Science Headlines for November 13, 2008

Sex Differences Narrow In Death After Heart Attack, Study Shows

In recent years, women, particularly younger women, experienced larger improvements in hospital mortality after myocardial infarction than men, according to a new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 10:00 pm

Decisions, Decisions: Feedback Influences Decision Making

Numerous studies have shown that people will choose differently, depending on whether they are choosing based on experience or description. But, what is it that causes people to choose differently in the two situations? The results of a new study suggest that feedback plays a key role in decision making. The findings indicate that feedback after repeated choice may drive people towards rational decision making.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 10:00 pm

Brain Implants May Help Stroke Patients Overcome Partial Paralysis

Scientists have shown for the first time that neuroprosthetic brain implants may be able to help stroke patients with partial paralysis.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 10:00 pm

Marine Plankton Found In Amber

Marine microorganisms have been found in amber dating from the middle of the Cretaceous period. The fossils were collected in Charente, in France. This completely unexpected discovery will deepen our understanding of these lost marine species as well as providing precious data about the coastal environment of Western France during the Cretaceous.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 10:00 pm

Arsenic-free Water Provides Hope To Millions Of People In South East Asia

A new technology could provide safe drinking water for over 70 million people in South East Asia. The joint collaboration has resulted in the world’s first low-cost technology to provide arsenic-free water to people in India and surrounding countries.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 10:00 pm

U.S. 'Super Bugs' Invading South America

Two clones of highly antibiotic-resistant organism strains, which previously had only been identified in the United States, are now causing serious sickness and death in several Colombian cities including the capital Bogotá, according to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 10:00 pm

Environmentally Friendly Acrylic Glass Made Of Sugar: New Enzyme Could Revolutionize Production Of Plastics

Acrylic glass could be made from natural raw materials such as sugars, alcohols or fatty acids, according to new research. Compared with the previous chemical production process, a biotechnological process is far more environmentally friendly.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 7:00 pm

Relative Risk Of Brain Cancer: Tell Your Doctor If Tumors Run In The Family

Doctors know that you’re at a higher risk for breast, colon and prostate cancers if they’ve been found in your family. Brain cancer can now be placed on that same list, says a new study by Tel Aviv University and the University of Utah.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 7:00 pm

Plants Can Accumulate Nanoparticles In Tissues

Plants can take up nanoparticles and accumulate them in their tissues, according to new research. The laboratory study, which involved pumpkin plants, indicates a possible pathway for nanoparticles to enter the food chain. The research also reveals a new experimental approach for studying nanoparticles and their potential impacts.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 7:00 pm

Large Waist Can Almost Double Your Risk Of Premature Death, Says Europe-wide Study

Having a large waistline can almost double your risk of dying prematurely even if your body mass index is within the 'normal' range, according to a new study of over 350,000 people across Europe.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 7:00 pm

NASA clears shuttle for space station visit

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA managers on Wednesday cleared the space shuttle Endeavour and seven astronauts for launch on Friday on a mission to make the International Space Station a bit more like home.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 2:54 pm

California Stars in Massive Earthquake Drill

The largest disaster drill in U.S. history will have millions of people ducking for cover.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 13 Nov 2008 | 2:35 pm

1,200-year-old Church Uncovered in Syria

Archaeologists unearth ruins of ancient church, largest found in Mideast country.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Nov 2008 | 2:28 pm

Bone Marrow Transplant Appears to Cure AIDS

An AIDS patient seems to have been cured by a bone marrow transplant.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 13 Nov 2008 | 2:22 pm

Secret to Penguin Locomotion Revealed (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Penguins are wobbly on land, but their extreme underwater agility involves the perfection of a twisting wing motion that is just now coming to be understood.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 2:18 pm

Secret to Penguin Locomotion Revealed

Penguins twist their wings to increase their speed through the water.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Nov 2008 | 2:10 pm

Chimp rescue

Rangers confiscate chimp that was being kept as a pet
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Nov 2008 | 2:05 pm

EU seeks to expand energy grids

The European Commission unveils plans to diversify the EU's energy imports and reduce reliance on Russia.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Nov 2008 | 2:04 pm

Overweight women more likely to miscarry healthy babies

Overweight women are more likely to miscarry a healthy baby, according to research involving 204 women who had suffered a miscarriage.

The researchers said the findings back up advice that obese women should lose weight before trying to conceive.

"The excess miscarriage rate in overweight and obese women is due to the loss of chromosomally normal embryos," said Dr Inna Landres of Stanford University School of Medicine. "It's important to identify elevated BMI [body mass index] as a risk factor for miscarriage and counsel those women who are affected on the importance of lifestyle modification."

Landres' team carried out genetic analyses of 204 foetuses miscarried by women with an average age of 35.

Of the 153 women with normal body weight (a BMI of less than 25), 36.6% had miscarried foetuses with no chromosome defects – insertions or deletions of DNA. This compared with 52.9% of the 51 overweight women (BMI over 25).

