Eurek Alert News - Breaking News

In 1998, Charlie Kerfoot discovered a "doughnut" of phytoplankton circulating in Lake Michigan, helping to feed the lake's famous fishery. Just 12 later, the doughnut is disappearing, and Kerfoot fears that the lake's ecosystem will crash, taking with it much of the fish biomass.

A long-term study published in JAMA of women with a genetic predisposition for breast or ovarian cancer showed that those who elected preventive surgeries had a significantly reduced risk of those cancers.The study confirms the view of researcher Dr. Gail Tomlinson at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio that for women with genetic mutations BRCA1 and BRCA2, mastectomies and removal of fallopian tubes and ovaries can be worth it.

Scientists propose that an overlooked type of biological catalyst -- metal-ligand complexes -- could have jump-started metabolism and life itself, deep in hydrothermal ocean vents.

NASA satellites and the International Space Station are keeping eyes on Hurricane Earl as it heads for New England. Watches and Warnings are posted in the US northeast.

NASA satellite data has noticed that Tropical Storm Fiona is getting "longer." That is, the storm is elongating in almost a north-south direction, indicating that she's weakening and may not make it through the weekend. Meanwhile, forecasters are watching two other areas for development in the eastern Atlantic this weekend.

An international collaboration led by a University of Pennsylvania anthropologist has shown that environmental factors, like temperature and light, play as much of a role in the activity of traditionally nocturnal monkeys as the circadian rhythm that regulates periods of sleep and wakefulness.

Phosphorus, a mineral element found in rocks and bone, is a critical ingredient in fertilizers, pesticides, detergents and other industrial and household chemicals. Once phosphorus is mined from rocks, getting it into these products is hazardous and expensive, and chemists have been trying to streamline the process for decades.

Theoretical physicists from Rice University have created a new model that helps define the subatomic origins of ferromagnetism -- the everyday "magnetism" of compass needles and refrigerator magnets. The model, which is detailed in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was created to explore the inner workings of ferromagnetic compounds that are related to high-temperature superconductors.

Afla-Guard, a biological control used to thwart the growth of fungi on peanuts, can be used on corn as well, according to a study by US Department of Agriculture scientists who helped develop it. After extensive study and research trials in Texas, Afla-Guard was registered by the US Environmental Protection Agency for use on corn, beginning with the 2009 crop.

While vultures across Asia teeter on the brink of extinction, the vultures of Cambodia are increasing in number, providing a beacon of hope for these threatened scavengers, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and other members of the Cambodia Vulture Conservation Project.

Researchers at Queen's University have found that people with Parkinson's disease can perform automated tasks better than people without the disease, but have significant difficulty switching from easy to hard tasks.

Dr. Dariusz Malinowski is seeing blue, and he is very excited. For four years, Malinowski, an AgriLife Research plant physiologist and forage agronomist in Vernon, has been working with collaborators Steve Brown of the Texas Foundation Seed and Dr. William Pinchak and Shane Martin with AgriLife Research on a winter-hardy hibiscus breeding project.

Three NASA aircraft carrying 15 instruments are busy criss-crossing Earl as part of the agency's Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes mission, or GRIP, which continues through Sept. 30. GRIP is designed to help improve our understanding of how hurricanes such as Earl form and intensify rapidly.

Hurricane Earl lashed the North Carolina coast last night and this morning, September 3, and is now headed for Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This morning's image from the GOES-13 satellite saw Hurricane Earl's clouds covering most of the northeastern US.

Martin McKee, Professor of European Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has contributed one of three commentaries appearing today in the journal Health Policy and Planning, each of which take a different perspective on the World Health Report 2000 on health systems.

Only about one in every six Americans who have ever been overweight or obese loses weight and maintains that loss, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.

Desmond Lun, an associate professor of computer science at Rutgers University-Camden, is researching how to alter the genetic makeup of E. coli to produce biodiesel fuel derived from fatty acids.

ESA's Envisat satellite has been tracking the progression of the giant iceberg that calved from Greenland's Petermann glacier on August 4, 2010.

The first clinical trials on a new investigational drug being developed to treat infections caused by hepatitis C virus have been successfully completed.Completion of the initial phase (phase 1a) of trials of INX-189, discovered and first prepared by researchers at Cardiff University's Welsh School of Pharmacy in 2008, means the chances of it becoming an approved medicine have significantly improved.

In 2005 an outbreak of the H5N1 "bird flu" virus in South East Asia led to widespread fear with predictions that the intercontinental migration of wild birds could lead to global pandemic. Such fears were never realized, and now research published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology reveals why the global spread of bird flu by direct migration of wildfowl is unlikely, while also providing a new framework for quantifying the risk of avian-borne diseases.

