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Psychological effects of genetic testing for risk of weight gain
Massive storm pulls water and ammonia ices from Saturn’s depths
Knowing Exposure Risks Important to Saving Structures from Wildfires
Limestone Powder Enhances Performance of 'Green' Concrete
The 'weakest link' in the aging proteome
Mayo Clinic Restores Disrupted Heartbeat with Regenerative Intervention
Researchers Find Insulin Status an Important Determinant of the Positive Effect of Weight Reduction on Vascular Function
Spin doctors create fastest rotating man-made object
Breakthrough model holds promise for treating Graves' disease
Death by asexuality: Biologists uncover new path for mutations to arise

Psychological effects of genetic testing for risk of weight gain

Posted: 04 Sep 2013 07:03 AM PDT

Obesity gene testing does not put people off weight loss and may help to reduce self-blame, according to a new study by researchers from the Health Behaviour Research Centre at University College London.

Previous studies have shown that genes play a role in a person's risk of becoming overweight. One gene, called FTO, has been found to have the biggest influence so far.

Massive storm pulls water and ammonia ices from Saturn’s depths

Posted: 03 Sep 2013 05:17 PM PDT

Once every 30 years or so, or roughly one Saturnian year, a monster storm rips across the northern hemisphere of the ringed planet.

In 2010, the most recent and only the sixth giant storm on Saturn observed by humans began stirring. It quickly grew to superstorm proportions, reaching 15,000 kilometers (more than 9,300 miles) in width and visible to amateur astronomers on Earth as a great white spot dancing across the surface of the planet.

Knowing Exposure Risks Important to Saving Structures from Wildfires

Posted: 03 Sep 2013 05:10 PM PDT

A recent study of one of California's most devastating wildland fires by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) strongly suggests that measures for reducing structural damage and property loss from wildland urban interface (WUI)* fires are most effective when they are based on accurate assessments of exposure risks both for individual structures and the community as a whole.

Limestone Powder Enhances Performance of 'Green' Concrete

Posted: 03 Sep 2013 04:55 PM PDT

Adding limestone powder to "green" concrete mixtures—those containing substantial amounts of fly ash, a byproduct of coal-burning power plants—can significantly improve performance, report researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

The 'weakest link' in the aging proteome

Posted: 03 Sep 2013 12:29 PM PDT

Proteins are the chief actors in cells, carrying out the duties specified by information encoded in our genes. Most proteins live only two days or less, ensuring that those damaged by inevitable chemical modifications are replaced with new functional copies.

Mayo Clinic Restores Disrupted Heartbeat with Regenerative Intervention

Posted: 03 Sep 2013 12:16 PM PDT

Mayo Clinic researchers have found a way to resynchronize cardiac motion following a heart attack using stem cells. Scientists implanted engineered stem cells, also known as induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, into damaged regions of mouse hearts following a heart attack. This regenerative approach successfully targeted the origin of abnormal cardiac motion, preventing heart failure. The findings appear in the September issue of the Journal of Physiology.

Researchers Find Insulin Status an Important Determinant of the Positive Effect of Weight Reduction on Vascular Function

Posted: 03 Sep 2013 12:11 PM PDT

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) have found that among obese people who had lost considerable weight, those with high insulin levels–a marker of insulin resistance in the body–were the most likely to experience better blood vessel function following the weight loss. These findings appear online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Spin doctors create fastest rotating man-made object

Posted: 03 Sep 2013 08:07 AM PDT

A team of researchers at the University of St Andrews has created the world’s fastest spinning man-made object.

Dr Yoshihiko Arita, Dr Michael Mazilu and Professor Kishan Dholakia of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St Andrews were able to levitate and spin a microscopic sphere, purely using laser light in a vacuum, briefly up to 600 million RPM before it was lost from the levitation trap.

Breakthrough model holds promise for treating Graves' disease

Posted: 03 Sep 2013 07:36 AM PDT

Researchers have developed the first animal model simulating the eye complications associated with the thyroid condition Graves' disease, a breakthrough that could pave the way for better treatments, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's journal Endocrinology.

Death by asexuality: Biologists uncover new path for mutations to arise

Posted: 03 Sep 2013 07:31 AM PDT

Ground-breaking new research from a team of evolutionary biologists at Indiana University shows for the first time how asexual lineages of a species are doomed not necessarily from a long, slow accumulation of new mutations, but rather from fast-paced gene conversion processes that simply unmask pre-existing deleterious recessive mutations.