ScienceDaily: Top News

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• 'Never married' men still more likely to die from cancer
• Twitter data used to track vaccination rates and attitudes
• Gut bacteria may affect whether a statin drug lowers cholesterol
• Study could help battle against superbugs
• Hospital superbug debugged
• Nasal congestion: More than physical obstruction
• Climatic tipping points for tropical forest and savanna: Satellite data reveal where they are most vulnerable
• 'Robot biologist' solves complex problem from scratch
• Plankton's shifting role in deep sea carbon storage explored
• Inhibiting allergic reactions without side effects
• Future forests may soak up more carbon dioxide than previously believed
• Earthquakes generate big heat in super-small areas
• Schizophrenia genetics linked to disruption in how brain processes sound
• From blue whales to earthworms, a common mechanism gives shape to living beings
• New technologies challenge old ideas about early hominid diets
• Emulating -- and surpassing -- nature: Using DNA to build nanomaterials with desired properties
• Association between menopause, obesity and cognitive impairment
• Researchers correct sickle cell disease in adult mice: Protein could be a target for treating people who have the blood disorder
• How the zebra gets its stripes: A simple genetic circuit
• Scientists reveal surprising picture of how powerful antibody neutralizes HIV
• Carbon nanotube muscles generate giant twist for novel motors
• 100,000-year-old ochre toolkit and workshop discovered in South Africa
• New breeds of broccoli remain packed with health benefits
• Severe drought, other changes can cause permanent ecosystem disruption
• New scheme for photonic quantum computing
• Differences in jet lag severity could be rooted in how circadian clock sets itself
• Polar bears ill from accumulated environmental toxins
• First physical evidence bilingualism delays onset of Alzheimer's symptoms
• Precision with stem cells a step forward for treating multiple sclerosis, other diseases
• Children, not chimps, prefer collaboration: Humans like to work together in solving tasks - chimps don't
• Researchers block morphine's itchy side effect
• Hidden genetic influence on cancer discovered
• Controlling cell death prevents skin inflammation
• Eating green veggies improves immune defenses
• Reversing smoke-induced damage and disease in the lung
• Understanding the beginnings of embryonic stem cells helps predict the future
• Scientists first to characterize barley plant-stem rust spore 'communication'
• Cloud formation: Insoluble dust particles can form cloud droplets that affect global and regional climate
• Stem cells from cord blood could help repair damaged heart muscle
• Hubble survey carries out a dark matter census
• Pesticide pollution in European waterbodies: List of chemicals to be monitored should be updated immediately, experts urge
• Meerkats recognize each other from their calls
• Tiny fossil fragment reveals giant-but-ugly truth: Part of biggest-ever toothed pterosaur from dinosaur era
• Does a bigger brain make for a smarter child in babies born prematurely?
• Estrogen may prevent younger menopausal women from strokes, study suggests

'Never married' men still more likely to die from cancer Posted: 13 Oct 2011 06:39 PM PDT It is known that the unmarried are in general more likely to die than their married counterparts and there is some indication that the divide is getting worse. New research looks at the changes in cancer survival over the past 40 years and show that the difference in mortality between the married and never married, especially between married and never married men, has also increased.

Twitter data used to track vaccination rates and attitudes Posted: 13 Oct 2011 03:48 PM PDT The first case study in how social-media sites can affect the spread of a disease has been designed and implemented by a scientist studying attitudes toward the H1N1 vaccine. The method is expected to be repeated in the study of other diseases.

Gut bacteria may affect whether a statin drug lowers cholesterol Posted: 13 Oct 2011 03:48 PM PDT Statins can be effective at lowering cholesterol, but they have a perplexing tendency to work for some people and not others. Gut bacteria may be the reason.

Study could help battle against superbugs Posted: 13 Oct 2011 03:48 PM PDT Targeting a toxin released by virtually all strains of MRSA could help scientists develop new drugs that can fight the superbug, research suggests. A new study has discovered the toxin -- SElX -- which leads the body's immune system to go into overdrive and damage healthy cells.

Hospital superbug debugged Posted: 13 Oct 2011 03:48 PM PDT Scientists have uncovered how a common hospital bacterium becomes a deadly superbug that kills increasing numbers of hospital patients worldwide and accounts for an estimated $3.2 billion each year in health-care costs in the US alone.

