Humans might not be walking the face of the Earth were it not for the ancient fusing of two prokaryotes â€" tiny life forms that do not have a cellular nucleus. UCLA molecular biologist James A. Lake reports important new insights about prokaryotes and the evolution of life in the Aug. 20 advance online edition of the journal Nature.
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Engineers at Ohio State University have found a way to double the production of the biofuel butanol, which might someday replace gasoline in automobiles.
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We've struggled for 150 years to devise a theory of evolution for technology â€" now complexity theorist W. Brian Arthur believes he's cracked it
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Astronomers are celebrating 10 years of discovery by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Today's story highlights some of Chandra's most surprising, violent and beautiful images of the high-energy Universe.
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In the first study to look at what happens over the years to the billions of pounds of plastic waste floating in the world's oceans, scientists are reporting that plastics -- reputed to be virtually indestructible -- decompose with surprising speed and release potentially toxic substances into the water.
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New UBC research has literally and figuratively poked holes in single-band Hubbard physics--a model that has been used to predict and calculate the behavior of high-temperature superconductors for 20 years.
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Techniques used by courts and historians to identify individuals from their signature style are easy to beat, according to a new study
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A body that was stuffed into a suitcase and thrown in a trash bin in California is identified as that of Jasmine Fiore, 28, a former swimsuit model. She was strangled, according to police. They want to speak to a Canadian man, Ryan Alexander Jenkins, who reported her missing Saturday.
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Hurricane Bill has become a powerhouse in the Atlantic Ocean and NASA satellites are providing forecasters with important information to help their forecasts. Bill is now a category four hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale and is expected to strengthen as it nears Bermuda, and NASA's Aqua satellite captured two views of his cloud cover.
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In a presentation today (Aug. 19) to the American Chemical Society meeting, Ankit Agarwal, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, described an experimental approach to wound healing that could take advantage of silver's anti-bacterial properties, while sidestepping the damage silver can cause to cells needed for healing.
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The dense star cluster RCW 38 glistens about 5500 light years away in the direction of the constellation Vela (the Sails). Like the Orion Nebula Cluster (ESO 12/01), RCW 38 is an "embedded cluster", in that the nascent cloud of dust and gas still envelops its stars. Astronomers have determined that most stars, including the low mass, reddish ones that outnumber all others in the Universe, originate in these matter-rich locations. Accordingly, embedded clusters provide scientists with a living laboratory in which to explore the mechanisms of star and planetary formation.
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A discovery has added to the prevailing notion that many ingredients for life came from asteroids and comets that made impact with the early Earth.
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Scientists at the University of Calgary have found that methane emission by plants could be a bigger problem in global warming than previously thought.
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Nerve fibers that link perception and motor regions of the brain are disconnected in tone-deaf people, according to new research in the August 19 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. Experts estimate that at least 10 percent of the population may be tone deaf - unable to sing in tune. The new finding identifies a particular brain circuit that appears to be absent in these individuals.
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From 1995 to 2006 the rate of antibiotic prescriptions for acute respiratory tract infections decreased significantly, attributable in part to a decline in ambulatory visits for ear infections in young children, according to a study in the August 19 issue of JAMA. But prescription rates for broad spectrum antibiotics, namely azithromycin and quinolones, increased substantially during the study period.
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If some day you are tested for the H1N1 virus without the painful prick of a needle, thank a pig -- and a team of Kansas State University researchers and their collaborators who are connecting animal and human health.
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Elevated levels of the enzyme arginase contribute to vascular eye damage and Medical College of Georgia researchers say therapies to normalize its levels could halt progression of potentially blinding diseases such as diabetic retinopathy.
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Researchers at Uppsala University have found that the protein coding parts of a gene are packed in special nucleosomes. The same type of packaging is found in the roundworm C elegans, which is a primeval relative of humans. The mechanism can thereby be traced back a billion years in time, according to the study presented in the journal Genome Research.
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About a dozen people carrying guns, including one with a military-style rifle, milled among protesters outside the convention center where President Barack Obama was giving a speech Monday â€" the latest incidents in which protesters have openly displayed firearms near the president.
