Wild Bees Better PollinatorsUp to a third of our food supply depends on pollination by domesticated honeybees, but the insects are up to five times more efficient when wild bees buzz the same fields, according to a study published Aug. 28 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
"As honeybees become more scarce, it becomes more important to have better pollinators," said Sarah Greenleaf, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis and first........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/25/2006 6:20:06 PM)
Breakthrough In Heart ResearchA major breakthrough in research could lead to improved recovery of the heart when it is re-started after a heart attack or cardiac surgery.
For the first time ever, scientists at the University of Bristol have been able to directly measure energy levels inside living heart cells, in real time, using the chemical that causes fireflies to light up.
Dr Elinor Griffiths said: "Being able to see exactly what's going on in heart cells will be........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/25/2006 5:59:53 PM)
Crickets on Hawaiian IslandIn only a few generations, the male cricket on Kauai, one of the Hawaiian Islands, underwent a mutation a sudden heritable change in its genetic material that rendered it incapable of using song, its sexual signal, to attract female crickets, according to a new study by UC Riverside evolutionary biologists.
In addition, the researchers found that although the new male crickets' wings lack the file and scraper apparatus required for........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/24/2006 10:24:39 PM)
Alcoholics And Decision-makingNew research has found that alcoholics with certain coexisting personality disorders (PDs) have decision-making abilities that are particularly impaired.
Results are published in the recent issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
"Normally, we make choices by weighing immediate benefits of different options relative to possible negative consequences in the longer term," said Geert Dom, head of treatment at the Alexian........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/24/2006 10:08:50 PM)
But Not For DiabetesIt is diabetes that puts people who are at risk of developing critical illness and dying early, not obesity. Without diabetes obesity does not do much harm. A study published recently in the open access journal Critical Care reveals that individuals suffering from diabetes are three times more at risk of developing critical illness and dying young than individuals who do not have diabetes. Obese individuals who do not have diabetes, by........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/24/2006 9:54:32 PM)
Climate Shifted During Dinosaur EraIn this month's Geology, scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research present new evidence that ocean surface temperatures varied as much as 6 degrees Celsius (about 11 degrees Fahrenheit) during the Aptian Epoch of the Cretaceous Period 120 million years ago.
The finding is relevant to the ongoing climate change discussion, IUB geologist Simon Brassell says, because it portrays an........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/23/2006 11:23:31 AM)
There Is Lot Of Mess To Clean After Hurricane KatrinaIn a new study analyzing the environmental effects of Hurricane Katrina, the researchers state that household levels of mold and bacterial endotoxins in three single-family homes were so considerable that they equaled or surpassed those in waste- water treatment plants, cotton mills, and agricultural environments.
Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, report that following Hurricane Katrina, many New Orleans........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/22/2006 4:43:11 PM)
How Immunity evolvedResearchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have discovered a unique evolutionary link between the immune systems of fish and mammals in the form of a primitive version of B cells, white blood cells of the immune system. Their studies link the evolution of the adaptive immune system in mammals, where B cells produce antibodies to fight infection, to the more primitive innate immunity in fish, where they found........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/21/2006 4:53:36 AM)
Skeletal Microdamage Stable After First YearSkeletal microdamage resulting from bisphosphonate treatment may be maximal during the first year of treatment, and not continue to accumulate with longer periods of treatment, according to new research being presented today at the 28th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR).
Bisphosphonates are the most common class of drugs used for the treatment of osteoporosis because of their demonstrated effect on........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/20/2006 9:55:04 PM)
The Point Of IciclesContemplating some of nature's cool creations is always fun. Now a team of scientists from The University of Arizona in Tucson has figured out the physics of how drips of icy water can swell into the skinny spikes known as icicles.
Deciphering patterns in nature is a specialty of UA researchers Martin B. Short, James C. Baygents and Raymond E. Goldstein. In 2005, the team figured out that stalactites, the formations that hang from the........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/20/2006 9:45:20 PM)
Ceramic microreactors for on-site hydrogen productionScientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have designed and built ceramic microreactors for the on-site reforming of hydrocarbon fuels, such as propane, into hydrogen for use in fuel cells and other portable power sources.
