ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• E-cigarette or drug delivery device? Questions about safety, usage and future implications of new nicotine delivery products
• Real-time data recorded on football player captures impact that caused broken neck
• EHEC 2011 outbreak: Scientists publish prospective genomic characterization
• How maternal smoking or nicotine use increases the risk of cardiovascular disease in later life
• Full moon indicates impending danger from lion attack, study shows
• Test for classifying force used in bottle stabbings: New study aids understanding of force required for creating injury
• It's no sweat for salt marsh sparrows to beat the heat if they have a larger bill
• Heavy relative of the neutron discovered
• A new breed: Highly productive chickens help raise Ugandans from poverty
• Landsat satellites track continued Missouri River flooding
• Health gains from multiple sclerosis drugs come at a high price, study finds
• Evolution provides clue to blood clotting
• Seeing the S-curve in everything
• Killing of bin Laden worsened Americans' views of U.S. Muslims, survey finds
• Research outlines math framework that could help convert 'junk' energy into useful power
• Gene required to maintain male sex throughout life discovered: Loss of gene Dmrt1 leads to male cells becoming female
• Fast prediction of axon behavior: Computer modeling method may lead to more accurate and capable electrodes to stimulate nerves
• New breast cancer drug: Promising results of PI3K inhibitor study
• Exploring keys to melanoma progression
• Genetic map of African-Americans to aid study of diseases, human evolution
• Animal model sheds light on rare genetic disorder, signaling pathway
• As new data wave begins, a gene study in one disease reveals mutations in an unrelated disease
• First artificial neural network created out of DNA: Molecular soup exhibits brainlike behavior
• Work engagement, job satisfaction, and productivity: They're a virtuous cycle
• When injured muscles mistakenly grow bones: Researchers discover brain chemical that causes strange, serious complication
• Caffeine consumption linked to female infertility, study suggests
• New duck-billed dinosaur gives scientists clues to evolution of head ornamentation and provinciality
• Prehistoric crocodile Terminonaris was Texas native, fossil suggests
• An advance toward ultra-portable electronic devices
• Seaweed as a rich new source of heart-healthy food ingredients
• Discovery may overcome obstacle for quantum computing: Researchers find a way to quash decoherence
• Breakthrough in quantum computing: Researchers develop system that resists 'quantum bug'
• Gene therapy to reverse heart failure ready for clinical trials; Therapeutic effectiveness and safety of 'next great thing in heart failure' demonstrated
• Mother knows best for urban fox families
• Disputes over content of Wikipedia articles reflect a country’s geopolitical instability, study finds
• Collaboration encourages equal sharing in children but not in chimpanzees
• New clinical trial to examine medication to treat social withdrawal in Fragile X and autism
• U.S. shale gas weakening Russian, Iranian petro-power, study finds
• Movement of black holes powers quasars, the universe's brightest lights
• Benefit of PET in malignant melanoma is unclear
• Cancer drugs may help treatment of schizophrenia
• How the honey bee tolerates some synthetic pesticides
• Newly designed molecule blocks chlamydia bacteria
• Team sports: For kids, it's more than just a game
• Great public desire to seek early diagnosis of Alzheimer's, according to survey
• Study dispels myths about medication borrowing in urban populations
• Improved method to create induced pluripotent stem cells
• Add unwanted pregnancy to travails of women in war-torn lands
• Environmental pollutants lurk long after they 'disappear'
• Chemical make-up of Gulf of Mexico plume determined
• New sexting laws put college students at risk: More than half of all college students have been 'sexted'
• Scientists create vaccine against heroin high
• Scholar helps make Major League Baseball umpire schedule a hit
• Household smoke increases severity of bronchiolitis in babies
• Wiedemann-Franz Law: Physicists break 150-year-old empirical laws of physics
• Memories may skew visual perception
• Lower calorie foods purchased in restaurants may contain more calories than listed, new study suggests
• Quick test to diagnose bacterial or viral infection
• Spanish Fabry disease patients appear to react differently to the rest of Europe
• 80 percent of world climate data are not computerized and readily available

E-cigarette or drug delivery device? Questions about safety, usage and future implications of new nicotine delivery products Posted: 20 Jul 2011 06:07 PM PDT Devices marketed as "electronic cigarettes" are in reality crude drug delivery systems for refined nicotine, posing unknown risks with little new benefits to smokers, according to tobacco control experts. In a new article, researchers explore the current regulatory climate around "e-cigarettes" and their safety. They also question future implications for physicians, policy makers and e-cigarette users.

