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Electrons confined inside nano-pyramids
New Way of Fighting High Cholesterol Upends Assumptions
Nickelblock: an element's love-hate relationship with battery electrodes
Cutting livestock greenhouse gases requires effort from rich and poor countries
One-fifth of spine surgery patients develop PTSD symptoms
New Fish Species Offers Literal Take on ‘Hooking Up’
Sandia probability maps help sniff out food contamination
Dynamics of DNA packaging helps regulate formation of heart
Deadly complication of stem cell transplants reduced in mice
Peering to the Edge of a Black Hole
Napiergrass: A Potential Biofuel Crop for the Sunny Southeast
Breakthrough for new diabetes treatment
Contaminated site yields wealth of information on microbes 10 feet under
Uncontrolled Hypertension Gets Varying Treatment at Doctor’s Office
The GOP has a feminine face, study finds
Cogmed Working Memory Training: Does it Actually Work? The Debate Continues…
Research Suggests Shared Genetic Link in Psychiatric and Movement Disorders
Scientists prevent heart failure in mice

Posted: 28 Sep 2012 07:34 AM PDT

Quantum dots are nanostructures of semiconducting materials that behave a lot like single atoms and are very easy to produce. Given their special properties, researchers see huge potential for quantum dots in technological applications. Before this can happen, however, we need a better understanding of how the electrons “trapped” inside them behave. Dresden physicists have recently observed how electrons in individual quantum dots absorb energy and emit it again as light. Their results were recently published in the journal "Nano Letters".

New Way of Fighting High Cholesterol Upends Assumptions

Posted: 28 Sep 2012 07:11 AM PDT

Atherosclerosis – the hardening of arteries that is a primary cause of cardiovascular disease and death – has long been presumed to be the fateful consequence of complicated interactions between overabundant cholesterol and resulting inflammation in the heart and blood vessels.

Nickelblock: an element's love-hate relationship with battery electrodes

Posted: 28 Sep 2012 06:55 AM PDT

Anyone who owns an electronic device knows that lithium ion batteries could work better and last longer. Now, scientists examining battery materials on the nano-scale reveal how nickel forms a physical barrier that impedes the shuttling of lithium ions in the electrode, reducing how fast the materials charge and discharge. Published last week in Nano Letters, the research also suggests a way to improve the materials.

Cutting livestock greenhouse gases requires effort from rich and poor countries

Posted: 28 Sep 2012 06:49 AM PDT

Regulating livestock greenhouse gas emissions could shift livestock production to unregulated, less developed countries unless those poorer nations can be enticed to preserve their forested lands, according to a Purdue University economic study.

One-fifth of spine surgery patients develop PTSD symptoms

Posted: 28 Sep 2012 04:50 AM PDT

Nearly 20 percent of people who underwent low back fusion surgery developed post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms associated with that surgery, according to a recent Oregon Health & Science University study published in the journal Spine.

Past studies have noted PTSD symptoms in some trauma, cancer and organ transplant patients. But this is the first study, its authors believe, to monitor for PTSD symptoms in patients undergoing an elective medical procedure.

New Fish Species Offers Literal Take on ‘Hooking Up’

Posted: 28 Sep 2012 04:45 AM PDT

Fishing hooks aren’t the only hooks found in east-central Mexican waters.

A new species of freshwater fish described by a North Carolina State University researcher has several interesting – and perhaps cringe-inducing – characteristics, including a series of four hooks on the male genitalia.

Females of the new species – the llanos mosquitofish, or Gambusia quadruncus – also have distinguishing characteristics, including a colorful anal spot.

Sandia probability maps help sniff out food contamination

Posted: 27 Sep 2012 03:32 PM PDT

Uncovering the sources of fresh food contamination could become faster and easier thanks to analysis done at Sandia National Laboratories’ National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC).

Dynamics of DNA packaging helps regulate formation of heart

Posted: 27 Sep 2012 12:18 PM PDT

A new regulator for heart formation has been discovered by studying how embryonic stem cells adjust the packaging of their DNA. This approach to finding genetic regulators, the scientists say, may have the power to provide insight into the development of any tissue in the body – liver, brain, blood and so on.

