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Carbon Nanotubes To Detect Defects In Composites

Two University of Delaware researchers have discovered a means to detect and identify damage within advanced composite materials by using a network of tiny carbon nanotubes, which act in much the same manner as human nerves.

The discovery has important implications both in the laboratory, where the scientists hope to better predict the life span of various composite materials, and in everyday applications, where it could become an important........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 10/4/2006 8:16:29 PM)

Remake of Friday the 13th should be out by 2007

Jason lives! Or at least he will once all of the litigations are finished. The folks over at bloody-disgusting.com gave us this, but please be aware the information is of the hearsay variety:

B-D reader 'xerotheory7803' sent in this little update on New Line Cinema and Platinum Dunes' delayed Friday the 13th project. Xero tells B-D, "I just got back from the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors in Jersey and got a little bit of news to share with........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/4/2006 4:44:01 AM)

All Stages From Life To Death

Taken on the grounds of the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I thought it was very cool how this one leaf displays all of the stages from life to death.

Via Flicker.........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/4/2006 4:40:18 AM)

New Fodder For The Next Clean Air Fight

New research from scientists at Harvard University measured secondhand tobacco smoke in cars and found pollution levels that are likely hazardous to children.

"The levels were above the threshold for what's considered unhealthy for sensitive groups -- people like children and the elderly -- as determined by the Environmental Protection Agency," said lead study author Vaughan Rees, Ph.D., a research associate at the Harvard School of Public........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/3/2006 10:22:41 PM)

Ultrafast Photochemical Reactions

MIT researchers have made a fundamental advance in understanding how different environments affect chemical reactions by devising a novel way to observe ultrafast photochemical reactions--reactions induced by a pulse of laser light--in crystals.

The new MIT experiments show that the reaction dynamics, including whether the product molecules remain or recombine to reform the original compound, depend with exquisite sensitivity on the local........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 10/3/2006 10:15:14 PM)

Food Sources Of Disease

As the recent U.S. outbreak of E. coli infections caused by contaminated spinach demonstrates, the safety of the food we eat cannot be taken for granted. Two studies in the Nov. 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online, further illustrate the point, one adding a new bacterial culprit to the mix and the other showing that use of antibiotics as growth promoters in livestock increases the risk of antibiotic resistance in........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/3/2006 10:03:46 PM)

Fisheries Linked To Decline In Albatross Population

Fishermen caught and killed about 1 percent of the world's waved albatrosses in a year, as per a new study by Wake Forest University biologists.

"If that happens every year, that is not sustainable," said Jill Awkerman, a Wake Forest graduate student who is the lead author of the study published online Sept. 26 in the journal Biological Conservation. "In a matter of decades, you could be talking about extinction".

Awkerman's research........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/3/2006 9:35:16 PM)

Williams Syndrome, And Love Of Music

Children with Williams syndrome, a rare genetic disorder, just love music and will spend hours listening to or making music. Despite averaging an IQ score of 60, many possess a great memory for songs, an uncanny sense of rhythm, and the kind of auditory acuity, than can discern differences between different vacuum cleaner brands.

A study by a multi-institutional collaboration of scientists, published in a forthcoming issue of NeuroImage,........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/3/2006 9:29:59 PM)

Chilly Bugs At Bottom Of The World

The larvae of Antarctic midges never stop producing special proteins that minimize environmental stress, allowing them to withstand a range of intense environmental conditions in one of the world's harshest environments.

Scientists found that adult midges (Belgica antarctica) lose their ability to continually express these protective heat-shock proteins. Instead, like most animals, adult midges produce these proteins only when they are........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 10/3/2006 5:17:23 AM)

Obese smokers at higher risk of death

People who are both very obese and who smoke increase their risk of death by 3.5 to 5 times that of people of normal weight who never smoke, finds a study in the recent issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

As per the study, 20 percent of obese adults in the United States smoke, which puts them at a higher risk of death caused by cancer and circulatory disease. The authors further observed that, in general, being a current........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/3/2006 5:03:11 AM)

Foodborne Pathogens Hard To Remove From Produce

Will you ever feel comfortable eating fresh spinach again? All raw agricultural products carry a minimal risk of contamination, said a University of Illinois scientist whose research focuses on keeping foodborne pathogens, including the strain of E. coli found recently on spinach, out of the food supply.

