Benefits and problems are related to developmental stages, family context
A consortium of researchers has reported that very young children’s interactions with TV and computers are a mixed bag of opportunities and cautions, while teenagers’ Internet use has changed so much that the myths of several years ago need to be debunked. Said Amy Sussman, program manager for the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds the five-site Children’s Digital Media Center (CDMC), “Reaping
Chemicals found in whale blubber, and initially suspected of being from industrial sources, have turned out to be naturally occurring, raising questions about the accumulation of both natural and industrial compounds in marine life.
A new study in the journal Science by researchers Emma Teuten, Li Xu, and Christopher Reddy at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is causing researchers to rethink the sources and fates of many chemical compounds in the environment.
Researchers at Oregon State University, NASA and other institutions announced today the discovery of a method to determine from outer space the productivity of marine phytoplankton – a breakthrough that may provide a new understanding of life in the world’s oceans.
Phytoplankton are the incredibly abundant microscopic plant forms that provide the basis for most of the marine food chain, half the oxygen in our atmosphere and ultimately much of the life on Earth. They have
A surprising link may exist between ocean fertility and air pollution over land, according to Georgia Institute of Technology research reported in the Feb. 16 issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research — Atmospheres. The work provides new insight into the role that ocean fertility plays in the complex cycle involving carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in global warming.
When dust storms pass over industrialized areas, they can pick up sulfur dioxide, an acidic trace gas e
(1) Genetics Research and Obesity
(2) Osteoporosis Prevention and Vitamin B12
Genetics Research Unlocks a Key Regulator of Weight in Women
“He can eat like a horse.” “She eats like a bird.”
Recently, Jose Ordovas, PhD, and colleagues shed some light on a genetic factor in obesity. Ordovas, director of the Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University uncovered two variants in
A great deal of public policy advocacy has been influenced by the notion that the United States is becoming an “increasingly mobile society” – that the population is changing residence at increasing levels. However, a new study provides empirical evidence in favor of an opposite trend.
In fact, overall mobility has generally declined since about 1950, and interstate mobility has generally not increased during the same period. The data supporting this is reported in the February
A sensing device tailored for mass production of highly sensitive and stable nerve-gas detectors has been developed by a research group led by a mechanical engineer at The University of Texas at Austin.
The new sensor technology, which was more sensitive and much more stable than its predecessors, was featured on this week’s cover of Applied Physics Letters. The researchers’ highlighted study demonstrated the sensor’s potential ability to detect a single molecule of the nerve ga
Plays roles in flowering, methylation
Biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered an entirely new cellular “machine” in plants that plays a significant role in plant flowering and DNA methylation, a key chemical process essential for an organism’s development. A team headed by Craig Pikaard, Ph, D., Washington University professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has discovered a fourth kind of RNA polymerase found only in plants and speculated to have been a
Nanoscientists dream of developing a quantum computer, a device the size of a grain of sand that could be faster and more powerful than today’s PCs. They’ve identified tiny artificial atoms – called “quantum dots” – as the most likely materials to build these machines, but have been puzzled by the dots’ unpredictable behavior at the nanoscale.
Now a team of Ohio University physicists thinks it’s found the problem – and has proposed a blueprint for building
A new measurement by a student and professor at the University of Rochester has shed new light on the limits of scientists’ standard model of physics. Doctoral student Ben Kilminster and Kevin McFarland, professor of physics, used the particle accelerator at Fermilab to conduct the first measurement ever done with enough precision to discern certain characteristics of how the top quark, the heaviest particle in known physics, decays. The work is reported in today’s issue of Physical Re
Rectal artemether versus intravenous quinine for the treatment of cerebral malaria in children in Uganda: randomised clinical trial BMJ Vol 330,pp 334-6/Editorial: Rectal artemether and intravenous quinine for treating severe malaria BMJ Vol 330,pp 317-8
A simple drug, given to children with severe malaria before they reach hospital, has the potential to save many lives, say researchers in this week’s BMJ. Every year over a million children die of malaria in Africa. The ma
Acute treatment of moderate to severe depression with hypericum extract WS 5570 (St John’s Wort): randomised controlled double blind non-inferiority trial versus paroxetine BMJ Online First
A specially manufactured extract from the herb St John’s Wort is at least as effective in treating depression as a commonly prescribed anti-depressant, according to new research published on bmj.com today.
St John’s Wort* and the anti-depressant drug Paroxetine** were used in
Nanotubes are ubiquitous in the world of science. Although several methods for making them exist, little is known about how these techniques physically produce the hollow fibers of carbon molecules known as nanotubes, that is until now. A multinational team of scientists has discovered that multi-walled carbon nanotubes made by the pure carbon arc method are, in fact, carbon crystals that form inside drops of glass-coated liquid carbon. The research appears in the 11 February 2005, issue of the
Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have discovered a cluster of 12 genes on the X chromosome in mice that appears to play an important role in reproduction. Reporting in the journal Cell, the scientists showed that knocking out just one of the genes resulted in reduced fertility in male mice.
The researchers found the cluster, which they dubbed the reproductive homeobox X-linked (or Rhox) genes, is selectively expressed in male and female reprod
Critical connections that neurons form in the brain during development turn out to rely on common but overlooked cells, called glia. These cells were known to support the neurons in adults, but had never been fingered as players in forming the connections between neurons, known as synapses.
The Stanford University School of Medicine researchers who conducted the work, led by Ben Barres, MD, PhD, professor of neurobiology, also discovered two of the proteins made by glial cell
A 115-million-year-old fossil of a tiny egg-laying mammal thought to be related to the platypus provides compelling evidence of multiple origins of acute hearing in humans and other mammals.
The discovery of the prehistoric jawbone, reported in the Feb. 11, 2005, issue of Science, suggests that the transformation of bones from the jaw into the small bones of the middle ear occurred at least twice in the evolutionary lines of living mammals after their split from a common ancesto
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