A large international study aimed at improving the care of muscular dystrophy patients worldwide is being launched by physicians, physical therapists, and researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center, along with counterparts at 41 other institutions around the world. The study will compare treatments for boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the most common form of the disease that affects children.

Researchers from across the US, as part of the Infantile Spasms Working Group, established guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of infantile spasms. The goal of the ISWG is to improve patient outcomes by creating protocols that educate pediatricians on early diagnosis and treatment options. Full details of this study appear online in Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy.

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified unique metabolic properties that allow a specific type of stem cell in the body to survive and replicate in low-oxygen environments.

Researchers at the University of Western Ontario have provided the first direct evidence using a biological marker, to show chronic stress plays an important role in heart attacks. Drs. Gideon Koren and Stan Van Uum developed a method to measure cortisol levels in hair providing an accurate assessment of stress levels in the months prior to an acute event such as a heart attack. The research is published online in the journal Stress.

One of the most severe complications of brain surgery is a pulmonary embolism. But a study in the Journal of Neurosurgery suggests that screening methods used to access the risk of pulmonary embolisms may fall short.

A new study led by a Stanford researcher shows that more than 80 percent of the new farmland created in the tropics between 1980 and 2000 came from felling forests, which sends carbon into the atmosphere and drives global warming. But the research team also noted that big agribusiness has largely replaced small farmers in doing most of the tree cutting in Brazil and Indonesia, which may make it easier to rein in the trend.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have revealed new details about how cannibalistic bacteria identify peers suitable for consumption. The work, which employed imaging mass spectrometry, is a first step toward a broader effort to map all signaling molecules between organisms.

UA psychology doctoral student Ashley Mason's study of romantically separated people shows they offer clues to their emotional status in just a few seconds of conversation.

A UCLA team led by Xiangfeng Duan has developed a new fabrication process for high-speed graphene transistors using a nanowire as the self-aligned gate. This new technique does not produce any appreciable defects in the graphene during fabrication, so the carrier mobility is retained. Also, by using a self-aligned approach with a nanowire as the gate, the group was able to overcome alignment difficulties previously encountered and fabricate short channel devices with unprecedented performance.

A unique new therapy that applies electrical stimulation to a major nerve emanating from the brain is showing promise for major depression. In a recently completed clinical trial at UCLA, trigeminal nerve stimulation achieved an average of a 70 percent reduction in symptom severity over an 8-week study.

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have developed a new animal model for studying hemophilia A, with the goal of eventually treating people with the disorder. Hemophilia A, a hereditary defect that prevents blood from clotting normally, is caused by a variety of mutations in the factor VIII gene.

Uninsured minority pedestrians hit by cars are at a significantly higher risk of death than their insured white counterparts, even if the injuries sustained are similar, new research from Johns Hopkins suggests.

Female induced pluripotent stem cells, reprogrammed from human skin cells into cells that have the embryonic-like potential to become any cell in the body, retain an inactive X chromosome, stem cell researchers at UCLA have found.

Published this week in Science the findings demonstrate that the antimalarial candidate, spiroindolone NITD609, is effective against both strains of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium (P.) falciparum and P. vivax. Through a novel mechanism NITD609 rapidly clears plasmodium in a malaria mouse model and shows pharmacological properties compatible with a once-daily dosing regimen.

NASA's Terra satellite captured the changing Tropical Storm Kompasu over Korea and China very early today, as it makes its way east to northern Japan. It is becoming extratropical.

School children who consume foods purchased in vending machines are more likely to develop poor diet quality -- and that may be associated with being overweight, obese or at risk for chronic health problems such as diabetes and coronary artery disease, according to research from the University of Michigan Medical School.

Walter Trahanovsky, an Iowa State professor of chemistry, was trying to produce sugar derivatives from biomass using high-temperature chemistry. He was surprised when his research also produced significant yields of high-value chemicals.

Tropical Depression Nine strengthened yesterday into Tropical Storm Gaston, but today it ran into dry and stable air and weakened back into a depression again.

A new report by University of Maryland terrorism researchers concludes that the deadly hostage-taking incident at the Discovery Networks in suburban Washington, D.C., meets the criteria of a terrorist act -- a rare one for media organizations and the nation's capital region. Hostage-taking, though, is a familiar pattern in D.C. terror cases, the researchers add. There has never been US environmentally inspired suicide eco-terrorism, they say, but don't draw conclusions about whether that occurred at Discovery.

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology expressed its disapproval and disappointment this week in response to the Aug. 23 court ruling that temporarily bars federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research.