Applications include power supplies for small appliances and laptop computers, and on-site rechargers for battery packs used by the military.
"The catalytic reforming of hydrocarbon fuels offers a........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/20/2006 5:13:39 AM)
Shocking Scenes From AntarcticaObserving data from Envisat's Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) instrument and the AMSR-E instrument aboard the EOS Aqua satellite, scientists were able to determine that around 5-10 percent of the Arctic's perennial sea ice, which had survived the summer melt season, has been fragmented by late summer storms. The area between Spitzbergen, the North Pole and Severnaya Zemlya is confirmed by AMSR-E to have had much lower ice........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/19/2006 9:02:45 PM)
Massive Protected Areas For AnimalsThe Minister of Forestry Economy of the Republic of Congo announced recently plans to create two new protected areas that together could be larger than Yellowstone National Park, spanning nearly one million hectares (3,800 square miles). Instead of bison and elk, these new protected areas contain elephants, chimpanzees, hippos, crocodiles, and some of the highest densities of gorillas on earth. The announcement was made by Minister Henri Djombo........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/18/2006 10:27:34 PM)
A Mother Prompting Her Child To Eat And Obesity?The prevalence of childhood obesity has increased significantly since the 1980s. Many factors contribute to childhood obesity; however, parents are in a key position to help shape children's eating behaviors and eating environments. A study in the recent issue of The Journal of Pediatrics evaluates the role of mothers prompting their child to eat, the child's compliance with those prompts, and the potential contribution of each to the risk of........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/18/2006 9:32:20 PM)
Engine On A Chip Would Be Best The BatteryMIT researchers are putting a tiny gas-turbine engine inside a silicon chip about the size of a quarter. The resulting device could run 10 times longer than a battery of the same weight can, powering laptops, cell phones, radios and other electronic devices.
It could also dramatically lighten the load for people who can't connect to a power grid, including soldiers who now must carry many pounds of batteries for a three-day mission -- all at........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/18/2006 9:21:44 PM)
Taming Tricky Carbon NanotubesBased on a new theory, MIT scientists may be able to manipulate carbon nanotubes -- one of the strongest known materials and one of the trickiest to work with -- without destroying their extraordinary electrical properties.
The work is reported in the Sept. 15 issue of Physical Review Letters, the journal of the American Physical Society.
Carbon nanotubes -- cylindrical carbon molecules 50,000 times thinner than a human hair -- have........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/18/2006 8:26:56 PM)
Many Shapes Of ShakespeareThe works of William Shakespeare have a timeless quality, but it would be a mistake to imagine these "classics" have retained their adamantine purity despite the passage of time.
As Diana Henderson, professor of literature, shows in her new book, "Collaborations With the Past: Reshaping Shakespeare Across Time and Media" (Cornell University Press), even those trying "faithfully" to represent Shakespeare cannot do so, because the context in........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/18/2006 8:18:09 PM)
Remote Island Provides Clues On Population GrowthHalfway between South America and New Zealand, in the remote South Pacific, is Rapa. This horseshoe-shaped, 13.5 square-mile island of volcanic origin, located essentially in the middle of nowhere, is "a microcosm of the world's situation," says a University of Oregon archaeologist.
Until only recently, little was known about the French Polynesian Island, where the current population is less than 500. Archaeological, linguistic and genetic........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/18/2006 5:40:43 PM)
Demoting Southeast Asia's Forest OxIt was one of the most famous discoveries of the 20th century. Shrouded in mystery since its recognition as a new species in 1937, the kouprey -- an ox with dramatic, curving horns -- has been an icon of Southeast Asian conservation. Feared extinct, it's been the object of perilous expeditions to the region's jungles by adventurers, scientists and journalists.
Now, in a paper published by the Journal of Zoology (London), Northwestern........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/17/2006 10:31:19 PM)
Poor Countries And Childhood VaccineBoston, MA -- The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) was created in 1999 with the goal of enabling even the poorest countries to provide vaccines to all children. A study by researchers associated with the Harvard Initiative for Global Health set out to measure the extent to which GAVI funding had succeeded in raising the percentage of children who received the combined diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine (DTP3) and........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/17/2006 10:02:38 PM)
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Travelers Differ In Handling Airport Security HasslesA new UC Davis study of post-9/11 air travelers observed that men were more likely than women to be bothered by slow airport-security screenings, and lower-income earners were more likely than upper-income earners to be bothered.
