ScienceDaily Top Science Headlines
for Monday, August 18, 2008
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Olympic Swimmers Shattering Records In NASA-Tested Suit (August 18, 2008) -- Swimmers from around the world are setting world and Olympic records in Beijing this month and most are doing it wearing a swimsuit made of fabric tested at NASA. Among the Olympic gold medalists wearing Speedo's LZR Racer are Americans Michael Phelps -- who has now won more Olympic gold medals than any athlete in the modern era -- and Natalie Coughlin. Both had a hand in developing the skintight body suit. ... > full story
Experiments Could Lead To New Treatments For Neuroblastoma (August 18, 2008) -- Based on cell-culture and animal experiments, researchers believe they've found a critical weakness in neuroblastoma -- one that could lead to the development of a lifesaving therapy for victims of the cancer. ... > full story
Maelstrom Quashes Jumping Genes (August 18, 2008) -- Scientists have known for decades that genes called transposons can jump around the genome in a cell. This jumping can be dangerous, especially when it arises in cells that produce eggs and sperm. Although nature developed a mechanism to quash this genetic scrambling, how it works has remained a mystery. Now scientists have identified a key protein that suppresses jumping genes in mouse sperm and found that the protein is vital to sperm formation. ... > full story
Prototype Test For Predicting Clinical Outcome For Melanoma Patients (August 18, 2008) -- Investigators have developed a test to predict whether a patient will progress rapidly from Stage III melanoma to metastatic Stage IV cancer and death. More than 70% of patients with Stage III melanoma — melanoma that has spread to the lymph nodes — will typically have a rapid time to progression (TTP) to Stage IV melanoma, and pass away within five years of their diagnosis. ... > full story
Virtual Reality Gets Real (August 18, 2008) -- Up to now virtual reality has proved cumbersome as a design tool, but European researchers are finalizing a system that brings ‘virtuality’ to the wider world. ... > full story
Few Pharmacologic Treatments Of Cancer-Related Fatigue Available To Patients (August 18, 2008) -- There is limited evidence to support the use of methylphenidate and erythropoietin for the treatment of cancer-related fatigue in some patients, according to a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. ... > full story
Toward Plastic Spin Transistors: Ultrafast Computers And Electronics On The Horizon? (August 18, 2008) -- Physicists successfully controlled an electrical current using the "spin" within electrons -- a step toward building an organic "spin transistor": A plastic semiconductor switch for future ultrafast computers and electronics. The study also suggests it will be more difficult than thought to make highly efficient light-emitting diodes using organic materials. The findings hint such LEDs would convert no more than 25 percent of electricity into light rather than heat. ... > full story
Bipolar Disorder And Gene Abnormalities: Sodium, Calcium Imbalances Linked To Manic Depressive Episodes (August 18, 2008) -- A large genetic study of bipolar disorder has implicated machinery that balances levels of sodium and calcium in neurons. The disorder was associated with variation in two genes that make components of such ion channels. Although it's not yet known if or how the suspect genetic variation might affect the balance machinery, the results point to the possibility that bipolar disorder might stem, at least in part, from malfunction of ion channels. ... > full story
Scientists Overcome Nanotechnology Hurdle (August 18, 2008) -- When you make a new material on a nano scale how can you see what you have made? This research shows a newly developed technique to examine tiny protein molecules on the surface of a gold nanoparticle. This is the first time scientists have been able to build a detailed picture of self-assembled proteins on a nanoparticle and it offers the promise of new ways to design and manufacture novel materials on the tiniest scale. ... > full story
Cancer Signatures Uncovered (August 18, 2008) -- A new systematic analysis of the relationship between the neoplastic and developmental transcriptome provides an outline of trends in cancer gene expression. The research describes how cancers can be divided into three groups distinguished by disparate developmental signatures. ... > full story
High-Altitude Small Mammals Of The Great Basin Are Not Completely Isolated (August 18, 2008) -- New modeling research demonstrates that the "sky islands" of the Great Basin are not islands: the different populations of small mammals that inhabit mountain tops have contact with each other. ... > full story
