ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Like cling wrap, new biomaterial can coat tricky burn wounds, block out infection

• Pregnant women, fetuses exposed to antibacterial compounds face potential health risks 

• On the frontiers of cyborg science: Development of electronic-brain relationship
• Trauma before enlistment linked to high suicide rates among military personnel, veterans, research finds
• Regular marijuana use bad for teens' brains
• Lead linked to obesity in mice exposed by mothers
• Water's reaction with metal oxides opens doors for researchers
• Natural light in office boosts health
• New culprit identified in metabolic syndrome
• Immediate aftermath of an oil spill
• Electrons moving in a magnetic field exhibit strange quantum behavior
• Water-polluting anxiety drug reduces fish mortality
• Air traffic growth set to outpace carbon reduction efforts
• Can probiotics reduce severity of C. difficile infections?
• Gasification of oil palm biomass to produce clean producer gas for heat, power generation
• New programming language accommodates multiple languages in same program
• Fruit flies used to unlock mysteries of human diabetes

Like cling wrap, new biomaterial can coat tricky burn wounds, block out infection Posted: 10 Aug 2014 09:42 AM PDT Wrapping wound dressings around fingers and toes can be tricky, but for burn victims, guarding them against infection is critical. Today, scientists are reporting the development of novel, ultrathin coatings called nanosheets that can cling to the body's most difficult-to-protect contours and keep bacteria at bay. The materials has to date been tested on mice.

Pregnant women, fetuses exposed to antibacterial compounds face potential health risks Posted: 10 Aug 2014 09:41 AM PDT As the Food and Drug Administration mulls over whether to rein in the use of common antibacterial compounds that are causing growing concern among environmental health experts, scientists are reporting that many pregnant women and their fetuses are being exposed to these substances. The compounds are used in more than 2,000 everyday products marketed as antimicrobial, including toothpastes, soaps, detergents, carpets, paints, school supplies and toys, the researchers say.

On the frontiers of cyborg science: Development of electronic-brain relationship Posted: 10 Aug 2014 09:41 AM PDT Cyborg technology is bringing us real-life electronic skin, prosthetics and ultra-flexible circuits. Now taking this human-machine concept to an unprecedented level, pioneering scientists are working on the seamless marriage between electronics and brain signaling with the potential to transform our understanding of how the brain works — and how to treat its most devastating diseases.

Trauma before enlistment linked to high suicide rates among military personnel, veterans, research finds Posted: 09 Aug 2014 11:14 AM PDT High rates of suicide among military service members and veterans may be related to traumatic experiences they had before enlisting, making them more vulnerable to suicidal behavior when coping with combat and multiple deployments, according to the findings of several recent studies. Experiencing child abuse, being sexually victimized by someone not in the service and exhibiting suicidal behavior before enlisting are significant risk factors for service members and veterans who attempt or commit suicide.

Regular marijuana use bad for teens' brains Posted: 09 Aug 2014 11:14 AM PDT Frequent marijuana use can have a significant negative effect on the brains of teenagers and young adults, including cognitive decline, poor attention and memory, and decreased IQ, according to psychologists. "It needs to be emphasized that regular cannabis use, which we consider once a week, is not safe and may result in addiction and neurocognitive damage, especially in youth," said one expert.

Lead linked to obesity in mice exposed by mothers Posted: 08 Aug 2014 01:33 PM PDT When we think of ill effects from lead exposure various neurologic problems usually come to mind. Now researchers say another health impact can be added to the list: obesity. Even at low levels, lead is associated with obesity in mice whose mothers were exposed to the chemical, researchers found. Specifically male mice exposed to lead had an 8-10 percent increase in weight.

Water's reaction with metal oxides opens doors for researchers Posted: 08 Aug 2014 01:33 PM PDT A long-unanswered question about how two of the world's most common substances interact has been answered by researchers. In a new paper, chemical and biological engineers report fundamental discoveries about how water reacts with metal oxides.

Natural light in office boosts health Posted: 08 Aug 2014 09:40 AM PDT Office workers with more natural light exposure at the office had longer sleep duration, better sleep quality, more physical activity and better quality of life compared to office workers with less light exposure in the workplace, a study shows. "There is increasing evidence that exposure to light, during the day, particularly in the morning, is beneficial to your health via its effects on mood, alertness and metabolism," said the senior study author.

New culprit identified in metabolic syndrome Posted: 08 Aug 2014 09:39 AM PDT Uric acid may play a role in causing metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors that increases the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, a new study indicates. Uric acid is a normal waste product removed from the body by the kidneys and intestines and released in urine and stool. Elevated levels of uric acid are known to cause gout, an accumulation of the acid in the joints. High levels also are associated with the markers of metabolic syndrome.

Immediate aftermath of an oil spill Posted: 08 Aug 2014 08:19 AM PDT The fate of oil during the first day after an accidental oil spill is still poorly understood, with researchers often arriving on the scene only after several days. New findings from a field experiment carried out in the North Sea provide valuable insight that could help shape the emergency response in the immediate wake of disasters.

Electrons moving in a magnetic field exhibit strange quantum behavior Posted: 08 Aug 2014 08:07 AM PDT Researchers have made the first direct observations of free-electron Landau states -— a form of quantized states that electrons adopt when moving through a magnetic field- — and found that the internal rotational dynamics of quantum electrons, or how they move through the field, is surprisingly different from the classical model, and in line with recent quantum-mechanical predictions.

Water-polluting anxiety drug reduces fish mortality Posted: 07 Aug 2014 06:57 PM PDT A drug that is commonly used to treat anxiety in humans and which regularly finds its way into surface waters through wastewater effluence has been shown to reduce mortality rates in fish.

Air traffic growth set to outpace carbon reduction efforts Posted: 07 Aug 2014 06:55 PM PDT Carbon reduction efforts in the airline industry will be outweighed by growth in air-traffic, even if the most contentious mitigation measures are implemented, according to new research. Even if proposed mitigation measures are agreed upon and put into place, air traffic growth-rates are likely to out-pace emission reductions, unless demand is substantially reduced. "There is little doubt that increasing demand for air travel will continue for the foreseeable future," says a co-author and travel expert.

Can probiotics reduce severity of C. difficile infections? Posted: 07 Aug 2014 06:55 PM PDT Probiotics have shown promise for treating patients with recurrent Clostridium difficile infections. However, their safety and quality control requires further study – especially in immunocompromised patients, concludes a review paper. Probiotics – beneficial microorganisms deliberately introduced into the body – have been used in some patients as an adjunct treatment with some success. However, a detailed investigation on the use of probiotics for infected patients is still needed to determine their real efficacy.

Gasification of oil palm biomass to produce clean producer gas for heat, power generation Posted: 07 Aug 2014 06:55 PM PDT A new technology can simultaneously remove impurities and produce clean gas for heat and power generation from waste biomass, researchers report. Currently available gasification technologies and processes produce gas with unusually high concentration of impurities such as tar, dust and acidic gases which render it difficult to be used widely.

New programming language accommodates multiple languages in same program Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:59 AM PDT Computer scientists have designed a way to safely use multiple programming languages within the same program, enabling programmers to use the language most appropriate for each function while guarding against code injection attacks, one of the most severe security threats in Web applications today.

Fruit flies used to unlock mysteries of human diabetes Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:57 AM PDT The tiny fruit fly can be used to study how mutations associated with the development of diabetes affect the production and secretion of the vital hormone insulin, researchers report for the first time. The advance is due to a new technique that allows scientists to measure insulin levels in the insects with extremely high sensitivity and reproducibility.

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