ScienceDaily Top Science Headlines -- for Tuesday, October 4, 2011

ScienceDaily Top Science Headlines

for Tuesday, October 4, 2011

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Novel energy-storage membrane: Performance surpasses existing rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors (October 4, 2011) -- Researchers in Singapore have developed a novel membrane with a performance that surpasses existing rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors, promising a low-cost, environmentally-friendly energy source. ... > full story

Overall quality of pregnant woman’s diet affects risk for two birth defects, study shows (October 4, 2011) -- The overall quality of a pregnant woman's diet is linked with risk for two types of serious birth defects, a new study has shown. In the study, women who ate better before and during pregnancy gave birth to fewer infants with malformations of the brain and spinal cord, or orofacial clefts, such as cleft lip and cleft palate. ... > full story

Forest structure, services and biodiversity may be lost even as form remains (October 4, 2011) -- A forest may look like a forest, have many of the same trees that used to live there, but still lose the ecological, economic or cultural values that once made it what it was, researchers suggest. ... > full story

Scientists find mechanism that leads to drug resistance in bacteria causing melioidosis (October 4, 2011) -- Researchers have identified a novel mechanism whereby the organism Burkholderia pseudomallei -- the cause of melioidosis, a neglected tropical infectious disease -- develops resistance to ceftazidime, the standard antibiotic treatment. The change also makes the drug-resistant bacterium difficult to detect. ... > full story

Helium raises resolution of whole cell imaging (October 4, 2011) -- The ability to obtain an accurate three-dimensional image of an intact cell is critical for unraveling the mysteries of cellular structure and function. However, for many years, tiny structures buried deep inside cells have been practically invisible to scientists due to a lack of microscopic techniques that achieve adequate resolution at the cell surface and through the entire depth of the cell. Now, a new study demonstrates that microscopy with helium ions may greatly enhance both surface and sub-cellular imaging. ... > full story

Social media sites may reveal information about problem drinking among college students (October 4, 2011) -- Social media websites, such as Facebook and MySpace, may reveal information that could identify underage college students who may be at risk for problem drinking, according to a new study. ... > full story

Ice Age carbon mystery: Rising carbon dioxide levels not tied to Pacific Ocean, as had been suspected (October 4, 2011) -- After the last Ice Age peaked about 18,000 years ago, levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide rose about 30 percent. Scientists believe that the additional CO2 -- the source of which was thought to be the deep ocean -- played a key role in warming the planet and melting the continental ice sheets. But a new study suggests that the deep ocean was not an important source of carbon during glacial times. The finding will force researchers to reassess their ideas about the fundamental mechanisms that regulate atmospheric CO2 over long time scales. ... > full story

Tuberculosis bacterium's outer cell wall disarms the body's defense to remain infectious (October 4, 2011) -- The bacterium that causes tuberculosis has a unique molecule on its outer cell surface that blocks a key part of the body's defense. New research suggests this represents a novel mechanism in the microbe's evolving efforts to remain hidden from the human immune system. The TB bacterium has a molecule on its outer surface called lipomannan that can stop production of an important protein in the body's immune cells that helps contain TB infection and maintain it in a latent state. ... > full story

Dawn at Vesta: Massive mountains, rough surface, and old-young dichotomy in hemispheres (October 4, 2011) -- NASA's Dawn mission, which has been orbiting Vesta since mid-July, has revealed that the asteroid's southern hemisphere boasts one of the largest mountains in the System. Other results show that Vesta's surface, viewed at different wavelengths, has striking diversity in its composition particularly around craters. The surface appears to be much rougher than most asteroids in the main asteroid belt. Preliminary results from crater age dates indicate that areas in the southern hemisphere are as young as 1-2 billion years old, much younger than areas in the north. ... > full story

