More and more children with congenital heart disease are receiving implantable cardioverter-defibrillators to maintain proper heart rhythm. ICDs were first introduced for adults in the 1980s, but little is known about how well they work in children. Now, a report of the largest pediatric experience to date finds the devices to be life-saving, but also suggests that they tend to deliver more inappropriate shocks to children than to adults. Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 4 May 2008 | 12:00 am
Coronary heart disease mortality in younger women could be on the rise, according to new findings. High levels of smoking, increasing obesity and a lack of exercise could all be contributing to this disturbing trend, seen in women under the age of 50. Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 4 May 2008 | 12:00 am
Geologists call into question three decades of conventional wisdom regarding some of the physical processes that helped shape the Earth as we know it today. New research provides a direct challenge to the popular "late veneer hypothesis," a theory which suggests that all of our water, as well as several so-called "iron-loving" elements, were added to the Earth late in its formation by impacts with icy comets, meteorites and other passing objects. Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 4 May 2008 | 12:00 am
A team of scientists will expend 22 million computational hours during the next year on one of the world's most powerful supercomputers, simulating an event that takes less than five seconds. This astrophysics work explores how the laws of nature unfold in natural phenomena at unimaginably extreme temperatures and pressures. The Blue Gene/P supercomputer will serve as one of their primary tools for studying exploding stars. Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 4 May 2008 | 12:00 am
A new study in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy examines the role that specific parenting practices may play in children's adjustment after trauma. The study finds that certain parenting behaviors have the potential to significantly improve children’s outcomes. Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 4 May 2008 | 12:00 am
Fingerprints that used to escape detection could soon help point to the killer. Using a field portable system investigators at crime scenes will be able to detect latent prints on human skin. The system takes advantage of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)-based agents to visualize latent prints. Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 4 May 2008 | 12:00 am
Using a powerful supercomputer, researchers processed 140,000 prospective drug compounds to find one that dramatically lowers blood pressure, improves heart function, and prevents damage to the heart and kidneys in rats with persistent hypertension. Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 May 2008 | 6:00 pm
Using an enzyme of the Japanese mushroom Grifola frondosa (Maitake or dancing mushroom), proteins can be identified without knowing the organism's genetic composition. This advance simplifies the study of proteins lying at the root of such diseases as cancer and diabetes. Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 May 2008 | 6:00 pm
Researchers studying the echolocation behavior in bats have discovered that the diminutive flying mammals emit exceptionally loud sounds -- louder than any known animal in air. Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 May 2008 | 6:00 pm
Obesity can worsen the impact of asthma and may also mask its severity in standard tests, according to researchers in New Zealand, who studied lung function in asthmatic women with a range of body mass indexes. Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 3 May 2008 | 6:00 pm
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Space shuttle Discovery reached its Cape Canaveral, Florida, launch pad on Saturday in preparation for a May 31 liftoff to place a huge Japanese research complex on the International Space Station.
Special food regime for children with epilepsy reduces number of seizures by 75%, according to Great Ormond Street Hospital study Source: guardian.co.uk Science | 2 May 2008 | 11:09 pm
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have unraveled how a horse tranquilizer and hallucinogenic night club drug known as "Special K" can ease depression, researchers said on Friday.
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A volcano in southern Chile spewed a vast cloud of ash before dawn on Friday, triggering earth tremors and prompting the evacuation of about 250 people, officials said.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Baby birds babble much like human infants do, and they have their own special brain circuits to do it, researchers reported on Thursday.