Nasal congestion: More than physical obstruction Posted: 13 Oct 2011 03:48 PM PDT Symptoms of nasal congestion have been difficult to treat because patient reports of congestion often have little relationship to the actual physical obstruction of nasal airflow. Now, scientists report that the annoying feeling of nasal obstruction is related to the temperature and humidity of inhaled air. This knowledge may help researchers design effective treatments for this familiar symptom of nasal sinus disease.

Climatic tipping points for tropical forest and savanna: Satellite data reveal where they are most vulnerable Posted: 13 Oct 2011 03:38 PM PDT Tropical tree cover will jump sharply between a forested state and savanna or treeless conditions rather than respond smoothly to climate change, according to a new study.

'Robot biologist' solves complex problem from scratch Posted: 13 Oct 2011 01:29 PM PDT Scientists have taken a major step toward developing robot biologists. They have shown that their system, the Automated Biology Explorer, can solve a complicated biology problem from scratch.

Plankton's shifting role in deep sea carbon storage explored Posted: 13 Oct 2011 01:29 PM PDT The tiny phytoplankton Emiliania huxleyi, invisible to the naked eye, plays an outsized role in drawing carbon from the atmosphere and sequestering it deep in the seas. But this role may change as ocean water becomes warmer and more acidic, according to a research team.

Inhibiting allergic reactions without side effects Posted: 13 Oct 2011 12:46 PM PDT Researchers have announced a breakthrough approach to allergy treatment that inhibits food allergies, drug allergies, and asthmatic reactions without suppressing a sufferer's entire immunological system.

Future forests may soak up more carbon dioxide than previously believed Posted: 13 Oct 2011 12:39 PM PDT North American forests appear to have a greater capacity to soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas than researchers had previously anticipated.

Earthquakes generate big heat in super-small areas Posted: 13 Oct 2011 12:39 PM PDT In experiments mimicking the speed of earthquakes, geophysicists detail a phenomenon known as flash heating. They report that because fault surfaces touch only at microscopic, scattered spots, these contacts are subject to intense stress and extreme heating during earthquakes, lowering their friction and thus the friction of the fault. The localized, intense heating can occur even while the temperature of the rest of the fault remains largely unaffected.

Schizophrenia genetics linked to disruption in how brain processes sound Posted: 13 Oct 2011 12:39 PM PDT What links genetic differences to changes in altered brain activity in schizophrenia is not clear. Now, three labs have come together using electrophysiological, anatomical, and immunohistochemical approaches -- along with a unique high-speed imaging technique -- to understand how schizophrenia works at the cellular level, especially in identifying how changes in the interaction between different types of nerve cells leads to symptoms of the disease.

From blue whales to earthworms, a common mechanism gives shape to living beings Posted: 13 Oct 2011 12:39 PM PDT Mice don't have tails on their backs, and their ribs don't grow from lumbar vertebrae. And for good reason. Scientists have discovered the mechanism that determines the shape that many animals take -- including humans, blue whales, and insects.

New technologies challenge old ideas about early hominid diets Posted: 13 Oct 2011 11:18 AM PDT New assessments by researchers using the latest high-tech tools to study the diets of early hominids are challenging long-held assumptions about what our ancestors ate.

Emulating -- and surpassing -- nature: Using DNA to build nanomaterials with desired properties Posted: 13 Oct 2011 11:18 AM PDT Scientists have learned how to top nature by building crystalline materials from nanoparticles (the "atoms") and DNA (the "bonds"). The researchers have learned how to create crystals with the particles arranged in the same types of atomic lattice configurations as some found in nature, but they also have built completely new structures that have no naturally occurring mineral counterpart. Their design rules could help improve the efficiency of optics, electronics and energy storage technologies.

Association between menopause, obesity and cognitive impairment Posted: 13 Oct 2011 11:18 AM PDT In a study of 300 post-menopausal women, obese participants performed better on three cognitive tests than participants of normal weight, leading researchers to speculate about the role of sex hormones and cognition.

Researchers correct sickle cell disease in adult mice: Protein could be a target for treating people who have the blood disorder Posted: 13 Oct 2011 11:18 AM PDT Scientists have corrected sickle cell disease in adult laboratory mice by activating production of a special blood component normally produced before, but not after, birth.