Virtual fly-through bronchoscopy yields real results (October 4, 2011) -- For patients with non-small cell lung cancer the accurate determination of the lymph node status before therapy is critical to develop an individualized treatment plan. Research from the October issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine highlights a new way for this information to be collected -- a virtual fly-through three-dimensional 18F-FDG PET/computed tomography bronchoscopy that has high diagnostic accuracy for the detection of regional lymph node metastases. ... > full story

Tick responsible for equine piroplasmosis outbreak identified (October 4, 2011) -- The cayenne tick has been identified as one of the vectors of equine piroplasmosis in horses in a 2009 Texas outbreak, according to new research. ... > full story

Community effort brings lasting drop in smoking, delinquency, drug use (October 4, 2011) -- Delaying the age when kids try alcohol or smoking decreases the likelihood that they will become dependent later in life. A new study of Communities That Care, a new prevention system, shows that tenth graders in towns using they system were less likely to have tried drinking or smoking. Delinquent behavior decreased too. ... > full story

Decline and recovery of coral reefs linked to 700 years of human and environmental activities (October 3, 2011) -- Changing human activities coupled with a dynamic environment over the past few centuries have caused fluctuating periods of decline and recovery of corals reefs in the Hawaiian Islands, according to a new study. Using the reefs and island societies as a model social-ecological system, a team of scientists reconstructed 700 years of human-environment interactions in two different regions of the Hawaiian archipelago. ... > full story

Priming with DNA vaccine makes avian flu vaccine work better: Proof of concept for universal influenza vaccine (October 3, 2011) -- The immune response to an H5N1 avian influenza vaccine was greatly enhanced in healthy adults if they were first primed with a DNA vaccine expressing a gene for a key H5N1 protein, researchers say. ... > full story

Fruity aromas: An aphrodisiac for flies (October 3, 2011) -- The smell of food acts as an aphrodisiac for Drosophila (vinegar flies). Scientists have brought to light a novel olfactory perception mechanism: male flies use a scent derived from the fruit that they eat to stimulate their sexual appetite. ... > full story

Sentinel lymph node biopsy predicts outcomes for Merkel cell carcinoma (October 3, 2011) -- Patients with Merkel cell carcinoma who underwent a procedure called sentinel lymph node biopsy had a lower risk of cancer recurrence after two years, according to a new study. When the biopsy's results were used to guide subsequent tests and treatment, these patients had longer survival rates than patients who had not undergone the procedure. ... > full story

Two early stages of carbon nanotube growth discovered (October 3, 2011) -- Orderly rows of neatly aligned carbon nanotubes have served as the standard for nanotechnology researchers. But physicists now report the discovery of two early stages of carbon nanotube growth that produce tangled or semi-aligned tubes with characteristics that could lend themselves to thermal management and other applications. ... > full story

Schoolboy rugby: Risk of suffering an injury during a single season can be high, UK study shows (October 3, 2011) -- A new study highlights the injury risks for schoolboys playing rugby. The research shows that the chance of a school player suffering an injury during a single season is at least 12 percent and, according to some research, could be as high as 90 percent. ... > full story

Cosmic weight watching reveals black hole-galaxy history (October 3, 2011) -- Using state-of-the-art technology and sophisticated data analysis tools, a team of astronomers has developed a new and powerful technique to directly determine the mass of an active galaxy at a distance of nearly 9 billion light-years from Earth. This pioneering method promises a new approach for studying the co-evolution of galaxies and their central black holes. First results indicate that for galaxies, the best part of cosmic history was not a time of sweeping changes. ... > full story

Premature birth may increase risk of epilepsy later in life (October 3, 2011) -- Being born prematurely may increase your risk of developing epilepsy as an adult, according to a new study. ... > full story

Tenerife geology discovery is among 'world's best': Holiday Island landscape reveals explosive past (October 3, 2011) -- Volcanologists have uncovered one of the world's best-preserved accessible examples of a monstrous landslide that followed a huge volcanic eruption on the Canarian island of Tenerife. ... > full story

Biomarker for Huntington's disease identified (October 3, 2011) -- Researchers have identified a transcriptional biomarker that may assist in the monitoring of disease activity and in the evaluation of new medications. ... > full story

