We’ve all been there. At the car sales lot, being simultaneously wooed by big-numbered rebates rolling off the tongue of a fast-talking salesperson. The experience is both tantalizing and worrisome. Promotions are so common in the marketplace that they are basically a ubiquitous part of our buying experience. An article in the March 2005 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research taps into this marketplace phenomenon, explaining how consumers react to and are affected by promotions. It seems tha
A new use of the drug Herceptin appears to offer a much more powerful treatment advantage than expected for patients with HER-2-positive breast cancer, say researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
When combined with chemotherapy and used before surgery in early stage breast cancer the drug proved so beneficial – eliminating 42 percent more tumors than chemotherapy alone – that the clinical trial testing of this new treatment plan was halted early, th
Men and women may not be as different as previously thought when it comes to feeling emotion
“Do males and females react differently to emotional advertising?” begin the authors of an article in the March 2005 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. While it is commonly accepted that women are more emotional, no solid evidence exists to support this assertion. In fact, the results of the study conducted by Robert Fisher (University of Western Ontario) and Laurette Dubé (McGill
Tilt is a 100,000-year planetary pacemaker
Scientists have long debated what causes glacial/interglacial cycles, which have occurred most recently at intervals of about 100,000 years. A new study reported in the March 24 issue of Nature finds that these glacial cycles are paced by variations in the tilt of Earth’s axis, and that glaciations end when Earth’s tilt is large.
With more than 30 explanations proposed for these glacial cycles, researchers at the Woods Hole Oc
Leon Goldstein, a professor of medical science at Brown Medical School, set out to plumb a molecular mystery.
Along with Mark Musch, a longtime University of Chicago collaborator, Goldstein conducted an experiment with the red blood cells of skates to understand how these skinny, graceful fish can swim from salt water to fresh water. For humans, such a drastic environmental change would prompt an equally drastic physiological change: Our cells would take in too much water, d
Mice lacking a key protein involved in cholesterol regulation have low-density lipoprotein, or “bad” cholesterol, levels more than 50 percent lower than normal mice, and researchers suggest that inhibiting the same protein in humans could lead to new cholesterol-lowering drugs.
In a study to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and available online this week, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center deleted the Pcsk9 gene in mice. The gene, pr
The last outstanding hardware needed before arrival of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), the European-built ISS supply ship due for launch in 2006, has been installed outside the International Space Station (ISS) during a 4 1/2 hour Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) on Monday 28 March.
The two ISS Expedition 10 crewmembers, Commander NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov, who was the operational lead for the EVA, installed the l
Increase in sea lice infections of wild juvenile salmon are potentially deadly and extend for 30 km beyond farm
A new study published in the March 30th edition of the prestigious scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B (a publication of the UK’s national academy of science) shows that the transfer of parasitic sea lice from salmon farms to wild salmon populations is much larger and more extensive than previously believed.
This quantitative analysis of par
Economic assistance to areas surrounding Africa’s rain forest parks does not, as currently applied, contribute to their health, suggests an extensive survey of park scientists and managers. Rather, the survey found the most successful parks are those with public support and strong law enforcement. The survey’s authors also said that their findings indicate that careful ecological and compliance monitoring and stable long-term funding are key to park success.
The survey
Say “nanotechnology” and people are likely to think of micro machines or zippy computer chips. But in a new twist, Rutgers scientists are using nanotechnology in chemical reactions that could provide hydrogen for tomorrow’s fuel-cell powered clean energy vehicles.
In a paper to be published April 20 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, describe how they make a finely textured surface of the metal iridium
Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine are several steps closer to the day when a profoundly deaf patient’s own bone marrow cells could be used to let him or her hear the world.
The IU group, led by Eri Hashino, Ph.D., was able to transform, in the laboratory, stem cells taken from adult bone marrow into cells with many of the characteristics of sensory nerve cells — neurons — found in the ear. The results suggest that these adult stem cells could be used t
For the first time, a group of scientists has accomplished the daunting task of evaluating the status of all of the ecosystems on Earth, and the outlook is troubling.
Commissioned by the United Nations in 2001, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment program will issue its primary report on March 30 during press conferences in London, Washington, D.C., Tokyo, Beijing, New Delhi, Brasilia, Cairo, Nairobi and Rome. More than 2,000 scientists from 95 countries participated in the
Gene therapy methods that specifically target muscle may reverse the symptoms of a rare form of muscular dystrophy, according to new research in mice conducted by medical geneticists at Duke University Medical Center. Infants born with the inherited muscular disorder called Pompe disease usually die before they reach the age of two. The researchers also said their approach of targeting corrective genes to muscles may have application in treating other muscular dystrophies.
Patien
Use of “functional imaging” to track plant nutrients has many potential applications
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have applied some of the same techniques used in medical imaging to track the distribution of nutrients in poplar trees in response to a simulated insect attack. The research provides new insights on a long-debated theory about how plants respond to environmental stress, and shows that radiotracer imaging can be a big help
Why does extra fat around the waist increase the risk of heart disease? A new study by Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center researchers and colleagues suggests that inflammation may be the key.
“It is well known that obesity affects nearly one-third of adults in the United States and is closely linked with heart disease,” said Tongjian You, Ph.D., instructor in geriatric medicine at Wake Forest Baptist and lead author. “While we don’t fully understand the link be
One of Britain’s leading climate change experts has thrown his weight behind the claim that global warming is being caused by human activity in a report published today by the Institute of Physics.
The report by Professor Alan Thorpe, who takes up his post as chief of the Natural Environmental Research Council next month, aims to tackle sceptics who doubt the models scientists use to predict future climate change.
Professor Thorpe outlines the scientific basis for
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