That won't keep Scott Martin, a U of I food science and human nutrition professor, from eating bagged greens or other produce eventhough he........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/2/2006 10:03:51 PM)

Theater In Maya Political Organization

Magnificent stone sculptures of Classic Maya culture (AD 250-900) have long fascinated archaeologists and the general public alike. But what did the scenes depicted in these monuments mean in their society? In an article to appear in the October 2006 issue Current Anthropology, Takeshi Inomata (University of Arizona) argues that these images commonly show acts of public performance conducted by rulers, revealing the prominent role which state........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/2/2006 9:55:38 PM)

Species Identification Of Ancient Child Skeleton

According to University of Pittsburgh anthropology professor Jeffrey Schwartz, author of the four-volume The Human Fossil Record (Wiley-Liss, 2002-05), "the discovery of any largely complete skeleton of an ancient human relative would be unique. The fact that it is a child makes it even more exciting because of what its bones and teeth might reveal that an adult's cannot".

However, Schwartz said, there are questions about the species this........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/2/2006 9:34:25 PM)

A Magnetic-Semiconductor Sandwich

Researchers at Ohio University have created an improved magnetic semiconductor that solves a problem spintronics scientists have been investigating for years.

Unlike classic or vintage electronics that operate on electronic charges, spin-based electronics focuses on the spin of electrons to carry and store information. Researchers predict spintronics will revolutionize the electronics industry by making devices faster, improving storage........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 10/2/2006 9:29:37 PM)

Big Welcome For A Big Cat

A feline ambassador from Pakistan made his debut in the Himalayan Highlands of the Bronx Zoo on September 25, following an historic ceremony that united the Pakistani and U.S. governments. Endangered snow leopard cub Leo was transferred to the Bronx Zoo this past summer after he was discovered orphaned in the wild, unable to fend for himself.

Click here to read more about the expedition and diplomatic collaboration that led to Leo's........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/1/2006 8:58:42 PM)

What Drives Your Taste Buds

What are the genes that are crucial to the taste bud development?

The gene, SOX2, stimulates stem cells on the surface of the embryonic tongue and in the back of the mouth to transform into taste buds, as per the researchers. Stem cells are immature cells that can develop into several different cell types depending on what biochemical instructions they receive.

"Not only did we find that SOX2 is crucial for the development of taste buds,........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 10/1/2006 8:15:44 PM)

Helping Children To Sleep Better

The refusal of young children to go to bed at night can cause unnecessary stress for members of their family. However, parents and guardians can take comfort in knowing that behavioral therapys are an effective means for resolving a child's bedtime problems and night wakings.

The study, conducted by Jodi A. Mindell, PhD, of St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, is based on a review of 52 therapy studies, participated by 2,500 infants and........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/1/2006 7:56:10 PM)

Free Drug Samples InfluencePhysician Practice

Do you think that your doctor is prescribing for a particular brand, because he or she is getting free samples and may be some incentives?

A recent researh suggest that one in three doctors agree that free drug samples influence prescribing, finds a small but representative US survey published in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

But they also think that other doctors are more likely to be influenced by incentives than they are, the data........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/1/2006 7:04:56 PM)

Maps For Fighting Poverty

To increase awareness and promote usage of geographic information system applications in development strategies, the Center for International Earth Science Information Network and the World Bank have produced "Where the Poor Are: An Atlas of Poverty," a series of maps detailing spatially referenced data on hunger, child mortality, income poverty and other related indicators at the global, regional, national and local scales.

The maps........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/28/2006 10:13:36 PM)

Live Oak Trees Struggle For Survival

The majestic live oak is losing its battle for survival to suburban sprawl and the encroachment of taller trees, a new University of Florida study finds.

An icon in American history and literature, broad-crowned live oaks thrive in open savannas but are dying off as they are crowded and overshadowed by the encroachment of taller trees, said Francis Putz, a UF botanist and the study's co-author.

