ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• Visual system can retain considerable plasticity after extended blindness
• Brain biomarker shows promise in heart
• Research finds link between alcohol use, not pot, and domestic violence
• Electrical generator uses bacterial spores to harness power of evaporating water
• Punctured cell membranes lead to high blood pressure
• 300,000-year-old hearth found: Microscopic evidence shows repeated fire use in one spot over time
• Sun-induced frowning: a possible cause of aggression?
• Electrical current sensors harvest wasted electromagnetic energy
• Exceptionally close stellar explosion discovered
• New stent for aortic aneurysms soon to be available to patients in the US
• Is there an ocean beneath our feet? Ocean water may reach upper mantle through deep sea faults
• Researchers motivate diabetics to adopt healthy lifestyle
• New research warns world to prepare for power outages
• Protein measurements in the cell
• Tracheotomies faster and safer with new device?
• New biomedical diagnostics using personalized 3D imaging
• Animate, inanimate, and social: How the brain categorizes information
• New method increases supply of embryonic stem cells
• Cracks in cellular transport system can be key to new generation of cancer therapies
• Quality improvement initiative improves asthma outcomes in teens
• Shortening guide RNA markedly improves specificity of CRISPR-Cas nucleases
• Long-lived breast stem cells could retain cancer legacy
• Researchers discover process that turns 'good cholesterol' bad
• Sensitivity of carbon cycle to tropical temperature variations has doubled
• Engineers teach old chemical new tricks to make cleaner fuels, fertilizers
• Blue eyes, dark skin: How European hunter-gatherer looked, 7,000-year-old genome shows
• Picture of how our climate is affected by greenhouse gases is a 'cloudy' one
• Study backs giving flu vaccine to working-age adults with diabetes

Visual system can retain considerable plasticity after extended blindness Posted: 27 Jan 2014 08:28 AM PST Deprivation of vision during critical periods of childhood development has long been thought to result in irreversible vision loss. Now, researchers have challenged that theory by studying a unique population of pediatric patients who were blind during these critical periods before removal of bilateral cataracts.

Brain biomarker shows promise in heart Posted: 27 Jan 2014 08:27 AM PST A biomarker widely used to diagnose brain injury has shown early promise for assessing the severity of heart inflammation, or myocarditis, find researchers.

Research finds link between alcohol use, not pot, and domestic violence Posted: 27 Jan 2014 08:27 AM PST Research among college students found that men under the influence of alcohol are more likely to perpetrate physical, psychological or sexual aggression against their partners than men under the influence of marijuana.

Electrical generator uses bacterial spores to harness power of evaporating water Posted: 27 Jan 2014 07:12 AM PST A new type of electrical generator uses bacterial spores to harness the untapped power of evaporating water, according to new research. Its developers foresee electrical generators driven by changes in humidity from sun-warmed ponds and harbors.

Punctured cell membranes lead to high blood pressure Posted: 27 Jan 2014 07:12 AM PST Researchers have identified how a mutated protein can lead to holes in a protein sitting in a cell's membrane. Such holes cause high blood pressure, and the discovery can now lead to new and better medication for high blood pressure.

300,000-year-old hearth found: Microscopic evidence shows repeated fire use in one spot over time Posted: 27 Jan 2014 07:12 AM PST When did humans really begin to control fire and use it for their daily needs? Scientists discovered in the Qesem Cave, an archaeological site near present-day Rosh Ha'ayin, the earliest evidence -- dating to around 300,000 years ago -- of unequivocal repeated fire building over a continuous period. These findings help answer the question and hint that those prehistoric humans already had a highly advanced social structure and intellectual capacity.

Sun-induced frowning: a possible cause of aggression? Posted: 27 Jan 2014 07:11 AM PST Research recently published examines how facial expression can trigger an emotional response. The authors set out to test this theory that mood can be governed by facial expression, to the extent that intensity of a person's smile bears a relationship to well-being, fulfillment and longevity. They conducted a study on involuntary sun-induced frowning and relationship to emotional state of the subject.

Electrical current sensors harvest wasted electromagnetic energy Posted: 27 Jan 2014 07:07 AM PST Electricity is the lifeblood of modern cities. It flows at every moment and everywhere to power up everything from home appliances which improve our comfort and convenience, to services like transportation, building, communication and manufacturing that are essential to our daily life. To ensure a reliable operation of power grids and a proper delivery of electricity to where it needs to be, it is crucial to have a loyal guard to keep watch on the activities of electricity transport. As technology advances, the safety, reliability and availability of electrical engineering assets and public utilities can now be guarded by one tiny chip of electrical current sensors.

Exceptionally close stellar explosion discovered Posted: 27 Jan 2014 06:32 AM PST An exceptionally close stellar explosion discovered on Jan. 21 has become the focus of observatories around and above the globe, including several NASA spacecraft. The blast, designated SN 2014J, occurred in the galaxy M82 and lies only about 12 million light-years away. This makes it the nearest optical supernova in two decades and potentially the closest type Ia supernova to occur during the life of currently operating space missions.

New stent for aortic aneurysms soon to be available to patients in the US Posted: 27 Jan 2014 06:32 AM PST A US-based hospital will be testing a new device known as a multilayer stent in patients suffering from aortic aneurysm. Approved in Europe in 2010, the device has already been used to help hundreds of European patients with the condition.

Is there an ocean beneath our feet? Ocean water may reach upper mantle through deep sea faults Posted: 27 Jan 2014 06:32 AM PST Scientists have shown that deep sea fault zones could transport much larger amounts of water from Earth's oceans to the upper mantle than previously thought.

