Monday, July 11, 2011

ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

ScienceDaily: Latest Science News


Unraveling potato genome paves way for new varieties

Posted: 10 Jul 2011 05:42 PM PDT

The potato, the world's third most popular food, has been genetically unraveled. Researchers from the international Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium in 14 countries have mapped the potato's hundreds of millions of building blocks.

Ant colonies: Behavioral variability wins

Posted: 10 Jul 2011 05:42 PM PDT

They attack other colonies, plunder and rob, kill other colonies' inhabitants or keep them as slaves: Ants are usually regarded as prototypes of social beings that are prepared to sacrifice their lives for their community, but they can also display extremely aggressive behavior towards other nests. Evolutionary biologists in Germany have found that ant colonies are more productive and raise more offspring when the workers in the colony display considerable variation in their levels of aggression. This variation in aggression is possibly part of their division of labor, which is regarded as the basis of the success of social insect societies.

Olympia hypothesis: Tsunamis buried the cult site on the Peloponnese

Posted: 10 Jul 2011 05:42 PM PDT

Olympia, site of the famous Temple of Zeus and original venue of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, was presumably destroyed by repeated tsunamis that traveled considerable distances inland, and not by earthquake and river floods as has been assumed to date. Evidence in support of this new theory on the virtual disappearance of the ancient cult site on the Peloponnesian peninsula comes from a researcher in Germany.

Study identifies patients who should not undergo surgery for a snapping hip tendon

Posted: 10 Jul 2011 10:28 AM PDT

Researchers have identified a group of patients who may have increased difficulty for surgical treatment of a snapping psoas, a condition that usually develops because a teenager or young adult has a pelvis that grows faster than their psoas tendon.

Researchers build an antenna for light

Posted: 10 Jul 2011 10:28 AM PDT

Researchers have derived inspiration from the photosynthetic apparatus in plants to engineer a new generation of nanomaterials that control and direct the energy absorbed from light.

Arthroscopic treatment of common hip problem improves range of motion, study finds

Posted: 10 Jul 2011 10:28 AM PDT

Arthroscopic treatment of a common hip problem that leads to arthritis is successful in terms of restoring range of motion, according to results from a recent study.

Light propagation controlled in photonic chips: Major breakthrough in telecommunications field

Posted: 10 Jul 2011 10:28 AM PDT

Researchers have built optical nanostructures that enable them to slow photons down and fully control light dispersion. They have shown that it is possible for light to propagate from point A to point B without accumulating any phase, spreading through the artificial medium as if the medium is completely missing in space. This is the first time simultaneous phase and zero-index observations have been made on the chip-scale and at the infrared wavelength.

Unlocking the genetics and biology of joint disorder ankylosing spondylitis

Posted: 10 Jul 2011 10:28 AM PDT

A study involving over 5,000 people living with the joint disorder ankylosing spondylitis has identified a series of genetic variants associated with increased susceptibility to the condition as well as providing new clues to how the condition may be treated in the future.

Genetic study sheds new light on auto-immune arthritis

Posted: 10 Jul 2011 10:28 AM PDT

Researchers are one step closer to understanding how an individual's genetic make-up predisposes them to Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), a common auto-immune arthritis which causes pain and stiffness of the spine, and in serious cases, progressive fusion of the vertebrae and other affected joints.

Scientists sequence potato genome

Posted: 10 Jul 2011 10:28 AM PDT

An international consortium has successfully sequenced and analyzed the potato genome. The consortium's work turned up more than 39,000 genes and is expected to speed potato research and breeding projects around the globe.

Climate change reducing ocean's carbon dioxide uptake, new analysis shows

Posted: 10 Jul 2011 10:28 AM PDT

How deep is the ocean's capacity to buffer against climate change? As one of the planet's largest single carbon absorbers, the ocean takes up roughly one-third of all human carbon emissions, reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide and its associated global changes. But whether the ocean can continue mopping up human-produced carbon at the same rate is still up in the air. In a new analysis, researchers identify a likely source of many of those inconsistencies and provide some of the first observational evidence that climate change is negatively impacting the ocean carbon sink.

High-resolution imaging technology reveals cellular details of coronary arteries

Posted: 10 Jul 2011 10:28 AM PDT

Researchers have developed a one-micrometer-resolution version of the intravascular imaging technology optical coherence tomography that can reveal cellular and subcellular features of coronary artery disease.

New genetic clues for schizophrenia; De novo mutations more frequent, study finds

Posted: 10 Jul 2011 10:28 AM PDT

De novo mutations -- genetic errors that are present in patients but not in their parents -- are more frequent in schizophrenic patients than in normal individuals, according to an international group of scientists.

Vitamin D lower in NFL football players who suffered muscled injuries, study suggests

Posted: 10 Jul 2011 10:28 AM PDT

Vitamin D deficiency has been known to cause an assortment of health problems. Now, a new study suggests that lack of the vitamin might also increase the chance of muscle injuries in athletes, specifically NFL football players.

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