It is an irony of nature that the successes........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/28/2006 9:30:29 PM)

Light On Evolution Of Life Cycles

In the history of life on earth, one intriguing mystery is how plants made the transition from water to land and then went on to diversify into the array of vegetation we see today, from simple mosses and liverworts to towering redwoods.

A research team led by University of Michigan evolutionary biologist Yin-Long Qiu has new findings that help resolve long-debated questions about the origin and evolution of land plants. The work will be........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 10/4/2006 8:22:49 PM)

Sirius vs XM

Looking at the animated version of this graphic too long may make you ill, but it does nicely illustrate the very different schemes that Sirius and XM chose in their efforts to blanket North America in audio and data, including, of course, our recent obsession.live marine weather. Both schemes seem to work fine around the U.S., particularly on boats with their naturally wide open sky views, but how far offshore, north, and south can you receive........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/4/2006 4:52:15 AM)

Morganella Pyriformis

Morganella pyriformis is a puffball. The mature fruiting body of the fungus bursts open and releases the spores, after some physical force has been applied. I've been known to help a few of these along.

Prior to 2003, this fungus was known as Lycoperdon pyriforme. It has since been moved out of the genus Lycoperdon based on molecular evidence and morphological difference to other members of the genus. No longer is the evocative common name........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 10/4/2006 4:36:39 AM)

Chemical Found In Curry May Help Immune System

Scientists observed that curcumin -- a chemical found in curry and turmeric -- may help the immune system clear the brain of amyloid beta, which form the plaques found in Alzheimer's disease.

Reported in the Oct. 9 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, the early laboratory findings may lead to a new approach in treating Alzheimer's disease by enhancing the natural function of the immune system using curcumin, known for its........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/3/2006 10:20:11 PM)

Nanoparticles To Aid Brain Imaging

If you want to see precisely what the 10 billion neurons in a person's brain are doing, a good way to start is to track calcium as it flows into neurons when they fire.

To that end, Alan Jasanoff at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT has developed a new nano-sized calcium-sensing contrast agent that is detectable by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, machines that can be used for detailed noninvasive brain imaging.
........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/3/2006 10:11:39 PM)

Nanotechnology to Stop Weaponized Anthrax

Picture a spider web coated with sugar. But instead of luring in unsuspecting creatures, this spider web pulls in deadly anthrax spores, rendering them harmless.

Clemson University chemist Ya-Ping Sun and his research team have developed such a countermeasure strategy to weaponized anthrax, a biological agent used by a terrorist or terrorists that killed five Americans in 2001. The Clemson team's findings are published online in the "Journal........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/3/2006 10:02:33 PM)

Myths about species abundance

A new report finds little empirical evidence to support a widely held ecological assumption that species are most abundant near the centers of their geographic ranges and decline in abundance near the ranges' edges.

"When we reviewed data from published studies that looked at species abundance at multiple sites across a range, we found almost no evidence that supported the so-called 'abundant-center hypothesis' and strong evidence that........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 10/3/2006 9:50:05 PM)

Can Math Professor Predict New York Yankees Victory?

The New York Yankees have better than a 3 in 4 chance of defeating the Detroit Tigers in their best of 5 series beginning tonight, said Bruce Bukiet, PhD, associate professor in the department of mathematical sciences at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).

Bukiet's mathematical model, which was published in the journal "Operations Research," computes the probability of a team winning a game against another team with given hitters,........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/3/2006 9:25:26 PM)

Reintroducing Megafauna To North America

Dozens of megafauna (large animals over 100 pounds) such as giant tortoises, horses, elephants, and cheetah went extinct in North America13,000 years ago during the end of the Pleistocene. As is the case today in Africa and Asia, these megafauna likely played keystone ecological roles via predation, herbivory, and other processes. What are the consequences of losing such important components of America's natural heritage?

In the recent........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/3/2006 5:22:18 AM)

How did bilaterally symmetric flowers evolve?

