ScienceDaily Top Science Headlines -- for Thursday, June 23, 2011 ~ techdeck

ScienceDaily Top Science Headlines

for Thursday, June 23, 2011

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Evolution to the rescue: Species may adapt quickly to rapid environmental change, yeast study shows (June 23, 2011) -- Evolution is usually thought to be a slow process, something that happens over generations, thanks to adaptive mutations. But environmental change is happening very fast. So, according to a biology professor, the question arises, "Can evolution happen quickly enough to help a species survive?" The answer, according to his most recent study, is a resounding yes. ... > full story

Breakthrough in treatment of hepatitis C (June 23, 2011) -- The drug telaprevir (Incivek) provides a dramatic improvement in the treatment of the most common form of hepatitis C infection, says an international team of investigators. ... > full story

Tracking down motion perception (June 23, 2011) -- Neurobiologists have determined the number of circuits needed to see movements. Researchers are only beginning to grasp the complexity of the nerve cell circuits necessary to perceive motion. ... > full story

Hospitalizing children with normal CT scans after blunt head trauma is not necessary, study suggests (June 23, 2011) -- A large, national multicenter study of thousands of children taken to emergency departments with minor blunt head trauma has found that most of those with normal computed tomography scans do not require hospitalization for further observation. ... > full story

Electrical water detection (June 23, 2011) -- A quick and easy way to detect groundwater in semi-arid hard rock areas that is also economical could improve the siting of borewells to improve clean water supply in the developing world. ... > full story

Gay, lesbian, bisexual youth bullied, abused more often than peers (June 23, 2011) -- Young people who identify themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual, experience same-sex attractions or engage in same-sex sexual behaviors are more likely to experience sexual abuse, parental physical abuse and bullying from peers than other youth, according to a new study. In addition, the meta-analysis found these adolescents were more likely to miss school due to fear. ... > full story

Pandora's cluster: A galactic crash investigation (June 23, 2011) -- A team of scientists has studied the galaxy cluster Abell 2744, nicknamed Pandora's Cluster. They have pieced together the cluster's complex and violent history using telescopes in space and on the ground, including the Hubble Space Telescope and ESO's Very Large Telescope. Abell 2744 seems to be the result of a simultaneous pile-up of at least four separate galaxy clusters and this complex collision has produced strange effects that have never been seen together before. ... > full story

Discovery offers molecular insights into link between Parkinson's and pesticides (June 23, 2011) -- Scientists have taken some of the first steps toward unraveling the molecular dysfunction that occurs when proteins are exposed to environmental toxins. Their discovery helps further explain recent findings that demonstrate the link between Parkinson's disease and two particular pesticides -- rotenone and paraquat. ... > full story

Diving a vehicle with one hand (June 23, 2011) -- A new device developed in Spain allows people with reduced mobility or weakness in the upper torso to drive a vehicle using only one hand. ... > full story

Genetic finding offers hope for orphan disease (June 23, 2011) -- New research offers hope for people with a rare disorder called Chuvash polycythemia. ... > full story

New physics research to deepen understanding of the universe (June 23, 2011) -- Physicists in the UK are beginning a new research project which aims to improve our understanding of the universe and the material within it. They also hope that their work will enable better mathematical predictions in systems as diverse as collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, to the development of room-temperature superconductors which could provide super-efficient power for electronic circuits. ... > full story

The myth of the 'queen bee': Work and sexism (June 23, 2011) -- Female bosses sometimes have a reputation for not being very nice. Some display what's called "queen bee" behavior, distancing themselves from other women and refusing to help other women as they rise through the ranks. Now, a new study concludes that it's wrong to blame the woman for this behavior; instead, blame the sexist environment. ... > full story

