الأربعاء، 19 فبراير 2014

ScienceDaily: Top News

ScienceDaily: Top News

Do Guam mantas plan moon parties? Mantas congregate when surgeonfish spawn

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 07:13 AM PST

Guam mantas have been documented eating fish spawn. Researchers heard of mantas congregating purposefully in an area where surgeonfish were spawning.

Asian elephants reassure others in distress: First empirical evidence of consolation in elephants

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 07:10 AM PST

Asian elephants console others who are in distress, using physical touches and vocalizations, new research shows. The findings are the first empirical evidence of consolation in elephants. Consolation behavior is rare in the animal kingdom, with empirical evidence previously provided only for the great apes, canines and certain corvids.

Infected Tasmanian devils reveal how cancer cells evolve in response to humans

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 07:07 AM PST

Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD) has ravaged the world's largest carnivorous marsupial since it emerged in 1996, resulting in a population decline of over 90%. Conservation work to defeat the disease has including removing infected individuals from the population and new research explains how this gives us a unique opportunity to understand how human selection alters the evolution of cancerous cells. DFTD is an asexually reproducing clonal cell line, which during the last 16 years has been exposed to negative effects as infected devils, approximately 33% of the population, have been removed from one site, the Forestier Peninsula, in Tasmania between 2006 and 2010.

Solar-induced hybrid fuel cell produces electricity directly from biomass

Posted: 18 Feb 2014 07:00 AM PST

Researchers have developed a new type of low-temperature fuel cell that directly converts biomass to electricity with assistance from a catalyst activated by solar or thermal energy.

Global warming: Warning against abrupt stop to geoengineering method (if started)

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:08 PM PST

As a range of climate change mitigation scenarios are discussed, researchers have found that the injection of sulfate particles into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight and curb the effects of global warming could pose a severe threat if not maintained indefinitely and supported by strict reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

It’s alive! Bacteria-filled liquid crystals could improve biosensing

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:07 PM PST

Plop living, swimming bacteria into a novel water-based, nontoxic liquid crystal and a new physics takes over. The dynamic interaction of the bacteria with the liquid crystal creates a novel form of soft matter: living liquid crystal. This new type of active material holds promise for improving the early detection of diseases.

Theory on origin of animals challenged: Some animals need extremely little oxygen

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 01:11 PM PST

One of science's strongest dogmas is that complex life on Earth could only evolve when oxygen levels in the atmosphere rose to close to modern levels. But now studies of a small sea sponge fished out of a Danish fjord shows that complex life does not need high levels of oxygen in order to live and grow.

How evolution shapes the geometries of life

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 01:11 PM PST

An interdisciplinary team re-examined Kleiber's Law, a famous 80-year-old equation that accurately describes many biological phenomena, although scientists don't agree on why it works. The team shows that Kleiber's Law captures the physics and mathematics underlying the evolution of plants' and animals' different, but equally efficient forms.

Better batters from brain-training research: Baseball player study significantly improves vision, reduces strikeouts

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 09:16 AM PST

UC Riverside baseball players who participated in novel brain-training research saw significant improvement in vision, resulting in fewer strikeouts and more hits. The experiment demonstrated that improvements from a multiple perceptual-learning approach transfer to real-world tasks.

Ultra-small and ultra–fast electro-optic modulator

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 07:25 AM PST

Thanks to optical signals, mails and data can be transmitted rapidly around the globe. But also exchange of digital information between electronic chips may be accelerated and energy efficiency might be increased by using optical signals. However, this would require simple methods to switch from electrical to optical signals. Researchers have now developed a device of 29 microns in length, which converts signals at a rate of about 40 gigabits per second. It is the most compact high-speed phase modulator in the world.

Einstein's conversion from a belief in a static to an expanding universe

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 07:25 AM PST

Albert Einstein accepted the modern cosmological view that the universe is expanding long after many of his contemporaries. Until 1931, physicist Albert Einstein believed that the universe was static. An urban legend attributes this change of perspective to when American astronomer Edwin Hubble showed Einstein his observations of redshift in the light emitted by far away nebulae -- today known as galaxies. But the reality is more complex. The change in Einstein's viewpoint, in fact, resulted from a tortuous thought process. Now researchers explain how Einstein changed his mind following many encounters with some of the most influential astrophysicists of his generation.

Space station SPHERES run circles around ordinary satellites

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 07:15 AM PST

Inspired by a floating droid battling Luke Skywalker in the film Star Wars, the free-flying satellites known as Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) have been flying aboard the International Space Station since Expedition 8 in 2003. Although there have been numerous SPHERES investigations held on the orbiting laboratory, four current and upcoming SPHERES projects are of particular significance to robotics engineers, rocket launch companies, NASA exploration and anyone who uses communications systems on Earth.

Why does the brain remember dreams?

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:59 AM PST

Some people recall a dream every morning, whereas others rarely recall one. In a new study, research shows that the temporo-parietal junction, an information-processing hub in the brain, is more active in high dream recallers. Increased activity in this brain region might facilitate attention orienting toward external stimuli and promote intrasleep wakefulness, thereby facilitating the encoding of dreams in memory.