Real-time data recorded on football player captures impact that caused broken neck Posted: 20 Jul 2011 06:07 PM PDT While studying concussions in a high school football team, researchers captured the impact of an 18-year-old player who broke his neck during a head-down tackle in real-time.

EHEC 2011 outbreak: Scientists publish prospective genomic characterization Posted: 20 Jul 2011 06:06 PM PDT Scientists have released a draft genome sequence of a German enterohemorrhagic E. coli 2011 outbreak strain, and now report on an in-depth genomic characterization of this outbreak.

How maternal smoking or nicotine use increases the risk of cardiovascular disease in later life Posted: 20 Jul 2011 06:06 PM PDT Scientists now understand more about why being exposed to nicotine while you were a fetus will increase your risk of developing cardiovascular disease as an adult.

Full moon indicates impending danger from lion attack, study shows Posted: 20 Jul 2011 06:06 PM PDT A new study led by Craig Packer, an international lion expert based at the University of Minnesota's College of Biological Sciences, shows that while moonlight limits lions' success at hunting their four-legged prey, the last day of a full moon signals the beginning of a foraging opportunity for bipeds.

Test for classifying force used in bottle stabbings: New study aids understanding of force required for creating injury Posted: 20 Jul 2011 05:59 PM PDT Engineers in the UK have for the first time created a way of measuring how much force is used during a stabbing using a broken bottle. The advance is expected to have significant implications for legal forensics.

It's no sweat for salt marsh sparrows to beat the heat if they have a larger bill Posted: 20 Jul 2011 01:35 PM PDT Birds use their bills largely to forage and eat, and these behaviors strongly influence the bill's shape and size. But the bill can play an important role in regulating the bird's body temperature by acting as a radiator for excess heat. A team of scientists have found that because of this, high summer temperatures have been a strong influence in determining bill size in some birds, particularly species of sparrows that favor salt marshes.

Heavy relative of the neutron discovered Posted: 20 Jul 2011 01:20 PM PDT Scientists have observed a new particle, the neutral Xi-sub-b. This particle contains three quarks: a strange quark, an up quark and a bottom quark (s-u-b). While its existence was predicted by the Standard Model, the observation of the neutral Xi-sub-b is significant because it strengthens our understanding of how quarks form matter.

A new breed: Highly productive chickens help raise Ugandans from poverty Posted: 20 Jul 2011 01:20 PM PDT A new study investigates the advantages of a more productive species of chicken for villagers in rural Uganda.

Landsat satellites track continued Missouri River flooding Posted: 20 Jul 2011 01:20 PM PDT Flooding along the Missouri River continues as shown in recent Landsat satellite images of the Nebraska and Iowa border. Heavy rains and snowmelt have caused the river to remain above flood stage for an extended period.

Health gains from multiple sclerosis drugs come at a high price, study finds Posted: 20 Jul 2011 01:20 PM PDT A new study shows that the health gains associated with a category of medications commonly used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) -- know as disease modifying drugs -- come at a very high cost when compared to therapies that address the symptoms of MS and treatments for other chronic diseases.

Evolution provides clue to blood clotting Posted: 20 Jul 2011 12:15 PM PDT A simple cut to the skin unleashes a complex cascade of chemistry to stem the flow of blood. Now, scientists at have used evolutionary clues to reveal how a key clotting protein self-assembles. The finding sheds new light on common bleeding disorders.

Seeing the S-curve in everything Posted: 20 Jul 2011 12:15 PM PDT Esses are everywhere. From economic trends, population growth, the spread of cancer, or the adoption of new technology, certain patterns inevitably seem to emerge. A new technology, for example, begins with slow acceptance, followed by explosive growth, only to level off before "hitting the wall."

Killing of bin Laden worsened Americans' views of U.S. Muslims, survey finds Posted: 20 Jul 2011 12:15 PM PDT Instead of calming fears, the death of Osama bin Laden actually led more Americans to feel threatened by Muslims living in the United States, according to a new nationwide U.S. survey. In the weeks following the US military campaign that killed bin Laden, the head of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda, American attitudes toward Muslim Americans took a significant negative shift, results showed.

Research outlines math framework that could help convert 'junk' energy into useful power Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:26 AM PDT Researchers have developed a mathematical framework that could one day form the basis of technologies that turn road vibrations, airport runway noise and other "junk" energy into useful power.

Gene required to maintain male sex throughout life discovered: Loss of gene Dmrt1 leads to male cells becoming female Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:25 AM PDT Researchers have made a key discovery showing that male sex must be maintained throughout life. Removing an important male development gene, called Dmrt1, causes male cells in mouse testis to become female cells.