There is yet no straightforward way to determine the optimal dose level and treatment schedules for high-dose radiation therapies such as stereotactic radiation therapy, which is used to treat brain and lung cancer, or for high-dose brachytherapy for prostate and other cancers. Radiation oncology researchers at Ohio State University may have solved the problem with a new mathematical model called the Generalized LQ (gLQ) Model that encompasses all dose levels and schedules.

Cigarette smoke shuts off a key enzyme in airways that regulates the body's response to inflammation, according to findings from the University of Alabama at Birmingham published online today at Science Express. The UAB researchers say smoke inhibits the enzyme, called Leukotriene A4 Hydrolase (LTA4H), causing it to fail in its job of shutting down white blood cells following a successful response to inflammation.

Bermuda has warnings up as Tropical Storm Fiona approaches, and GOES-13 satellite imagery from today shows that Fiona, although packing a punch, is a much smaller system that her brother, the Category 4 Hurricane Earl.

Protecting helicopters in combat from heat-seeking missiles is the goal of new laser technology created at the University of Michigan and Omni Sciences Inc., which is a U-M spin-off company.

Hurricane Earl is still a powerful category four hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale as it approaches the North Carolina coast today. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite observed the high rates rain was falling within Earl, in some areas more than 2 inches per hour. Today, the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft is also flying into the eye of Hurricane Earl at altitudes of 60,000 feet to gather information about the storm.

UCSF researchers today unveiled a prototype model of the first implantable artificial kidney, in a development that one day could eliminate the need for dialysis.

In a first person paper published in the Aug. 27, 2010 issue of Childhood Obesity, Dr. Melinda Sothern, director of health promotion and professor of public health at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, provides three ways to deprogram the 1950s obesity trinity underlying the current obesity epidemic in the United States and protect future generations from its health consequences.

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have devised a new technique -- using a sheet of carbon just one atom thick -- to visualize the structure of molecules. The technique, which was used to obtain the first direct images of how water coats surfaces at room temperature, can also be used to image a potentially unlimited number of other molecules, including antibodies and other biomolecules.

Texas AgriLife researchers have found that embryo transfer can double dairy cow pregnancy rates during the summer and increase the number of heifers born as compared with conventional artificial insemination commonly used on dairy farms. They believe this method could save dairies in Texas and throughout the country considerable money.

Scripps Research Institute scientists have identified two proteins with potential to be important targets for research into a wide range of health problems, including pain, deafness and cardiac and kidney dysfunction.

The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology has released a statement that expresses opposition to the Federal District Court injunction that froze federal funding for human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research. ARVO supports technological developments and policies that encourage all facets of stem cell research, including research utilizing hESCs.

Biopharmaceutical firms and other life science organizations are taking definitive steps toward creating greener working environments and developing more sustainable operations, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News. This promising trend was made clear through a series of presentations and panel discussions that took place at GEN's "GreenBioPharma" conference, which was recently held in Philadelphia.

The academic performance of adolescents will suffer in at least one of four key subjects -- English, math, science, history -- if their DNA contains one or more of three specific dopamine gene variations, according to a study led by renowned biosocial criminologist Kevin M. Beaver of the Florida State University.

Sugar, salt, alcohol and a little serendipity led Northwestern University researchers to discover a new class of nanostructures that could be used for gas storage and food and medical technologies. And the compounds are edible. The porous crystals are the first known all-natural metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) that are simple to make. Most other MOFs are made from petroleum-based ingredients, but the Northwestern MOFs you can pop into your mouth and eat, and the researchers have.

People who believe that fate and chance control their lives are more likely to be superstitious -- but when faced with death they are likely to abandon superstition altogether, according to a recent Kansas State University undergraduate research project.

The old joke is a joke no more. In a special September issue of the ASCB's online journal, CBE-Life Sciences Education, the adage that biology is for science students who don't do math is laid to rest forever. "Bio-math" or "math-bio" is the future for students of both disciplines, say the contributors of seven essays and 17 research articles on new ways to integrate mathematical thinking into biology education and vice versa.

The September cover story of the nation's leading cancer journal, Cancer Research, features a new study from the Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota, that links capsaicin, a component of chili peppers, to skin cancer.

Bold and coordinated leadership at the federal level is essential to create secure, long-term, sustainable biomedical research funding policies based on strategic priorities, say the authors of a commentary about America's fledgling biomedical research framework published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.

