science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Δευτέρα 31 Δεκεμβρίου 2012

Science News SciGuru.com

The New Species of Borneo’s Enigmatic Primate with a Toxic Bite Discovered
Origin of life emerged from cell membrane bioenergetics
MRI Can Screen Patients for Alzheimer's Disease or Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration, Using Penn-designed Model
Scientists help explain scarcity of anti-matter

The New Species of Borneo’s Enigmatic Primate with a Toxic Bite Discovered

Posted: 31 Dec 2012 06:52 AM PST

An international team of scientists studying the elusive nocturnal primate the slow loris in the jungles of Borneo have discovered an entirely new species. The team’s analysis of the primate’s distinctive facial fur markings, published in the American Journal of Primatology, reveals the existence of one entirely new species, while two species, previously considered as possible sub-species, are being officially recognized as unique.

Origin of life emerged from cell membrane bioenergetics

Posted: 30 Dec 2012 06:09 PM PST

A coherent pathway which starts from no more than rocks, water and carbon dioxide and leads to the emergence of the strange bioenergetic properties of living cells, has been traced for the first time in a major hypothesis paper in Cell this week.

At the origin of life the first protocells must have needed a vast amount of energy to drive their metabolism and replication, as enzymes that catalyse very specific reactions were yet to evolve. Most energy flux must have simply dissipated without use.

MRI Can Screen Patients for Alzheimer's Disease or Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration, Using Penn-designed Model

Posted: 30 Dec 2012 05:58 PM PST

When trying to determine the root cause of a person's dementia, using an MRI can effectively and non-invasively screen patients for Alzheimer's disease or Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD), according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Using an MRI-based algorithm effectively differentiated cases 75 percent of the time, according to the study, published in the December 26th, 2012, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Scientists help explain scarcity of anti-matter

Posted: 30 Dec 2012 05:50 PM PST

A collaboration with major participation by physicists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has made a precise measurement of elusive, nearly massless particles, and obtained a crucial hint as to why the universe is dominated by matter, not by its close relative, anti-matter.

The particles, called anti-neutrinos, were detected at the underground Daya Bay experiment, located near a nuclear reactor in China, 55 kilometers north of Hong Kong.