Polymeric material has potential for noninvasive procedures (October 3, 2011) -- Scientists have developed what they believe to be the first polymeric material that is sensitive to biologically benign levels of near infrared irradiation, enabling the material to disassemble in a highly controlled fashion. The study represents a significant milestone in the area of light-sensitive material for non-invasive medical and biological applications. ... > full story

Mother's investment in the eggs makes zebra finch males attractive (October 3, 2011) -- It is not the superior genes of the father, but the mother's resource investment in the eggs that makes zebra finch males particularly attractive. A Swiss-Australian research team has challenged the theory that females mate with superior males to obtain good genes for their offspring. ... > full story

'Alarm clock' gene explains wake-up function of biological clock (October 3, 2011) -- Ever wondered why you wake up in the morning -- even when the alarm clock isn't making jarring noises? Wonder no more. Researchers have identified a new component of the biological clock, a gene responsible for starting the clock from its restful state every morning. ... > full story

Increased fat in children raises their blood pressure risk (October 3, 2011) -- Overweight or obese children have almost three times the risk of high blood pressure compared to normal weight children. Researchers observed the effects of excess weight on blood pressure in children of all ages. ... > full story

Exotic quantum states: A new research approach (October 3, 2011) -- Theoretical physicists have formulated a new concept to engineer exotic, so-called topological states of matter in quantum mechanical many-body systems. They linked concepts of quantum optics and condensed matter physics and show a direction to build a quantum computer which is immune against perturbations. ... > full story

Researchers discover new enzyme function for anemia (October 3, 2011) -- Researchers have discovered a new function for an enzyme that may protect against organ injury and death from anemia. ... > full story

Killing crop-eating pests: Compounds work by disrupting bugs' winter sleep (October 3, 2011) -- The creation of compounds that disrupt a worldwide pest's winter sleep hints at the potential to develop natural and targeted controls against crop-eating insects, new research suggests. Scientists have designed agents that interfere with the protective dormancy period of the corn earworm, a species that infests more than 100 types of plants and costs American farmers an estimated billion a year in losses and control costs. ... > full story

Severely impaired schizophrenics enter dynamic cycle of recovery after cognitive therapy (October 3, 2011) -- For the first time, researchers have shown that a psychosocial treatment can significantly improve daily functioning and quality of life in the lowest-functioning cases of schizophrenia. ... > full story

Gravitational waves that are 'sounds of the universe' (October 3, 2011) -- Einstein wrote about them, and we're still looking for them -- gravitational waves, which are small ripples in the fabric of space-time, that many consider to be the sounds of our universe. Just as sound complements vision in our daily life, gravitational waves will complement our view of the universe taken by standard telescopes. ... > full story

Previously unknown cell interaction key in immune system attacks (October 3, 2011) -- Most of the time, the immune system is the body's protector. But in autoimmune diseases, the immune system does an about face, turning on the body and attacking normal cells. A major discovery of a previously unknown molecular interaction that is essential for T lymphocyte activation, could have major implications for stopping this aberrant immune system behavior and the accompanying undesirable immune responses that cause autoimmune diseases and allergies. ... > full story

Russian and US veterinarians collaborate to solve mysterious wild tiger deaths (October 3, 2011) -- Veterinarians are working to understand how distemper -- a virus afflicting domestic dogs and many wildlife species -- may be a growing threat to Siberian tigers. ... > full story

Genomic architecture presages genomic instability (October 3, 2011) -- When cells divide, DNA is copied perfectly and distributed among daughter cells evenly. Occasionally, DNA breaks during division and is rearranged, resulting in duplications or deletions. Now researchers who study families with such genomic disorders have found a shared architecture resulting from this jumble that is associated with very severe forms of disease. ... > full story

Pathways of pain-blocking medications modeled by computer (October 3, 2011) -- Although local anesthetics are commonly used, in many cases scientists still don't understand the finer points of how the drugs act on cell membranes. A new computer model may help by showing how readily cell membranes made up of different compounds absorb anesthetics. ... > full story