Corporal punishment: Mothers' self-recorded audio gives unique real-time view of spanking (June 22, 2011) -- In a new corporal punishment study based on actual audio recordings, mothers spank, slap or hit their young children, sparking crying, tantrums and whimpering. Believed to be the first study of its kind, 37 mothers recorded up to 36 hours of interactions with their children, says the psychologist involved in the study. The data capture the moments before, during and after punishment, which ranged from spanking with a belt to admonishments while hitting. ... > full story

Molecular glue sticks it to cancer (June 22, 2011) -- Researchers have developed a "molecular glue" that sticks cancer-promoting proteins to a cell's membrane -- shutting off a cancer cell's growth. ... > full story

Gold nanoparticles help earlier diagnosis of liver cancer (June 22, 2011) -- Medical researchers have devised a new technique to spot cancerous tumors in the liver as small as 5 millimeters. The technique, using gold nanoparticles, is the first to deploy metal nanoparticles as agents to enhance X-ray scattering of image tumor-like masses. ... > full story

Angioplasty may be feasible for liver transplantation candidates with heart disease (June 22, 2011) -- A small, retrospective study determined that percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was safe in patients with significant coronary artery disease (CAD) who were referred for liver transplantation. Larger studies are needed to determine the effectiveness of angioplasty in patients with end-stage liver disease (ESLD). ... > full story

Cassini captures Saturn's icy moon Helene (June 22, 2011) -- NASA's Cassini spacecraft has successfully completed its second-closest encounter with Saturn's icy moon Helene, beaming down raw images of the small moon. At closest approach, on June 18, Cassini flew within 4,330 miles (6,968 kilometers) of Helene's surface. It was the second closest approach to Helene of the entire mission. ... > full story

Powerful, intoxicated, anonymous: The paradox of the disinhibited (June 22, 2011) -- Power can lead to great acts of altruism, but also corruptive, unethical behavior. Being intoxicated can lead to a first date, or a bar brawl. And the mask of anonymity can encourage one individual to let a stranger know they have toilet paper stuck to their shoe, whereas another may post salacious photos online. What is the common thread between these three disparate states? ... > full story

Teeming with life, Pacific's California current likened to Africa's Serengeti Plain (June 22, 2011) -- Like the vast African plains, two huge expanses of the North Pacific Ocean are major corridors of life, attracting an array of marine predators in predictable seasonal patterns, according to final results from the Census of Marine Life Tagging of Pacific Predators. ... > full story

Weaker brain 'sync' may be early sign of autism (June 22, 2011) -- In a novel imaging study of sleeping toddlers, scientists report that a diminished ability of a young brain's hemispheres to "sync" with one another could be a powerful, new biological marker of autism, one that might enable an autism diagnosis at a very young age. ... > full story

Economic cost of weather may total 5 billion in US (June 22, 2011) -- Routine weather events such as rain and cooler-than-average days can add up to an annual economic impact of as much as 3.4 percent of the nation's GDP. New research finds that every sector of the economy is sensitive to changes in the weather. ... > full story

Trigger to fatal neurodegenerative disease uncovered using computer simulation (June 22, 2011) -- A researcher has used a computer simulation to pinpoint changes in molecular structure that leads directly to Gerstmann–Sträussler–Scheinker (GSS) syndrome, a rare but deadly neurodegenerative disease. ... > full story

Caribou in Alberta's oil sands stressed by human activity, not wolves, research suggests (June 22, 2011) -- New research suggests that, in the petroleum-rich Athabaska Oil Sands in northern Alberta, human activity related to oil production and the timber industry could be more important than wolves in the decline of the caribou population. ... > full story

Church congregations can be blind to mental illness, study suggests (June 22, 2011) -- Mental illness of a family member can destroy the family's connection with the religious community, a new study by psychologists has found, leading many affected families to leave the church and their faith behind. ... > full story

Is Enceladus hiding saltwater ocean? Cassini captures ocean-like spray at Saturn's moon (June 22, 2011) -- NASA's Cassini spacecraft has discovered the best evidence yet for a large-scale saltwater reservoir beneath the icy crust of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The data came from the spacecraft's direct analysis of salt-rich ice grains close to the jets ejected from the moon. ... > full story

