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New resources for the transit of Venus by the University of Barcelona
Published May 25, 2012 - 10:16:49 AM
A transit is the crossing of a planet or any star in front of the Sun. Mercury and Venus are the only planets of the solar system that can make transits, because they are closer to the Sun than the Earth. On 5-6 June the transit of the planet Venus across the Sun will take place. Researchers from the Department of Astronomy and Meteorology (DAM) of the University of Barcelona (Spain) will live broadcast the phenomenon from the Svalbard Islands, in the Arctic, through the website Serviastro.
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Stanford psychologists examine how race affects juvenile sentencing
Published May 25, 2012 - 10:10:33 AM
When it comes to holding children accountable for crimes they commit, race matters.
According to a new study by Stanford psychologists, if people imagine a juvenile offender to be black, they are more willing to hand down harsher sentences to all juveniles.
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Commonly used pesticide turns honey bees into 'picky eaters'
Published May 24, 2012 - 9:19:07 AM
Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered that a small dose of a commonly used crop pesticide turns honey bees into "picky eaters" and affects their ability to recruit their nestmates to otherwise good sources of food.
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Nomads of the galaxy
Published May 24, 2012 - 9:06:03 AM
A recent study proposes the galaxy is crowded with nomad planets adrift in space. If this is the case, nomad planets may play a dynamic role in the universe.
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Toxic Flame Retardant Chemicals Found on Toddlers' Hands
Published May 23, 2012 - 9:20:56 AM
Environmental health advocates responded to the new Duke University-led study of 83 North Carolina toddlers, published today in Environmental Health Perspectives , suggesting exposure to potentially toxic flame-retardant chemicals may be higher in non-white toddlers than in white toddlers.
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72 % of Teenagers Experienced Reduced Hearing Ability After Attending Concert
Published May 23, 2012 - 9:13:38 AM
Seventy-two percent of teenagers participating in a study experienced reduced hearing ability following exposure to a pop rock performance by a popular female singer.
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Scientists Start Explaining Fat Bastard's Vicious Cycle
Published May 23, 2012 - 9:12:38 AM
Fat Bastard's revelation "I eat because I'm depressed and I'm depressed because I eat" in the Austin Powers film series may be explained by sophisticated neuroscience research being undertaken by scientists affiliated with the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CR-CHUM) and the university's Faculty of Medicine. "In addition to causing obesity, rich foods can actually cause chemical reactions in the brain in a similar way to illicit drugs, ultimately leading to depression as the ‘come-downs' take their toll," explain lead researcher, Dr. Stephanie Fulton. As is the case with drug addicts, a vicious cycle sets in where "food-highs" are used as a way to combat depression. "Data shows that obesity is associated with increased risk of developing depression, but we have very little understanding of the neural mechanisms and brain reward patterns that link the two," Fulton said. "We are demonstrating for the first time that the chronic consumption of palatable, high-fat diets has pro-depressive effects."
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The older we get, the less we know (cosmologically)
Published May 23, 2012 - 9:10:48 AM
The universe is a marvelously complex place, filled with galaxies and larger-scale structures that have evolved over its 13.7-billion-year history. Those began as small perturbations of matter that grew over time, like ripples in a pond, as the universe expanded. By observing the large-scale cosmic wrinkles now, we can learn about the initial conditions of the universe. But is now really the best time to look, or would we get better information billions of years into the future - or the past?
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Study suggests one-third of US homeless are obese
Published May 23, 2012 - 8:55:48 AM
A new study dispels the myth that in general the homeless are starving and underweight. New research by Oxford University and Harvard Medical School has found that obesity is just as common among the homeless as it is among the general non-homeless population.
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Clinical Trials for Alzheimer's Disease Preventative Drug to Begin Early 2013
Published May 22, 2012 - 7:41:09 AM
After an announcement by federal officials approving clinical trials for the drug Crenezumab, researchers searching for a way to treat Alzheimer's Disease are gearing up for a rare study that will allow them to test a therapy for a genetically predestined disease –– before its onset.
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Hunter-Gatherers, Forager-Horticulturalists Demonstrate Minimal Hypertension and Lower Risk of Heart Disease
Published May 21, 2012 - 12:59:52 PM
While age-related increases in blood pressure –– and the associated risk of atherosclerosis –– are commonplace in the United States, other developed countries, and now in the developing world, that does not seem to be the case among hunter-gatherers and forager-horticulturists, according to researchers at UC Santa Barbara. Their findings appear in the current issue of Hypertension, the journal of the American Heart Association.
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Clean Water for Everyone
Published May 21, 2012 - 6:37:32 AM
Nearly 80 percent of disease in developing countries is linked to bad water and sanitation. Now a scientist at Michigan Technological University has developed a simple, cheap way to make water safe to drink, even if it's muddy.
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Finding fingerprints in sea level rise
Published May 21, 2012 - 6:33:48 AM
It was used to help Apollo astronauts navigate in space, and has since been applied to problems as diverse as economics and weather forecasting, but Harvard scientists are now using a powerful statistical tool to not only track sea level rise over time, but to determine where the water causing the rise is coming from.
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Stanford scientists document fragile land-sea ecological chain
Published May 21, 2012 - 6:32:21 AM
Douglas McCauley and Paul DeSalles did not set out to discover one of the longest ecological interaction chains ever documented. But that's exactly what they and a team of researchers – all current or former Stanford students and faculty – did in a new study published in Scientific Reports.
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Study says children exposed to tobacco smoke face long-term respiratory problems
Published May 21, 2012 - 6:31:30 AM
For more than three decades, researchers have warned of the potential health risks associated with exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), especially among children whose parents smoke. Now a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Arizona reports that those health risks persist well beyond childhood, independent of whether or not those individuals end up becoming smokers later in life.
