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Exploding dinosaur hypothesis implodes
Hot on the trail of metabolic diseases and resistance to antibiotics: Cracking the atomic structure of the new ABC transporter TM287/288
Many Billions of Rocky Planets in the Habitable Zones around Red Dwarfs in the Milky Way
Powerhouse in the Crab Nebula: MAGIC telescopes measure the highest-energy gamma rays from a pulsar to date, calling theory into question
Stem cell study aids quest for MND therapies
Clinical trial to test success of cystic fibrosis lung infection treatment
Stopping Statin Therapy Increases Risk of Death for Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients
Chemical microgradients accelerate coral death at the Great Barrier Reef
More and more children have no parents and grandparents
Afterbirth: Study Asks If We Could Derive Benefits from Ingesting Placenta
Sinapic acid from mustard seed meal shows antibacterial effects against strains such as Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes
Living Human Gut-on-a-Chip
Microfluidic Chip Demonstrates Rapid, Low-Cost, Point-of-Care Flu Detection
Poor colonoscopy prep hides pre-cancerous polyps
Vitamins doing gymnastics: Scientists capture first full image of vitamin B12 in action
DNA traces cattle back to a small herd domesticated around 10,500 years ago

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 07:21 AM PDT

Exploding carcasses through putrefaction gases – this is how science explained the mysterious bone arrangements in almost fully preserved dinosaur skeletons for decades. Now a Swiss-German research team has proved that these carcasses sank to the seabed and did not explode. The sedimentologists and paleontologists from the universities of Zurich and Basel thus dispel the myth of exploding marine reptiles.

Hot on the trail of metabolic diseases and resistance to antibiotics: Cracking the atomic structure of the new ABC transporter TM287/288

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 07:12 AM PDT

Proteins belonging to the large and important family of ABC transporters have been associated with metabolic diseases and can cause resistance to antibiotics. Biochemists from the University of Zurich and the NCCR Structural Biology have succeeded in determining the atomic structure of a new ABC transporter. The insights gained could give rise to new therapies to treat multi-resistant bacteria, cystic fibrosis or gout, for instance.

Many Billions of Rocky Planets in the Habitable Zones around Red Dwarfs in the Milky Way

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 07:02 AM PDT

A new result from ESO’s HARPS planet finder shows that rocky planets not much bigger than Earth are very common in the habitable zones around faint red stars. The international team estimates that there are tens of billions of such planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone, and probably about one hundred in the Sun’s immediate neighbourhood. This is the first direct measurement of the frequency of super-Earths around red dwarfs, which account for 80% of the stars in the Milky Way.

Powerhouse in the Crab Nebula: MAGIC telescopes measure the highest-energy gamma rays from a pulsar to date, calling theory into question

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 06:40 AM PDT

The pulsar at the centre of the famous Crab Nebula is a veritable bundle of energy. This was now confirmed by the two MAGIC Telescopes on the Canary island of La Palma. They observed the pulsar in the very high energy gamma radiation from 25 up to 400 gigaelectronvolts (GeV), a region that was previously difficult to access with high energy instruments, and discovered that it actually emits pulses with the maximum measurable energy of up to 400 GeV – at least 50 to 100 times higher than theorists thought possible.

Stem cell study aids quest for MND therapies

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 06:32 AM PDT

A breakthrough using cutting-edge stem cell research could speed up the discovery of new treatments for motor neurone disease (MND).

Researchers have discovered that key pathological events can be detected in motor neurones derived from MND patient skins cells that had been reprogrammed to become stem cells.

Clinical trial to test success of cystic fibrosis lung infection treatment

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 06:25 AM PDT

Experts from Bristol and Nottingham are leading a major new national study to investigate whether intravenous antibiotics are effective in killing a common germ that causes dangerous complications in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients.

The team is hoping to find out if the treatment is more effective than traditional therapies in tackling Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which causes a chronic destructive lung infection in CF patients and which cannot be eradicated unless it is caught in the early stages.

Stopping Statin Therapy Increases Risk of Death for Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 10:05 PM PDT

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who discontinue use of statin therapy are at increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease and other causes.

Chemical microgradients accelerate coral death at the Great Barrier Reef

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 10:00 PM PDT

Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology along with Australian colleagues, have examined corals from the Great Barrier Reef affected by the Black Band Disease and identified the critical parameters that allow this prevalent disease to cause wide mortality of corals around the world. Corals infected with Black Band show a characteristic appearance of healthy tissue displaced by a dark front, the so called Black Band, which leaves the white limestone skeleton of the coral animal exposed.

More and more children have no parents and grandparents

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 09:52 PM PDT

While the number of cases of HIV infection in Zimbabwe has been decreasing for some time, the circumstances of children who have lost both parents to the AIDS epidemic could worsen in the coming years, according to a simulation that modelled the population development of the African country from 1980 to 2050.

Afterbirth: Study Asks If We Could Derive Benefits from Ingesting Placenta

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 12:07 PM PDT

A paper by neuroscientists at the University at Buffalo and Buffalo State College suggests that ingestion of components of afterbirth or placenta -- placentophagia -- may offer benefits to human mothers and perhaps to non-mothers and males.

They say this possibility does not warrant the wholesale ingestion of afterbirth, for some very good reasons, but that it deserves further study.

Sinapic acid from mustard seed meal shows antibacterial effects against strains such as Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 10:02 AM PDT

University of Alberta researcher Christina Engels has discovered how to extract a compound from mustard seeds that can protect against food spoilage.

Engels recovered a particular compound—sinapic acid—from mustard seed meal, which shows antibacterial effects against such strains as Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes, all of which can cause grave illness and death in humans. Canada is the world's largest exporter of mustard seed.

Living Human Gut-on-a-Chip

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 09:27 AM PDT

Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have created a gut-on-a-chip microdevice lined by living human cells that mimics the structure, physiology, and mechanics of the human intestine -- even supporting the growth of living microbes within its luminal space.

Microfluidic Chip Demonstrates Rapid, Low-Cost, Point-of-Care Flu Detection

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 09:16 AM PDT

The novel H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009 underscored weaknesses in methods widely used to diagnose the flu, from frequent false negatives to long wait times for results. Now a four-year, National Institutes of Health-funded study of 146 patients with flu-like symptoms spearheaded by Associate Professor Catherine Klapperich (BME, MSE) has validated a prototype rapid, low-cost, accurate, point-of-care device that promises a better standard of care.

Poor colonoscopy prep hides pre-cancerous polyps

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 08:40 AM PDT

What happens on the day before a colonoscopy may be just as important as the colon-screening test itself. Gastroenterologists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that when patients don’t adequately prep for the test by cleansing their colons, doctors often can’t see potentially dangerous pre-cancerous lesions.

Vitamins doing gymnastics: Scientists capture first full image of vitamin B12 in action

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 08:07 AM PDT

You see it listed on the side of your cereal box and your multivitamin bottle. It’s vitamin B12, part of a nutritious diet like all those other vitamins and minerals.

But when it gets inside your body, new research suggests, B12 turns into a gymnast.

DNA traces cattle back to a small herd domesticated around 10,500 years ago

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 07:40 AM PDT

All cattle are descended from as few as 80 animals that were domesticated from wild ox in the Near East some 10,500 years ago, according to a new genetic study.