Patients Reluctant To Change Surgeons Despite Lure Of Shorter Wait Times (August 18, 2008) -- A new study in CMAJ has found that, despite the possibility of shorter waiting times for surgery, a majority of patients were unlikely to consider changing surgeons. ... > full story
'Virtual Archaeologist' Reconnects Fragments Of An Ancient Civilization (August 17, 2008) -- Computer scientists working with archaeologists in Greece has developed a new technology that has the potential to change the way people do archaeology. ... > full story
By Amplifying Cell Death Signals, Scientists Make Precancerous Cells Self-destruct (August 17, 2008) -- On the cellular level, death signals can actually be life saving -- by killing off abnormally dividing cells before they turn cancerous. Now, Rockefeller University researchers have found a way to amplify these signals by turning a life affirming protein into a killer. The findings not only mark a breakthrough in the field but also open the door to a new line of drugs for cancer therapeutics. ... > full story
Surprising Details Of Evolution Of Protein Translation Revealed (August 17, 2008) -- A new study of transfer RNA, a molecule that delivers amino acids to the protein-building machinery of the cell, challenges long-held ideas about the evolutionary history of protein synthesis. ... > full story
Helping Tumor Cells Not To Stick To The Wound During Surgical Removal (August 17, 2008) -- Sometimes during surgery to remove a tumor, cells become detached from the bulk of the tumor. In a small number of cases, these tumor cells stick to cells at the site of the surgical wound and go on to form a secondary tumor, having an enormous negative impact on the survival and quality of life of the patient. ... > full story
Old Growth Giants Limited By Water-pulling Ability (August 17, 2008) -- The Douglas-fir, state tree of Oregon, towering king of old-growth forests and one of the tallest tree species on Earth, finally stops growing taller because it just can't pull water any higher, a new study concludes. ... > full story
Parents' Expectations, Styles Can Harm College Students' Self-esteem (August 17, 2008) -- College students want to please their parents but often stress out about meeting goals far tougher than what their parents have in mind, psychologists have found. Scientists have examined the effects of parenting styles on how students adjust to college. Students reported making smoother transitions if they have at least one parent whose style combines warmth, a demanding nature and democracy. ... > full story
Stress, Anxiety Can Make Allergy Attacks Even More Miserable And Last Longer (August 17, 2008) -- A new study shows that even slight stress and anxiety can substantially worsen a person's allergic reaction to some routine allergens. Moreover, the added impact of stress and anxiety seem to linger, causing the second day of a stressed person's allergy attack to be much worse. ... > full story
Personalized Immunotherapy To Fight HIV/AIDS (August 17, 2008) -- The main obstacle to creating an AIDS vaccine has been the high genetic variability of the HIV virus. Scientists have overcome this difficulty by designing a personalized immunotherapy for HIV-infected patients. ... > full story
Dying Frogs Sign Of A Biodiversity Crisis (August 17, 2008) -- Devastating declines of amphibian species around the world are a sign of a biodiversity disaster larger than just frogs, salamanders and their ilk, according to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley. The researchers argue that substantial die-offs of amphibians and other plant and animal species add up to a new mass extinction facing the planet. ... > full story
New Mushroom Study Shows The Power Of Energy Density (August 17, 2008) -- Preliminary research suggests increasing intake of low-energy density foods, specifically mushrooms, in place of high-energy-density foods, like lean ground beef, is a strategy for preventing or treating obesity. This is good news for the more than one-third of US adults age 20 and older who are obese, according to the Center for Disease Control. ... > full story
Images For 3-D Video Games Without High Price Tags Or Stretch Marks From UC San Diego (August 17, 2008) -- The images of rocks, clouds, marble and other textures that serve as background images and details for 3-D video games are often hand painted and thus costly to generate. A breakthrough from a computer science undergraduate now offers video game developers the possibility of high quality yet lightweight images for 3-D video games that are generated "on the fly," and are free of stretch marks, flickering and other artifacts. ... > full story