Water samples taken from the Upper Ganges River shed light on the spread of potential 'superbugs'

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:56 AM PST

Experts reveal the spread of antibiotic-resistance to one of the most pristine locations in Asia is linked to the annual human pilgrimages to the region.  The research team are now calling on governments around the world to recognize the importance of clean drinking water in our fight against antibiotic resistance.

Hormone released after exercise can 'predict' biological age

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:56 AM PST

Scientists have discovered a potential molecular link between Irisin, a recently identified hormone released from muscle after bouts of exercise, and the aging process. Irisin, which is naturally present in humans, is capable of reprograming the body's fat cells to burn energy instead of storing it. This increases the metabolic rate and is thought to have potential anti-obesity effects. The finding provides a potential molecular link between keeping active and healthy aging with those having higher Irisin levels more 'biological young' than those with lower levels of the hormone.

HIV drug used to reverse effects of virus that causes cervical cancer

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:52 AM PST

A commonly-used HIV drug has been shown to kill off the human papilloma virus (HPV) that leads to cervical cancer in a world-first clinical trial. Researchers examined Kenyan women diagnosed with HPV positive early stage cervical cancer who were treated with the antiviral HIV drug lopinavir in Kenya. The results showed a high proportion of women diagnosed with HPV positive high-grade disease returned to normal following a short course of the new treatment.

Chemist gets U.S. patent for solution to antibiotic resistance problem

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:52 AM PST

A chemist in Copenhagen has just taken out a patent for a drug that can make previously multidrug-resistant bacteria once again responsive to antibiotics.

Small non-coding RNAs could be warning signs of cancer

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:52 AM PST

Small non-coding RNAs can be used to predict if individuals have breast cancer conclude researchers who contribute to The Cancer Genome Atlas project. The results indicate that differences in the levels of specific types of non-coding RNAs can be used to distinguish between cancerous and non-cancerous tissues. These RNAs can also be used to classify cancer patients into subgroups of individuals that have different survival outcomes.

Bacterial superbug protein structure solved

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:48 AM PST

Scientists have deciphered the 3-D structure of a protein that confers antibiotic resistance from one of the most worrisome disease agents: a strain of bacteria called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which can cause skin and other infections. The team's findings may be an important step in combating the MRSA public health threat over the next 5 to 10 years.

Uncovering the secrets of tularemia, 'rabbit fever'

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:48 AM PST

Tularemia, aka "rabbit fever," is endemic in the northeastern United States, and is considered to be a significant risk to biosecurity -- much like anthrax or smallpox -- because it has already been weaponized in various regions of the world. Biologists are working to uncover the secrets of the bacterium Francisella tularensis, which causes tularemia.

Vitamin D provides relief for those with chronic hives, study shows

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:48 AM PST

Vitamin D as an add-on therapy could provide some relief for chronic hives, a condition with no cure and few treatment options, new research indicates. An allergic skin condition, chronic hives create red, itchy welts on the skin and sometimes swelling. They can occur daily and last longer than six weeks, even years. The two-year study looked at the role of over-the-counter vitamin D3 as a supplemental treatment for chronic hives. Over 12 weeks, 38 study participants daily took a triple-drug combination of allergy medications (one prescription and two over-the-counter drugs) and vitamin D3. Researchers found after just one week, the severity of patients' symptoms decreased by 33 percent. For patients that took a stronger dose of vitamin D3, a further 40 percent decrease in severity of their hives was noted.

Potential options for attacking stem cells in triple-negative breast cancer

Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:48 AM PST

A protein that fuels an inflammatory pathway does not turn off in breast cancer, new research shows, resulting in an increase in cancer stem cells. This provides a potential target for treating triple negative breast cancer, the most aggressive form of the disease. The researchers identified a protein that is highly expressed in normal cells but undetectable in triple-negative breast cancer. They showed that this protein is degraded in cancers, blocking the cellular off-switch of a feedback loop involving an inflammatory protein. When the switch does not get turned off, it enables cancer stem cells to grow.

Study on flu evolution may change textbooks, history books

Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:17 PM PST

A new study reconstructing the evolutionary tree of flu viruses challenges conventional wisdom and solves some of the mysteries surrounding flu outbreaks of historical significance. The study challenges several tenets of conventional wisdom -- for example, the notion that the virus moves largely unidirectionally from wild birds to domestic birds rather than with spillover in the other direction. It also helps resolve the origin of the virus that caused the unprecedentedly severe influenza pandemic of 1918.

New blood cells fight brain inflammation

Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:17 PM PST

Hyperactivity of our immune system can cause a state of chronic inflammation. If chronic, the inflammation will affect our body and result in disease. In the devastating disease multiple sclerosis, hyperactivity of immune cells called T-cells induce chronic inflammation and degeneration of the brain. Researchers have identified a new type of regulatory blood cells that can combat such hyperactive T-cells in blood from patients with multiple sclerosis.

Epigenetic regulation required to ensure correct number of chromosomes

Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:17 PM PST

Abnormal number of chromosomes is often associated with cancer development. Researchers have shown that a subtle epigenetic change plays an important role in the correct segregation of chromosomes. Normally when a cell divides, the chromosomes are segregated equally to two daughter cells. However, tumor cells frequently have either too few or too many chromosomes, leading to the incorrect expression of a number of genes. When a cell is about to divide, the cell division machinery takes hold of chromosomes by the centromere so that they may be pulled apart and one copy of each given to the daughter cells.
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