In addition, the more reluctant airline passengers were to travel following the 9/11 attacks, the more likely they were to be bothered by slow screenings.
But overall, the study observed that people might be........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/25/2006 6:13:58 PM)
Bugs In Fruits And VegetablesA new method for ridding harvested fruits and vegetables of insect pests and microorganisms, without the use of ozone-depleting chemicals such as methyl bromide, has been developed by researchers at UC Davis.
The technique, called metabolic stress disinfection and disinfestation, effectively suffocates insects found in harvested produce. Inside sealed chambers, alternating vacuum forces and pressurized carbon dioxide applications cause........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/25/2006 6:08:16 PM)
A Robot In The Intestinal CanalThe intestines are an extremely difficult area to navigate through with a medical device. Yet, many people need to have intestinal examinations done to determine if, for example, they have intestinal cancer. The medical device currently used for this is the colonscope, a long, thin and flexible tube that causes patients great discomfort and pain. For this reason, researchers have been trying to develop alternative medical devices, such as, for........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/25/2006 5:49:47 PM)
Water Filtration and Carbon CaptureIt's time to create a comprehensive accounting system for natural capital to recognize the full value of ecosystem services provided by boreal forests, an ecological economist will urge delegates to Canada's 10th National Forest Congress Sept. 25-27.
The forests' huge value as sinks and reservoirs of atmospheric carbon, for example, is unaccounted for today but needs to be recognized in future, according to Mark Anielski of Edmonton, who........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/24/2006 10:05:09 PM)
To A Billion Electron VoltsResearchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, working with colleagues at the University of Oxford, have accelerated electron beams to energies exceeding a billion electron volts (1 GeV) in a distance of just 3.3 centimeters. The scientists report their results in the recent issue of Nature Physics.
By comparison, SLAC, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, boosts electrons to 50 GeV over a distance of two........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/24/2006 9:46:02 PM)
Taking Uncertainty Principle To Unprecedented LevelIn the submicroscopic world -- the domain of elementary particles and individual atoms -- things behave in the strange, counter-intuitive fashion governed by the principles of quantum mechanics. Nothing (or so it seems) like our macroscopic world -- or even the microscopic world of cells or bacteria or dust particles -- where Newton's much more reasonable laws keep things sensibly ordered.
The problem comes in finding the dividing line........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/23/2006 11:39:20 AM)
Watching The Fruit Fly Chromosomes In ActionResearchers are enthusiastically watching the chromosomes of the fruit fly in action over the specialized microscope. These fruit fly larvae, warmed in a toasty lab chamber, are giving clues to the gene expression and chromosome interactions. Scientists from Cornell scientists take these actions very seriously.
They are using multiphoton fluorescence microscopy, which is a technique pioneered at Cornell University by physicist Watt W.........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/22/2006 4:51:50 PM)
Obesity Crisis in Insects?Ever seen a fat insect? Probably not. Dr. Spencer Behmer may have the answer why, and that could have implications for what is billed as the current human obesity epidemic.
Behmer, an entomologist with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, and several other researchers conducted a series of experiments to find out whether caterpillars could adapt to extreme changes in their nutritional environment.
By manipulating the nutritional........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/20/2006 10:08:27 PM)
Corn And Soy Plastics To Be Made Into Hog FeedersRichard Larock sorted through a pile of neatly labeled baggies filled with the plastics he makes from corn, soybean and other bio-based oils.
Larock, a University Professor of chemistry at Iowa State University, found the thin, square piece he was looking for and smacked it against his hand. This one is made from soybean oil reinforced with glass fibers, he said. And it's the kind of tough bioplastic he and his industrial collaborators will........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/20/2006 10:04:44 PM)
environmental challenges faced by ChinaIt is the most populous country in the world. Half the country is arid or semi-arid and mountains cover three-quarters of it. Natural resources are scarce. Yet 1.3 billion people live in China, which is undergoing a remarkable rate of economic growth. At the same time, China's environmental problems of energy and water shortages, water and air pollution, cropland and biodiversity losses are escalating.
