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A scientific study highlights the role of seabirds in the dispersal of parasites
Flies process attractive and deterrent odours in different brain areas
Insights into the process which converts carbon dioxide into methanol could make it possible to recycle greenhouse gas
'Rogue DNA' plays key role in heart failure
Research breakthrough for drugs via the skin
Warm Ocean Currents Cause Majority of Ice Loss from Antarctica
Shedding Light on Southpaws: Sports data help confirm theory explaining left-handed minority in general population
Researchers develop a path to liquid solar cells that can be printed onto surfaces
Which ads are winners? Your brain knows better than you do
Intense light prevents, treats heart attacks
NIST Physicists Benchmark Quantum Simulator with Hundreds of Qubits
Research shows how PCBs promote dendrite growth, may increase autism risk
Scientists Uncover Strong Support for Once-Marginalized Theory on Parkinson’s Disease

A scientific study highlights the role of seabirds in the dispersal of parasites

Posted: 26 Apr 2012 07:03 AM PDT

According to a scientific paper published in the journal Biology Letters, in which have taken part Jacob González-Solís, professor at the Department of Animal Biology and at the Biodiversity Research Institute of the UB (IRBio), due to their capacity to travel long distances, seabirds play an important role in the dispersal and biodiversity of parasites and of the infectious agents these may transmit.

Flies process attractive and deterrent odours in different brain areas

Posted: 26 Apr 2012 06:49 AM PDT

In collaboration with colleagues from Portugal and Spain, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, have developed an apparatus that automatically applies odours to an airstream, while filming and analysing the behaviour of insects simultaneously. The system is called Flywalk and consists of glass tubes, airstream regulators, and a video camera. The reactions of 15 flies to up to eight different odorant signals can be tested at the same time.

Insights into the process which converts carbon dioxide into methanol could make it possible to recycle greenhouse gas

Posted: 26 Apr 2012 06:41 AM PDT

There is now one less mystery in chemical production plants. For many decades industry has been producing methanol on a large scale from a mixture of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, as well as hydrogen. An international team, including chemists from the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, has now clarified why the catalyst used in this process - copper and zinc oxide particles and a small portion of aluminium oxide - works so well. They also discovered why this reaction accelerator has to be produced in the tried and tested way.

'Rogue DNA' plays key role in heart failure

Posted: 26 Apr 2012 05:11 AM PDT

DNA from the heart’s own cells plays a role in heart failure by mistakenly activating the body’s immune system, researchers have found. Scientists from King’s College London and Osaka University Medical School in Japan showed that during heart failure – a debilitating condition affecting 750,000 people in the UK – this ‘rogue DNA’ can kick start the body’s natural response to infection, contributing to the process of heart failure.

Research breakthrough for drugs via the skin

Posted: 26 Apr 2012 05:05 AM PDT

A research team at Karolinska Institutet has succeeded in describing the structure and function of the outermost layer of the skin - the stratum corneum - at a molecular level. This opens the way not only for the large-scale delivery of drugs via the skin, but also for a deeper understanding of skin diseases.

Warm Ocean Currents Cause Majority of Ice Loss from Antarctica

Posted: 25 Apr 2012 07:30 PM PDT

Warm ocean currents attacking the underside of ice shelves are the dominant cause of recent ice loss from Antarctica, a new study using measurements from NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) revealed.

Shedding Light on Southpaws: Sports data help confirm theory explaining left-handed minority in general population

Posted: 25 Apr 2012 12:47 PM PDT

Lefties have always been a bit of a puzzle. Representing only 10 percent of the general human population, left-handers have been viewed with suspicion and persecuted across history. The word “sinister” even derives from “left or left-hand.”

Researchers develop a path to liquid solar cells that can be printed onto surfaces

Posted: 25 Apr 2012 12:37 PM PDT

Scientists at USC have developed a potential pathway to cheap, stable solar cells made from nanocrystals so small they can exist as a liquid ink and be painted or printed onto clear surfaces.

The solar nanocrystals are about four nanometers in size — meaning you could fit more than 250,000,000,000 on the head of a pin — and float them in a liquid solution, so "like you print a newspaper, you can print solar cells," said Richard L. Brutchey, assistant professor of chemistry at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Which ads are winners? Your brain knows better than you do

Posted: 25 Apr 2012 11:14 AM PDT

Advertisers and public health officials may be able to access hidden wisdom in the brain to more effectively sell their products and promote health and safety, UCLA neuroscientists report in the first study to use brain data to predict how large populations will respond to advertisements.

Intense light prevents, treats heart attacks

Posted: 25 Apr 2012 11:02 AM PDT

There are lots of ways to treat a heart attack – CPR, aspirin, clot-busters and more. Now CU medical school researchers have found a new candidate:

Intense light.

NIST Physicists Benchmark Quantum Simulator with Hundreds of Qubits

Posted: 25 Apr 2012 10:43 AM PDT

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have built a quantum simulator that can engineer interactions among hundreds of quantum bits (qubits)—10 times more than previous devices. As described in the April 26 issue of Nature, the simulator has passed a series of important benchmarking tests and scientists are poised to study problems in material science that are impossible to model on conventional computers.

Research shows how PCBs promote dendrite growth, may increase autism risk

Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:38 AM PDT

New research from UC Davis and Washington State University shows that PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, launch a cellular chain of events that leads to an overabundance of dendrites -- the filament-like projections that conduct electrochemical signals between neurons -- and disrupts normal patterns of neuronal connections in the brain.

Scientists Uncover Strong Support for Once-Marginalized Theory on Parkinson’s Disease

Posted: 25 Apr 2012 08:32 AM PDT

University of California, San Diego scientists have used powerful computational tools and laboratory tests to discover new support for a once-marginalized theory about the underlying cause of Parkinson’s disease.