ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Swirls in remnants of Big Bang may hold clues to universe's infancy
• Ethanol blends carry hidden risk
• Engineers make strides toward artificial cartilage
• Misunderstanding of palliative care leads to preventable suffering
• Zebrafish help decode link between calcium deficiency, colon cancer
• Clot-busters, caught on tape
• Newly discovered gene interaction could lead to novel cancer therapies
• Scientists improve human self-control through electrical brain stimulation
• Chimpanzees are rational, not conformists, researchers find
• Study breaks blood-brain barriers to understanding Alzheimer's
• Scientists, practitioners don't see eye to eye on repressed memory
• Snail fever expected to decline in Africa due to climate change
• Wrist fracture significantly raises risk of hip fracture
• Disease, not climate change, fueling frog declines in the Andes
• POPUP: Novel organic solar cells
• A stop sign for cancer
• New discovery on how skin cells form 'bridges' paves the way for advances in wound healing and tissue engineering
• Evidence of mass extinction associated with climate change 375 million years ago discovered in Central Asia
• Simple mathematical formula describes human struggles
• Can we turn unwanted carbon dioxide into electricity?
• First rock dating experiment performed on Mars
• Family structure linked to high blood pressure in African-American men
• Low-power tunneling transistor for high-performance devices at low voltage
• Using air transportation data to predict pandemics
• Study documents secondhand exposure to nicotine from electronic cigarettes
• Helping cancer researchers make sense of deluge of genetic data
• Children with autism benefit from peer solicitation

Swirls in remnants of Big Bang may hold clues to universe's infancy Posted: 13 Dec 2013 05:10 PM PST South Pole Telescope scientists have detected for the first time a subtle distortion in the oldest light in the universe, which may help reveal secrets about the earliest moments in the universe's formation.

Ethanol blends carry hidden risk Posted: 13 Dec 2013 01:11 PM PST Blending more ethanol into fuel to cut air pollution carries a hidden risk that toxic or explosive gases may leach into buildings, according to researchers.

Engineers make strides toward artificial cartilage Posted: 13 Dec 2013 10:55 AM PST A research team has developed a better recipe for synthetic replacement cartilage in joints, calling for a newly designed durable hydrogel to be poured over a three-dimensional fabric "scaffold."

Misunderstanding of palliative care leads to preventable suffering Posted: 13 Dec 2013 10:54 AM PST A new review says palliative care's association with end of life has created an "identity problem" that means the majority of patients facing a serious illness do not benefit from treatment of the physical and psychological symptoms that occur throughout their disease.

Zebrafish help decode link between calcium deficiency, colon cancer Posted: 13 Dec 2013 10:54 AM PST A tiny, transparent fish embryo and a string of surprises led scientists to a deeper understanding of the perplexing link between low calcium and colon cancer.

Clot-busters, caught on tape Posted: 13 Dec 2013 10:53 AM PST Ultrasound-stimulated microbubbles have been showing promise in recent years as a non-invasive way to break up dangerous blood clots. But though many researchers have studied the effectiveness of this technique, not much was understood about why it works. Now a team of researchers has collected the first direct evidence showing how these wiggling microbubbles cause a blood clot's demise.

Newly discovered gene interaction could lead to novel cancer therapies Posted: 13 Dec 2013 06:49 AM PST Scientists have revealed how two genes interact to kill a wide range of cancer cells. The genes known as mda-7/IL-24 and SARI could potentially be harnessed to treat both primary and metastatic forms of brain, breast, colon, lung, ovary, prostate, skin and other cancers.

Scientists improve human self-control through electrical brain stimulation Posted: 13 Dec 2013 06:49 AM PST If you have ever said or done the wrong thing at the wrong time, you should read this. Neuroscientists have successfully demonstrated a technique to enhance a form of self-control through a novel form of brain stimulation.

Chimpanzees are rational, not conformists, researchers find Posted: 13 Dec 2013 06:49 AM PST Chimpanzees are sensitive to social influences but they maintain their own strategy to solve a problem rather than conform to what the majority of group members are doing. However, chimpanzees do change their strategy when they can obtain greater rewards, researchers found.

Study breaks blood-brain barriers to understanding Alzheimer's Posted: 13 Dec 2013 06:48 AM PST A study in mice shows how a breakdown of the brain's blood vessels may amplify or cause problems associated with Alzheimer's disease. The results suggest that blood vessel cells called pericytes may provide novel targets for treatments and diagnoses.

Scientists, practitioners don't see eye to eye on repressed memory Posted: 13 Dec 2013 06:48 AM PST Skepticism about repressed traumatic memories has increased over time, but new research shows that psychology researchers and practitioners still tend to hold different beliefs about whether such memories occur and whether they can be accurately retrieved.

Snail fever expected to decline in Africa due to climate change Posted: 13 Dec 2013 06:48 AM PST The dangerous parasite Schistosoma mansoni that causes snail fever in humans could become significantly less common in the future, a new international study predicts. The results are surprising because they contradict the general assumption that climate change leads to greater geographical spread of diseases. The explanation is that the parasite's host snails stand to lose suitable habitat due to climate change.