A stem cell has the potential to become any type of cell. Once the choice is made, the cell and other stem cells committed to the same fate divide to form organ tissue.

Deadly complication of stem cell transplants reduced in mice

Posted: 27 Sep 2012 11:42 AM PDT

Studying leukemia in mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have reduced a life-threatening complication of stem cell transplants, the only curative treatment when leukemia returns.

Peering to the Edge of a Black Hole

Posted: 27 Sep 2012 11:35 AM PDT

Using a continent-spanning telescope, an international team of astronomers has peered to the edge of a black hole at the center of a distant galaxy. For the first time, they have measured the black hole's "point of no return" - the closest distance that matter can approach before being irretrievably pulled into the black hole.

A black hole is a region in space where the pull of gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. Its boundary is known as the event horizon.

Napiergrass: A Potential Biofuel Crop for the Sunny Southeast

Posted: 27 Sep 2012 11:28 AM PDT

A grass fed to cattle throughout much of the tropics may become a biofuel crop that helps the nation meet its future energy needs, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientist.

Breakthrough for new diabetes treatment

Posted: 27 Sep 2012 11:24 AM PDT

An international team of scientists, led from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, have discovered an entirely new approach to the treatment of type II diabetes. The therapy involves the blockade of signalling by a protein known as VEGF-B and this prevents fat from accumulating in the 'wrong' places, such as in muscles and in the heart. As a result the cells within these tissues are once again able to respond to insulin.

Contaminated site yields wealth of information on microbes 10 feet under

Posted: 27 Sep 2012 11:19 AM PDT

Naturally occurring bacteria in the Gulf of Mexico did a great job helping to clean up 2010’s huge Deepwater Horizon oil spill, but bacteria can do even heavier lifting. Routinely used to help clean up toxic metals at contaminated sites, bacteria and other soil microbes are fed to boost their ability to turn soluble metals into solids that won’t leech into streams or aquifers.

Uncontrolled Hypertension Gets Varying Treatment at Doctor’s Office

Posted: 27 Sep 2012 10:10 AM PDT

A patient who cites hypertension as a reason for a doctor’s visit is more than twice as likely to be prescribed a new medicine than a patient who doesn’t speak up, according to a recent study by researchers at UCSF and UCLA.

The study suggests the importance of patients feeling empowered to monitor their own health and asking their doctors for options to treat high blood pressure, researchers say.

The GOP has a feminine face, study finds

Posted: 27 Sep 2012 10:03 AM PDT

At least when it comes to female politicians, perhaps you can judge a book by its cover, suggest two UCLA researchers who looked at facial features and political stances in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Cogmed Working Memory Training: Does it Actually Work? The Debate Continues…

Posted: 27 Sep 2012 09:01 AM PDT

Helping children achieve their full potential in school is of great concern to everyone, and a number of commercial products have been developed to try and achieve this goal. The Cogmed Working Memory Training program is such an example and is marketed to schools and parents of children with attention problems caused by poor working memory. But, does the program actually work?

Research Suggests Shared Genetic Link in Psychiatric and Movement Disorders

Posted: 27 Sep 2012 07:45 AM PDT

Fewer than 100 people in the world are known to be affected by a movement disorder called rapid-onset dystonia-parkinsonism (RDP), but its symptoms are life-changing. Seemingly normal young people are suddenly and dramatically unable to control movement of their arms or legs and have trouble speaking or swallowing. A normal life is nearly impossible.

Scientists prevent heart failure in mice

Posted: 27 Sep 2012 07:39 AM PDT

Cardiac stress, for example a heart attack or high blood pressure, frequently leads to pathological heart growth and subsequently to heart failure. Two tiny RNA molecules play a key role in this detrimental development in mice, as researchers at the Hannover Medical School and the Göttingen Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry have now discovered. When they inhibited one of those two specific molecules, they were able to protect the rodent against pathological heart growth and failure.