Study first to prove beta glucan penetrates skin
The fight against aging has received a scientific boost thanks to an innovative study done in part by a University of Alberta spin-off company–research that dispels a hard-held belief about the natural ingredient, beta glucan. The study, published in the current issue of International Journal of Cosmetic Science, is the first to show that oat beta glucan can penetrate the skin despite years of doctors and scientists believing that
While a chattering crowd of various species of bacteria is essentially a microbial tower of Babel, certain snippets of their chemical conversation are almost universally understood. HHMI researchers have found that bacteria of different species can talk to each other using a common language – and also that some species can manipulate the conversation to confuse other bacteria.
The interspecies crosstalk and misdirection could have important consequences for human health, said
According to a study at Yale, one of the most effective ways to change negative attitudes about obese people is by addressing perceptions of normative beliefs within particular social groups.
Rebecca Puhl, associate research scientist in the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity and lead author of the study, said the model used in this study, known as social consensus theory, is based on the experience that people generally adopt the attitudes of valued “in-groups,” such as peers.
Getting out of the pond is the problem
A “meniscus”–the crescent-shaped and barely visible slope literally at water’s edge–can mean life or death to an insect the size of a speck of dust. Water bugs that tiny must summon the energy to “surf” themselves up the problematic interface between liquid and solid in ponds and other wet places to escape predators or reproduce.
Menisci are all around us, “but we don’t notice them because they’re so small, only a
White blood cells may be cause of dementia in people with AIDS
Researchers studying the evolution of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the brain have found that the body’s own defenses may cause HIV-related dementia.
Publishing in the Sept. 2005 issue of the Journal of Virology, the researchers show that HIV in the temporal lobe mutates at a rate 100 times faster than in other parts of the body, triggering white blood cells to continually swarm to attack the infe
Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers first to discover that a protein can provide the coding information for DNA replication
Since the discovery of the structure of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953, the paradigm for DNA replication has stated that the DNA itself codes for the appropriate pairings for replication. In other words, if a guanine base is on the original strand of DNA then its partner, a cytosine base, will pair to it on the replicated strand. In a
Remains of photosynthesizing microbes in prehistoric rocks suggest Earth was not ice-bound
A study that applied innovative techniques to previously unexamined rock formations has turned up strong evidence on the “Slushball Earth” side of a decades-long scientific argument.
The study appears in the Sept. 29 Science Express. The lead author is Alison Olcott, a Ph.D. student of earth sciences in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
Geologists agree
In the human brain, cells talk to one another through the routine exchange of electrical signals. But when people fall into a deep sleep, the higher regions of the brain – regions that during waking hours are a bustling grid of neural dialogue – apparently lose their ability to communicate effectively, causing consciousness to fade.
Writing today (Sept. 30) in the journal Science, a team of researchers led by University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of psychiatry Giulio Tononi
Even after they have paired with a male, the female North American barn swallow still comparison-shops for sexual partners. And forget personality; the females judge males by their looks — the reddish color of the males’ breast and belly feathers.
If the male’s red breast is not as dark as other males in the population, the female is more likely to leave him and then secretly copulate with another male, according to a Cornell University study featured on the cover of th
The first, high resolution continuous record of oxygen concentration in the earth’s atmosphere shows that a sharp rise in oxygen about 50 million years ago gave mammals the evolutionary boost they needed to dominate the planet, according to Paul Falkowski, Rutgers professor of marine science and lead author of a paper published Sept. 30 in the journal Science.
Falkowski and his colleagues have measured the abundance of carbon 13, a byproduct of photosynthesis, in deep-sea core samples th
Twelve-year-olds whose parents smoked were more than two times as likely to begin smoking cigarettes on a daily basis between the ages of 13 and 21 than were children whose parents didn’t use tobacco, according to a new study that looked at family influences on smoking habits. The research indicated that parental behavior about smoking, not attitudes, is the key factor in delaying the onset of daily smoking, according to Karl Hill, director of the University of Washington’s Seattle Soc
Marty Holmes, a landscaper from Stockton, Calif., had never heard of a regulatory T cell before his doctor suggested that it could be the key to helping him survive his cancer.
Holmes recalled that he didn’t bat an eye when the doctors proposed an experimental radiation and drug procedure to help boost these cells, even though it had been tested almost solely in mice. “As long as there was any percentage of hope, I just shot for that,” he said of the decision he made last ye
For the first time ever, scientists have observed and photographed wild gorillas using tools, in one instance employing a stick to test the depth of a pool before wading into it, according to a study by the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and other organizations. Up to this point, all other species of great apes, including chimpanzees and orangutans, have been observed using tools in the wild, but never gorillas.
“This is a truly astounding discovery,” sai
As preparations for the launch of CryoSat on 8 October continue on schedule, the satellite has now been sealed beyond physical control from the outside world.
On 26 September, the two half-shells of the payload fairing were fastened, encapsulating CryoSat. They will not be opened again until the spacecraft has left the atmosphere on its way to final orbit deployment 717 kilometers about the Earth.
The delicate operation of joining CryoSat to the Breeze upper stage took pla
Low Cost Fails To Ensure The Availability Of Lifesaving Drug
A life-saving drug used to treat seriously-ill pregnant women in Africa is not widely available – in part because it’s too cheap. Magnesium sulphate is a low-cost but effective treatment for eclampsia and pre-eclampsia in pregnant women. The disease, although relatively rare, claims the lives of more than 63,000 women a year, mostly in poorer countries and can also kill unborn children.
But researchers at the L
Vending machines that allow consumers to dial-up personalised milkshakes with nutritional supplements could find their way into gyms, schools and doctors’ surgeries in as little as 3 years, prompting calls for health warnings by experts.
The machines asks consumers questions regarding their age, gender and exercise regime to specific health conditions like diabetes. And although the consumer can choose flavours and colours, the machine decides how much vitamins, minerals, fatty acid
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