most thorough description of gene expression in the human retina reported to date.

Obesity and asthma: Study finds a link in the genes

Genes linked to chronic inflammation in asthma may be more active in people who are obese, according to new research that uncovers several biological ties between obesity and asthma.

Scientists break record for thinnest light-absorber: May lead to more efficient, cheaper solar cells

Scientists have built the thinnest, most efficient absorber of visible light on record, a nanosize structure that could lead to less-costly, more efficient, solar cells.

Hurricane season: Predicting in advance what could happen

Scientists have studied how hurricanes and other disasters disrupt critical infrastructure, such as roads, electricity and water systems.

Slow bow shock ahead of the sun's heliosphere predicted

A new study indicates that a bow shock (a dynamic boundary between sun's heliosphere and the interstellar medium) is highly likely. These findings challenge recent predictions that no such bow shock would be encountered.

New way to measure cumulative effect of head hits in football

A new way to measure the cumulative effect of impacts to the head incurred by football players has been developed.

Electronic Health Records help fight vaccine-preventable diseases

Using an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system to automate the immunization data shared between health providers and public health agencies enables physicians to assist individual patients faster and more effectively, while also providing more immediate, cohesive community data to the agencies tasked with promoting public health.

New approach to treat the most common heart valve disease in Western countries

Scientists have developed a new approach to treat aortic valve stenosis through the administration of a compound that prevents valve deterioration and can even reverse the progression of the disease. It is the most common type of heart valve disease in Western countries.

Social media, DNA typing help identify source of foodborne strep outbreak

Facebook posts helped alert public health officials to a strep throat outbreak among a high school dance team in 2012, and DNA fingerprinting led investigators to pasta prepared by a previously ill parent as the likely source. Although strep throat, or Group A Streptococcus pharyngitis, usually spreads from person to person by droplets, foodborne transmission is possible.

Long-distance relationships can form stronger bonds than face-to-face ones

The long-distance relationship has plagued college students and people relocated for work for ages. These relationships are seen as destined to fail, but are they actually creating stronger bonds than a geographically closer relationship? A recent article found that people in long-distance relationships often have stronger bonds from more constant, and deeper, communication than normal relationships.

Why crop rotation works: Change in crop species causes shift in soil microbes

Shift in soil microbes triggers cycle to improve yield, plant nutrition and disease resistance. New research could help explain the dramatic effect on soil health and yield of crop rotation.

Ice age figurine's head found: Archaeologists put new and old finds together to reassemble ancient work of art

Researchers have successfully re-attached the newly discovered head of a prehistoric mammoth-ivory figurine discovered in 1931. The head was found during renewed excavations at Vogelherd Cave, site of the original dig in 1931.

Reclassification of cannabis linked to cannabis psychosis

Researchers have demonstrated that the change in cannabis declassification in 2009 has coincided with a significant increase in hospital admissions for cannabis psychosis - rather than the decrease it was intended to produce.

Infection biology: How Legionella subverts to survive

Bacteria of the genus Legionella have evolved a sophisticated system to replicate in the phagocytic cells of their hosts. Researchers have now identified a novel component of this system.

New methods to visualize bacterial cell-to-cell communication

Researchers have developed a live-cell fluorescent labeling that makes bacterial cell-to-cell communication pathways visible. The communication between bacterial cells is essential in the regulation of processes within bacterial populations, such as biofilm development.

Evaporation: Tiny temperature differences are primary driving force in droplet evaporation

Evaporation is so common that everybody thinks it's a well understood phenomenon. Appearances can be, however, deceptive. Recently, a new, earlier not predicted mechanism of evaporation was discovered. Experiments and simulations not only confirm its existence, but also indicate that it plays the crucial role in evaporation process in the nanoscale.

Singing helps students tune into a foreign language

A new study provides the first experimental evidence that a listen-and-repeat singing method can support foreign language learning. Singing in a foreign language can significantly improve learning how to speak it, according to a new study. Adults who listened to short Hungarian phrases and then sang them back performed better than those who spoke the phrases, researchers found. People who sang the phrases back also fared better than those who repeated the phrases by speaking them rhythmically.

