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Evolution of staph 'superbug' traced between humans and food animals
Promising new compound for treating stroke
Trapped in a ring: Ring-like protein complex helps ensure accurate protein production
The beat goes on: the geometry that makes music pleasing
Eat and let die: Biologist discovers new animal enzyme to use plant toxins for self-defense
‘Stealth’ properties of cancer-causing genetic mutations identified
Alcohol in movies influences young teens' drinking habits
Maize hybrid looks promising for biofuel
Babies' Colic Linked to Mothers' Migraines
Rocket Launched Into Northern Lights to Illuminate GPS Effects
More Grapes, Less Wrath: Hybrid Antimicrobial Protein Protects Grapevines from Pathogen
Scientists Identify Protein that Sends ‘Painful Touch’ Signals
Over-reactive parenting linked to negative emotions and problem behavior in toddlers
One and done: Single-atom transistor is end of Moore's Law; may be beginning of quantum computing
Complexity in non-pharmacological caregiving activities at the end of life
Many babies born to immigrants incorrectly labelled underweight
Named 'mountain dweller', beautifully colored lizard discovered in the Peruvian Andes

Evolution of staph 'superbug' traced between humans and food animals

Posted: 21 Feb 2012 07:32 AM PST

A strain of the potentially deadly antibiotic-resistant bacterium known as MRSA has jumped from food animals to humans, according to a new study involving two Northern Arizona University researchers.

Promising new compound for treating stroke

Posted: 21 Feb 2012 07:20 AM PST

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have designed, produced and patented a new chemical compound for the possible treatment of brain damage caused by stroke. The compound binds 1,000 times more effectively to the target protein in the brain than the potential drug currently being tested on stroke victims. The results of biological tests have just been published in the renowned journal PNAS.

Trapped in a ring: Ring-like protein complex helps ensure accurate protein production

Posted: 21 Feb 2012 07:10 AM PST

In fairy tales, magic rings endow their owners with special abilities: the ring makes the wearer invisible, fulfils his wishes, or otherwise helps the hero on the path to his destiny. Similarly, a ring-like structure found in a protein complex called ‘Elongator’ has led researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Institut de Génétique et Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire (IGBMC) in Strasbourg, France, in exciting new directions.

The beat goes on: the geometry that makes music pleasing

Posted: 21 Feb 2012 06:55 AM PST

Whether it’s Bach or Brubeck, a new study shows that composers repeat rhythmic patterns in their works in such a way that the part is a copy of the larger whole. A research team led by neuroscientists Drs. Daniel Levitin and Vinod Menon, from McGill and Stanford Universities, respectively, analyzed the scores of close to 2,000 musical compositions written by more than 40 composers over the last 400 years in a large variety of Western musical genres.

Eat and let die: Biologist discovers new animal enzyme to use plant toxins for self-defense

Posted: 21 Feb 2012 06:05 AM PST

Certain insects, such as the African variegated grasshopper (Zonocerus variegatus) or the cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae), native in Europe and Asia, feed on toxic plants in order to protect themselves from predators. A working group at the Botanical Institute at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU), together with scientists from Technische Universität Braunschweig and the City University College, New York, has published findings on this phenomenon. As of yesterday, 20 February, these can be found in the scientific online journal PLoS ONE.

‘Stealth’ properties of cancer-causing genetic mutations identified

Posted: 21 Feb 2012 05:30 AM PST

Scientists have discovered that cancer-causing genetic mutations have better-disguised electronic signatures than other mutations - a trait which could help them fly under the radar of the body’s defense mechanisms.

Results of a new study by physicists at the University of Warwick and in Taiwan hint at the possibility that one day the electronic properties of DNA could play a role in early diagnosis and detection of mutation hotspots.

Alcohol in movies influences young teens' drinking habits

Posted: 20 Feb 2012 07:47 PM PST

Young teens who watch a lot of movies featuring alcohol are twice as likely to start drinking compared to peers who watch relatively few such films, reveals research published in the online journal BMJ Open.

And these teens are significantly more likely to progress to binge drinking, the study shows.

The findings prompt the researchers to suggest that Hollywood should adopt the same restrictions for alcohol product placement as it does for tobacco.