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Anyone who has spent a sleepless night anguishing over a possible job loss has experienced the central finding of a new brain scan study: Uncertainty makes a bad event feel even worse.
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Severe breathing disorders during sleep are associated with an increased risk of dying from any cause according to research published this week in the open access journal PLoS Medicine. The study finds that the increased risk of dying is most apparent in men between 40 and 70 years of age with severe sleep-disordered breathing, and suggests a specific link between this condition and death from coronary heart disease in men.
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Once the much-mocked symbol of drab communist East Germany, Trabant cars are revving up for a dramatic rebirth as electric cars -- 20 years after they drove through the fallen Berlin Wall to ...
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Federal prosecutors on Monday charged a Miami man with the largest case of credit and debit card data theft ever in the United States. Authorities said Albert Gonzales, 28, has broken his own record for identity theft by hacking into more retail networks to steal data from 130 million accounts.
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Mozart’s death has been attributed to many causes over the centuries, but a new reports suggests he was a victim of an epidemic streptococcal infection.
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(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the largest surveys of substance use has found a remarkable amount of binge-drinking among older Americans. The findings, published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, were reported by researchers at Duke University Medical Center.
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A preliminary study suggests that a negative, inhibited personality type (type D personality) appears to predict an increased risk of death over four years among patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), according to a report in the August issue of Archives of Surgery.
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NASA scientists have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life, in samples of comet Wild 2 returned by NASA's Stardust spacecraft.
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An 'adopt-a-star' programme aims to raise money for an international research consortium to analyse data from NASA's planet-hunting Kepler mission
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Militiamen are torturing and killing gay Iraqi men with impunity in a systematic campaign that has spread from Baghdad to several other cities, a prominent human rights group said in a report.
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Tao Weitao, a researcher in the College of Sciences' Department of Biology at the University of Texas at San Antonio is making great strides in a project that was funded one year ago by the San Antonio Area Foundation. The professor in the South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases is researching Acinetobacter baumannii, a soil-dwelling bacterium that threatens the health of military personnel in the Middle East and can also infect their family members once the soldiers have returned home following battle.
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In an advance toward the first portable device for detecting human bodies buried in disasters and at crime scenes, two Penn State forensic scientists report early results from a project to establish the chemical fingerprint of death. According to Dan Sykes, senior lecturer and director of analytical instructional laboratories at Penn State and the project's leader, "Acertaining a profile of the chemicals released from decomposing bodies could lead to a valuable new addition to the forensic toolkit: an electronic device that could determine the time elapsed since death quickly, accurately, and onsite." The team is presenting its research in a poster at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society at 7:00 p.m. on 16 August 2009.
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The iridescent beauty of pearl and nacre, the material found inside the shells of some molluscs, appears to be due to two recently discovered proteins, say Japanese researchers.
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Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was in the hospital on Sunday after he was attacked by a person using a metal pipe as the mayor and his family left the Wisconsin State Fair.
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Tokyo University Hospital will begin a clinical test in late August of a viral therapy in which viruses are injected directly into brain tumor patients, according to hospital officials.
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A study in the Aug. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine shows that the use of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is an effective treatment for older patients with osteoarthritis and comorbid insomnia.
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Cleaning oily smears from kitchen countertops, mirrors, garage floors, and other surfaces with plain water â€" rather than strong detergents or smelly solvents â€" may seem like pure fantasy. But scientists in Indiana today describe what they believe to be a simple and effective state-of-the-art oil stain remover. They have developed a new coating for glass, plastics, and a range of other materials that would enable consumers to wipe away those pesky oils with plain water.
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The planned Microsoft-Yahoo! online search tie-up has promise but must overcome people's fierce loyalty to market king Google, industry tracker comScore said Friday.
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AP - Scientists have discovered a gene that helps a mother and daughter stay alert on about six hours sleep a night, two hours less than the rest of their family needs.