Fast prediction of axon behavior: Computer modeling method may lead to more accurate and capable electrodes to stimulate nerves Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:25 AM PDT Researchers have developed a computer modeling method to accurately predict how a peripheral nerve axon responds to electrical stimuli, slashing the complex work from an inhibitory weeks-long process to just a few seconds.

New breast cancer drug: Promising results of PI3K inhibitor study Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:25 AM PDT A new drug targeting the PI3K gene in patients with advanced breast cancer shows promising results in an early phase I investigational study, according to a recent presentation.

Exploring keys to melanoma progression Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:25 AM PDT Researchers made an important discovery about proteins that underlie and stimulate melanoma, opening the door for a more targeted treatment in the future.

Genetic map of African-Americans to aid study of diseases, human evolution Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:25 AM PDT A group of researchers has constructed the world's most detailed genetic map, a tool scientists can use to better understand the roots of disease and how DNA is passed generationally to create diversity in the human species. Almost every prior genetic map was developed in people of European ancestry. The new map is the first built in African-Americans.

Animal model sheds light on rare genetic disorder, signaling pathway Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:25 AM PDT Scientists have developed a mouse model of focal dermal hypoplasia, a rare human birth defect that causes serious skin abnormalities and other medical problems. This animal model not only provides insight into studying the cause of focal dermal hypoplasia (FDH), but also offers a novel way to study a signaling pathway that is crucial for embryonic development.

As new data wave begins, a gene study in one disease reveals mutations in an unrelated disease Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:25 AM PDT Researchers seeking rare gene variants in just a few individuals with ADHD discovered that one patient had a novel combination of two mutations. Those mutations caused an unrelated disease, the blood disorder idiopathic hemolytic anemia. That unexpected result may herald an oncoming wave of new findings from improved gene-searching tools, with implications for researchers about how to best return such information to their research subjects.

First artificial neural network created out of DNA: Molecular soup exhibits brainlike behavior Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:25 AM PDT Researchers have now taken a major step toward creating artificial intelligence -- not in a robot or a silicon chip, but in a test tube. The researchers are the first to have made an artificial neural network out of DNA, creating a circuit of interacting molecules that can recall memories based on incomplete patterns, just as a brain can.

Work engagement, job satisfaction, and productivity: They're a virtuous cycle Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:24 AM PDT Engaged workers -- those who approach their work with energy, dedication, and focus -- are more open to new information, more productive, and more willing to go the extra mile. Moreover, engaged workers take the initiative to change their work environments in order to stay engaged.

When injured muscles mistakenly grow bones: Researchers discover brain chemical that causes strange, serious complication Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:24 AM PDT For hundreds of thousands of people, injuring a muscle through an accident like falling off a bike or having surgery can result in a strange and serious complication. Their muscles start growing bones. New research shows a neuropeptide called Substance P appears to trigger the formation of the extraskeletal bone. Eliminating Substance P prevents the bone growth, offering a new drug target to prevent and treat the bone growth.

Caffeine consumption linked to female infertility, study suggests Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:23 AM PDT Caffeine reduces muscle activity in the Fallopian tubes that carry eggs from a woman's ovaries to her womb. "Our experiments were conducted in mice, but this finding goes a long way towards explaining why drinking caffeinated drinks can reduce a woman's chance of becoming pregnant," says one of the researchers.

New duck-billed dinosaur gives scientists clues to evolution of head ornamentation and provinciality Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:23 AM PDT A new genus and species of hadrosaur (duck-billed) dinosaur -- the oldest duck-billed dinosaur known from North America -- has been named by scientists who expect the discovery to shed new light on dinosaur evolution.

Prehistoric crocodile Terminonaris was Texas native, fossil suggests Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:23 AM PDT A prehistoric crocodile thought to have originated in Europe now appears to have been a Texas native, new research shows. The switch for the genus Terminonaris is based on the identification of a well-preserved fossil snout that was discovered near the waters edge of a Dallas-area lake. The 96-million-year-old fossil is the oldest of its kind worldwide, indicating Terminonaris likely originated in Texas and dispersed northward.

An advance toward ultra-portable electronic devices Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:23 AM PDT Scientists are reporting a key advance toward the long-awaited era of "single-molecule electronics," when common electronic circuits in computers, smart phones, audio players, and other devices may shrink to the size of a grain of sand. The breakthrough is a method for creating and attaching the tiny wires that will connect molecular components, reports a new study.

Seaweed as a rich new source of heart-healthy food ingredients Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:23 AM PDT In an article that may bring smiles to the faces of vegetarians who consume no dairy products and vegans, who consume no animal-based foods, scientists have identified seaweed as a rich new potential source of heart-healthy food ingredients. Seaweed and other "macroalgae" could rival milk products as sources of these so-called "bioactive peptides."