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Pollination with precision: How flowers do it
Published May 18, 2012 - 1:43:25 PM
Next Mother's Day, say it with an evolved model of logistical efficiency — a flower. A new discovery about how nature's icons of romance manage the distribution of sperm among female gametes with industrial precision helps explain why the delicate beauties have reproduced prolifically enough to dominate the earth.
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Herschel Space Observatory study reveals galaxy-packed filament
Published May 18, 2012 - 9:20:37 AM
A McGill-led research team using the Herschel Space Observatory has discovered a giant, galaxy-packed filament ablaze with billions of new stars. The filament connects two clusters of galaxies that, along with a third cluster, will smash together and give rise to one of the largest galaxy superclusters in the universe.
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Penn and Genographic Project Scientists Illuminate the Ancient History of Circumarctic Peoples
Published May 18, 2012 - 9:10:55 AM
Two studies led by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and National Geographic's Genographic Project reveal new information about the migration patterns of the first humans to settle the Americas. The studies identify the historical relationships among various groups of Native American and First Nations peoples and present the first clear evidence of the genetic impact of the groups' cultural practices.
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Manmade Pollutants May Be Driving Earth's Tropical Belt Expansion
Published May 17, 2012 - 7:08:31 AM
Black carbon aerosols and tropospheric ozone, both manmade pollutants emitted predominantly in the Northern Hemisphere's low- to mid-latitudes, are most likely pushing the boundary of the tropics further poleward in that hemisphere, new research by a team of scientists shows.
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Why omega-3 oils help at the cellular level
Published May 16, 2012 - 8:51:49 AM
For the first time, researchers at the University of California, San Diego have peered inside a living mouse cell and mapped the processes that power the celebrated health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. More profoundly, they say their findings suggest it may be possible to manipulate these processes to short-circuit inflammation before it begins, or at least help to resolve inflammation before it becomes detrimental.
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Sugar makes you stupid
Published May 16, 2012 - 8:26:25 AM
Attention, college students cramming between midterms and finals: Binging on soda and sweets for as little as six weeks may make you stupid.
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UMD Finding May Hold Key to Gaia Theory of Earth as Living Organism
Published May 16, 2012 - 8:24:19 AM
Is Earth really a sort of giant living organism as the Gaia hypothesis predicts? A new discovery made at the University of Maryland may provide a key to answering this question. This key of sulfur could allow scientists to unlock heretofore hidden interactions between ocean organisms, atmosphere, and land -- interactions that might provide evidence supporting this famous theory.
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A Deeper Look at Centaurus A
Published May 16, 2012 - 8:07:03 AM
The strange galaxy Centaurus A is pictured in a new image from the European Southern Observatory. With a total exposure time of more than 50 hours this is probably the deepest view of this peculiar and spectacular object ever created. The image was produced by the Wide Field Imager of the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile.
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Preventing Depression Require Proactice Interventions by Health Care System
Published May 14, 2012 - 11:34:46 AM
Major depressive episodes can be prevented, and to help ensure that they are, the health care system should provide routine access to depression-prevention interventions, just as patients receive standard vaccines, according to a new article co-authored by UCSF researcher Ricardo F. Muñoz, PhD.
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Scientists 'read' the ash from the Icelandic volcano 2 years after its eruption
Published May 14, 2012 - 9:51:24 AM
In May 2010, the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull reached the Iberian Peninsula and brought airports to a halt all over Europe. At the time, scientists followed its paths using satellites, laser detectors, sun photometers and other instruments. Two years later they have now presented the results and models that will help to prevent the consequences of such natural phenomena.
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Caltech Researchers Gain Greater Insight into Earthquake Cycles
Published May 12, 2012 - 10:05:51 AM
For those who study earthquakes, one major challenge has been trying to understand all the physics of a fault—both during an earthquake and at times of "rest"—in order to know more about how a particular region may behave in the future. Now, researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed the first computer model of an earthquake-producing fault segment that reproduces, in a single physical framework, the available observations of both the fault's seismic (fast) and aseismic (slow) behavior.
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You're beautiful, Vesta
Published May 11, 2012 - 11:22:04 AM
When UCLA's Christopher T. Russell looks at the images of the protoplanet Vesta produced by NASA's Dawn mission, he talks about beauty as much as he talks about science.
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Science academies issue 'G-Science' statements to call world leaders' attention how science and technology can help solve global challenges
Published May 10, 2012 - 9:50:13 AM
National science academies from 15 countries issued joint statements today calling on world leaders who are about to meet at the upcoming G8 Summit and other international gatherings this year to give greater consideration to the vital role science and technology could play in addressing some of the planet's most pressing challenges. The "G-Science" statements recommend that governments engage the international research community in developing systematic, innovative solutions to three global dilemmas: how to simultaneously meet water and energy needs; how to build resilience to natural and technological disasters; and how to more accurately gauge countries' greenhouse gas emissions to verify progress toward national goals or international commitments.
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Free-floating planets in the Milky Way outnumber stars by factors of thousands
Published May 10, 2012 - 9:49:17 AM
A few hundred thousand billion free-floating life-bearing Earth-sized planets may exist in the space between stars in the Milky Way. So argues an international team of scientists led by Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, Director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology at the University of Buckingham, UK. Their findings are published online in the Springer journal Astrophysics and Space Science.
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Income inequality leads to more US deaths, study finds
Published May 9, 2012 - 10:28:28 AM
A new study provides the best evidence to date that higher levels of income inequality in the United States actually lead to more deaths in the country over a period of years.
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