Source of mystery pain uncovered (June 22, 2011) -- Scientists have found that mutations of a single gene are linked to 30 percent of cases of unexplained neuropathy. ... > full story

Wild Cuban crocodiles hybridize with American crocs (June 22, 2011) -- A new genetic study confirms that American crocodiles are hybridizing with wild populations of critically endangered Cuban crocodiles, which may cause a population decline of this species found only in the Cuban Archipelago. ... > full story

Angioplasty with stents may be safe in long-term for low-risk heart patients (June 22, 2011) -- Heart bypass surgery is considered the gold standard for most patients with left main coronary artery disease, one of the most serious types of heart disease and one that affects thousands. But a new study reports favorable long-term outcomes for lower-risk patients with this condition who underwent angioplasty with medication-coated stents, rather than bypass surgery. ... > full story

Researchers create tool to put the lid on solar power fluctuations (June 22, 2011) -- How does the power output from solar panels fluctuate when the clouds roll in? And can researchers predict these fluctuations? Researchers in California have found the answer to these questions. They also have developed a software program that allows power grid managers to easily predict fluctuations in the solar grid caused by changes in the cloud cover. ... > full story

Nudging doctors in intensive care unit reduces deaths, study finds; Physicians for critically ill need 'copilots' to remind them of important details (June 22, 2011) -- A new study shows the mortality rate in a medical intensive care unit plummeted 50 percent when the attending physician had a checklist -- a fairly new concept in medicine -- and a trusted person prompting him to address key medical issues on the checklist if they were being overlooked. Simply using a checklist alone did not produce an improvement in mortality. ... > full story

Oldest Eurasian hominoids lived in Swabia: Molar tooth dated at 17 million years old (June 22, 2011) -- Africa is regarded as the center of evolution of humans and their precursors. Yet long before modern humans left Africa some 125,000 years ago, their antecedents migrated from Africa to Eurasia many times, as is documented in the fossil record. How often, when and why hominoids went "out of Africa" is still a hotly debated field of intense research. Possibly, the first wave of emigration occurred 17 million years before the present, as documented by finds in the Swabian northern Alpine foreland basin. Researchers have now successfully pinpointed the age of a molar tooth at 17 million years old, making it the oldest known Eurasian hominoid found to date. ... > full story

New discoveries in diabetes suggest novel ways to treat, delay the disease (June 22, 2011) -- A new signal pathway that renders the insulin-releasing beta cell more sensitive to high levels of blood glucose has been discovered by researchers in Sweden. A second new study reveals a possible way to delay the disease by inhibiting a lipoprotein. ... > full story

Picky pollinators: Native U.S. bees are selective about where they live and feed (June 22, 2011) -- Native bees -- often small, stingless, solitary and unnoticed in the flashier world of stinging honeybees -- are quite discriminating about where they live, according to new research. ... > full story

Cause of a hereditary form of blindness discovered (June 22, 2011) -- Researchers in Germany have found the cause of a hereditary, progressive form of blindness: they have identified the previously unknown protein CCDC66, the loss of which initially leads to night blindness and in due course usually results in complete blindness. ... > full story

The end for ATV Johannes Kepler (June 22, 2011) -- Europe's unmanned ATV space freighter plunged on command into Earth's atmosphere today (21st June) to end its mission as a spectacular shooting star over the southern Pacific Ocean. Contact with the spacecraft was lost at 20:41:39 GMT (22:41:39 CEST) at an altitude of 80 km. ... > full story

An explanation of how advertising music affects brand perception (June 22, 2011) -- People have different emotional reactions to a product being advertised and the person announcing it if the advertisement is accompanied by jazz, swing or classical music. These are the main conclusions of a new study that analyzed the effect of the memories and emotional reactions stimulated by the music used in advertising. ... > full story