How did bilaterally symmetric flowers evolve from radially symmetric ones? To address this important question, geneticists Francisco Perfectti and Juan Pedro M. Camacho, and ecologist Jos M. Gmez (Universidad de Granada, Spain) explored how different flower shapes affected plant fitness in natural populations of Erysimum mediohispanicum, a Mediterranean herb. Their findings would be reported in the recent issue of The American Naturalist.
........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/2/2006 10:10:44 PM)

Why Ultramarine Blue Fades

The 20-year restoration of Michelangelo's frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel has left visitors in awe of the work's original majesty--notably the brilliance of the blue that graces the Last Judgment's sky. Recent investigations into this shade of blue--ultramarine blue--have brought to light the pigment's tendency to fade. Is it possible that the longevity of such a masterpiece as the Last Judgment could be in peril?

Researchers........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/2/2006 10:08:30 PM)

The Anthropology of Christianity

Anthropologists have almost no track record of studying Christianity, a religion they have generally treated as not exotic enough to be of interest. Now, a new paper by one of the leading scholars in the developing field of the anthropology of Christianity explores the deep theoretical biases that make Christians difficult for anthropologists to study. The article, forthcoming in Current Anthropology, focuses on the ways Christian ideas about........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/2/2006 9:58:42 PM)

Alaskan Storm Cracks Giant Iceberg

A severe storm that occurred in the Gulf of Alaska in October 2005 generated an ocean swell that six days later broke apart a giant iceberg floating near the coast of Antarctica, more than 8,300 miles away. A team of researchers led by Professors Douglas MacAyeal at the University of Chicago and Emile Okal at Northwestern University present evidence connecting the two events in the recent issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/2/2006 9:47:20 PM)

How To Make A Wood-plastic Composite?

Wood science researchers in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University have developed new wood-plastic composites that are stronger and less expensive than any similar products now available a major breakthrough for this growing industry.

Wood-plastic composites, often used for such things as outdoor decking, are one of the fastest growing components of the wood composites industry. Some projections have suggested that these........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/2/2006 9:06:32 PM)

Hearts Or Tails?

A new paper in the recent issue of G&D elucidates the genetics of heart formation in the sea squirt, and lends surprising new insight into the genetic changes that may have driven the evolution of the multi-chambered vertebrate heart.

Brad Davidson and colleagues in Michael Levine's lab at UC Berkeley have discovered that the transcription factor Ets1/2, along with the signaling molecule FGF, controls early heart formation in the sea........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 10/1/2006 8:28:32 PM)

Compulsive Buying In Women And Men

Do you think women are more prone to compulsory buying? Then you are wrong!

Contrary to popular opinion, nearly as many men as women experience compulsive buying disorder, a condition marked by binge buying and subsequent financial hardship, according to new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

"The widespread opinion that most compulsive buyers are women may be wrong," the researchers wrote in their paper, which........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 10/1/2006 8:20:17 PM)

Cloned mice created from non-stem cell

Did you know that stem cells are not actually required for cloning?

New research dismisses the notion that adult stem cells are necessary for successful animal cloning, proving instead that cells that have completely evolved to a specific type not only can be used for cloning purposes, but they may be a better and more efficient starting point. As proof, researchers report they created two mouse pups from a type of blood cell that itself is........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 10/1/2006 8:09:48 PM)

Stellar Birth Control

Is birth control in effect in the universe?

An international team of astronomers based at Yale and Leiden University in The Netherlands observed that "old stars" dominated a number of large galaxies in the early universe, raising the new question of why these galaxies progressed into "adulthood" so early in the life of the universe.

Every year only a handful of new stars are born out of the gas that fills the space between the stars in........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 10/1/2006 7:12:41 PM)

Internet To Be Resilient Against Terror Attack

Scientists have simulated what would happen to Internet reliability in the United States if terrorists were able to knock out various physical components of the network.

The good news is that it would be very difficult to cause major disruptions across the country, eventhough destruction of some key parts could seriously degrade Internet quality. "When it comes to the Internet, there is strength in numbers," said Morton O'Kelly, co-author of........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/28/2006 10:12:22 PM)

Pecan Way To Health

A new research study from Loma Linda University (LLU) shows that adding just a handful of pecans to your diet each day may inhibit unwanted oxidation of blood lipids, thus helping reduce the risk of heart disease. Researchers suggest that this positive effect was in part due to the pecan's significant content of vitamin E.

"Plant foods, including pecans, are rich sources of phytochemicals that can have a unique effect on the body," says LLU........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/28/2006 9:49:48 PM)

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