Maize hybrid looks promising for biofuel

Posted: 20 Feb 2012 07:40 PM PST

Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have identified a new contender in the bioenergy race: a temperate and tropical maize hybrid. Their findings, published in GCB Bioenergy, show that the maize hybrid is potentially capable of producing ethanol from biomass (plant material used for biofuel production) at levels equal to or greater than ethanol produced from grain harvested from current commercial maize hybrids.

Babies' Colic Linked to Mothers' Migraines

Posted: 20 Feb 2012 03:55 PM PST

A study of mothers and their young babies by neurologists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has shown that mothers who suffer migraine headaches are more than twice as likely to have babies with colic than mothers without a history of migraines.

Rocket Launched Into Northern Lights to Illuminate GPS Effects

Posted: 20 Feb 2012 03:42 PM PST

As the brilliant colors of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, delight skygazers, Cornell University researchers are discovering how their physics affects satellite signals here on Earth.

A NASA-funded collaborative research team led by Steven Powell, Cornell senior engineer in electrical and computer engineering, launched a sounding rocket from Alaska’s Poker Flat Research Range on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 8:41 p.m. Alaska Standard Time (Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012 at 12:41 a.m. EST) to collect data straight from the heart of the aurora.

More Grapes, Less Wrath: Hybrid Antimicrobial Protein Protects Grapevines from Pathogen

Posted: 20 Feb 2012 03:33 PM PST

A team of researchers has found a way to ensure that your evening glass of wine will continue to be available, despite the potential attack of Xylella fastidiosa (Xf), a bacterium that causes Pierce's Disease and poses a significant threat to the California wine industry's valuable grapevines.

Researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), University of California at Davis (UCD), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service have created specially engineered grapevines that produce a hybrid antimicrobial protein that can block Xf infection.

Scientists Identify Protein that Sends ‘Painful Touch’ Signals

Posted: 20 Feb 2012 02:26 PM PST

In two landmark papers in the journal Nature this week, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute report that they have identified a class of proteins that detect “painful touch.”

Over-reactive parenting linked to negative emotions and problem behavior in toddlers

Posted: 20 Feb 2012 02:10 PM PST

Researchers have found that parents who anger easily and over-react are more likely to have toddlers who act out and become upset easily.

The research is an important step in understanding the complex link between genetics and home environment. In the study, researchers from Oregon State University, Oregon Social Learning Center, and other institutions collected data in 10 states from 361 families linked through adoption – and obtained genetic data from birth parents as well as the children.

One and done: Single-atom transistor is end of Moore's Law; may be beginning of quantum computing

Posted: 20 Feb 2012 09:15 AM PST

The smallest transistor ever built - in fact, the smallest transistor that can be built - has been created using a single phosphorous atom by an international team of researchers at the University of New South Wales, Purdue University and the University of Melbourne.

The single-atom device was described Sunday (Feb. 19) in a paper in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Complexity in non-pharmacological caregiving activities at the end of life

Posted: 20 Feb 2012 09:04 AM PST

A new study from Karolinska Institutet and Umeå University shows that non-pharmacological caregiving at the end of life in specialized palliative care is not as basic as one might believe but is based on complex professional decisions that weave physical, psychosocial and existential dimensions into a functional whole. The researchers have found that particularly important aspects of palliative care are an esthetically pleasing, safe and comfortable environment, bodily care and contact from another person and dying-related rituals.

Many babies born to immigrants incorrectly labelled underweight

Posted: 20 Feb 2012 08:44 AM PST

For some immigrant parents, especially South Asians, questions about a baby’s birthweight may be stressful, because many of their newborns are incorrectly diagnosed as being significantly underweight. Low birthweight generally means a baby could be at higher risk of developmental issues.

Researchers at the University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital say many of these infants are in fact the correct birthweight for their ethnic group and should not be compared to those of babies of Canadian-born mothers.

Named 'mountain dweller', beautifully colored lizard discovered in the Peruvian Andes

Posted: 20 Feb 2012 07:51 AM PST

Biodiversidad (CORBIDI) in Peru have discovered a new colorful lizard which they named Potamites montanicola, or "mountain dweller". The new species was found in Cordillera de Vilcabamba and Apurimac river valley, the Cusco Region of Peru at altitude ranging from 1,600 to 2,100 meters. Their study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.