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Quantum stress in nanofilms
Popularity versus Similarity: A Balance that Predicts Network Growth
Network of neurons: A dynamic model of brain activity
Hopkins Scientists Discover How an Out-Of-Tune Protein Leads to Heart Muscle Failure
Smoking: Quitting is tough for teens, too
Home Sweet Lab: Computerized House to Generate as Much Energy as It Uses
Study says exercise may reduce motivation for food
It's complicated: Facts about contraception
With food insecurity rising in U.S., SNAP benefits should be left alone
Facebook Profile Pictures Influence Perceived Attractiveness
Sliding metals show fluidlike behavior, new clues to wear
General Practitioners using unreliable websites for tinnitus information: Study
Popular pain-relieving medicines linked to hearing loss in women
Age, Not Underlying Diagnosis, Key Factor in Weight Gain in Children After Tonsillectomy
Scripps Research Scientists Devise Powerful New Method for Finding Therapeutic Antibodies
Insecticide resistance caused by recombination of two genes
Improved nanoparticles deliver drugs into brain
Researchers Devise More Accurate Method for Predicting Hurricane Activity
Immune systems of 'bubble babies' restored by gene therapy, UCLA researchers find
Crows react to threats in human-like way

Posted: 13 Sep 2012 07:05 AM PDT

Read heads in hard drives, lasers in DVD players, transistors on computer chips, and many other components all contain ultrathin films of metal or semiconductor materials. Stresses arise in thin films during their manufacture. These influence the optical and magnetic properties of the components, but also cause defects in crystal lattices, and in the end, lead to component failure.

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 04:29 PM PDT

Do you know who Michael Jackson or George Washington was? You most likely do: they are what we call “household names” because these individuals were so ubiquitous. But what about Giuseppe Tartini or John Bachar?

That’s much less likely, unless you are a fan of Italian baroque music or free solo climbing.

In that case, you would have heard of Bachar just as likely as Washington. The latter was popular, while the former was not as popular but had interests similar to yours.

Network of neurons: A dynamic model of brain activity

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 04:18 PM PDT

Looking at a tangled mass of network cables plugged into a crowded router doesn't yield much insight into the network traffic that runs through the hardware.

Similarly, Lynn H. Matthias Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Barry Van Veen says that looking at the three pounds of interwoven neurons that make up the hardware of the human brain doesn't give the complete picture of the brain activity that supports human cognition and consciousness.

Hopkins Scientists Discover How an Out-Of-Tune Protein Leads to Heart Muscle Failure

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 04:13 PM PDT

A new Johns Hopkins study has unraveled the changes in a key cardiac protein that can lead to heart muscle malfunction and precipitate heart failure.

Smoking: Quitting is tough for teens, too

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 02:17 PM PDT

A new study finds that relatively early into tobacco addiction, teens experience many of the same negative psychological effects during abstinence as adults do, with a couple of exceptions. The data can inform efforts to improve the efficacy of quitting and withdrawal treatment programs.

Abstinence from smoking seems to affect teens differently than adults in a couple of ways, but a new study provides evidence that most of the psychological difficulties of quitting are as strong for relatively new, young smokers as they are for adults who have been smoking much longer.

Home Sweet Lab: Computerized House to Generate as Much Energy as It Uses

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 02:12 PM PDT

In a ribbon-cutting ceremony today, the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) unveiled a new laboratory designed to demonstrate that a typical-looking suburban home for a family of four can generate as much energy as it uses in a year.

Study says exercise may reduce motivation for food

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 11:42 AM PDT

It is commonly assumed that you can “work up an appetite” with a vigorous workout. Turns out that theory may not be completely accurate – at least immediately following exercise.

New research out of BYU shows that 45 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise in the morning actually reduces a person’s motivation for food.

It's complicated: Facts about contraception

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 11:30 AM PDT

Roughly two in five women in the United States do not use any form of birth control and many underestimate their risk for pregnancy, according to a recent survey about contraceptive practices in the United States.

With food insecurity rising in U.S., SNAP benefits should be left alone

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 10:35 AM PDT

In a time of record-high food insecurity rates in the U.S., cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (the former Food Stamp Program) is the wrong approach to fighting hunger, says a University of Illinois economist who studies the efficacy of food assistance programs on public health.

Facebook Profile Pictures Influence Perceived Attractiveness

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 10:30 AM PDT

Around the world, more than 850 million people use Facebook regularly to communicate. More and more employers also are using Facebook as a way to examine potential employees before making hires. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found that comments left by users on Facebook profile pictures strongly affect the level of perceived attractiveness of the profile owner physically, socially, and professionally.