Shorebirds prefer a good body to a large brain

In many animal species, males and females differ in terms of their brain size. The most common explanation is that these differences stem from sexual selection. But predictions are not always certain. Scientists have discovered that a group of coastal birds, shorebirds, do not choose their mates by brain size but "on their physiques".

Successful restoration of hearing and balance

The sounds of success are ringing due to a research project that has the potential to treat human deafness and loss of balance.

Tuberculosis genomes recovered from 200-year old Hungarian mummy

Researchers have recovered tuberculosis (TB) genomes from the lung tissue of a 215-year old mummy using a technique known as metagenomics.

Nondrinkers may have higher mortality risk than light drinkers, but reasons for abstaining make a big difference

As a class, people who don't drink at all have a higher mortality risk than light drinkers. But nondrinkers are a diverse bunch, and the reasons people have for abstaining affects their individual mortality risk, in some cases lowering it on par with the risk for light drinkers, according to a new study. Scientists calculated the mortality risk for each subgroup compared with the mortality risk for light drinkers, and they found that the risks varied markedly.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria widespread in Hudson River, study finds

The risk of catching some nasty germ in the Hudson River just started looking nastier. Disease-causing microbes have long been found swimming there, but now researchers have documented antibiotic-resistant strains in specific spots, from the Tappan Zee Bridge to lower Manhattan.

Desktop printing at the nano level

A new low-cost, high-resolution tool is primed to revolutionize how nanotechnology is produced from the desktop, according to a new study.

Dynamical properties in antibiotic resistance enzyme investigated

Using biophysical modeling and bioinformatics analysis, researchers show significant evolution in the structural characteristics and physiochemical properties of the antibiotic-destroying enzyme beta-lactamase across bacterial families, but also find that these evolutionary characteristics do not appear to be specifically related to different versions of antibiotic resistance. The results are far from reassuring, since they show that new antibiotic resistance is relatively easy for bacteria to evolve.

Missed diagnoses and drug errors make up bulk of primary care malpractice claims

Missed diagnoses -- particularly of cancer, heart attack, and meningitis -- and drug errors make up the bulk of malpractice claims brought against doctors in primary care, finds a new analysis.

Eczema may play a key role in the development of food allergy in infants, study suggests

A breakdown of the skin barrier and inflammation in the skin that occurs in eczema could play a key role in triggering food sensitivity in babies, a new study reveals.

Climate change could deprive Volta Basin of water needed to boost energy and food production

A new study finds that so much water may be lost in the Volta River Basin due to climate change that planned hydroelectric projects to boost energy and food production may only tread water in keeping up with actual demand. Some 24 million people in Ghana, Burkina Faso and four other neighboring countries depend on the Volta River and its tributaries as their principal source of water.

Dog hair can be used to diagnose hormonal problems in dogs

A surprisingly large number of dogs suffer from hyperadrenocorticism. The symptoms are caused by excessive amounts of hormones – glucocorticoids – in the body. Unfortunately, though, diagnosis of the disease is complicated by the fact that glucocorticoid levels naturally fluctuate and most methods for measuring the concentration of the hormones in the blood provide only a snapshot of the current situation. Recent research has shown that glucocorticoids accumulate in the animals' hair and that analysis of a dog's hair can provide quick and reliable preliminary diagnosis.

It's not just the heat, it's the ozone: Hidden heat wave dangers exposed

During heat waves – when ozone production rises as plants' ozone absorption is curtailed -- more pollution is left in the air. This resulted in the loss of an estimated 460 lives in the UK in the hot summer of 2006.

A warmer planetary haven around cool stars, as ice warms rather than cools

In a bit of cosmic irony, planets orbiting cooler stars may be more likely to remain ice-free than planets around hotter stars. This is due to the interaction of a star's light with ice and snow on the planet's surface.