The recent issue of Frontiers in........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/20/2006 5:19:13 AM)
Immigrant Children Keep Academic Pace With Peers Far from being a burden on the educational system, research from Florida State University shows immigrant children perform as well or better than their same-race, American-born counterparts.
FSU Sociology Professor Kathryn Harker Tillman observed that first- and second- generation children are no more likely than their third-generation peers to have to repeat a grade despite the a number of social and economic disadvantages they face. The........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/20/2006 5:15:19 AM)
Women Beating Men In College DegreesGirls have long gotten better grades than boys in all levels of school. But while at one time few women used those academic skills to fulfil the dream of a degree, new research suggests that growing incentives are giving positive attraction women to college in unprecedended numbers.
Look at the college scene! Girls have advanced ahead of boys. Since the year 1982, women have outpaced men in college graduation rates. In 1960 only 35 percent........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/19/2006 8:43:49 PM)
Monitoring Coastal Ocean PollutionPublic health officials now may be able to know instantly when pollution has moved into the coastal ocean - a breakthrough that could enable authorities to post warnings or close beaches in minutes rather than days thanks to research by UC Irvine researchers.
The new technique analyzes temperature and salinity data collected by sensors located in the water along the Southern California coast. Scientists observed that fluctuations in the........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/19/2006 5:09:43 AM)
Metal deformation studiesBy combining very large-scale molecular dynamics simulations with time-resolved data from laser experiments of shock wave propagation through specific metals, researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are now able to better understand the evolution of high-strain-rate plasticity.
Plastic deformation of metals results from the motion of a high density of dislocation lines. A strong shock produces an unusual number of........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/18/2006 9:36:07 PM)
Large(ish) Objects Can Follow The Rules Of The MicroscopeMiles Blencowe, a quantum theorist with the physics and astronomy department at Dartmouth, is part of a team working to connect the macroscopic and the microscopic worlds by seeing if they can make larger objects obey the laws of quantum mechanics, where things can be in two places at once.
In the Sept. 14 issue of the journal Nature, the scientists report that they are much closer to making this classical-quantum connection with an........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/18/2006 8:43:17 PM)
Washington University Hosts Community ForumHelping St. Louis residents and businesses cope with commuting challenges posed by the planned reconstruction of Interstate 64 (Highway 40) is the goal of a community forum to be held 7:45 - 10:45 a.m. Sept. 22 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom (Room 310), Anheuser-Busch Hall, on Washington University's Danforth Campus.
Sponsored by the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy and the Missouri Transportation Institute,........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/18/2006 8:32:46 PM)
Fish That Can WalkThere are a number of more species to be discovered under the sea. Scientists examining the undersea fauna off Indonesia's Papua province said Monday they had discovered dozens of new species, including a shark that walks on its fins and a shrimp that looks like a praying mantis.
"It's one of the most stunningly beautiful landscapes and seascapes on the planet," said Mark Erdmann, a senior adviser of Conservation International who led two........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/18/2006 6:38:38 PM)
Island Ferries Take on RoleFerries that connect Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are taking on another role - research vessels.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) biologist Scott Gallager and colleagues have installed a package of sensors on the 235-foot freight ferry Katama to measure water quality and to photograph plankton as the ferry crisscrosses the western side of Nantucket Sound year-round, several times daily.
........Go to the My-media-blog (Added on 9/18/2006 5:44:41 PM)
Supporting Industrial ZeolitesThe National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued three new reference materials to support researchers studying the properties of commercially important zeolites.
First described in the 18th century, zeolites have seen increasing use in industry and commerce from cat litter to industrial catalysts and "molecular sieves." Zeolites belong to class of materials called alumino-silicates whose crystal structures form highly........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/17/2006 10:18:50 PM)
Small, low-noise oscillatorA new design for a microwave oscillator that is smaller, simpler, and produces clearer signals at a single frequency than comparable devices has been invented at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Applications could include homeland security (e.g., surveillance of radio traffic for anomalous signals, or high-resolution digital imaging radar on unmanned aircraft), telecommunications (e.g., maintaining separation between........Go to the Science-blog (Added on 9/17/2006 10:14:47 PM)
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