A survey of emergency medical services agencies from across the country found wide variation in perceptions of workplace safety culture -- providing a tool that might point to potential patient safety threats, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

With governments across Latin America preparing to implement a new financial mechanism aimed at mitigating climate change by curbing carbon emissions from the destruction of tropical forests, experts gathering here today warned against a "one-size-fits-all" approach, calling instead for flexible, balanced solutions to the thorny dilemmas surrounding this new mechanism. Among the experts' chief worries is that the wealthy and powerful could capture many of the benefits, largely at the expense of rural communities, including indigenous groups.

Statements, published in the journal Maturitas, cover the management of menopause in the context of obesity, epilepsy, endometriosis and premature ovarian failure.

A team of McGill chemists have discovered that a technique known as photoacoustic infrared spectroscopy could be used to identify the composition of pigments used in art work that is decades or even centuries old. Pigments give artist's materials color, and they emit sounds when light is shone on them.

The researchers say that their study results show that suppression of melatonin due to exposure to light at night, or LAN, is linked to the worrying rise in the number of cancer patients over the past few years.

A chemical analysis of the bones of ancient Nubians shows that they were regularly consuming tetracycline, most likely in their beer. The finding is the strongest evidence yet that the art of making antibiotics, which officially dates to the discovery of penicillin in 1928, was common practice nearly 2,000 years ago. The Emory University study finds that it's likely this prehistoric population was using empirical evidence to develop therapeutic agents.

For severe migraine sufferers, psychological treatments build on the benefits of drug therapy, according to a new study by Elizabeth Seng and Dr. Kenneth Holroyd from Ohio University in the US. Their comparison of the effects of various treatment combinations for severe migraine -- drug therapy with or without behavioral management -- shows that those patients receiving the behavioral management program alongside drug therapy are significantly more confident in their ability to use behavioral skills to effectively self-manage migraines.

Biophysicists in Bochum have discovered a diode for protons: just like the electronic component determines the direction of flow of electric current, the "proton diode" ensures that protons can only pass through a cell membrane in one direction. Water molecules play an important role here as active components of the diode.

Scientists have built a clearer picture of how lengthy strands of DNA are concertinaed when our cells grow and divide, in a discovery could help explain how cell renewal can go wrong.

Interim results from the first comprehensive evaluation of the implementation of electronic health records in secondary care in England have found delays and frustration with the system, according to research published on bmj.com today.

People who take oral bisphosphonates for bone disease over five years may be doubling their risk of developing esophageal cancer (cancer of the gullet), according to a new study published on bmj.com today.

ESA's Herschel infrared space observatory has discovered that ultraviolet starlight is the key ingredient for making water in space. It is the only explanation for why a dying star is surrounded by a gigantic cloud of hot water vapor.

Patients who use cannabis for medicinal purposes pose a wide range of legal, ethical and medical dilemmas for the health care professionals looking after them according to an in-depth review just published. The study also found extreme caution about integrating cannabis derivative medications into mainstream medical use.

For inhomogeneous single-scattering participating media, we propose an image based modeling method, which includes the design of an easy-to-use participating media capture device and the use of a progressive refinement algorithm for a multiresolution volume with a graphics processing unit. Compared with previous methods, only a few captured images of participating media from different viewpoints are required in the construction of the media with high-frequency density details. Furthermore, our method does not need to simplify the radiative transfer equation.

The Key Laboratory of Applied Superconductivity, Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, and China Research have collaborated to reveal the heat-treatment effects on the superconducting properties of Ag-doped Sr0.6K0.4Fe2As2 compounds. Because of its significant research value, the study is reported in issue 7 of Science in China: Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy.

The Department of Computer Science and Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China, has shown that a novel dynamic memory mapping model brings about additional flexibility to virtual resource management, leading to the feature-adjustable design of a virtual machine monitor. The study is reported in issue 53 of Science China Information Sciences.

Engineers at Harvard University have created a millionth-scale automobile differential to govern the flight of minuscule aerial robots that could someday be used to probe environmental hazards, forest fires, and other places too perilous for people. Their new approach is the first to passively balance the aerodynamic forces encountered by these miniature flying devices, letting their wings flap asymmetrically in response to gusts of wind, wing damage, and other real-world impediments.

Cluster has spent a decade revealing previously hidden interactions between the sun and Earth. Its studies have uncovered secrets of aurora, solar storms, and given us insight into fundamental processes that occur across the universe. And there is more work to do.

Virtual characters can behave according to actions carried out unconsciously by humans. Researchers at the University of Barcelona have created a system which measures human physiological parameters, such as respiration or heart rate, and introduces them into computer designed characters in real time.

A study comparing a University of Pennsylvania method for evaluating a dog's susceptibility to hip dysplasia to the traditional American method has shown that 80 percent of dogs judged to be normal by the traditional method are actually at risk for developing osteoarthritis and hip dysplasia, according to the Penn method.

