ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Sensitivity of carbon cycle to tropical temperature variations has doubled
• Engineers teach old chemical new tricks to make cleaner fuels, fertilizers
• Blue eyes and dark skin, that's how the European hunter-gatherer looked: 7,000-year-old genome shows
• Picture of how our climate is affected by greenhouse gases is a 'cloudy' one
• Drug to reverse breast cancer spread in development
• Highly reliable brain-imaging protocol identifies delays in premature infants
• What's with Sloth's Dangerous Bathroom Break? Maybe Hunger
• High-intensity strength training shows benefit for Parkinson's patients
• Infections damage ability to form spatial memories
• Researchers find epileptic activity spreads in new way
• Biomarker for stress hormones in polar bears, wildlife affected by global climate change
• Diabetes: Having a spouse with diabetes is a risk factor for diabetes yourself

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

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.

Drug to reverse breast cancer spread in development Posted: 25 Jan 2014 07:49 PM PST Researchers at Cardiff University are developing a novel compound known to reverse the spread of malignant breast cancer cells. The vast majority of deaths from cancer result from its progressive spread to vital organs, known as metastasis. In breast cancer up to 12,000 patients a year develop this form of the disease, often several years after initial diagnosis of a breast lump. In a recent series of studies, researchers identified a previously unknown critical role for a potential cancer causing gene, Bcl3, in metastatic breast cancer.

Highly reliable brain-imaging protocol identifies delays in premature infants Posted: 25 Jan 2014 02:24 PM PST Infants born prematurely are at elevated risk for cognitive, motor, and behavioral deficits -- the severity of which was, until recently, almost impossible to accurately predict in the neonatal period with conventional brain-imaging technology. But physicians may now be able to identify the premature infants most at risk for deficits as well as the type of deficit, enabling them to quickly initiate early neuroprotective therapies, by using highly reliable 3-D MRI imaging techniques developed by clinician scientists.

What's with Sloth's Dangerous Bathroom Break? Maybe Hunger Posted: 25 Jan 2014 02:22 PM PST For the three-toed sloth, a trip to the restroom is no rest at all. It's a long, slow descent into mortal danger from the safety of home among the upper branches of the forest.

High-intensity strength training shows benefit for Parkinson's patients Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:12 PM PST Researchers say that high-intensity strength training produced significant improvements in quality of life, mood and motor function in older patients with Parkinson's disease.

Infections damage ability to form spatial memories Posted: 24 Jan 2014 08:11 AM PST Increased inflammation following an infection impairs the brain's ability to form spatial memories, according to new research. The impairment results from a decrease in glucose metabolism in the brain's memory center, disrupting the neural circuits involved in learning and memory. This is the first study to image the effects of inflammation on the brain. The findings help explain why inflammation impairs memory and could spur the development of new drugs targeting the immune system to treat dementia.

Researchers find epileptic activity spreads in new way Posted: 24 Jan 2014 06:37 AM PST Biomedical engineers have found that epileptic activity can spread through a part of the brain in a new way, suggesting a possible novel target for seizure-blocking medicines. Evidence from a series of experiments and computer modeling strongly suggests individual cells in a part of the brain, known as the hippocampus, use a small electrical field to stimulate and synchronize neighboring cells, spreading the activity layer by layer.

Biomarker for stress hormones in polar bears, wildlife affected by global climate change Posted: 24 Jan 2014 06:36 AM PST Researchers have reported fluctuations in climate and ice cover related to stress in polar bears as indicated by levels of cortisol in hair samples.

Diabetes: Having a spouse with diabetes is a risk factor for diabetes yourself Posted: 24 Jan 2014 05:27 AM PST Living in a household implies sharing duties and responsibilities but it could also imply sharing your diabetes. Medical researchers have shown, through combined analyses of several studies, evidence that spousal diabetes is a diabetes risk factor.

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