ScienceDaily Top Science Headlines -- for Friday, November 11, 2011

ScienceDaily Top Science Headlines

for Friday, November 11, 2011

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Biologists slow the aging process in fruit flies: Study has implications for humans (November 11, 2011) -- Biologists have identified a gene that slows the aging process. The biologists, working with fruit flies, activated a gene called PGC-1, which increases the activity of mitochondria, the tiny power generators in cells that control cell growth and tell cells when to live and die. ... > full story

Elderly lose ability to distinguish between odors, researcher finds; Smells blend together, pose hazards (November 11, 2011) -- Scientists studying the effect of aging on smell, have found that those 60 and over have more difficulty distinguishing between odors, putting them at risk from dangerous chemicals and poor nutrition. ... > full story

Plant with 'eggbeater' texture inspires waterproof coating (November 11, 2011) -- A floating weed that clogs waterways around the world has at least one redeeming feature: It's inspired a high-tech waterproof coating intended for boats and submarines. The Brazilian fern Salvinia molesta has proliferated around the Americas and Australia in part because its surface is dotted with oddly shaped hairs that trap air, reduce friction, and help the plant stay afloat. ... > full story

Research shows 'weak evidence' for the benefit of exercise referral schemes (November 11, 2011) -- While it is acknowledged that physical activity promotion is a key public health message, a new study questions the effectiveness of current exercise referral schemes and whether improvements to existing schemes or better targeting should be sought. ... > full story

Precipitation variability in Northeast, Southwest linked in 1,000-year analysis (November 11, 2011) -- An analysis of precipitation data collected from a lakebed in New York and a Rhode Island estuary has provided a link between the variability of precipitation in the Northeast with that of the Southwest. The results validate climate models that predict an increasing number of extreme weather events. ... > full story

Women see naked men differently, too (November 11, 2011) -- For both men and women, wearing revealing attire causes them to be seen as more sensitive but less competent, says a new study. ... > full story

Sea change can forecast South American wildfires (November 11, 2011) -- Tiny temperature changes on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans provide an excellent way to forecast wildfires in South American rainforests, new research shows. ... > full story

Why do neurons die in Parkinson's disease? Study of hereditary Parkinson’s finds that mitochondria can’t be cleared out when damaged (November 11, 2011) -- Current thinking about Parkinson's disease is that it's a disorder of mitochondria, the energy-producing organelles inside cells, causing neurons in the brain's substantia nigra to die or become impaired. A study now shows that genetic mutations causing a hereditary form of Parkinson's disease cause mitochondria to run amok inside the cell, leaving the cell without a brake to stop them. ... > full story

Flexible rack systems sort molecules (November 11, 2011) -- Researchers have developed a flexible and efficient new process for the separation of enantiomers. Enantiomer separation is indispensable for the production of many pharmaceuticals. In their process, the scientists use porous molecular frameworks that are assembled in layers on solid substrates using a specifically developed method. ... > full story

Hospital safety climate linked to both patient and nurse injuries (November 11, 2011) -- A safe working environment for nurses is also a safe environment for the patients in their care, according to a new study. Researchers found that safety climate was associated with both patient and nurse injuries, suggesting that patient and nurse safety may be linked outcomes. ... > full story

Deepwater Horizon oil spill: New approach to assessing impacts of ecological damage (November 11, 2011) -- The magnitude and depth of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will require an unprecedented effort to determine the extent and severity of ecological damage and to develop restoration plans for affected areas in the Gulf of Mexico, says a new report. A broad approach that focuses on repairing ecosystem processes -- such as fisheries production -- in addition to replacing natural resources damaged by the spill could offer more options for restoring the Gulf region, says the congressionally mandated report. ... > full story

U.S. National School Lunch Program improves health of children in low-income households, study suggests (November 11, 2011) -- A recent study confirmed that the U.S. National School Lunch Program (NSLP) improves the health outcomes of children who reside in low-income households. The study of nearly 2,700 NSLP children found that the NSLP reduces the prevalence of food insecurity by 3.8 percent, poor general health by 29 percent, and the rate of obesity by at least 17 percent in its participants. ... > full story

