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DriveLab to keep older drivers on the road
Clinical Decline in Alzheimer’s Requires Plaque and Proteins
Bark Beetle Management in Southern Pine Forests
Chemists Explain the Molecular Workings of Promising Fuel Cell Electrolyte
Bartonella Infection Associated with Rheumatoid Illnesses in Humans
Study suggests smoking, but not nicotine, reduces risk for rare tumor
Immunosignaturing: an accurate, affordable and stable diagnostic
Astrobiologist proposes fleet of probes to seek life on Mars
Girls born in 2009 will have shorter lives than their mothers in hundreds of U.S. counties
Climate change, biofuels mandate would cause corn price spikes

DriveLab to keep older drivers on the road

Posted: 23 Apr 2012 04:56 PM PDT

The Intelligent Transport team at Newcastle University, UK, has converted an electric car into a mobile laboratory. Dubbed 'DriveLAB', the car is kitted out with tracking systems, eye trackers and bio-monitors in an effort to understand the challenges faced by older drivers and to identify where the key stress points are.

The research car which monitors our concentration, stress levels and driving habits while we're sat behind the steering wheel is being used to develop new technologies to support older drivers.

Clinical Decline in Alzheimer’s Requires Plaque and Proteins

Posted: 23 Apr 2012 01:37 PM PDT

According to a new study, the neuron-killing pathology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which begins before clinical symptoms appear, requires the presence of both amyloid-beta (a-beta) plaque deposits and elevated levels of an altered protein called p-tau.

Without both, progressive clinical decline associated with AD in cognitively healthy older individuals is “not significantly different from zero,” reports a team of scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine in the April 23 online issue of the Archives of Neurology.

Bark Beetle Management in Southern Pine Forests

Posted: 23 Apr 2012 01:25 PM PDT

Periodic outbreaks of bark beetles can cause annual losses of millions of dollars and pose serious challenges for forest managers, and the suppression of outbreaks is particularly difficult and expensive.

Chemists Explain the Molecular Workings of Promising Fuel Cell Electrolyte

Posted: 23 Apr 2012 12:12 PM PDT

Researchers from New York University and the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart reveal how protons move in phosphoric acid in a Nature Chemistry study that sheds new light on the workings of a promising fuel cell electrolyte.

Bartonella Infection Associated with Rheumatoid Illnesses in Humans

Posted: 23 Apr 2012 11:45 AM PDT

A bacterium historically associated with cat scratch fever and transmitted predominately by fleas may also play a role in human rheumatoid illnesses such as arthritis, according to new research from North Carolina State University.

Study suggests smoking, but not nicotine, reduces risk for rare tumor

Posted: 23 Apr 2012 11:37 AM PDT

New research confirms an association between smoking and a reduced risk for a rare benign tumor near the brain, but the addition of smokeless tobacco to the analysis suggests nicotine is not the protective substance.

The study using Swedish data suggests that men who currently smoke are almost 60 percent less likely than people who have never smoked to develop this tumor, called an acoustic neuroma. But men in the study who used snuff, which produces roughly the same amount of nicotine in the blood as smoking, had no reduced risk of tumor development.

Immunosignaturing: an accurate, affordable and stable diagnostic

Posted: 23 Apr 2012 11:32 AM PDT

Identifying diseases at an early, presymptomatic stage may offer the best chance for establishing proper treatment and improving patient outcomes. A new technique known as immunosignaturing harnesses the human immune system as an early warning sentry—one acutely sensitive to changes in the body that may be harbingers of illness.

Astrobiologist proposes fleet of probes to seek life on Mars

Posted: 23 Apr 2012 11:28 AM PDT

A Washington State University astrobiologist is leading a group of 20 scientists in calling for a mission to Mars with "a strong and comprehensive life detection component." At the heart of their proposal is a small fleet of sensor packages that can punch into the Martian soil and run a range of tests for signs of ancient or existing life.

Girls born in 2009 will have shorter lives than their mothers in hundreds of U.S. counties

Posted: 23 Apr 2012 11:26 AM PDT

Nationwide, women’s lifespans are improving at a much slower pace than men's. In hundreds of U.S. counties, women are living shorter lives today than they did two decades ago, according to new county-by-county estimates of life expectancy released today by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, an independent global health research center at the UW

Climate change, biofuels mandate would cause corn price spikes

Posted: 23 Apr 2012 10:54 AM PDT

A study from Purdue and Stanford university researchers predicts that future climate scenarios may cause significantly greater volatility in corn prices, which would be intensified by the federal biofuels mandate.