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Protein signal is crucial for accurate control of insect size
Scientific Evidence Proves why Healers See the “Aura” of People
Lightning Signature Could Help Reveal the Solar System's Origins
Thanks for the Memory: Researchers Find Room for More Data Storage in ‘Phase-Change’ Material
Study suggests new approach to explain cancer growth: low oxygen levels
Life-size, 3D hologram-like telepods may revolutionize videoconferencing
New Discovery of a Genetic Mutation in Congenital Asplenia May Lead to Genetic Prenatal Screening in Patients with the Rare, But Deadly, Disorder
From Soil Microbe to Super-Efficient Biofuel Factory: Scientists explores a way to create biofuels, minus the photosynthesis
Waking embryos before they are born
Slapshot to deep space: UAHuntsville scientists developing pulsed nuclear fusion system for distant missions
Type 2 Diabetes More Common, More Dangerous in Children
Researchers unveil new assessment for diagnosing malnutrition
Bacteria discovery could lead to antibiotics alternatives
Researchers show prebiotic can reduce severity of colitis
Four white dwarf stars caught in the act of consuming ‘earth-like’ exoplanets
Jealousy and envy at work are different in men and women

Protein signal is crucial for accurate control of insect size

Posted: 04 May 2012 06:58 AM PDT

Two independent groups of researchers have identified a hormone that is responsible for keeping the growth and development of insects on track. The results, which are reported in the journal Science, suggest that Dilp8 provides an important signal to slow body growth and delay insect development. This braking effect is an essential part of normal development since it allows sufficient time for tissues to form and the correct body size, proportions and symmetry to be achieved.

Scientific Evidence Proves why Healers See the “Aura” of People

Posted: 04 May 2012 06:45 AM PDT

Researchers in Spain have found that many of the individuals claiming to see the aura of people –traditionally called "healers" or "quacks"– actually present the neuropsychological phenomenon known as "synesthesia" (specifically, "emotional synesthesia"). This might be a scientific explanation of their alleged "virtue". In synesthetes, the brain regions responsible for the processing of each type of sensory stimuli are intensely interconnected.

Lightning Signature Could Help Reveal the Solar System's Origins

Posted: 03 May 2012 10:02 PM PDT

Every second, lightning flashes some 50 times on Earth. Together these discharges coalesce and get stronger, creating electromagnetic waves circling around Earth, to create a beating pulse between the ground and the lower ionosphere, about 60 miles up in the atmosphere. This electromagnetic signature, known as Schumann Resonance, had only been observed from Earth's surface until, in 2011, scientists discovered they could also detect it using NASA's Vector Electric Field Instrument (VEFI) aboard the U.S.

Thanks for the Memory: Researchers Find Room for More Data Storage in ‘Phase-Change’ Material

Posted: 03 May 2012 01:58 PM PDT

A team led by Johns Hopkins engineers has discovered some previously unknown properties of a common memory material, paving the way for development of new forms of memory drives, movie discs and computer systems that retain data more quickly, last longer and allow far more capacity than current data storage media.

The work was reported April 16 in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Study suggests new approach to explain cancer growth: low oxygen levels

Posted: 03 May 2012 01:37 PM PDT

Low oxygen levels in cells may be a primary cause of uncontrollable tumor growth in some cancers, according to a new University of Georgia study. The authors' findings run counter to widely accepted beliefs that genetic mutations are responsible for cancer growth.

Life-size, 3D hologram-like telepods may revolutionize videoconferencing

Posted: 03 May 2012 11:35 AM PDT

A Queen's University researcher has created a Star Trek-like human-scale 3D videoconferencing pod that allows people in different locations to video conference as if they are standing in front of each other.

"Why Skype when you can talk to a life-size 3D holographic image of another person?" says professor Roel Vertegaal, director of the Human Media Lab.

New Discovery of a Genetic Mutation in Congenital Asplenia May Lead to Genetic Prenatal Screening in Patients with the Rare, But Deadly, Disorder

Posted: 03 May 2012 11:23 AM PDT

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College and Rockefeller University have identified the first gene to be linked to a rare condition in which babies are born without a spleen, putting those children at risk of dying from infections they cannot defend themselves against. The gene, Nkx2.5, was shown to regulate genesis of the spleen during early development in mice.