Chemists reveal the force within you: New method for visualizing mechanical forces on cell surface (November 10, 2011) -- A new method for visualizing mechanical forces on the surface of a cell provides the first detailed view of those forces, as they occur in real-time. Emory chemists were able to measure something that's never been measured before: The force that one molecule applies to another molecule across the entire surface of a living cell, and as this cell moves and goes about its normal processes. ... > full story

Combination 'epigenetic' therapy may restore anti-cancer gene activity in late-stage lung cancer patients (November 10, 2011) -- A new type of therapy aimed at reversing the gene-silencing that promotes cancer-cell growth has shown promising results in a small clinical trial. Forty-five late-stage lung cancer patients who received a two-drug combination designed to restore anti-cancer gene activity survived about two months longer than the expected four months, and two patients showed complete or near-complete responses despite having progressive disease after multiple standard therapies. ... > full story

Knocking out key protein in mice boosts insulin sensitivity (November 10, 2011) -- By knocking out a key regulatory protein, scientists have dramatically boosted insulin sensitivity in lab mice, an achievement that opens a new door for drug development and the treatment of diabetes. ... > full story

Biological clock controls activation of skin stem cells (November 10, 2011) -- A new study reveals the role of the daily biological clock (circadian rhythms) in the regenerative capacity of skin stem cells. Disruption of this rhythm results in premature tissue aging and a greater predisposition to the development of skin tumors. The proper reestablishment of the biological clock increases the long-term regenerative capacity of the tissue and decreases the probability of developing tumors. ... > full story

Unique bipolar compounds enhance functionality of organic electronics (November 10, 2011) -- Researchers have uncovered compounds that exhibit unique and novel electrochemical properties. ... > full story

Psychologists stress the importance of memory in preventing relapse after therapy (November 10, 2011) -- Addictions, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder -- such painful and harmful problems are recalcitrant to treatment. In the clinic, a person may suppress the association between the stimulus and the response -- say, a bar with ashtrays and smoking -- by learning to pair the stimulus with a new memory not involving smoking. But once out in the world, faced with bars and ashtrays aplenty, he relapses into the old behavior. Some treatment aims at helping the patient avoid locations and stimuli that trigger the harmful behavior. A new article suggests this is not the most effective route. ... > full story

Can fetus sense mother's psychological state? Study suggests yes (November 10, 2011) -- As a fetus grows, it's constantly getting messages from its mother. It's not just hearing her heartbeat and whatever music she might play to her belly; it also gets chemical signals through the placenta. A new study finds that this includes signals about the mother's mental state. ... > full story

Benefits of nut consumption for people with abdominal obesity, high blood sugar, high blood pressure (November 10, 2011) -- For the first time, scientists report a link between eating nuts and higher levels of serotonin in the bodies of patients with metabolic syndrome. Serotonin helps transmit nerve signals and decreases feelings of hunger, makes people feel happier and improves heart health. It took only one ounce of mixed nuts (raw unpeeled walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts) a day to produce the good effects. ... > full story

Revolutionary ultrasonic nozzle that will change the way water cleans (November 10, 2011) -- A team of scientists from the UK has developed a revolutionary ultrasonic attachment for taps, which massively enhances the ability of water to clean. ... > full story

Scientists defuse the 'Vietnam time bomb': How bacterial pathogen causes deadly tropical disease melioidosis (November 10, 2011) -- A key mechanism by which a bacterial pathogen causes the deadly tropical disease melioidosis has been discovered by an international team of scientists. ... > full story

Rare earth metal shortages could hamper deployment of low-carbon energy technologies (November 10, 2011) -- Scientists report that five metals, essential for manufacturing low-carbon technologies, show a high risk of shortage. Reasons for this lie in Europe's dependency on imports, increasing global demand, supply concentration and geopolitical issues. ... > full story

