science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Παρασκευή 11 Ιανουαρίου 2013

Science News SciGuru.com

Birds can sing louder at higher frequencies and thereby make themselves heard in traffic noise
Scientists Uncover Potential Drug Target to Block Cell Death in Parkinson’s Disease
Marriage linked to better survival in middle age
Regulating Single Protein Prompts Fibroblasts to Become Neurons
'Standard Quantum Limit' Smashed, Could Mean Better Fiber-Optic Comms
New approach using nanoparticle alloys allows heat to be focused or reflected just like electromagnetic waves
Bugs need symbiotic bacteria to exploit plant seeds

Birds can sing louder at higher frequencies and thereby make themselves heard in traffic noise

Posted: 11 Jan 2013 07:44 AM PST

Animals have developed a variety of strategies for dealing with increasing noise pollution in their habitats. It is known, for example, that many urban birds sing at a high pitch to differentiate their song from the low-frequency sound of road traffic. However, as scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology discovered, this is just a useful side effect. The real reason for this behaviour is that songs at a higher pitch are also automatically louder.

Scientists Uncover Potential Drug Target to Block Cell Death in Parkinson’s Disease

Posted: 10 Jan 2013 12:16 PM PST

Oxidative stress is a primary villain in a host of diseases that range from cancer and heart failure to Alzheimer’s disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. Now, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found that blocking the interaction of a critical enzyme may counteract the destruction of neurons associated with these neurodegenerative diseases, suggesting a potential new target for drug development.

These findings appear in the January 11, 2013 edition of The Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Marriage linked to better survival in middle age

Posted: 10 Jan 2013 12:10 PM PST

Could marriage, and associated companionship, be one key to a longer life? According to new research, not having a permanent partner, or spouse, during midlife is linked to a higher risk of premature death during those midlife years. The work, by Dr. Ilene Siegler and colleagues from Duke University Medical Center in the US, is published online in Springer's journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

Regulating Single Protein Prompts Fibroblasts to Become Neurons

Posted: 10 Jan 2013 11:05 AM PST

Repression of a single protein in ordinary fibroblasts is sufficient to directly convert the cells – abundantly found in connective tissues – into functional neurons. The findings, which could have far-reaching implications for the development of new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington’s, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, will be published online in advance of the January 17 issue of the journal Cell.

'Standard Quantum Limit' Smashed, Could Mean Better Fiber-Optic Comms

Posted: 10 Jan 2013 10:54 AM PST

Communicating with light may soon get a lot easier, hints recent research from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland's Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), where scientists have potentially found a way to overcome a longstanding barrier to cleaner signals.

New approach using nanoparticle alloys allows heat to be focused or reflected just like electromagnetic waves

Posted: 10 Jan 2013 09:26 AM PST

An MIT researcher has developed a technique that provides a new way of manipulating heat, allowing it to be controlled much as light waves can be manipulated by lenses and mirrors.

Bugs need symbiotic bacteria to exploit plant seeds

Posted: 10 Jan 2013 09:05 AM PST

Aggregations of the red and black coloured firebugs are ubiquitous under linden trees in Central Europe, where the bugs can reach astounding population densities. While these insects have no impact on humans, their African, Asian, and American relatives, the cotton stainers, are serious agricultural pests of cotton and other Malvaceous plants. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, recently discovered that these bugs need bacterial symbionts to survive on cotton seeds as their sole food source.