As big fish eat little fish in the Earth’s vast oceans, so too do supermassive black holes gorge on smaller black holes and neutron stars, making themselves more massive in the process. Using sophisticated computer modeling, Penn State scientists have calculated the rate of this black-hole snacking, called “extreme-mass-ratio inspirals.” They expect to see several events per year with the Laser Interferometer Space Antennae (LISA), a joint NASA – European Space Agency mission now in develop
Water quality in the Rio Chone estuary in Ecuador has degraded over the last three decades by a combination of man-made impacts, including the input of organic wastes from shrimp farming activities located in what were once tropical mangrove forests.
An article in the current issue of the Journal of Coastal Research describes water quality experiments by University of Rhode Island oceanographers Diana Stram and Chris Kincaid and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) oceanograp
Professor Ricardo Azevedo’s research on the simplicity of cell lineages explained in Nature magazine
Shedding light upon evolution, a University of Houston professor studying cell lineages now finds surprising simplicity in the logic of animal development. Ricardo Azevedo, an assistant professor in the department of biology and biochemistry, specializes in how evolution changes the way animals develop. His recent findings using computational biology to reveal the surprisi
Researchers at Brown Medical School and Rhode Island Hospital have shed new light on the activation of a protein key to the development of cancers, particularly breast and prostate cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the United States.
The team of cell biologists has discovered a new chemical modification that activates STAT3. This so-called signaling protein is important for embryonic growth and development, helping cells grow, duplicate and migrate. In adulthood, S
Patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) are less likely to be discharged from the hospital with a prescription for an ACE inhibitor and other recommended medications if they are treated by a non-cardiologist, according to a study written by pharmacists at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and published January 15 in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy. Beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, and aldosterone antagonists have been shown to significantly decrease morbidity and mortality and are
Finding how the fowl-borne bacteria Campylobacter jejuni makes at least a million Americans miserable for a week each year is on the plates of two Medical College of Georgia microbiologists.
Raw and undercooked poultry and meat, raw milk and untreated water are sources for Campylobacter, the most common bacterial cause of diarrhea in the United States, according the U.S. Public Health Service.
But finding how these bacteria that happily co-exist with chickens and turkeys
An ancient mystery may have been solved by LSU Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Bradley E. Schaefer.
Schaefer has discovered that the long-lost star catalog of Hipparchus, which dates back to 129 B.C., appears on a Roman statue called the Farnese Atlas. Hipparchus was one of the greatest astronomers of antiquity and his star catalog was the first in the world, as well as the most influential. The catalog was lost early in the Christian era, perhaps in the fire at the gr
Astronomers are announcing today the first results of a search for extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs in an unlikely place–the stellar graveyard. The report, titled “Searching for Extrasolar Planets in the Stellar Graveyard,” is being presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting in San Diego, California, by John Debes, a graduate student at Penn State; Steinn Sigurdsson, associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University; Bruce Woodgate, of the NASA Goddard Spa
A scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) has published the results of an EPA-funded clam embryo study that supports her hypothesis that, when combined, the pollutants bromoform, chloroform, and tetrachloroethylene—a chemical cocktail known as BCE—can act synergistically to alter a key regulator in nerve cell development. While scientists have previously studied the effects of these pollutants individually, this is the first time anyone has demonstrated that BCE’s components can w
SLU scientist spearheaded multi-center effort
Following a long-term collaborative effort, scientists have deciphered the genomes of two strains of a fungus that can lead to brain swelling and death in those with compromised immune systems. Results were published at 2 p.m. Jan. 13 in the online “express” version of the journal Science: http://www.sciencemag.org/sciencexpress/recent.shtml
The fungus, which causes severe inflammation of the brain, is called Cryptococcus
Nervous system may regulate aging processes
A class of anti-seizure medications slows the rate of aging in roundworms, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. When exposed to drugs used to treat epilepsy in humans, worms lived longer and retained youthful functions longer than normal. Because the drugs affect nerve signals, the researchers’ observations suggest that the nervous system influences aging processes. The findings are rep
Work should boost studies of hair-cell regeneration
Researchers have discovered that deletion of a specific gene permits the proliferation of new hair cells in the cochlea of the inner ear — a finding that offers promise for treatment of age-related hearing loss. This type of hearing loss is caused by aging, disease, certain drugs, and the cacophony of modern life. It is the most common cause of hearing loss in older people.
The research team, which included Howard Hugh
Cryptococcus study sheds light on how fungi cause disease in persons with impaired immunity
In a project that already has benefited an important field of biomedical research, scientists have deciphered the genomes of two closely related strains of Cryptococcus neoformans, a fungus whose importance as a human pathogen has risen in parallel with the HIV/AIDS worldwide epidemic and the increased use of immunosuppressive therapies. The study, posted online January 13 in Science Express
Albatrosses are the world’s most threatened family of birds. New research offers the first hope of identifying migration and feeding patterns to reduce their unnecessary slaughter by long-line fisheries. The study is reported in the journal Science, and outlines, for the first time, the year-round habitat of the grey-headed albatross.
Leading author Professor John Croxall from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said, “By understanding where these birds go when they’re not breeding,
Scientists have found a protein in the eye which plays a critical role in how an allergic response develops over a 24-hour period. The University College London (UCL) team hope their discovery will pave the way for new treatments for allergic diseases such as asthma, eczema and hay fever.
In a study published today in the online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Professor Santa Jeremy Ono and colleagues from UCL’s Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields
Turn out the light!
A collaborative team of researchers has discovered what turns the lights out from space. Using sophisticated features on a transmission electron microscope, John P. Bradley, Ph.D., Director of the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has discovered that organic carbon and amorphous silicates in interstellar grains embedded within interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) are the carriers of the astronomical 2175 Å
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