Racial and ethnic variations in substance-related disorders among adolescents (November 10, 2011) -- Substance use is widespread among adolescents in the United States, particularly among those of Native American, white, Hispanic and multiple race/ethnicity, and these groups are also disproportionally affected by substance-related disorders, according to a new report. ... > full story

Nano car has molecular 4-wheel drive: Smallest electric car in the world (November 10, 2011) -- Reduced to the max: the emission-free, noiseless 4-wheel drive car, jointly developed by Swiss researchers and their Dutch colleagues, represents lightweight construction at its most extreme. The nano car consists of just a single molecule and travels on four electrically-driven wheels in an almost straight line over a copper surface. ... > full story

Depression and chronic stress accelerates aging (November 10, 2011) -- People with recurrent depressions or those exposed to chronic stress exhibits shorter telomeres in white blood cells. ... > full story

Trees on tundra's border are growing faster in a hotter climate (November 10, 2011) -- Evergreen trees at the edge of Alaska's tundra are growing faster, suggesting that at least some forests may be adapting to a rapidly warming climate, says a new study. While forests elsewhere are thinning from wildfires, insect damage and droughts partially attributed to global warming, some white spruce trees in the far north of Alaska have grown more vigorously in the last hundred years, especially since 1950, the study has found. ... > full story

First large-scale study of pain reveals risk factors (November 10, 2011) -- Researchers have developed a comprehensive set of clinical characteristics that they say will lead to the ability to identify individuals at risk for developing painful jaw conditions. ... > full story

Sound, digested: New software tool provides unprecedented searches of sound, from musical riffs to gunshots (November 10, 2011) -- Audio engineers have developed a novel artificial intelligence system for understanding and indexing sound, a unique tool for both finding and matching previously un-labeled audio files. ... > full story

Psychologists increase understanding of how the brain perceives shades of gray (November 10, 2011) -- Peoples' eyes, nerves and brains translate light into electrochemical signals and then into an experience of the world around them. A close look shows that even seemingly simple tasks, like keeping a stable perception of an object's color in different lighting conditions or distinguishing black and white objects, is, in fact, very challenging. By way of a novel experiment, psychologists have now provided new insight into how the brain tackles this problem. ... > full story

Giant planet ejected from the solar system? (November 10, 2011) -- Just as an expert chess player sacrifices a piece to protect the queen, the solar system may have given up a giant planet and spared the Earth, according to a new article. ... > full story

Scientists discover how to design drugs that could target particular nerve cells (November 10, 2011) -- The future of drug design lies in developing therapies that can target specific cellular processes without causing adverse reactions in other areas of the nervous system. Scientists have now discovered how to design drugs to target specific areas of the brain. ... > full story

More than 50 percent decline in elephants in eastern Congo due to human conflict (November 10, 2011) -- Humans play a far greater role in the fate of African elephants than habitat, and human conflict in particular has a devastating impact on these largest terrestrial animals, according to a new study. ... > full story

More fiber, but not necessarily less fat, good for teen diets (November 10, 2011) -- A diet high in fiber – but not necessarily one low in saturated fat or cholesterol – is tied to a lower risk of heart disease and type-2 diabetes in teenagers, according to new findings. ... > full story

How global warming could cause animals to shrink (November 10, 2011) -- The way in which global warming causes many of the world's organisms to shrink has been revealed by new research. ... > full story

Manipulative mothers subdue show-off sons, bird researchers demonstrate (November 10, 2011) -- The gaudy plumage and acrobatic displays of birds of paradise are a striking example of sexual selection, Charles Darwin's second great theory of evolution. But new research shows that this powerful process may collapse when mothers can decide whether to have a son or a daughter. ... > full story