The results were presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine annual meeting in San Francisco.

One possible cause of the effect is insulin resistance, which is the precursor of type 2 diabetes. This affects a woman's hormonal state, which could impact the pregnancy. Also, excess adipose (fatty) tissue leads to higher levels of oestrogen and testosterone in the body.

'We are trying to figure out what is a preventable loss of pregnancy, whether it is a natural cause or maternal influence," said co-author Dr Ruth Lathi.

Dr Mark Hamilton at the University of Aberdeen, who chairs the British Fertility Society and was not involved in the study, said obesity is a recognized cause of miscarriage. "It has not been defined if that risk is related to genetic problems for the embryos or the obesity itself is linked to implantation mechanisms," he said.

"This study will aid our understanding of the known association with being overweight and reproductive loss. We need more follow-up studies on this."

Lebanon finds 2,900 year old Phoenician remains

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese and Spanish archaeologists have discovered 2,900-year-old earthenware pottery that ancient Phoenicians used to store the bones of their dead after burning the corpses.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 12:44 pm

Space Shuttle Astronauts Ready to Fly (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Seven NASA astronauts are spending what they hope will be their last day on Earth before launching toward the International Space Station Friday night aboard the shuttle Endeavour.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 12:34 pm

WITNESS: Zero G -- like being born

Tim Hepher has been a journalist with Reuters for 14 years, with experience covering trade wars and takeover battles, and now specializes in aerospace business in Paris. In the following story, he describes a parabolic flight where he somersaulted weightless with space officials and politicians.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 12:23 pm

The Nation's Weather (AP)

AP - A storm was expected to pelt the Rockies and northern Plains with heavy snow, sleet, rain and strong winds on Thursday, while wet weather was forecast along the East Coast.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 11:43 am

New radar helps predict rainfall

A team of Oxfordshire scientists develop new technology which will help forecast rain more accurately.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 13 Nov 2008 | 9:40 am

The Nanotech Antidote to Food Poisoning

The day after an awesome tailgate party, you feel deathly ill. Bacterial toxins are coursing through your veins, slipping into red blood cells, and tearing them to shreds from the inside. As the dead erythrocytes pile up, your kidneys start to fail.

Maybe the burgers were a bit too rare. Perhaps they contained E. Coli O157:H7, which is infamous for causing widespread outbreaks.

If this happened tomorrow, your prognosis might not be good. But an experimental drug, developed by David Bundle and his colleagues at the University of Alberta, could win the emergency room battle.

In the Nov. 4 Issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Bundle described special polymers that can remove toxins from the bloodstream. Doctors could inject the nano-medicine into gravely ill patients to protect them from hemolytic-uremic syndrome and other types of damage that are caused by bacteria.

Each of the stringy saviors, called PolyBAIT, is decorated with carbohydrates that act like barbs. Those little hooks can snag onto bacterial poisons and then stick them to HuSAP, a protein from the human immune system.

The HuSAP and PolyBAIT disarm each toxin molecule, and then drag them out of the bloodstream.

Bundle and others have been trying to deactivate parasite poisons for quite some time, but their earlier antidotes did not work well on animals.

Along with his partners, Pavel Kitov and Glen Armstrong, the professor tested PolyBAIT on transgenic mice. When they gave a lethal dose of shiga toxin to their fuzzy research subjects, the new medication was able to save them.

At the end of their report, Bundle and his team speculated that their invention could be used alongside antibiotics to treat the worst E. Coli infections. Until it is on the market, you might want to order your burgers well done.

Photo: A rare hamburger. Credit: VirtualErn / flickr

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 13 Nov 2008 | 9:07 am

Lower heating costs predicted (AP)

AP - The dramatic drop in world oil prices means a break this winter in heating costs, although households will still be paying more than they did last winter, the government says.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 8:10 am

Study: Separate Great Lakes, Mississippi basins (AP)

AP - Connections engineered more than a century ago between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed should be changed to block the advance of invasive species that can cause irreversible damage, an environmental advocacy group says.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 13 Nov 2008 | 2:24 am

Don't Freak Out: Paranoia Quite Common

Scientists say it's more common than thought.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Nov 2008 | 1:09 am

Why Won't Jersey Dolphins Go to Sea?

Scientists are listening in to find out.
Source: Livescience.com | 13 Nov 2008 | 1:05 am

Researchers find no link between IVF and breast cancer

Fertility treatment does not increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer, according to a study of more than 25,000 women in the Netherlands.

The large study will help to reassure patients concerned that the powerful hormone doses that are part of fertility treatment might put them at risk of developing the disease in the future.

At the beginning of an IVF treatment cycle, women are given hormone drugs to stimulate their ovaries to produce more eggs so that clinicians can produce fertilised embryos in vitro. These lead to large spikes in oestrogen levels that could promote the development of breast cancer, which is sensitive to the hormone.