Sliding metals show fluidlike behavior, new clues to wear

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 10:25 AM PDT

Researchers have discovered a swirling, fluidlike behavior in a solid piece of metal sliding over another, providing new insights into the mechanisms of wear and generation of machined surfaces that could help improve the durability of metal parts.

Studies using a microscope and high-speed camera revealed the formation of bumps, folds, vortexlike features and cracks on the metal surface. The findings were surprising because the experiment was conducted at room temperature and the sliding conditions did not generate enough heat to soften the metal.

General Practitioners using unreliable websites for tinnitus information: Study

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 09:14 AM PDT

General Practitioners are not always using the most comprehensive and reliable online resources to support them in treating patients with the debilitating hearing condition tinnitus, researchers have found.

The study looked at the 10 main websites used by GPs to get information on clinical practice and found that the two best websites for assessing or managing tinnitus — Map of Medicine and the British Tinnitus Association (BTA) — were rarely used by family doctors, with only two per cent logging on to access their pages.

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 09:06 AM PDT

Headache? Back pain? At the first sign of pain, you might reach for a pain-relieving medicine to sooth your bodily woes.

Analgesics are the most frequently used medications in the United States and are commonly used to treat a variety of medical conditions.

But although popping a pill may make the pain go away, it may do some damage to your ears.

Age, Not Underlying Diagnosis, Key Factor in Weight Gain in Children After Tonsillectomy

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 08:45 AM PDT

Potentially worrisome weight gains following tonsillectomy occur mostly in children under the age of 6, not in older children, a study by Johns Hopkins experts in otolaryngology- head and neck surgery shows.

Sudden increases in body mass index, or BMI, have been routinely observed for months after some of the more than half-million surgeries performed annually in the United States to remove the sore and swollen tissues at the back of the throat.

Scripps Research Scientists Devise Powerful New Method for Finding Therapeutic Antibodies

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 08:33 AM PDT

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found a new technique that should greatly speed the discovery of medically and scientifically useful antibodies, immune system proteins that detect and destroy invaders such as bacteria and viruses. New methods to discover antibodies are important because antibodies make up the fastest growing sector of human therapeutics; it is estimated that by 2014 the top-three selling drugs worldwide will be antibodies.

Insecticide resistance caused by recombination of two genes

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 07:30 AM PDT

Insecticide resistance in crop pests is a serious global problem. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, have now found out what causes the strong resistance of an Australian strain of cotton bollworms (Helicoverpa armigera) to fenvalerate. The larvae evolved a novel enzyme capable of detoxifying fenvalerate in one single chemical reaction from the group of so-called P450 monooxygenases. The gene encoding the enzyme is a chimera − a combination of parts of two precursor genes.

Improved nanoparticles deliver drugs into brain

Posted: 11 Sep 2012 02:51 PM PDT

The brain is a notoriously difficult organ to treat, but Johns Hopkins researchers report they are one step closer to having a drug-delivery system flexible enough to overcome some key challenges posed by brain cancer and perhaps other maladies affecting that organ.

In a report published online on August 29 in Science Translational Medicine, the Johns Hopkins team says its bioengineers have designed nanoparticles that can safely and predictably infiltrate deep into the brain when tested in rodent and human tissue.

Researchers Devise More Accurate Method for Predicting Hurricane Activity

Posted: 11 Sep 2012 12:09 PM PDT

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new method for forecasting seasonal hurricane activity that is 15 percent more accurate than previous techniques.

“This approach should give policymakers more reliable information than current state-of-the-art methods,” says Dr. Nagiza Samatova, an associate professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the work. “This will hopefully give them more confidence in planning for the hurricane season.”

Immune systems of 'bubble babies' restored by gene therapy, UCLA researchers find

Posted: 11 Sep 2012 12:02 PM PDT

UCLA stem cell researchers have found that a gene therapy regimen can safely restore immune systems to children with so-called "bubble boy" disease, a life-threatening condition that if left untreated can be fatal within one to two years.

In the 11-year study, researchers were able to test two therapy regimens for 10 children with ADA-deficient severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), which has come to be known as "bubble boy" disease because some of its victims have been forced to live in sterile environments.

Crows react to threats in human-like way

Posted: 11 Sep 2012 07:00 AM PDT

Cross a crow and it’ll remember you for years.

Crows and humans share the ability to recognize faces and associate them with negative, as well as positive, feelings. The way the brain activates during that process is something the two species also appear to share, according to new research being published this week.