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The Atlantic Ocean's second Tropical Depression has been on shaky ground since it formed early in the week of August 11. It meandered westward from the African coast and maintained its tropical depression status until weakening to a remnant low. Now it has the potential to come back. In addition to Tropical Depression 2, there are three other areas forecasters are watching in the Atlantic Basin. Residents of Florida should particularly be watchful as there's a potential for tropical development on both the east and west coasts this weekend.
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The cost for chemotherapy medications to treat colorectal cancer for six months has jumped 2,600 percent from 1993 to 2005. But such rising costs are worth the price, asserts a new report from Cornell, when improved longevity and quality of life are taken into account.
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Physicists at the University of Rochester have combed through data from satellites and ocean buoys and found evidence that in the last 50 years, the net flow of heat into and out of the oceans has changed direction three times.
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Brown fat, a curious kind of body tissue that burns up calories, could be the key to easy weight control
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(PhysOrg.com) -- As organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are poised to go mainstream in the near future, scientists continue to explore new twists on the technology. Recently, researchers have fabricated a "liquid-OLED" - an OLED that uses a liquid organic semiconducting layer to transport charge.
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Scientists from the Department of Biological Sciences and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech have developed a quantitative, mathematical model of DNA replication and cell division for the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus. C. crescentus, an alpha-proteobacterium that inhabits freshwater, seawater and soils, is an ideal organism for genetic and computational biology studies due to the wealth of molecular information that has been accumulated by researchers. It also plays a key role in global carbon cycling in its natural environment.
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What do flocks of birds have in common with trust, monogamy, and even breast milk? According to a new report in the journal Science, they are regulated by virtually identical neurochemicals ...
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A 17-year-old girl who ran away from her Ohio home to Florida says she fears her parents will harm her for converting from Islam to Christianity, but her parents dismiss her claim and say she was brainwashed.
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Debate is raging in Germany over whether a campaign poster using a now infamous photograph of Chancellor Angela Merkel in a deep-cut evening gown is cleverly ironic or downright tacky.
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Your toilet is probably cleaner than your computer keyboard. Sad (and disgusting) but true. One researcher at the University of Arizona found that the average desk has 100 times more bacteria than a kitchen and 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet.
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The committee tasked with reviewing NASA's plans thinks the agency should go to other destinations first – but it may not get very far without a major budget boost
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One way the United States could slash its electricity use, dependence on fossil fuels and emissions of heat-trapping gases is really quite simple: better light bulbs.
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It hit in April but continues to wreak havoc locally and globally. H1N1 -- also known as swine flu -- has sickened over 43,000 people nationwide and it`s not disappearing anytime soon, says University of Cincinnati infectious diseases expert Judith Feinberg, MD.
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Grassed waterways are placed in agricultural fields where runoff water tends to concentrate because they can substantially reduce soil erosion. Mapping techniques that help identify where erosion channels will likely form could help farmers and conservation professionals do a better job of designing and locating grassed waterways in agricultural fields.
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AP - The Hong Kong-based company that operates the cargo ship that caused a 2007 oil spill in San Francisco Bay pleaded guilty Thursday to criminal charges.
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The number of cancer deaths has declined steadily in the last three decades. Although younger people have experienced the steepest declines, all age groups have shown some improvement, according to a recent report in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
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Walking outdoors in the fall, the splendidly colorful leaves adorning the trees are a delight to the eye. In Europe these autumn leaves are mostly yellow, while the United States and East Asia boast lustrous red foliage. But why is it that there are such differences in autumnal hues around the world? A new theory provided by Prof. Simcha Lev-Yadun of the Department of Science Education- Biology at the University of Haifa-Oranim and Prof. Jarmo Holopainen of the University of Kuopio in Finland and published in the Journal New Phytologist proposes taking a step 35 million years back to solve the color mystery.
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By Sunday morning, the Silicon Valley Google Technology User Group's "campout" made part of the Googleplex in Mountain View look a bit like a college dorm after a couple of all-nighters.
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New research indicates that decreased cravings for pleasure may be at the root of a core symptom of major depressive disorder. The research is in contrast to the long-held notion that those suffering from depression lack the ability to enjoy rewards, rather than the desire to seek them.
