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Small droplets grow differently
NASA Rover Returns Voice and Telephoto Views from Martian Surface
Plants unpack winter coats when days get shorter
Vitamin B3 may offer new tool in fight against staph infections, “superbugs”
Water Research Thrives as New Report Highlights Spiralling Growth Year on Year
Limiting TV Time – Effective Strategy for Preventing Weight Gain in Children
Johns Hopkins team finds ICU misdiagnoses may account for as many annual deaths as breast cancer
Global "epidemic" of gullet cancer
Indo-European languages originate in Anatolia
Researchers expanding study on human resilience

Posted: 28 Aug 2012 06:32 AM PDT

Fine dew drops on spider webs, blades of grass, and even insects can lend them breathtaking beauty. And, examining them very closely, one recognises that the drops themselves form astonishingly regular and aesthetic patterns. For the first time, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation in Göttingen have now comprehensively investigated what laws these drops obey when they originate and grow in size.

NASA Rover Returns Voice and Telephoto Views from Martian Surface

Posted: 28 Aug 2012 06:22 AM PDT

NASA's Mars Curiosity has debuted the first recorded human voice that traveled from Earth to another planet and back.

In spoken words radioed to the rover on Mars and back to NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) on Earth, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden noted the difficulty of landing a rover on Mars, congratulated NASA
employees and the agency's commercial and government partners on the successful landing of Curiosity earlier this month, and said curiosity is what drives humans to explore.

Plants unpack winter coats when days get shorter

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 12:33 PM PDT

Mechanisms that protect plants from freezing are placed in storage during the summer and wisely unpacked when days get shorter.

In the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Michael Thomashow, University Distinguished Professor of molecular genetics, demonstrates how the CBF (C-repeat binding factor) cold response pathway is inactive during warmer months when days are long, and how it’s triggered by waning sunlight to prepare plants for freezing temperatures.

Vitamin B3 may offer new tool in fight against staph infections, “superbugs”

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 11:00 AM PDT

A new study suggests that nicotinamide, more commonly known as vitamin B3, may be able to combat some of the antibiotic-resistance staph infections that are increasingly common around the world, have killed thousands and can pose a significant threat to public health.

The research found that high doses of this vitamin increased by 1,000 times the ability of immune cells to kill staph bacteria. The work was done both in laboratory animals and with human blood.

Water Research Thrives as New Report Highlights Spiralling Growth Year on Year

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 10:56 AM PDT

Research into water is growing faster than the average 4% annual growth rate for all research disciplines, claims a new report presented by Elsevier and Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) during the 2012 World Water Week in Stockholm. External link The report, “The Water and Food Nexus: Trends and Development of the Research Landscape” analysed the major trends in water and food-related article output at international, national and institutional levels.

Limiting TV Time – Effective Strategy for Preventing Weight Gain in Children

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 10:51 AM PDT

Reducing television viewing may be an effective strategy to prevent exc ess weight gain among adolescents, according to a new study released in the September/October 2012 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

Johns Hopkins team finds ICU misdiagnoses may account for as many annual deaths as breast cancer

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 10:47 AM PDT

Each year as many as 40,500 critically ill U.S. hospital patients die with an unknown medical condition that may have caused or contributed to their death, Johns Hopkins patient safety experts report in a recent study.

In a discussion of their findings, described online in BMJ Quality & Safety, researchers say that although diagnostic errors in the intensive care unit (ICU) may claim as many lives each year as breast cancer, they remain an underappreciated cause of preventable patient harm.

Global "epidemic" of gullet cancer

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 10:35 AM PDT

A novel study from Karolinska Institutet and Harvard University shows that since the 1950s there has been a global, almost epidemic, increase of gullet cancer - which seems to have started in the UK. According to the scientist, it is a common but as yet unidentified factor behind this sudden surge in cases around the world. The findings are published online in the scientific journal GUT.

Indo-European languages originate in Anatolia

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 10:23 AM PDT

The Indo-European languages belong to one of the widest spread language families of the world. For the last two millenia, many of these languages have been written, and their history is relatively clear. But controversy remains about the time and place of the origins of the family. A large international team, including MPI researcher Michael Dunn, reports the results of an innovative Bayesian phylogeographic analysis of Indo-European linguistic and spatial data. Their paper 'Mapping the Origins and Expansion of the Indo-European Language Family' appeared this week in Science.

Researchers expanding study on human resilience

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 10:10 AM PDT

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Institute on Aging are studying how adults overcome social and economic challenges and whether it matters for their health, with a special focus on human resilience in the face of adversity.

MIDUS (Midlife in the U.S.), a national longitudinal study conducted by the institute, is documenting how Americans age from early adulthood through later life. The National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health provides funding for MIDUS.