How the zebra gets its stripes: A simple genetic circuit Posted: 13 Oct 2011 11:18 AM PDT Developmental processes that create stripes and other patterns are complex and difficult to untangle. To sort it out, a team of scientists has designed a simple genetic circuit that creates a striped pattern that they can control by tweaking a single gene. This genetic loop is made two linked modules that sense how crowded a group of cells has become and responds by controlling their movements.

Scientists reveal surprising picture of how powerful antibody neutralizes HIV Posted: 13 Oct 2011 11:18 AM PDT Researchers have uncovered the surprising details of how a powerful anti-HIV antibody grabs hold of the virus. The findings highlight a major vulnerability of HIV and suggest a new target for vaccine development.

Carbon nanotube muscles generate giant twist for novel motors Posted: 13 Oct 2011 11:18 AM PDT Artificial muscles, based on carbon nanotubes yarn, that twist like the trunk of an elephant, but provide a thousand times higher rotation per length, have been developed by a team of researchers.

100,000-year-old ochre toolkit and workshop discovered in South Africa Posted: 13 Oct 2011 11:18 AM PDT An ochre-rich mixture, possibly used for decoration, painting and skin protection 100,000 years ago, and stored in two abalone shells, was discovered at Blombos Cave in Cape Town, South Africa.

New breeds of broccoli remain packed with health benefits Posted: 13 Oct 2011 10:52 AM PDT Scientists have demonstrated that mineral levels in new varieties of broccoli have not declined since 1975, and that the broccoli contains the same levels of calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, potassium and other minerals that have made the vegetable a healthy staple of American diets for decades.

Severe drought, other changes can cause permanent ecosystem disruption Posted: 13 Oct 2011 10:52 AM PDT An eight-year study has concluded that increasingly frequent and severe drought, dropping water tables and dried-up springs have pushed some aquatic desert ecosystems into "catastrophic regime change," from which many species will not recover.

New scheme for photonic quantum computing Posted: 13 Oct 2011 10:51 AM PDT The concepts of quantum technology promise to achieve more powerful information processing than is possible with even the best possible classical computers. To actually build efficient quantum computers remains a significant challenge in practice. A new scheme, called "coherent photon conversion," could potentially overcome all of the currently unresolved problems for optical implementations of quantum computing.

Differences in jet lag severity could be rooted in how circadian clock sets itself Posted: 13 Oct 2011 09:17 AM PDT Researchers have found hints that differing molecular processes in one area of the brain might play a significant role in the differences of jet lag severity between long-distance west-to-east travel and east-to-west travel.

Polar bears ill from accumulated environmental toxins Posted: 13 Oct 2011 09:17 AM PDT Industrial chemicals are being transported from the industrialized world to the Arctic via air and sea currents. Here, the cocktail of environmental toxins is absorbed by the sea's food chains, of which the polar bear is the top predator.

First physical evidence bilingualism delays onset of Alzheimer's symptoms Posted: 13 Oct 2011 09:17 AM PDT Researchers have found that people who speak more than one language have twice as much brain damage as unilingual people before they exhibit symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. It's the first physical evidence that bilingualism delays the onset of the disease.

Precision with stem cells a step forward for treating multiple sclerosis, other diseases Posted: 13 Oct 2011 09:15 AM PDT Scientists have improved upon previous efforts to pluck out just the right stem cells to address the brain problem at the core of multiple sclerosis and a large number of rare, fatal children's diseases. Details of how scientists isolated and directed stem cells from the human brain to become oligodendrocytes - the type of brain cell that makes myelin - were recently published.

Children, not chimps, prefer collaboration: Humans like to work together in solving tasks - chimps don't Posted: 13 Oct 2011 09:15 AM PDT Recent studies have shown that chimpanzees possess many of the cognitive prerequisites necessary for humanlike collaboration. Cognitive abilities, however, might not be all that differs between chimpanzees and humans when it comes to cooperation. Children, but not chimpanzees, prefer to collaborate.

Researchers block morphine's itchy side effect Posted: 13 Oct 2011 09:15 AM PDT Itching is one of the most prevalent side effects of powerful, pain-killing drugs like morphine, oxycodone and other opioids. Now in mice, researchers have shown they can control opioid-induced itching without interfering with a drug's ability to relieve pain.