Young Children's 'Theory Of Mind' Linked To Subsequent Metacognitive Development In Adolescence (August 17, 2008) -- A new study detects a systematic link between children's "theory of mind" as assessed in kindergarten and their metacognitive knowledge in elementary school. ... > full story
Potatoes May Hold Key To Alzheimer's Treatment (August 16, 2008) -- A virus that commonly infects potatoes bears a striking resemblance to one of the key proteins implicated in Alzheimer's disease, and researchers have used that to develop antibodies that may slow or prevent the onset of AD. ... > full story
Mechanism Behind Cocaine Craving Identified (August 16, 2008) -- A possible future way to prevent relapses into drug dependence has been discovered. The target is the dopamine-producing nerve cells in the midbrain. ... > full story
Resistant Prions: Can They Be Transmitted By Environment As Well As Direct Contact? (August 16, 2008) -- Prions, the pathogens that cause scrapie in sheep, can survive in the ground for several years, as researchers have discovered. Animals can become infected via contaminated pastures. It is not yet known whether the pathogens that cause BSE and CWD are equally resistant. ... > full story
Asthma In Boys May Be Just A Phase, But For Girls It May Be There To Stay (August 16, 2008) -- Boys may be more apt than girls to have childhood asthma, but, when compared to girls, they are also more likely to grow out of it in adolescence and have a decreased incidence of asthma in the post-pubertal years. ... > full story
Virtual Applications Reach Out To Real World (August 16, 2008) -- Researchers have developed a series of very clever tools to break through the bottlenecks stalling the widespread adoption of virtual reality. But the compelling applications designed for the system are the real stars. ... > full story
Americans Spending, Gambling, Saving: Who's Happiest, Who's Most At Risk? (August 16, 2008) -- For some, spending in today's tumultuous economy is not a problem, especially for those who don't care what everyone else has. But for others, casino splurges, not saving enough or buying the latest iPhone on impulse can lead to emotional turmoil or financial troubles, according to several new studies on consumer behavior. ... > full story
New Bird Species Discovered In Gabon, Africa (August 16, 2008) -- Scientists have discovered a new species of bird in Gabon, Africa, that was, until now, unknown to the scientific community. The newly found olive-backed forest robin (Stiphrornis pyrrholaemus) was named by the scientists for its distinctive olive back and rump. Adult birds measure 4.5 inches in length and average 18 grams in weight. ... > full story
Hope For Patients With COPD (August 16, 2008) -- For the first time, a drug therapy appears to reduce lung function loss in patients with moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to the results of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in 42 countries. ... > full story
Synthetic Biology Is Bearing Fruit: Blockers Against Blockers (August 16, 2008) -- Synthetic Biology is bearing fruit: the tuberculosis pathogen can be fooled by a widely used food additive. The WHO records around nine million new cases of the disease each year, and about 50 million people are infected with a strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis that is resistant to the antibiotics Isoniazid and Rifampicin. ... > full story
Surgical Weight Loss Does Not Eliminate Obstructive Sleep Apnea (August 16, 2008) -- A study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine shows that surgical weight loss results in an improvement of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), but most patients continue to have moderate to severe OSA one year after undergoing bariatric surgery. Results of this study suggest that it is the severity of the condition, rather than a patient's presurgical weight, that determines if OSA will be resolved. ... > full story
Studying Volcanoes With Balloons (August 16, 2008) -- People do all kinds of crazy things in Hawaii, but flying balloons over a volcano usually isn’t one of them. Unless you’re Adam Durant, that is. ... > full story
English Health-care System Failing To Provide Basic Care, Shows Major Survey (August 16, 2008) -- The NHS and private health care are not providing good enough basic care to a large portion of the population in England, especially older and frailer people, according to a new study. Overall, only 62 percent of the care recommended for older adults is actually received, conclude the authors. ... > full story
Cassini Pinpoints Source Of Jets On Saturn's Moon Enceladus (August 15, 2008) -- In a feat of interplanetary sharpshooting, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has pinpointed precisely where the icy jets erupt from the surface of Saturn's geologically active moon Enceladus. New carefully targeted pictures reveal exquisite details in the prominent south polar "tiger stripe" fractures from which the jets emanate. ... > full story