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Existing surveys are designed to gradually build up a catalogue of potential impactors, not to watch out for asteroids that are days or weeks from a collision
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A U.S. soldier arrested in connection with the killing of a Mexican drug cartel member in El Paso, Texas, allegedly worked as a hit man, court records say. Pfc. Michael Jackson Apodaca, 18, was one of three men arrested Monday in connection with the shooting death of the mid-level drug cartel member who also worked as an informant for the United States, according to a complaint affidavit.
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Scientists have discovered that even in adults born with extremely impaired sight, the brain can rewire itself to recognize sections of the retina that have been restored by gene therapy.
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For many Americans who live on the Atlantic coast, Andrew, Ivan and Katrina are more than just names--they are reminders of the devastating impact of cyclonic activity in the region during hurricane season. If it seems like hurricane seasons have been more active in recent years, you're on to something. According to a paper published in the August 13 issue of Nature, the frequency and strength of these powerful storms has grown in recent decades.
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SPACE.com - A tropical storm was not what astronomers expected to see when they pointed their telescopes toward the equator of Saturn's moon Titan last summer.
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CANBERRA, Aug. 12, 2009 (Reuters) -- An Australian website is giving texting an intergalactic touch and allowing users to send short mobile phone-type messages into space. ... > read full story
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A long-simmering feud between a 13-year-old girl and her step-grandfather erupted after the man allegedly poured her milk down the drain, prompting the girl to fatally stab him in the neck, court documents said.
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The discovery of genes for magnetism in some bacteria could lead to synthetic nanomagnets and better MRI scanners
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Oahu and Maui County remain under a tropical storm watch even though Felicia, which is heading toward the islands, is downgraded to a tropical depression. Meanwhile, a newly formed tropical storm in the Pacific and tropical depression in the Atlantic gain steam.
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Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed a new calibration technique that will improve the reliability and stability of one of NIST's most versatile technologies, the microhotplate. The novel NIST device is being developed as the foundation for miniature yet highly accurate gas sensors that can detect chemical and biological agents, industrial leaks and even signs of extraterrestrial life from aboard a planetary probe.
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An experimental atomic clock based on ytterbium atoms is about four times more accurate than it was several years ago, giving it a precision comparable to that of the NIST-F1 cesium fountain clock, the nation's civilian time standard, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report in Physical Review Letters.*
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Biologists have long known how adaptive evolution works. New mutations arise within a population and those that confer some benefits to the organism increase in frequency and eventually become fixed in the population.
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Even if you can't beat the system, there are some cunning ways to tilt the odds in your favour
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helicopter with three crew members aboard has crashed into a mountain while on a mission to rescue villagers whose homes were destroyed by a powerful typhoon, an official said.
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Accumulating safety data from the large, international ORIGIN trial have been reviewed by its independent data monitoring committee, who have concluded that there is no cause for concern.
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People diagnosed with type 2 diabetes often resist taking insulin because they fear gaining weight, developing low blood sugar and seeing their quality of life decline.
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AP - Cars and light trucks sold in July got more miles per gallon than those sold in previous months, say researchers, who credit the Cash for Clunkers program.
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Hudson River divers on Monday found the wreckage of a small plane and one of two victims missing following a midair collision with a sightseeing helicopter that killed nine people.
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Two University of Arizona researchers have formed a research team to design, build and evaluate two versions of an ovarian cancer medical imaging and screening instrument that will use holographic components in a new type of optical microscope.
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Hitachi today announced that it is now shipping the world's first, two terabyte (2TB), 7200 RPM hard disk drive (HDD). The new 2TB Deskstar 7K2000 blends high performance and high capacity with low power and other eco-friendly features designed to enable Energy-Star rated computers and other high performance desktop systems.
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The deadliest part of the cancer process, metastasis, appears to rely on help from macrophages, potent immune system cells that usually defend vigorously against disease, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University report.
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Middle-aged men who strongly idealize masculinity are almost 50 percent less likely than other men to seek preventative healthcare services, according to a study -the first population-based analysis of men's masculinity beliefs and preventative healthcare compliance -to be presented at the 104th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.