Wrist fracture significantly raises risk of hip fracture Posted: 13 Dec 2013 06:48 AM PST A new study showed that patients with Colles' fracture are at higher risk than patients with osteoporosis to have a subsequent hip fracture within one year; Colles' fracture and osteoporosis together further increase the risk of hip fracture.

Disease, not climate change, fueling frog declines in the Andes Posted: 13 Dec 2013 06:48 AM PST Climate change is widely believed to be behind the rapid decline of frog populations in the Andes mountains, but a new study finds that the real culprit is a deadly fungus that has wiped out amphibian species worldwide. Researchers found that highland frogs, while tolerant of increasing temperatures, live in the optimal temperature range for Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, also known as Bd.

POPUP: Novel organic solar cells Posted: 13 Dec 2013 06:34 AM PST Future solar cells will be light and mechanically flexible. They will be produced at low costs with the help of printing processes. Scientists aim at developing more efficient materials and new architectures for organic photovoltaic devices. They are working on improving the basic understanding and developing new architectures for semitransparent and non-transparent solar cells and modules.

A stop sign for cancer Posted: 13 Dec 2013 06:33 AM PST A particularly aggressive form of leukemia is the acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). It is especially common among children and very difficult to treat. Researchers have now discovered completely new targets for the treatment of blood cancers. Studying the cancer protein STAT5, the scientists found new opportunities for the development of effective anti-cancer drugs.

New discovery on how skin cells form 'bridges' paves the way for advances in wound healing and tissue engineering Posted: 13 Dec 2013 06:28 AM PST Scientists have discovered that outer skin cells are able to unite to form suspended "bridges" during wound healing. The new findings will pave the way for tissue engineering, such as the design of artificial skin, and better wound treatment.

Evidence of mass extinction associated with climate change 375 million years ago discovered in Central Asia Posted: 13 Dec 2013 06:28 AM PST Scientists have found evidence for catastrophic oceanographic events associated with climate change and a mass extinction 375 million years ago that devastated tropical marine ecosystems.

Simple mathematical formula describes human struggles Posted: 12 Dec 2013 03:59 PM PST The world seems to be getting more complex every day -- some might say too complex. But what if every interaction, every potential conflict we have is really very simple and easy to understand? Mathematicians have found a mathematical formula demonstrating just that: the dynamics of every escalating conflict human beings find themselves in, from children who won't stop crying to international terrorism, can be explained rather easily.

Can we turn unwanted carbon dioxide into electricity? Posted: 12 Dec 2013 03:59 PM PST Researchers are developing a new kind of geothermal power plant that will lock away unwanted carbon dioxide underground -- and use it as a tool to boost electric power generation by at least 10 times compared to existing geothermal energy approaches.

First rock dating experiment performed on Mars Posted: 12 Dec 2013 03:59 PM PST Although researchers have determined the ages of rocks from other planetary bodies, the actual experiments -- like analyzing meteorites and moon rocks -- have always been done on Earth. Now, for the first time, researchers have successfully determined the age of a Martian rock -- with experiments performed on Mars. This work could not only help in understanding the geologic history of Mars but also aid in the search for evidence of ancient life there.

Family structure linked to high blood pressure in African-American men Posted: 12 Dec 2013 03:58 PM PST In a study of African-American men, researchers found that boys who grew up in two-parent homes were less likely to have high blood pressure as adults compared to those raised by a single parent. This is the first study of an African-American population to document an association between childhood family living arrangements and blood pressure.

Low-power tunneling transistor for high-performance devices at low voltage Posted: 12 Dec 2013 01:03 PM PST A new type of transistor that could make possible fast and low-power computing devices for energy-constrained applications such as smart sensor networks, implantable medical electronics and ultra-mobile computing is feasible, according researchers. Called a near broken-gap tunnel field effect transistor, the new device uses the quantum mechanical tunneling of electrons through an ultra-thin energy barrier to provide high current at low voltage.

Using air transportation data to predict pandemics Posted: 12 Dec 2013 11:21 AM PST Computational work has led to a new mathematical theory for understanding the global spread of epidemics. The resulting insights could not only help identify an outbreak's origin but could also significantly improve the ability to forecast the global pathways through which a disease might spread. Scientists could use the theory to reconstruct outbreak origins with higher confidence, compute epidemic spreading speed and forecast when an epidemic wave front is to arrive at any location worldwide.

Study documents secondhand exposure to nicotine from electronic cigarettes Posted: 12 Dec 2013 11:19 AM PST Study compared emissions from electronic and conventional cigarettes, and found that secondhand exposure to nicotine from e-cigarettes is on average 10 times less than from tobacco smoke.

Helping cancer researchers make sense of deluge of genetic data Posted: 12 Dec 2013 11:19 AM PST A web research tool is helping cancer researchers and physicians make sense out of genetic data from nearly 100,000 patients and more than 50,000 mice. The Gene Expression Barcode 3.0 is a vital resource in the new era of personalized medicine.

Children with autism benefit from peer solicitation Posted: 12 Dec 2013 11:19 AM PST Peer solicitation – a child inviting another to play – can improve reciprocal social interaction among children with autism, according to a study.

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