science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Τρίτη 20 Αυγούστου 2013

Science News SciGuru.com

Research team discovers an exoplanet that orbits its star in 8.5 hours
Remembering to remember supported by two distinct brain processes
Study reveals multiple barriers to autism screening, diagnosis in Latino children
3-D Images Show Flame Retardants Can Mimic Estrogens in NIH Study
Therapeutic Eye Injections May Be Needed Less Often

Research team discovers an exoplanet that orbits its star in 8.5 hours

Posted: 19 Aug 2013 09:26 AM PDT

In the time it takes you to complete a single workday, or get a full night’s sleep, a small fireball of a planet 700 light-years away has already completed an entire year.

Remembering to remember supported by two distinct brain processes

Posted: 19 Aug 2013 09:19 AM PDT

You plan on shopping for groceries later and you tell yourself that you have to remember to take the grocery bags with you when you leave the house. Lo and behold, you reach the check-out counter and you realize you’ve forgotten the bags.

Remembering to remember – whether it’s grocery bags, appointments, or taking medications – is essential to our everyday lives.

Study reveals multiple barriers to autism screening, diagnosis in Latino children

Posted: 19 Aug 2013 09:02 AM PDT

Clinicians have long known that early identification of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) improves a child’s long-term health outcome as well as the family’s ability to cope with disease. But Latino children are diagnosed with ASDs less often and later — an average of 2.5 years later — than white children and have more severe symptoms at the time of diagnosis. The reasons behind these disparities have been poorly understood, and no studies have investigated pediatricians’ perspectives on this inequity — until now.

3-D Images Show Flame Retardants Can Mimic Estrogens in NIH Study

Posted: 19 Aug 2013 08:57 AM PDT

By determining the three-dimensional structure of proteins at the atomic level, researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered how some commonly used flame retardants, called brominated flame retardants (BFRs), can mimic estrogen hormones and possibly disrupt the body’s endocrine system. BFRs are chemicals added or applied to materials to slow or prevent the start or growth of fire.

Therapeutic Eye Injections May Be Needed Less Often

Posted: 19 Aug 2013 08:37 AM PDT

Johns Hopkins biomedical engineers have teamed up with clinicians to create a new drug-delivery strategy for a type of central vision loss caused by blood vessel growth at the back of the eye, where such growth should not occur. In addition to testing a new drug that effectively stops such runaway vessel growth in mice, the team gave the drug a biodegradable coating to keep it in the eye longer. If proven effective in humans, the engineers say, it could mean only two or three needle sticks to the eye per year instead of the monthly injections that are the current standard of care.