Cutting edge training developed the human brain 80,000 years ago (June 22, 2011) -- Advanced crafting of stone spearheads contributed to the development of new ways of human thinking and behaving. The technology took a long time to acquire, required step by step planning and increased social interaction across the generations. This led to the human brain developing new abilities, according to archeologists. ... > full story

Abnormal brain structure linked to chronic cocaine abuse (June 22, 2011) -- Researchers have identified abnormal brain structures in the frontal lobe of cocaine users' brains which are linked to their compulsive cocaine-using behavior. ... > full story

Self-cleaning anodes could facilitate cost-effective coal-powered fuel cells (June 22, 2011) -- Using barium oxide nanoparticles, researchers have developed a self-cleaning technique that could allow solid oxide fuel cells to be powered directly by coal gas at operating temperatures as low as 750 degrees Celsius. The technique could provide an alternative for generating electricity from the nation's vast coal reserves. ... > full story

A mother's determination, next-generation sequencing provide solutions for twins (June 22, 2011) -- Researchers have described how the sequencing of a set of twin's whole genome along with that of their older brother and their parents zeroed in on the gene that caused the twin's genetic disorder, which enabled physicians to fine-tune their treatment. ... > full story

Livestock manure and agricultural by-products to produce biogas (June 22, 2011) -- Scientists have developed a project that combines pig slurry and agricultural by-products to optimize biogas production. Thus, it manages to add value to farms’ excess slurry and offers a sustainable use to some of the by-products from the fruit and vegetable processing industry. ... > full story

Surprising connection between two types of perception (June 22, 2011) -- The brain is constantly changing as it perceives the outside world, processing and learning about everything it encounters. In a new study, scientists find a surprising connection between two types of perception: If you're looking at a group of objects and getting a general sense of them, it's difficult for your brain to learn relationships between the objects. ... > full story

Astronomers discover that galaxies are either asleep or awake (June 22, 2011) -- Astronomers have probed into the distant universe and discovered that galaxies display one of two distinct behaviors: they are either awake or asleep, actively forming stars or are not forming any new stars at all. A new survey shows that even very young galaxies as far away as 12 billion light years display one of these two states, meaning galaxies have behaved this way for more than 85 percent of the history of the universe. ... > full story

Smoking may increase risk of prostate cancer recurrence, death (June 22, 2011) -- A new study suggests that men with prostate cancer who smoke increase their risk of prostate cancer recurrence and of dying from the disease. ... > full story

Surprises from the ocean: Marine plankton and ocean pH (June 22, 2011) -- Oceans support vast populations of single-celled phytoplankton which, through photosynthesis, remove about half the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels. One group of phytoplankton, the coccolithophores, are known for their ability to build chalk scales inside their cells and secrete them, forming a protective armor. A new study has revealed the mechanism which achieves this, and that this process may be directly affected by the increasing levels of dissolved carbon dioxide in the oceans. ... > full story

Diabetic kidney disease on the rise in America, despite improved diabetes care (June 22, 2011) -- Diabetic kidney disease has become more prevalent in the United States over the past 20 years, despite a substantial increase in the use of medications for the treatment of people with diabetes. These include drugs to lower glucose, blood pressure, and lipids. Findings suggest that these treatments alone are not effective in reducing diabetic kidney disease, and additional ways are needed. The real solution to preventing diabetic kidney disease is to keep diabetes from occurring in the first place. ... > full story

Lyme disease tick adapts to life on the (fragmented) prairie (June 22, 2011) -- A new study offers a detailed look at the status of Lyme disease in Central Illinois and suggests that deer ticks and the Lyme disease bacteria they host are more adaptable to new habitats than previously appreciated. ... > full story

Consumer views on eating cloned animals: Americans more accepting than Europeans, study suggests (June 22, 2011) -- Not all consumers share the same attitudes toward animal cloning, but the latest research shows that Americans may be more accepting of consuming cloned animal products than Europeans. ... > full story

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