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World of Warcraft Boosts Cognitive Functioning In Some Older Adults
Researchers solve puzzle of proteins linked to heart failure
An OFF switch for pain: Chemists build light-controlled neural inhibitor
NASA's Chandra Finds Fastest Wind From Stellar-Mass Black Hole
Hold the salt: coastal drinking water more vulnerable to water use than climate change
Broken Hearts Really Hurt
Forested riparian zones important to nitrogen control, stream health
Moon images show crust pulling apart
Penn Researcher Helps Discover and Characterize a 300-Million-Year Old Forest, Preserved Like Pompeii
University of Queensland scientist discovers a new sea snake - Hydrophis donaldii
Nottingham academic reveals insight into early prehistoric human occupations
Making the bones speak
Global permafrost zones in high-resolution images on Google Earth
Scientists identify link between size of brain region and conformity
Recession and high co-pays tied to fewer colonoscopy screenings among people with commercial health insurance

World of Warcraft Boosts Cognitive Functioning In Some Older Adults

Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:48 AM PST

For some older adults, the online video game World of Warcraft (WoW) may provide more than just an opportunity for escapist adventure. Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that playing WoW actually boosted cognitive functioning for older adults – particularly those adults who had scored poorly on cognitive ability tests before playing the game.

Researchers solve puzzle of proteins linked to heart failure

Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:39 AM PST

Sudden cardiac death is a risk for patients with heart failure because the calcium inside their heart cells is not properly controlled and this can lead to an irregular heartbeat. New findings published in PLoS ONE, which reveal mechanisms that underlie this life-threatening risk, provide new possibilities for fighting it.

An OFF switch for pain: Chemists build light-controlled neural inhibitor

Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:27 AM PST

The notion of a pain switch is an alluring idea, but is it realistic? Well, chemists at LMU Munich, in collaboration with colleagues in Berkeley and Bordeaux, have now shown in laboratory experiments that it is possible to inhibit the activity of pain-sensitive neurons using an agent that acts as a photosensitive switch. For the LMU researchers, the method primarily represents a valuable tool for probing the neurobiology of pain.

NASA's Chandra Finds Fastest Wind From Stellar-Mass Black Hole

Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:20 AM PST

Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have clocked the fastest wind yet discovered blowing off a disk around a stellar-mass black hole. This result has important implications for understanding how this type of black hole behaves.

The record-breaking wind is moving about 20 million mph, or about 3 percent of the speed of light. This is nearly 10 times faster than had ever been seen from a stellar-mass black hole.

Hold the salt: coastal drinking water more vulnerable to water use than climate change

Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:12 AM PST

Human activity is likely a greater threat to coastal groundwater used for drinking water supplies than rising sea levels from climate change, according to a study conducted by geoscientists from the University of Saskatchewan and McGill University in Montreal.

Broken Hearts Really Hurt

Posted: 21 Feb 2012 09:13 PM PST

"Broken-hearted” isn’t just a metaphor—social pain and physical pain have a lot in common, according to Naomi Eisenberger of the University of Califiornia-Los Angeles, the author of a new paper published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. In the paper, she surveys recent research on the overlap between physical and social pain.

Forested riparian zones important to nitrogen control, stream health

Posted: 21 Feb 2012 12:16 PM PST

Human activities from agriculture to fossil fuel consumption have resulted in high levels of nitrates in many streams and rivers; now a new study suggests that nurturing riparian zone forests may be a key in maintaining healthy waterways.

Streams flowing through urban areas and agricultural lands may have some of the same ability to process nitrates as healthy forest streams – if they have adequate forest buffer zones along their banks, the researchers say.

Results of the research were just published the professional journal, Ecosystems.

Moon images show crust pulling apart

Posted: 21 Feb 2012 12:11 PM PST

New images acquired by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft show that the Moon’s crust is pulling apart – at least in some small areas. The high-resolution images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) provide evidence that the Moon has experienced relatively recent geologic activity.

Penn Researcher Helps Discover and Characterize a 300-Million-Year Old Forest, Preserved Like Pompeii

Posted: 21 Feb 2012 12:02 PM PST

Pompeii-like, a 300-million-year-old tropical forest was preserved in ash when a volcano erupted in what is today northern China. A new study by University of Pennsylvania paleobotanist Hermann Pfefferkorn and colleagues presents a reconstruction of this fossilized forest, lending insight into the ecology and climate of its time.

University of Queensland scientist discovers a new sea snake - Hydrophis donaldii

Posted: 21 Feb 2012 11:04 AM PST

Scientists have discovered a new species of sea snake in the Gulf of Carpenteria, northern Australia, which is unique in having raised scales.

The finding published in Zootaxa today by Associate Professor Bryan Fry from The University of Queensland's (UQ) School of Biological Sciences and colleagues from The University of Adelaide, will provide important clues about evolution.

Associate Professor Fry said that Hydrophis donaldii had evaded earlier discovery as it prefers estuarine habitats that are poorly surveyed and not targeted by commercial fisheries.

Nottingham academic reveals insight into early prehistoric human occupations

Posted: 21 Feb 2012 10:51 AM PST

Some of the earliest evidence of prehistoric architecture has been discovered in the Jordanian desert, providing archaeologists with a new perspective on how humans lived 20,000 years ago.

The ancient hut structures in eastern Jordan were discovered by a team of archaeologists including academics from The University of Nottingham. The finding suggests that the area was once intensively occupied and that the origins of architecture in the region date back 20 millennia, well before the emergence of agriculture.

Making the bones speak

Posted: 21 Feb 2012 09:11 AM PST

In a narrow, modest laboratory in Michigan State University’s Giltner Hall, students pore over African skeletons from the Middle Ages in an effort to make the bones speak.

Little is known about these Nubians, meaning the information collected by graduate and undergraduate students in MSU’s Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Program will help shed light on this unexplored culture.

Global permafrost zones in high-resolution images on Google Earth

Posted: 21 Feb 2012 08:32 AM PST

Thawing permafrost will have far-reaching ramifications for populated areas, infrastructure and ecosystems. A geographer from the University of Zurich reveals where it is important to confront the issue based on new permafrost maps – the most precise global maps around. They depict the global distribution of permafrost in high-resolution images and are available on Google Earth.

Scientists identify link between size of brain region and conformity

Posted: 21 Feb 2012 08:24 AM PST

Every generation has its James Dean: the rebel who refuses to follow the path beaten by their peers. Now, a new study in ‘Current Biology’ has found a link between the amount of grey matter in one specific brain region and an individual’s likelihood of conforming to social pressures.

Recession and high co-pays tied to fewer colonoscopy screenings among people with commercial health insurance

Posted: 21 Feb 2012 08:14 AM PST

The recent U.S. economic recession was the longest and most severe since World War II. During this period, personal spending on health care grew at the slowest rate in over 50 years, suggesting that Americans used less health care.