Slipping Through Cell Walls, Nanotubes Deliver High-potency Punch To Cancer Tumors In Mice (August 15, 2008) -- A big challenge in treating cancer with chemotherapy is how to get the most medication into the cells of a tumor without "spillover" of the medication adversely affecting the healthy cells in a patient's body. Now researchers have addressed that problem using single-walled carbon nanotubes as delivery vehicles. This method gets a higher proportion of a given dose of medication into the tumor cells than is possible with the "free" drug. ... > full story
Burmese Pythons Will Find Little Suitable Habitat Outside South Florida, Study Suggests (August 15, 2008) -- Burmese Pythons may have chosen Florida as a vacation destination, but are unlikely to expand further, according to a new study. Although the United States Geological Survey earlier this year released "climate maps" indicating that the pythons could inhabit up to 32 states in the US, new research indicates that the snakes are unlikely to expand out of Florida. ... > full story
Hepatitis B Genotypes And Mutants May Influence Liver Cancer Risk (August 15, 2008) -- Infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes liver cancer in some individuals, but not all strains of the virus are associated with the same degree of risk. If confirmed, the newly reported data could help target chemoprevention strategies in the future. ... > full story
Antarctic Climate: Short-term Spikes, Long-term Warming Linked To Tropical Pacific (August 15, 2008) -- Dramatic year-to-year temperature swings and a century-long warming trend across West Antarctica are linked to conditions in the tropical Pacific, according to an analysis of ice cores. The findings show the connection of the world's coldest continent to global warming, as well as to events such as El Niño. ... > full story
Women And War: The Toll Of Deployment On Physical Health (August 15, 2008) -- More than 80 percent of a sample of Air Force women deployed in Iraq and other areas around the world report suffering from persistent fatigue, fever, hair loss and difficulty concentrating. ... > full story
Big-brained Animals Evolve Faster (August 15, 2008) -- Ecologists and evolutionary biologists analyzed body size measures of 7,209 species of birds and found that avian families that have experienced the greatest diversification in body size tend to be those with brains larger than expected for their body size. ... > full story
Preventing Protein Clumping Characteristic Of Parkinson's Disease With Baker's Yeast (August 15, 2008) -- Parkinson disease is a debilitating and lethal neurodegenerative disease, for which there is currently no cure. However, new data have provided evidence to support that idea that agents that disrupt the formation of the abnormal aggregates of a protein called alpha-syn that characterize the brain of individuals with PD might have therapeutic effects. ... > full story
Chemists Take Gold, Mass-produce Beijing Olympic Logo (August 15, 2008) -- Nanoscientists have mass-produced the 2008 Summer Olympics logo -- 15,000 times. All the logos take up one square centimeter of space. The researchers printed the logos as well as an integrated gold circuit using a new printing technique, called Polymer Pen Lithography, that can write on three different length scales using only one device. It is fast, inexpensive and simple and could find use in computational tools, medical diagnostics and the pharmaceutical industry. ... > full story
Model For Neurological Disorder 'Angelman Syndrome' Developed (August 15, 2008) -- A model for studying the genetics of Angelman syndrome, a neurological disorder that causes mental retardation and other symptoms in one out of 15,000 births, has been developed by biologists at The University of Texas at Austin. ... > full story
In The Long Run, Exertion Regulation Wins The Day For Marathon Runners (August 15, 2008) -- Scientists have investigated the physiological methods employed by well-trained runners in order to regulate the great physical strain and effort that are needed in order to complete and perform well in marathons and other endurance challenges. ... > full story
Direct Gaze Enhances Face Perception (August 15, 2008) -- Gaze direction is significant for the processing of visual information from the human face. Researchers have discovered that the visual system of the brain processes another person's face more efficiently when the person's gaze is straight ahead than when the gaze is averted. ... > full story
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