Hidden genetic influence on cancer discovered Posted: 13 Oct 2011 09:15 AM PDT In findings with major implications for the genetics of cancer and human health, researchers have uncovered evidence of powerful new genetic networks and showed how it may work to drive cancer and normal development.

Controlling cell death prevents skin inflammation Posted: 13 Oct 2011 09:15 AM PDT A new study provides evidence that stopping of a type of regulated cell death called "necroptosis" in keratinocytes is critical for the prevention of skin inflammation.

Eating green veggies improves immune defenses Posted: 13 Oct 2011 09:15 AM PDT Researchers have found another good reason to eat your green vegetables, although it may or may not win any arguments with kids at the dinner table.

Reversing smoke-induced damage and disease in the lung Posted: 13 Oct 2011 09:15 AM PDT By studying mice exposed to tobacco smoke for a period of months, researchers have new insight into how emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease develops. They also report a promising new way to reverse the lung damage underlying these conditions.

Understanding the beginnings of embryonic stem cells helps predict the future Posted: 13 Oct 2011 09:15 AM PDT Scientists have shown that laboratory-grown cells express a protein called Blimp1, which represses differentiation to somatic or regular tissue cells during germ cell development. Studies of these cells show that they also express other genes associated with early germ cell specification.

Scientists first to characterize barley plant-stem rust spore 'communication' Posted: 13 Oct 2011 08:38 AM PDT Scientists have established that a barley plant recognizes an invader and begins to marshal its defenses within five minutes of an attack. The discovery, along with the scientists' successful cloning of disease-fighting genes and the pathogen signal recognized by the plant, could help to revolutionize the battle against cereal crop enemies, such as stem rust.

Cloud formation: Insoluble dust particles can form cloud droplets that affect global and regional climate Posted: 13 Oct 2011 08:38 AM PDT New information on the role of insoluble dust particles in forming cloud droplets could improve the accuracy of regional climate models, especially in areas of the world that have significant amounts of mineral aerosols in the atmosphere.

Stem cells from cord blood could help repair damaged heart muscle Posted: 13 Oct 2011 07:36 AM PDT New research has found that stem cells derived from human cord blood could be an effective alternative in repairing heart attacks.

Hubble survey carries out a dark matter census Posted: 13 Oct 2011 06:13 AM PDT The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been used to make an image of galaxy cluster MACS J1206.2-0847. The apparently distorted shapes of distant galaxies in the background is caused by an invisible substance called dark matter, whose gravity bends and distorts their light rays. MACS 1206 has been observed as part of a new survey of galaxy clusters using Hubble.

Pesticide pollution in European waterbodies: List of chemicals to be monitored should be updated immediately, experts urge Posted: 13 Oct 2011 05:51 AM PDT Pesticides are a bigger problem than had long been assumed. This is the conclusion of a study in which scientists analyzed data on 500 organic substances in the basins of four major European rivers. It was revealed that 38 per cent of these chemicals are present in concentrations which could potentially have an effect on organisms.

Meerkats recognize each other from their calls Posted: 13 Oct 2011 05:51 AM PDT Wild meerkats living in the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa recognize group members from their calls, behavior researchers have established for the first time. The researchers assume that meerkats can tell the individual group members apart.

Tiny fossil fragment reveals giant-but-ugly truth: Part of biggest-ever toothed pterosaur from dinosaur era Posted: 13 Oct 2011 05:51 AM PDT New research has identified a small fossil fragment at the Natural History Museum, London as being part of a giant pterosaur -- setting a new upper limit for the size of winged and toothed animals.

Does a bigger brain make for a smarter child in babies born prematurely? Posted: 12 Oct 2011 01:12 PM PDT New research suggests the growth rate of the brain's cerebral cortex in babies born prematurely may predict how well they are able to think, speak, plan and pay attention later in childhood. The cerebral cortex is the outer layer of the brain covering the cerebrum, and is responsible for cognitive functions, such as language, memory, attention and thought.

Estrogen may prevent younger menopausal women from strokes, study suggests Posted: 12 Oct 2011 11:41 AM PDT Estrogen may prevent strokes in premature or early menopausal women, researchers have found in a new study. Their findings challenge the conventional wisdom that estrogen is a risk factor for stroke at all ages.

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