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• Researchers Develop New, Less Expensive Nanolithography Technique
• Unexpected Finding Shows Climate Change Complexities in Soil
• Beliefs Drive Investors More than Preferences, Study Finds
• Lyme retreatment guidance may be flawed
• Monogamy and the Immune System
• Microbes help hyenas communicate via scent
• NASA's Dawn Prepares for Trek Toward Dwarf Planet
• How salt in the rainforest becomes clouds
• Ancient Denisovan genome reveals its secrets
• Eating (milk) chocolate may lower risk of getting a stroke
• Protein impedes microcirculation of malaria-infected red blood cells
• Researchers engineer light-activated skeletal muscle

Researchers Develop New, Less Expensive Nanolithography Technique Posted: 31 Aug 2012 07:17 AM PDT Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new nanolithography technique that is less expensive than other approaches and can be used to create technologies with biomedical applications. read more

Unexpected Finding Shows Climate Change Complexities in Soil Posted: 31 Aug 2012 07:07 AM PDT In a surprising finding, North Carolina State University researchers have shown that certain underground organisms thought to promote chemical interactions that make the soil a carbon sink actually play a more complex, dual role when atmospheric carbon levels rise. In a paper published in the Aug. 31 edition of Science, North Carolina State University researchers show that important and common soil microscopic organisms, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), play a role in sequestering carbon below ground, trapping it from escaping into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas. read more

Beliefs Drive Investors More than Preferences, Study Finds Posted: 31 Aug 2012 06:58 AM PDT If experts thought they knew anything about individual investors, it was this: their emotions lead them to sell winning stocks too soon and hold on to losers too long. But new research casts doubt on this widely held theory that individual investors’ decisions are driven mainly by their feelings toward losses and gains. In an innovative study, researchers found evidence that individual investors’ decisions are primarily motivated by their beliefs about a stock’s future. read more

Lyme retreatment guidance may be flawed Posted: 31 Aug 2012 06:51 AM PDT A new statistical review calls into question studies that have been taken as proof that antibiotic retreatment for chronic Lyme disease is futile. That misunderstanding has led to medical guidance that discourages retreatment and insurance coverage for it. Instead, the authors of the review suggest, the proper reading of the studies and their data is that they prove nothing. read more

Monogamy and the Immune System Posted: 30 Aug 2012 12:38 PM PDT In the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains two closely related species of mice share a habitat and a genetic lineage, but have very different social lives. The California mouse (Peromyscus californicus) is characterized by a lifetime of monogamy; the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) is sexually promiscuous. read more

Microbes help hyenas communicate via scent Posted: 30 Aug 2012 12:32 PM PDT Bacteria in hyenas’ scent glands may be the key controllers of communication. The results, featured in the current issue of Scientific Reports, show a clear relationship between the diversity of hyena clans and the distinct microbial communities that reside in their scent glands, said Kevin Theis, the paper’s lead author and Michigan State University postdoctoral researcher. read more

NASA's Dawn Prepares for Trek Toward Dwarf Planet Posted: 30 Aug 2012 12:23 PM PDT NASA's Dawn spacecraft is on track to become the first probe to orbit and study two distant solar system destinations, to help scientists answer questions about the formation of our solar system. The spacecraft is scheduled to leave the giant asteroid Vesta on Sept. 4 PDT (Sept. 5 EDT) to start its two-and-a-half-year journey to the dwarf planet Ceres. read more

How salt in the rainforest becomes clouds Posted: 30 Aug 2012 11:58 AM PDT In the ecosystem of the rainforest, fungi and plants are important contributors to the development of mist and clouds. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry have now found out that these release salt particles to which organic molecules attach. Condensation nuclei are thereby formed, which the moisture of the rainforest condenses on forming water droplets. The discovery was made with the help of a new method using X-rays in which individual particles are microscopically and spectroscopically analysed. read more

Ancient Denisovan genome reveals its secrets Posted: 30 Aug 2012 11:53 AM PDT The analyses of an international team of researchers led by Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, show that the genetic variation of Denisovans was extremely low, suggesting that although they were present in large parts of Asia, their population was never large for long periods of time. In addition, a comprehensive list documents the genetic changes that set apart modern humans from their archaic relatives. Some of these changes concern genes that are associated with brain function or nervous system development. read more

Eating (milk) chocolate may lower risk of getting a stroke Posted: 30 Aug 2012 11:34 AM PDT New research from the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet shows that eating a moderate amount of chocolate each week may be associated with a lower risk of stroke - regardless of the chocolate being dark or light. The findings are based on data from over 37 000 men and is published in the online issue of the scientific journal Neurology. read more

Protein impedes microcirculation of malaria-infected red blood cells Posted: 30 Aug 2012 07:48 AM PDT When the parasite responsible for malaria infects human red blood cells, it launches a 48-hour remodeling of the host cells. During the first 24 hours of this cycle, a protein called RESA undertakes the first step of renovation: enhancing the stiffness of the cell membranes. That increased rigidity impairs red blood cells’ ability to travel through the blood vessels, especially at fever temperatures, according to a new study from researchers at MIT, the Institut Pasteur and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). read more

Researchers engineer light-activated skeletal muscle Posted: 30 Aug 2012 07:29 AM PDT Many robotic designs take nature as their muse: sticking to walls like geckos, swimming through water like tuna, sprinting across terrain like cheetahs. Such designs borrow properties from nature, using engineered materials and hardware to mimic animals’ behavior. read more

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