Discovery may overcome obstacle for quantum computing: Researchers find a way to quash decoherence Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:21 AM PDT Researchers have discovered how to quiet environmental decoherence, a major obstacle to realizing the enormous potential of quantum computing.

Breakthrough in quantum computing: Researchers develop system that resists 'quantum bug' Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:21 AM PDT Scientists have taken the next major step toward quantum computing, which will use quantum mechanics to revolutionize the way information is processed. Using high magnetic fields, researchers managed to suppress decoherence, which is one of the key stumbling blocks in quantum computing.

Gene therapy to reverse heart failure ready for clinical trials; Therapeutic effectiveness and safety of 'next great thing in heart failure' demonstrated Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:21 AM PDT A promising gene therapy developed to prevent and reverse congestive heart failure is on the verge of clinical trials, after years of proving itself highly effective in the lab and a large animal study.

Mother knows best for urban fox families Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:21 AM PDT In urban fox families, mothers determine which cubs get to stay and which must leave while fathers have little say in the matter, new research by biologists in the UK has found.

Disputes over content of Wikipedia articles reflect a country’s geopolitical instability, study finds Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:20 AM PDT Disputes over the content of articles in the internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia can serve as an indicator for the political stability of a country. This was proposed based on a "Wikipedia Dispute Index" developed by researchers in Germany. This index measures the frequency of pages linked to a country that are disputed by users of the online encyclopaedia. The ranking of countries based on this index is similar to other, much more complex indices relating, for example, to governance or the economy. To calculate the index, the scientists used methods similar to those applied to biological networks and applied them to the cross-linked information in Wikipedia.

Collaboration encourages equal sharing in children but not in chimpanzees Posted: 20 Jul 2011 11:20 AM PDT Children as young as three years of age share toy rewards equally with a peer, but only when both collaborated in order to gain them, according to new research. However, in a new study, chimpanzees did not show this connection between sharing resources and collaborative efforts.

New clinical trial to examine medication to treat social withdrawal in Fragile X and autism Posted: 20 Jul 2011 09:19 AM PDT Children and adults with social withdrawal due to Fragile X syndrome, the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability and the most common known single gene cause of autism, may benefit from an experimental drug under study by pediatric neurologists.

U.S. shale gas weakening Russian, Iranian petro-power, study finds Posted: 20 Jul 2011 09:19 AM PDT Rising U.S. natural gas production from shale formations has already played a critical role in weakening Russia's ability to wield an "energy weapon" over its European customers, and this trend will accelerate in the coming decades, according to a new study.

Movement of black holes powers quasars, the universe's brightest lights Posted: 20 Jul 2011 09:19 AM PDT Research finds that black holes' spin and lateral movement can power bright jets of light known as quasars.

Benefit of PET in malignant melanoma is unclear Posted: 20 Jul 2011 09:19 AM PDT The relevance of positron emission tomography alone or in combination with computed tomography in patients with malignant melanoma cannot be currently assessed, as the studies presently available do not allow robust conclusions.

Cancer drugs may help treatment of schizophrenia Posted: 20 Jul 2011 09:19 AM PDT Researchers have revealed the molecular pathway that is affected during the onset of schizophrenia and successfully alleviated symptoms of the illness in mice, using a commonly used cancer drug.

How the honey bee tolerates some synthetic pesticides Posted: 20 Jul 2011 09:18 AM PDT A new study reveals how enzymes in the honey bee gut detoxify pesticides commonly used to kill mites in the honey bee hive. This is the first study to tease out the precise molecular mechanisms that allow a pollinating insect to tolerate exposure to these potentially deadly compounds.

Newly designed molecule blocks chlamydia bacteria Posted: 20 Jul 2011 09:18 AM PDT Researchers have discovered a way to block the damaging actions of Chlamydia, the bacteria responsible for the largest number of sexually transmitted infections in the United States.

Team sports: For kids, it's more than just a game Posted: 20 Jul 2011 08:53 AM PDT A cohesive team environment, assessing one's own performance rather than comparing with others, and involvement in enjoyably challenging practices are the main conditions needed for children to have a positive developmental experience playing team sports.

Great public desire to seek early diagnosis of Alzheimer's, according to survey Posted: 20 Jul 2011 08:53 AM PDT Results of an international survey reveal that over 85 percent of respondents in the five countries surveyed say that if they were exhibiting confusion and memory loss, they would want to see a doctor to determine if the cause of the symptoms was Alzheimer's disease.

Study dispels myths about medication borrowing in urban populations Posted: 20 Jul 2011 08:52 AM PDT Rates of medication borrowing were previously thought to be higher among low-income populations due to lack of insurance, access to health care and high rates of crime and drug abuse. However, a new study finds that is not the case.

