science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Τρίτη 24 Ιουλίου 2012

Science News SciGuru.com

Scientists discover a young and energetic neutron star with unusually irregular rotation
Blood sugar diabetes risk for South Asians
Marine microorganisms hold the key to life on earth
Mice have system to handle smell of fear
Researcher Break Tanning Misconceptions: “There is no such thing as a safe tan”
How pre-eruption collisions affect what exits a volcano
Synthetic stimulants called ‘bath salts’ act in the brain like cocaine

Scientists discover a young and energetic neutron star with unusually irregular rotation

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:07 AM PDT

Pulsars are superlative cosmic beacons. These compact neutron stars rotate about their axes many times per second, emitting radio waves and gamma radiation into space. Using ingenious data analysis methods, researchers from the Max Planck Institutes for Gravitational Physics and for Radio Astronomy, in an international collaboration, dug a very special gamma-ray pulsar out of data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

Blood sugar diabetes risk for South Asians

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:00 AM PDT

A new diabetes study at the University of Leicester has discovered that South Asians (people of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lanka origin) have higher levels of blood sugar than white Europeans independent of risk factors that influence sugar levels.

The study of 4,688 white Europeans and 1,352 South Asians was led by Dr. Samiul A Mostafa, of the University of Leicester, Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, and was published in Diabetes Care, a journal of the American Diabetes Association.

Marine microorganisms hold the key to life on earth

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 04:54 AM PDT

New Marine Board position paper reveals the importance of marine microbial diversity for our environment and society and proposes concrete actions to guide future European research.

Few people realize that all life on earth evolved from microorganisms in the sea. Microorganisms, or microbes, are those organisms too small to be observed by the human eye and they are everywhere, often in huge numbers. Just one litre of coastal seawater contains up to a billion microbes including thousands of different types.

Mice have system to handle smell of fear

Posted: 23 Jul 2012 02:04 PM PDT

Mice appear to have a specialized system for detecting and at least initially processing instinctually important smells such as those that denote predators. The finding raises a question about whether their response to those smells is hardwired.

Researcher Break Tanning Misconceptions: “There is no such thing as a safe tan”

Posted: 23 Jul 2012 01:56 PM PDT

A new study conducted by GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) researchers Edward C. De Fabo, Ph.D., Frances P. Noonan, Ph.D., and Anastas Popratiloff, M.D., Ph.D., has been published in the journal Nature Communications. Their paper, entitled “Melanoma induction by ultraviolet A but not ultraviolet B radiation requires melanin pigment,” was published in June 2012.

How pre-eruption collisions affect what exits a volcano

Posted: 23 Jul 2012 01:48 PM PDT

How much ash will be injected into the atmosphere during Earth’s next volcanic eruption? Recent eruptions have demonstrated our continued vulnerability to ash dispersal, which can disrupt the aviation industry and cause billions of dollars in economic loss. Scientists widely believe that volcanic particle size is determined by the initial fragmentation process, when bubbly magma deep in the volcano changes into gas-particle flows.

Synthetic stimulants called ‘bath salts’ act in the brain like cocaine

Posted: 23 Jul 2012 01:41 PM PDT

The use of the synthetic stimulants collectively known as “bath salts” have gained popularity among recreational drug users over the last five years, largely because they were readily available and unrestricted via the Internet and at convenience stores, and were virtually unregulated.