From Soil Microbe to Super-Efficient Biofuel Factory: Scientists explores a way to create biofuels, minus the photosynthesis

Posted: 03 May 2012 11:15 AM PDT

Is there a new path to biofuels hiding in a handful of dirt? Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) biologist Steve Singer leads a group that wants to find out. They’re exploring whether a common soil bacterium can be engineered to produce liquid transportation fuels much more efficiently than the ways in which advanced biofuels are made today.

The scientists are working with a bacterium called Ralstonia eutropha. It naturally uses hydrogen as an energy source to convert CO2 into various organic compounds.

Waking embryos before they are born

Posted: 03 May 2012 09:27 AM PDT

Under some conditions, the brains of embryonic chicks appear to be awake well before those chicks are ready to hatch out of their eggs. That's according to an imaging study published online on May 3 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, in which researchers woke chick embryos inside their eggs by playing loud, meaningful sounds to them. Playing meaningless sounds to the embryos wasn't enough to rouse their brains.

Slapshot to deep space: UAHuntsville scientists developing pulsed nuclear fusion system for distant missions

Posted: 03 May 2012 09:14 AM PDT

The ticket to Mars and beyond may be a series of nuclear slapshots that use magnetic pulses to slam nuclei into each other inside hockey pucks made of a special, lightweight salt.

A physics team from The University of Alabama in Huntsville's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering soon will take delivery of a specialized system to see if they can "Z-pinch" a tiny bit of that salt into the heart of a star.

Type 2 Diabetes More Common, More Dangerous in Children

Posted: 03 May 2012 09:00 AM PDT

Alarming increases of Type 2 diabetes in children are no closer to being managed successfully, according to a study in The New England Journal of Medicine showing common diabetes-control medications failed to work in children.

Researchers unveil new assessment for diagnosing malnutrition

Posted: 03 May 2012 08:31 AM PDT

A new systematic assessment of malnutrition, created by researchers at Penn State, will aid dietitians and other health care providers in diagnosis and treatment.

Bacteria discovery could lead to antibiotics alternatives

Posted: 03 May 2012 07:39 AM PDT

The researchers say their findings could lead to the development of new anti-infective drugs as alternatives to antibiotics whose overuse has led to resistance.

University of Manchester researchers studied Listeria – a potentially deadly group of bacteria that can cause listeriosis in humans when digested – and found they are able to spread infection by hitching a ride on a naturally occurring protein called calpain.

Researchers show prebiotic can reduce severity of colitis

Posted: 03 May 2012 07:35 AM PDT

Researchers at Michigan State University have shown a prebiotic may help the body's own natural killer cells fight bacterial infection and reduce inflammation, greatly decreasing the risk of colon cancer.

Prebiotics are fiber supplements that serve as food for the trillions of tiny bacteria living in the gut. When taken, they can stimulate the growth of the "good" bacteria. The evolution of prebiotic supplements (as well as probiotics, which are actual bacteria ingested into the system) provide new therapeutic targets for researchers and physicians.

Four white dwarf stars caught in the act of consuming ‘earth-like’ exoplanets

Posted: 03 May 2012 07:26 AM PDT

University of Warwick astrophysicists have pinpointed four white dwarfs surrounded by dust from shattered planetary bodies which once bore striking similarities to the composition of the Earth.

Using the Hubble Space Telescope for the biggest survey to date of the chemical composition of the atmospheres of white dwarf stars, the researchers found that the most frequently occurring elements in the dust around these four white dwarfs were oxygen, magnesium, iron and silicon – the four elements that make up roughly 93 per cent of the Earth.

Jealousy and envy at work are different in men and women

Posted: 03 May 2012 07:16 AM PDT

A study carried out by researchers from Spain, the Netherlands and Argentina suggests that in a work environment, sexual competition affects women more than men. However, a rival's social skills provoke jealousy and professional envy equally in both sexes.

A group of researchers from the universities of Valencia, Groningen (the Netherlands) and Palermo (Argentina) have analysed the differences between men and women in their way of feeling envious and jealous at work.