science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Κυριακή 25 Νοεμβρίου 2012

Science News SciGuru.com

Blood pressure drugs increase risk of hip fracture
Scientists identify unknown proteins of the herpesvirus
Using IRAM's 30m-telescope, astronomers find indications for vast petroleum reservoirs in the Horsehead Nebula

Blood pressure drugs increase risk of hip fracture

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 05:55 PM PST

Elderly people taking anti-hypertensive drugs are at a 43 per cent increased risk of having a hip fracture in the first 45 days of treatment, says a new study by Assistant Professor Debra Butt.

“It’s important for patients to be educated on the potential risk of a hip fracture when they start an anti-hypertensive drug," said Dr. Butt, a member of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto and a family physician affiliated with The Scarborough Hospital.

Scientists identify unknown proteins of the herpesvirus

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 05:46 PM PST

The genome encodes the complete information needed by an organism, including that required for protein production. Viruses, which are up to a thousand times smaller than human cells, have considerably smaller genomes. Using a type of herpesvirus as a model system, the scientists of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich and their collaboration partners at the University of California in San Francisco have shown that the genome of this virus contains much more information than previously assumed.

Using IRAM's 30m-telescope, astronomers find indications for vast petroleum reservoirs in the Horsehead Nebula

Posted: 24 Nov 2012 05:35 PM PST

What sounds like science fiction is actually reality: using the 30m-telescope of the Institute for Radio Astronomy for astronomical observations in the millimetre range of wavelengths, astronomers have detected, for the first time, the interstellar molecule C3H+, in our galaxy. It belongs to the hydrocarbon family and is thus part of major energy resources of our planet, i.e. petroleum and natural gas. The discovery of this molecule at the heart of the famous Horsehead Nebula in the Constellation of Orion also confirms that this region is an active cosmic refinery.