Scientists discover new variability in iron supply to the oceans with climate implications

The supply of dissolved iron to oceans around continental shelves has been found to be more variable by region than previously believed – with implications for future climate prediction.

Deadliest cancers may respond to new drug treatment strategy

Researchers have found a way to knock down cancers caused by a tumor-driving protein called "myc," paving the way for patients with myc-driven cancers to enroll in clinical trials for experimental treatments.

First global atlas of marine plankton reveals remarkable underwater world

Under the microscope, they look like they could be from another planet, but these microscopic organisms inhabit the depths of our oceans in nearly infinite numbers. To begin to identify where, when, and how much oceanic plankton can be found around the globe, international researchers have compiled the first ever global atlas cataloguing marine plankton.

Is sexual addiction the real deal?

Controversy exists over whether what some mental health experts call hypersexuality, or sexual addiction, is a mental disorder at all. Now researchers have measured how the brain responded in people who admitted having problems regulating their viewing of sex pictures, and found their brain responses were not predicted by any of the indicators that were proposed for a diagnosis of hypersexuality.

Lizards show evolution is predictable

If you could hit the reset button on evolution and start over, would essentially the same species appear? Yes, according to a study of Caribbean lizards.

How would it be to have the body of a child again? Changes in perception and behaviors demonstrated when embodying a child avatar

New research suggests that a correlate of a body-ownership illusion is that the virtual type of body carries with it a set of temporary changes in perception and behaviors that are appropriate to that type of body.

If you're not looking for it, you probably won't see it

In a new study, researchers have found that even expert searchers, operating in their domain of expertise, are vulnerable to inattentional blindness.

New plan of attack in cancer fight: Two-drug combination, under certain circumstances, can eliminate disease

New research shows that, under certain conditions, using two drugs in a "targeted therapy" -- a treatment approach designed to interrupt cancer's ability to grow and spread -- nearly all cancers could be effectively cured.

New transformation of Neutrinos observed

After first indications it has now been firmly established that there is a new type transformation among neutrinos – the elusive elementary particles, which are so important for the understanding of the Universe.

More versatile approach to creating stem cells discovered

Stem cells are key to the promise of regenerative medicine: the repair or replacement of injured tissues with custom grown substitutes. Essential to this process are induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which can be created from a patient's own tissues, thus eliminating the risk of immune rejection. However, Shinya Yamanaka's formula for iPSCs, for which he was awarded last year's Nobel Prize, uses a strict recipe that allows for limited variations in human cells, restricting their full potential for clinical application.

New results from T2K conclusively show muon neutrinos transform to electron neutrinos

Scientists have announced the definitive observation of muon neutrino to electron neutrino transformation. In 2011, the collaboration announced the first indication of this process, a new type of neutrino oscillation, then; now with 3.5 times more data this transformation is firmly established. The probability that random statistical fluctuations alone would produce the observed excess of electron neutrinos is less than one in a trillion.

Want kids to eat healthier? Don't tell them, show them

If given the choice between eating a salad or a burger and fries most kids would likely pick the less healthful option. But instead of telling kids to eat better researchers found the trick may be to convince them visually.

New way to study and improve catalytic reactions

Scientists have shown a way to precisely design the active elements of a certain class of catalysts, showing which parameters are most critical for improving performance. This highly controlled process could be a new paradigm for fine-tuning catalysts used in everything from making new materials to environmental remediation.

Purple sunlight eaters: Microorganisms found in salt flats could offer new path to green hydrogen fuel

A protein found in the membranes of ancient microorganisms that live in desert salt flats could offer a new way of using sunlight to generate environmentally friendly hydrogen fuel according to a new study.

Gene mutation in dogs offers clues for neural tube defects in humans

A gene related to neural tube defects in dogs has for the first time been identified. The gene may be an important risk factor for human neural tube defects, including anencephaly and spina bifida.

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Friday, July 19, 2013

FeedaMail: ScienceDaily: Most Popular News

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