Improved method to create induced pluripotent stem cells Posted: 20 Jul 2011 08:52 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new strategy to improve the development of induced pluripotent stem cells. Researchers found that by fusing two proteins – a master stem cell regulator (Oct4) and a fragment of a muscle cell inducer (MyoD) – they succeeded in "powering up" the stem cell regulator, which can dramatically improve the efficiency and purity of reprogrammed iPS cells.

Add unwanted pregnancy to travails of women in war-torn lands Posted: 20 Jul 2011 08:52 AM PDT Violent conflict disrupts all aspects of society, including the delivery of the most basic reproductive health services: prenatal and maternal care, family planning, prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, abortions and emergency caesarian care. A new study demonstrates and quantifies the alarming gap between the desire of women in war-torn areas to limit their childbearing and the availability of resources and knowledge to enable them to do so.

Environmental pollutants lurk long after they 'disappear' Posted: 20 Jul 2011 08:52 AM PDT Scientists say that current environmental tests look for specific drugs -- but these drugs break down into other chemicals through sun exposure or oxidation. In their new and equally lethal forms, they don't show up in tests, so they pose a hidden threat.

Chemical make-up of Gulf of Mexico plume determined Posted: 20 Jul 2011 07:35 AM PDT Taking another major step in sleuthing the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, scientists have determined what chemicals were contained in a deep, hydrocarbon-containing plume.

New sexting laws put college students at risk: More than half of all college students have been 'sexted' Posted: 20 Jul 2011 07:35 AM PDT More than half of all college students have received sexually suggestive images via text messaging, and nearly 80 percent have received suggestive messages, according to new research.

Scientists create vaccine against heroin high Posted: 20 Jul 2011 07:35 AM PDT Researchers have developed a highly successful vaccine against a heroin high and have indicated its therapeutic potential.

Scholar helps make Major League Baseball umpire schedule a hit Posted: 20 Jul 2011 07:35 AM PDT Scientists have created a complex method for scheduling Major League Baseball umpires which has proven so successful that the league has used it five of the past six seasons.

Household smoke increases severity of bronchiolitis in babies Posted: 20 Jul 2011 07:35 AM PDT A new study has found that babies admitted to hospital with bronchiolitis from a household where a parent smokes are twice as likely to need oxygen therapy and five times as likely to need mechanical ventilation as babies whose parents do not smoke.

Wiedemann-Franz Law: Physicists break 150-year-old empirical laws of physics Posted: 20 Jul 2011 07:35 AM PDT A violation of one of the oldest empirical laws of physics has been observed by scientists. The experiments on purple bronze, a metal with unique one-dimensional electronic properties, indicate that it breaks the Wiedemann-Franz Law.

Memories may skew visual perception Posted: 20 Jul 2011 06:15 AM PDT Psychologists have found that our visual perception can be contaminated by memories of what we have recently seen, impairing our ability to properly understand and act on what we are currently seeing.

Lower calorie foods purchased in restaurants may contain more calories than listed, new study suggests Posted: 20 Jul 2011 06:15 AM PDT Disclosing the calories in restaurant foods to customers holds promise as a strategy to lower the nation's obesity rate. However, a new study of food items from national chain restaurants found that while stated calories on restaurant menus and websites were accurate on average, 19% of individual samples differed from laboratory measurements by more than 100 calories and lower calorie foods tended to contain more than listed.

Quick test to diagnose bacterial or viral infection Posted: 20 Jul 2011 06:15 AM PDT Treating viral infections with antibiotics is ineffective and contributes to the development of antibiotic resistance, allergic reactions, toxicity and greater health care costs, researchers say. Currently tests take 24-48 hours and aren't always accurate enough for a clear-cut diagnosis. A new accurate and time-saving method has just been developed.

Spanish Fabry disease patients appear to react differently to the rest of Europe Posted: 20 Jul 2011 06:15 AM PDT Spanish patients with Fabry disease, a rare hereditary condition where abnormal fatty deposits collect in blood vessels and organs throughout the body, appear to react differently to those in other European countries. Spanish patients showed a different pattern of organ involvement in ill health and death to other European patients on the Fabry Outcome Survey.

80 percent of world climate data are not computerized and readily available Posted: 20 Jul 2011 06:15 AM PDT In order to gain a better knowledge of climate variations, such as those caused by global warming, and be able to tackle them, we need to understand what happened in the recent past. A new study shows that the scientific community today is only able to access and analyze 20 percent of the recorded climate information held. The remaining data are not accessible in digital format.

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