Everyone's a little bit racist, but it may not be your fault, study suggests (October 3, 2011) -- In looking for the culprit as to why people tend to display tinges of racism, sexism or ageism, even towards members of their own group, a research team found that our culture may be partially to blame. ... > full story

Unprecedented Arctic ozone loss last winter (October 3, 2011) -- A NASA-led study has documented an unprecedented depletion of Earth's protective ozone layer above the Arctic last winter and spring caused by an unusually prolonged period of extremely low temperatures in the stratosphere. ... > full story

BPA exposure in utero may increase predisposition to breast cancer (October 3, 2011) -- A recent study found that perinatal exposure to environmentally relevant doses of bisphenol A (BPA) alters long-term hormone response and breast development in mice that may increase the propensity to develop cancer. ... > full story

Neuronal stem cells tracked using MRI: Technology could inform treatment for brain injury and neurological disease (October 3, 2011) -- Biologists have developed an MRI-based technique that allows researchers to non-invasively follow neural stem cells in vivo. The recently patented technology could be used to further the study of neural stem cells and inform the development of new treatments for brain injury caused by trauma, stroke, Parkinson's disease and other neurological disorders. ... > full story

Stress hormones may increase cardiovascular risks for shift workers (October 3, 2011) -- A recent study found that shift work at a young age is associated with elevated long-term cortisol levels and increased BMI. Previous studies have shown that long-term elevated cortisol levels lead to increased abdominal obesity, hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular risk. ... > full story

Weeds are vital to the existence of farmland species, study finds (October 3, 2011) -- Weeds, which are widely deemed as a nuisance plant, are vital to the existence of many farmland species, according to a new study. Since many weeds produce flowers and seed, they are an integral part of our ecosystem and together with other crop and non-crop seeds found on farms, they provide food for over 330 species of insects, birds and animals. ... > full story

Baseball's winning formula: Statistical analysis debunks the old adage 'Pitching is 75 percent of the game' (October 3, 2011) -- A new analysis found hitting accounts for more than 45 percent of Major League Baseball teams' winning records, fielding for 25 percent and pitching for 25 percent. And, the impact of stolen bases is greatly overestimated. ... > full story

2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Breakthroughs in understanding how human Immune system is activated (October 3, 2011) -- The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2011 to Bruce A. Beutler and Jules A. Hoffmann for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity and the other half to Ralph M. Steinman for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity. ... > full story

Fatty acid test: Why some harm health, but others help (October 3, 2011) -- In a new paper, researchers offer an explanation, and a framework that could lead to dietary supplements designed to treat obesity at the molecular level. ... > full story

Taking the heat: Asian elephants simply 'ride out' high daytime heat load (October 3, 2011) -- Scientists in Austria have discovered the mechanism by which Asian elephants are able to tolerate hot daytime temperatures. Heterothermy is an adaptive mechanism by which body temperature fluctuates in response to environmental temperature, decreasing at night when it is cooler and increasing gradually in the daytime. ... > full story

Diabetes and cancer: A shared biological basis (October 3, 2011) -- Contrary to what you might think, cancer and diabetes appear to have some biology in common. According to a new study, a pathway that initially drew attention for its role in embryonic stem cells and cancer also influences the odds that mice develop or resist diabetes. ... > full story

Physicists consider their own carbon footprint (October 3, 2011) -- An astrophysicist calls on physicists to pull their weight when it comes to climate change, drawing on his own research showing that astronomers average 23,000 air miles per year flying to observatories, conferences and meetings, and use 130 KWh more energy per day than the average US citizen. ... > full story

Combating mood disorders: New approach simplifies the search for more specific drugs (October 3, 2011) -- Many psychiatric conditions are caused by aberrant metabolism of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Researchers have now developed a new screening method, which will facilitate the search for new drugs that modulate the biological activity of serotonin. ... > full story