LRI-funded researcher Betty Tsao, Ph.D., at UCLA has discovered that humans -- males in particular -- with a variant form of the immune receptor gene "Toll Like Receptor 7" are at increased risk of developing the autoimmune disease lupus. This breakthrough finding offers renewed hope for developing more targeted treatments.

Millions of patients with advanced disease in palliative care settings receive oxygen therapy to help them breathe more easily. But a new study from Duke University Medical Center says roughly half of them don't benefit from the intervention, and among those who do benefit, it doesn't make a bit of difference whether they get pure oxygen or just plain old room air -- both offer equal benefit.

Ants are not out of their weight class when defending trees from the appetite of nature's heavyweight, the African elephant, a new University of Florida study finds.

New models, reinforced by in vivo experimentation, show why 5-10 percent of bone fractures don't heal properly, and how these cases may be treated to restart the healing process. Results of the model, published Sept. 2 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology, may benefit the ageing population in which the occurrence of bone fractures is expected to rise substantially in the near future.

A study published today in the journal Science shows how our bodies try to minimize potential "collateral damage" caused by our immune system when fighting infection. The research may also provide new clues to why cigarette smoke is a significant risk factor for developing diseases of the lung such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

In two closely related studies, two teams of Scripps Research Institute scientists have discovered the underlying mechanisms that activate a type of immune cell in the skin and other organs. The findings may lead to the development of new therapies to treat inflammation, wounds, asthma and malignant tumors.

Observations made with NASA's newly refurbished Hubble Space Telescope of a nearby supernova are allowing astronomers to measure the velocity and composition of "star guts" being ejected into space following the explosion, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Under the Affordable Care Act, 16.6 million small business employees work in firms that will be eligible for tax credits, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. The credits, designed to offset health insurance premium costs and help small businesses afford and maintain health insurance, are available in taxable years beginning in 2010. Researchers estimate that by 2013, 3.4 million workers may work in firms that take advantage of the tax credit.

A new discovery by scientists at the Universities of East Anglia and Frankfurt could make it possible in future to identify the source of banned chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, that are probably still being released into the atmosphere. They have also discovered the largest chlorine isotope enrichment ever found in nature.

Dr. Eric A. Cohen, director of the human retrovirology research unit at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montreal, and his team published yesterday, in the online open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, the results of their most recent research on the role of the Vpr protein in HIV infection and AIDS.

Unexpectedly, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory have now discovered a true counterpart of the cerebral cortex in an invertebrate, a marine worm. Their findings, published today in Cell, give an idea of what the most ancient higher brain centers looked like, and what our distant ancestors used them for.

Roberto Carlos' free kick goal against France in 1997's Tournoi de France is thought by many to have been the most skillful free kick goal ever scored but by others to have been an incredible fluke. Now a group of French physicists have computed the trajectory and shown that Carlos' goal was no fluke.

New research from the University of New Hampshire shows that the "gateway effect" of marijuana -- that teenagers who use marijuana are more likely to move on to harder illicit drugs as young adults -- is overblown.

Results of a study reported in the September issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggest that Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have a greater risk for dementia than veterans without PTSD, even those who suffered traumatic injuries during combat.

Duke University Medical Center researchers have found two genes in mice which might help identify why some people are more susceptible than others to potentially deadly staph infections.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified the molecular mechanism that makes omega-3 fatty acids so effective in reducing chronic inflammation and insulin resistance.

Kidney transplants that show a combination of fibrosis (scarring) and inflammation after one year are at higher risk of long-term transplant failure, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

A research team at the University of Georgia has shown for the first time that a gene called Myc, which is traditionally thought of as a cancer-causing gene, may be far more important in the development and persistence of stem cells than was known before.

An international team led by scientists from the Scripps Research Institute, the Swiss Tropical Institute, the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation and the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases has discovered a promising new drug candidate that represents a new class of drug to treat malaria. Clinical trials for the compound are planned for later this year.

Fish oil is touted for its anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic benefits, but scientist weren't sure how the omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil work. Now, according to a report in the Sept. 3 issue of the journal Cell, scientists have nailed how omega-3 fatty acids both shut down inflammation and reverse diabetes in obese mice.

A chemical that rid mice of malaria-causing parasites after a single oral dose may eventually become a new malaria drug if further tests in animals and people uphold the promise of early findings. The compound, NITD609, was developed by an international team of researchers including Elizabeth A. Winzeler, Ph.D., a grantee of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

in a new study, Damon Centola, an assistant professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management found that individuals are more likely to acquire new health practices while living in networks with dense clusters of connections -- that is, when in close contact with people they already know well.