science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Τετάρτη 13 Ιουνίου 2012

Science News SciGuru.com

Conscious perception is a matter of global neural networks
New research showing how real-life exposure to violence disrupts a child's sleep habits
Elevated levels of erythropoietin in brain motivates to exercise
Group B streptococcal meningitis has long-term effects on children's developmental outcomes
Spotting Ultrafine Loops in the Sun's Corona
NIST Effort Could Improve High-Tech Medical Scanners

Conscious perception is a matter of global neural networks

Posted: 13 Jun 2012 05:12 AM PDT

Consciousness is a selective process that allows only a part of the sensory input to reach awareness. But up to today it has yet to be clarified which areas of the brain are responsible for the content of conscious perception. Theofanis Panagiotaropoulos and his colleagues - researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen and University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona - have now discovered that the content of consciousness is not localised in a unique cortical area, but is most likely an emergent property of global networks of neuronal populations.

New research showing how real-life exposure to violence disrupts a child's sleep habits

Posted: 13 Jun 2012 05:04 AM PDT

When violence shatters a child's world, the torment can continue into their sleep, according to researchers in Cleveland. The impact is measurable and affected by the severity of the violence, and the effects can last over time.

Elevated levels of erythropoietin in brain motivates to exercise

Posted: 12 Jun 2012 05:49 PM PDT

As science rushes to develop safe weight loss drugs, a new research report approaches this problem from an entirely new angle: What if there were a pill that would make you want to exercise harder? It may sound strange, but a new research report appearing online in The FASEB Journal suggests that it might be possible. That's because a team of Swiss researchers found that when a hormone in the brain, erythropoietin (Epo), was elevated in mice, they were more motivated to exercise. In addition, the form of erythropoietin used in these experiments did not elevate red blood cell counts.

Group B streptococcal meningitis has long-term effects on children's developmental outcomes

Posted: 12 Jun 2012 05:41 PM PDT

Parents of infants who survive bacterial meningitis caused by group B Streptococcus might have to live with the effects of the disease on their children long after they’re discharged from the hospital.

A new study in the journal Pediatrics finds that even though mortality rates of children infected with GBS meningitis have decreased in the past 25 years, just under half of children who survive the disease will suffer impairment as a result of the disease.

Spotting Ultrafine Loops in the Sun's Corona

Posted: 12 Jun 2012 05:35 PM PDT

A key to understanding the dynamics of the sun and what causes the great solar explosions there relies on deciphering how material, heat and energy swirl across the sun's surface and rise into the upper atmosphere, or corona. Tracking the constantly moving material requires state-of-the-art telescopes with the highest resolution possible. By combining images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and a new generation telescope called the New Solar Telescope (NST) at Big Bear Solar Observatory in Big Bear City, Calif.

NIST Effort Could Improve High-Tech Medical Scanners

Posted: 12 Jun 2012 05:28 PM PDT

A powerful color-based imaging technique is making the jump from remote sensing to the operating room—and a team of scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have taken steps to ensure it performs as well when discerning oxygen-depleted tissues and cancer cells in the body as it does with oil spills in the ocean.