ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• Einstein's conversion from a belief in a static to an expanding universe
• Space station SPHERES run circles around ordinary satellites
• Why does the brain remember dreams?
• Water samples taken from the Upper Ganges River shed light on the spread of potential 'superbugs'
• HIV drug used to reverse effects of virus that causes cervical cancer
• Chemist gets U.S. patent for solution to antibiotic resistance problem
• New RNA interference technique finds seven genes for head and neck cancer
• Study on flu evolution may change textbooks, history books
• New blood cells fight brain inflammation
• Epigenetic regulation required to ensure correct number of chromosomes
• Loneliness is a major health risk for older adults
• Researchers hijack cancer migration mechanism to 'move' brain tumors
• Thinking it through: Scientists seek to unlock mysteries of the brain
• Nanoelectronics key to advances in renewable energy
• Obesity in Samoa: A global harbinger?
• Harvesting light, the single-molecule way: Molecular mechanism of light harvesting may illuminate path forward to future solar cells

Einstein's conversion from a belief in a static to an expanding universe Posted: 17 Feb 2014 07:25 AM PST Albert Einstein accepted the modern cosmological view that the universe is expanding long after many of his contemporaries. Until 1931, physicist Albert Einstein believed that the universe was static. An urban legend attributes this change of perspective to when American astronomer Edwin Hubble showed Einstein his observations of redshift in the light emitted by far away nebulae -- today known as galaxies. But the reality is more complex. The change in Einstein's viewpoint, in fact, resulted from a tortuous thought process. Now researchers explain how Einstein changed his mind following many encounters with some of the most influential astrophysicists of his generation.

Space station SPHERES run circles around ordinary satellites Posted: 17 Feb 2014 07:15 AM PST Inspired by a floating droid battling Luke Skywalker in the film Star Wars, the free-flying satellites known as Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) have been flying aboard the International Space Station since Expedition 8 in 2003. Although there have been numerous SPHERES investigations held on the orbiting laboratory, four current and upcoming SPHERES projects are of particular significance to robotics engineers, rocket launch companies, NASA exploration and anyone who uses communications systems on Earth.

Why does the brain remember dreams? Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:59 AM PST Some people recall a dream every morning, whereas others rarely recall one. In a new study, research shows that the temporo-parietal junction, an information-processing hub in the brain, is more active in high dream recallers. Increased activity in this brain region might facilitate attention orienting toward external stimuli and promote intrasleep wakefulness, thereby facilitating the encoding of dreams in memory.

Water samples taken from the Upper Ganges River shed light on the spread of potential 'superbugs' Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:56 AM PST Experts reveal the spread of antibiotic-resistance to one of the most pristine locations in Asia is linked to the annual human pilgrimages to the region.  The research team are now calling on governments around the world to recognize the importance of clean drinking water in our fight against antibiotic resistance.

HIV drug used to reverse effects of virus that causes cervical cancer Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:52 AM PST A commonly-used HIV drug has been shown to kill off the human papilloma virus (HPV) that leads to cervical cancer in a world-first clinical trial. Researchers examined Kenyan women diagnosed with HPV positive early stage cervical cancer who were treated with the antiviral HIV drug lopinavir in Kenya. The results showed a high proportion of women diagnosed with HPV positive high-grade disease returned to normal following a short course of the new treatment.

Chemist gets U.S. patent for solution to antibiotic resistance problem Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:52 AM PST A chemist in Copenhagen has just taken out a patent for a drug that can make previously multidrug-resistant bacteria once again responsive to antibiotics.

New RNA interference technique finds seven genes for head and neck cancer Posted: 16 Feb 2014 03:20 PM PST In the hunt for genetic mutations that cause cancer, there is a lot of white noise. So although genetic sequencing has identified hundreds of genetic alterations linked to tumors, it's still an enormous challenge to figure out which ones are actually responsible for the growth and metastasis of cancer. Scientists have now created a new technique that can weed out that noise -- eliminating the random bystander genes and identifying the ones that are critical for cancer. Applying their technique to head and neck cancers, they've discovered seven new tumor-suppressor genes whose role in cancer was previously unknown.

Study on flu evolution may change textbooks, history books Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:17 PM PST A new study reconstructing the evolutionary tree of flu viruses challenges conventional wisdom and solves some of the mysteries surrounding flu outbreaks of historical significance. The study challenges several tenets of conventional wisdom -- for example, the notion that the virus moves largely unidirectionally from wild birds to domestic birds rather than with spillover in the other direction. It also helps resolve the origin of the virus that caused the unprecedentedly severe influenza pandemic of 1918.

New blood cells fight brain inflammation Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:17 PM PST Hyperactivity of our immune system can cause a state of chronic inflammation. If chronic, the inflammation will affect our body and result in disease. In the devastating disease multiple sclerosis, hyperactivity of immune cells called T-cells induce chronic inflammation and degeneration of the brain. Researchers have identified a new type of regulatory blood cells that can combat such hyperactive T-cells in blood from patients with multiple sclerosis.

Epigenetic regulation required to ensure correct number of chromosomes Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:17 PM PST Abnormal number of chromosomes is often associated with cancer development. Researchers have shown that a subtle epigenetic change plays an important role in the correct segregation of chromosomes. Normally when a cell divides, the chromosomes are segregated equally to two daughter cells. However, tumor cells frequently have either too few or too many chromosomes, leading to the incorrect expression of a number of genes. When a cell is about to divide, the cell division machinery takes hold of chromosomes by the centromere so that they may be pulled apart and one copy of each given to the daughter cells.

Loneliness is a major health risk for older adults Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:14 PM PST Feeling extreme loneliness can increase an older person's chances of premature death by 14 percent, according to new research. The research shows that the impact of loneliness on premature death is nearly as strong as the impact of disadvantaged socioeconomic status, which they found increases the chances of dying early by 19 percent.

Researchers hijack cancer migration mechanism to 'move' brain tumors Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:14 PM PST One factor that makes glioblastoma cancers so difficult to treat is that malignant cells from the tumors spread throughout the brain by following nerve fibers and blood vessels to invade new locations. Now, researchers have learned to hijack this migratory mechanism, turning it against the cancer by using a film of nanofibers thinner than human hair to lure tumor cells away.

Thinking it through: Scientists seek to unlock mysteries of the brain Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:14 PM PST Pioneering researchers work to uncover the circuitry of human cognition, identify the genetic roots of disease, unlock the power of Big Data for diagnosis, build a new generation of computing hardware inspired by the brain, and perform revolutionary experiments on a realistic model of the brain.

Nanoelectronics key to advances in renewable energy Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:14 PM PST An electrical engineer explains why advances in nanoelectronics will shape the future of renewable energy technologies.

Obesity in Samoa: A global harbinger? Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:14 PM PST Solving the mystery of how the population of the Samoan archipelago developed one of the world's highest rates of obesity is important not only for addressing the problem but also possibly for predicting the course of obesity in other parts of the developing world.

Harvesting light, the single-molecule way: Molecular mechanism of light harvesting may illuminate path forward to future solar cells Posted: 16 Feb 2014 12:14 PM PST Scientists have reached new insights into one of the molecular mechanisms behind light harvesting, which enables photosynthetic organisms to thrive, even as weather conditions change from full sunlight to deep cloud cover. Probing these natural systems is helping us understand the basic mechanisms of light harvesting -- work that could help improve the design and efficiency of devices like solar cells in the future.

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