Weird world of water gets a little weirder (November 10, 2011) -- Strange, stranger, strangest! To the weird nature of one of the simplest chemical compounds -- the stuff so familiar that even non-scientists know its chemical formula -- add another odd twist. Scientists are reporting that good old H2O, when chilled below the freezing point, can shift into a new type of liquid. ... > full story

Tear drops may rival blood drops in testing blood sugar in diabetes (November 10, 2011) -- Scientists are reporting development and successful laboratory testing of an electrochemical sensor device that has the potential to measure blood sugar levels from tears instead of blood -- an advance that could save the world's 350 million diabetes patients the discomfort of pricking their fingers for droplets of blood used in traditional blood sugar tests. ... > full story

First of its kind gene map of sulfate-reducing bacterium created (November 10, 2011) -- Critical genetic secrets of a bacterium that holds potential for removing toxic and radioactive waste from the environment have been revealed in a new study. Researchers have created a first-of-its-kind gene map of Desulfovibrio vulgaris, which can be used to identify the genes that determine how these bacteria interact with their surrounding environment. ... > full story

Fundamental discovery casts enzymes in new light (November 10, 2011) -- A tree outside an office window provided the inspiration for a discovery that may ultimately lead to drugs with fewer side effects, less expensive biofuels and more. ... > full story

New process for making non-sticky, biodegradable chewing gum developed (November 10, 2011) -- We find it on chairs, stuck under desks, on pavements or stuck to our shoes. Chewing gum is sticky -- and it does not degrade easily. This leads to increased cleaning costs for our local authorities. However, an Irish professor has developed a novel process for creating biodegradable chewing gum. ... > full story

Big, little, tall and tiny: Learning spatial terms improves children's spatial skills (November 10, 2011) -- Preschool children who hear their parents describe the size and shape of objects and then use those words themselves perform better on tests of their spatial skills, researchers have found. The study is the first to show that learning to use a wide range of spatial words predicts children's later spatial thinking, which in turn is important in mathematics, science and technology. ... > full story

No need to shrink guts to have a larger brain (November 10, 2011) -- The so-called expensive-tissue hypothesis, which suggests a trade-off between the size of the brain and the size of the digestive tract, has been challenged. Researchers have now shown that brains in mammals have grown over the course of evolution without the digestive organs having to become smaller. The researchers have further demonstrated that the potential to store fat often goes hand in hand with relatively small brains -- except in humans, who owe their increased energy intake and correspondingly large brain to communal child care, better diet and their ability to walk upright. ... > full story

Fast new test for terrible form of food poisoning (November 10, 2011) -- Scientists are reporting development of a fast, reliable new test that could help people avoid a terrible type of food poisoning that comes from eating fish tainted with a difficult-to-detect toxin from marine algae growing in warm waters. ... > full story

First proof of principle for treating rare bone disease (November 10, 2011) -- Scientists have developed a new genetic approach to specifically block the damaged copy of the gene for a rare bone disease, while leaving the normal copy untouched. ... > full story

Carbon monoxide: The silent calmer? Inhaling low levels of CO reduces the impact of environmental stress, study suggests (November 10, 2011) -- Carbon monoxide (CO) -- a tasteless, colorless and odorless gas -- is not only a danger to the environment but also highly toxic to human beings. Found in the exhaust of vehicles and generators, CO has been dubbed the "silent killer" because excessive inhalation is lethal, poisoning the nervous system and heart. Now, in a surprising twist, a researcher says that low levels of the poisonous gas carbon monoxide actually have a narcotic effect that helps city-dwellers cope with environmental stress in an urban setting. ... > full story

Are electron tweezers possible? Apparently so (November 10, 2011) -- A recent paper demonstrates that the beams produced by modern electron microscopes can be used not just to look at nanoscale objects, but to move them around, position them and perhaps even assemble them. ... > full story

'Tis better to give than to receive? Life scientists find that giving support offers health benefits -- to the giver (November 10, 2011) -- Providing support to a loved one offers benefits, to the giver, not just the recipient, a new neuroimaging study reveals. ... > full story