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People who think they are vulnerable to temptation are least likely to give into it, because they are more vigilant about keeping it at bay
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The man who killed three people before taking his own life at a Pennsylvania gym was stopped by authorities a week before the attack. Police questioned George Sodini because he had fit the description of someone who appeared to be handling a grenade on a bus. He was let go because officials couldn't verify it was him at the time.
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A genetically modified maize plant is genetically engineered to produce a chemical rallying cry that summons help against a damaging pests
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A research team from Hungary investigated the probability of disease behavior changes in a well-characterized Crohn's disease cohort with strict clinical follow-up. They found that perianal disease, small bowel disease, smoking, prior steroid use, early AZA or AZA/biological therapy are all predictors of disease behavior change in CD patients.
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A new study of persistent asthma in inner-city adolescents and young adults finds that an extensive set of clinical tests cannot successfully predict the future risk of asthma attacks in participants who both receive care based on current guidelines and adhere to treatment recommendations. This finding differs from previous reports suggesting that certain clinical findings and laboratory tests could help predict future asthma attacks. These earlier conclusions, however, were based on observations of patients with poorly controlled asthma who had not received care based on current guidelines.
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Like clockwork, brain regions in many songbird species expand and shrink seasonally in response to hormones. Now, for the first time, University of Washington neurobiologists have interrupted this natural "annual remodeling" of the brain and have shown that there is a direct link between the death of old neurons and their replacement by newly born ones in a living vertebrate.
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The Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory will receive $21.8 million in new funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The funding will catalyze instrumentation construction and improvements at the laboratory's two light source research facilities, the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL).
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In a groundbreaking study, civil engineering researchers in the University of Minnesota's Institute of Technology have discovered that certain industries may be a significant source of plant-based estrogens, called phytoestrogens, in surface water. They also revealed that some of these phytoestrogens can be removed through standard wastewater treatment, but in some cases, the compounds remain at levels that may be damaging to fish.
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Put that comb back in your handbag -- a study by an Israeli dermatologist has found that too much combing of the coiffure leads to hair loss, the daily Haaretz reported on Monday.
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One of Britain's biggest comestic surgery clinics claimed Sunday to have carried out the nation's first-ever eyelash transplant on a 19-year-old with a hair-pulling disorder.
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A collaborative study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies uncovered that the tumor suppressor p53, which made its name as "guardian of the genome", not only stops cells that could become cancerous in their tracks but also controls somatic cell reprogramming.
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U.S. scientists monitoring shrinking glaciers in Washington and Alaska reported this week that a major meltdown is under way. A 50-year government study found that the world's glaciers are melting at a rapid and alarming rate. The ongoing study is the latest in a series of reports that found glaciers worldwide are melting faster than anyone had predicted they would just a few years ago. It offers a clear indication of an accelerating climate change and warming earth, according to the authors.
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The Mayan pyramid Xunantunich and the struggling Large Hadron Collider outside Geneva have something in common: overreach.
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(AP) -- The country's biggest phone and cable companies have agreed to hand over information about their broadband networks to help the federal government produce a national map showing where high-speed Internet connections are available across the U.S.
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Several ways have been proposed to examine dark energy, in hopes of finding out just what it is. One of them, "supernovae" for short, certainly works: it's how dark energy was discovered in the first place. Other independent techniques, such as weak gravitational lensing and baryon acoustic oscillation, also promise great power but are as yet unproven.
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NASA satellite imagery has helped forecasters see that Hurricane Felicia is running into cooler waters and increasing wind shear, two things have taken her strength "down a peg or two." Felicia will continue to weaken further over the weekend as she heads to Hawaii where landfall isn't expected until late Monday or early Tuesday.
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CyberKnife radiosurgery -- which uses narrow beams of radiation to kill several types of cancer -- is marketed as a less invasive, more convenient way to treat prostate cancer, a pitch that has proved convincing for about 3,000 men over the last six years.
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The historical link between economic cycles and attitudes to recreational drugs might mean that decriminalisation is near
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AP - The annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to put on a dazzling sky show.