Researchers motivate diabetics to adopt healthy lifestyle Posted: 27 Jan 2014 06:31 AM PST By means of so-called health coaching, researchers have helped a large group of diabetics to markedly improve their oral health. The patients assume responsibility for their own bodies and boost their self-efficacy through motivational health coaching, taking a different approach to conventional health campaigns and one-way communication.

New research warns world to prepare for power outages Posted: 27 Jan 2014 06:30 AM PST Living without electricity in today's technological world may be difficult to imagine. Yet the reality of living without computers, mobile phones and entertainment systems, and managing a transport system thrown into chaos by an absence of traffic lights, trains and subways, may become increasingly common, according to a new study.

Protein measurements in the cell Posted: 27 Jan 2014 06:30 AM PST A network of chemists has developed an innovative method to study protein structures by means of magnetic labels. The ingenious thing about it is that the magnetic labels are directly incorporated inside the cell when the protein is naturally biosynthesized. The research results might have an impact on many areas of structural biology.

Tracheotomies faster and safer with new device? Posted: 27 Jan 2014 06:30 AM PST A new device has been created to minimize the risks associated to emergency tracheotomies and the reduce the time needed to perform planned tracheotomies. This is possible thanks to the combination of mechanical and drilling devices with medical imaging elements and information management that it would allow the adaptation of the surgery to the physical conditions of the patient.

New biomedical diagnostics using personalized 3D imaging Posted: 27 Jan 2014 06:29 AM PST A new innovation enables 3D images of living organisms to be obtained with greater speed and precision. In broad terms, helical optical projection tomography consists in rotating a sample while moving it vertically in order to then obtain a three-dimensional image of it, explain its creators.

Animate, inanimate, and social: How the brain categorizes information Posted: 27 Jan 2014 06:29 AM PST For our brain, animate and inanimate objects belong to different categories and any information about them is stored and processed by different networks. A study shows that there is also another category that is functionally distinct from the others, namely, the category of "social" groups.

New method increases supply of embryonic stem cells Posted: 27 Jan 2014 06:29 AM PST A new method allows for large-scale generation of human embryonic stem cells of high clinical quality. It also allows for production of such cells without destroying any human embryos. The discovery is a big step forward for stem cell research and for the high hopes for replacing damaged cells and thereby curing serious illnesses such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease.

Cracks in cellular transport system can be key to new generation of cancer therapies Posted: 27 Jan 2014 06:29 AM PST Researchers have discovered a critical point of failure in the microscopic transport system that operates inside every cell in the human body.

Quality improvement initiative improves asthma outcomes in teens Posted: 27 Jan 2014 06:24 AM PST Researchers have successfully carried out what is believed to be the first initiative conducted exclusively among teenagers to show significant improvement in their asthma outcomes.

Shortening guide RNA markedly improves specificity of CRISPR-Cas nucleases Posted: 26 Jan 2014 10:46 AM PST A simple adjustment to a powerful gene-editing tool may be able to improve its specificity. Investigators have found that adjusting the length of the the guide RNA component of the synthetic enzymes called CRISPR-Cas RNA-guided nucleases can substantially reduce the occurrence of off-target DNA mutations.

Long-lived breast stem cells could retain cancer legacy Posted: 26 Jan 2014 10:46 AM PST Researchers have discovered that breast stem cells and their "daughters" have a much longer lifespan than previously thought, and are active in puberty and throughout life.

Researchers discover process that turns 'good cholesterol' bad Posted: 26 Jan 2014 10:46 AM PST Researchers have discovered the process by which high-density lipoprotein -- the so-called "good cholesterol" -- becomes dysfunctional, loses its cardio-protective properties, and instead promotes inflammation and atherosclerosis, or the clogging and hardening of the arteries.

Sensitivity of carbon cycle to tropical temperature variations has doubled Posted: 26 Jan 2014 10:46 AM PST The tropical carbon cycle has become twice as sensitive to temperature variations over the past 50 years, new research has revealed. The research shows that a one degree rise in tropical temperature leads to around two billion extra tons of carbon being released per year into the atmosphere from tropical ecosystems, compared with the same tropical warming in the 1960s and 1970s.

Engineers teach old chemical new tricks to make cleaner fuels, fertilizers Posted: 26 Jan 2014 10:46 AM PST University researchers from two continents have engineered an efficient and environmentally friendly catalyst for the production of molecular hydrogen, a compound used extensively in modern industry to manufacture fertilizer and refine crude oil into gasoline.

Blue eyes, dark skin: How European hunter-gatherer looked, 7,000-year-old genome shows Posted: 26 Jan 2014 10:46 AM PST La Brana 1, the name used to baptize a 7,000-year-old individual from the Mesolithic Period whose remains were recovered at La Brana-Arintero site in Valdelugueros (Leon, Spain), had blue eyes and dark skin, new research reveals.

Picture of how our climate is affected by greenhouse gases is a 'cloudy' one Posted: 26 Jan 2014 10:46 AM PST The warming effect of human-induced greenhouse gases is a given, but to what extent can we predict its future influence? That is an issue on which science is making progress, but the answers are still far from exact, say researchers.

Study backs giving flu vaccine to working-age adults with diabetes Posted: 25 Jan 2014 02:24 PM PST A new study suggests that working age adults with diabetes are at an increased risk of influenza compared with people without diabetes, affirming the need to target people with diabetes for influenza vaccination.

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