The study, carried out by Dr Alexandra van den Belt-Dusebout at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, compared 18,970 women who had had at least one cycle of IVF treatment with 7,536 women who had not received fertility treatment between 1980 and 1995. They matched these patients to records in the National Cancer Registry.

Of the 378 women who developed breast cancer, 266 were in the IVF group and 112 were in the non-IVF group. After adjusting for known risk factors such as age, the number of children the women had and family history of breast cancer, the team found no statistical difference between the two groups, showing that IVF treatment does not increase a woman's chances of developing breast cancer.

Van den Belt-Dusebout presented her results at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in San Francisco.

"From 10 years after treatment, breast cancer risk was moderately increased in the IVF group but also in the non-IVF group, compared to the general population," the researchers said.

Meanwhile, two new studies have revealed that women who receive acupuncture at the same time as IVF treatment are no more likely to have a baby.

Both were randomised placebo-controlled trials in which the effect of acupuncture was compared with a sham procedure. Neither the patients nor the clinician evaluating their pregnancy knew who had received the true treatment.

Acupuncture aimed at improving IVF success rates is widely offered by fertility clinics in the UK. In the first of the studies, researchers in Hong Kong split 370 women receiving IVF into two groups. One group received real acupuncture before and after having an IVF embryo implanted into their uterus. The other had the same procedure, except the treatment used retractable needles that did not penetrate the skin.

Of the 185 who received the sham treatment, 91 achieved a clinical pregnancy (foetal heartbeat identified using ultrasound) and 71 had a successful delivery. This compared with 72 clinical pregnancies in the true acupuncture group and 55 live births. The differences between the groups were not statistically significant.

Dr Ernest Ng, in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Hong Kong, said that his methodology was the most powerful way of evaluating whether acupuncture was effective. His results are published in the journal Human Reproduction.

In a second study, researchers in Chicago used a similar design in which 124 women received true or sham acupuncture. The control group had their skin punctured by real acupuncture needles, but not at genuine "Qi-lines" on the body.

In the true acupuncture group, 43.9% achieved a clinical pregnancy, compared with 55.2% of the women given the sham treatment. The results were presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's annual meeting in San Francisco yesterday.

Scientists in Mexico turn tequila into diamonds

Farmers in Mexico have been given another reason to grow agave, the cactus-like plant used to produce the country's most potent export. In the bar room equivalent of alchemy, scientists have turned shots of tequila into diamonds.

The surprise use for the national tipple emerged when researchers at the National Autonomous University experimented with making ultra-thin films of diamond from organic solutions, such as acetone and ethanol. The mix that worked best, 40% alcohol and 60% water, was similar to the proportions used in tequila.

Diamond films are extremely durable and heat resistant and can be used to coat cutting tools. By carefully adding impurities to the films, it is also possible to make diamond semiconductors for use in electronic circuits.

Luis Miguel Apátiga, a member of the team, brought a bottle of cheap tequila into the lab to see if it could be turned into diamond. When he heated a shot to 800C it vaporised and broke down into its atomic constituents, producing a fine layer of carbon on nearby metal trays.

Close examination of the films at high magnification revealed that the carbon had formed into crystal structures identical to diamond. Each was around one thousandth of a millimetre across.

"It's true that the fact it's tequila has a certain charm. It's a Mexican product and Mexican researchers developed the project, but a businessman can say to me: 'Great, how pretty! But how can I use it?'," Apátiga said. "It would be very difficult to obtain diamonds for a ring."

The researchers plan to make tequila-based diamonds on an industrial scale from 2011, a move that could see agave growing expand beyond the tequila market.

Will Mars Phoenix and its Twitter feed rise from the ashes?

It seems not. After five months of exploring Mars, digging up the soil and making some startling discoveries along the way, the world's favourite interplanetary laboratory has gone off the radar - probably for good.

Earlier this week, Nasa officials finally closed the book on the Phoenix Mars Lander five months, $475m (£308m) and 605 Twitter messages after it first touched down on the red planet.

In a final message at twitter.com/marsphoenix - yes, even interplanetary craft get their own social media accounts these days (even if they are run by a team back on Earth) - Phoenix signed off with a binary representation of the word "triumph".

Veronica McGregor, from Nasa's press office at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, gave Mars Phoenix its human face through Twitter - and saw its followers grow from 3,000 on landing day to more than 9,000 not long after, principally due to her willingness to respond to questions. "The Twitter audience is both intelligent and incredibly humorous. I think I was entertained by them as much as they were entertained by MarsPhoenix," she told us.

But the Twitter feed also offered news: it had the first public announcement on July 31 of the discovery of water ice: "An ice-containing sample made it into the TEGA oven. I can now say I'm the first mission to Mars to touch and then *taste* the water. FTW!" (The latter being triumphant gamer jargon - "for the win!")

"We've started other Twitter feeds at JPL, and other Nasa centres have also started accounts for their missions," McGregor said. "Personally, I'm continuing to post to @MarsRovers and I'll be starting @MarsScienceLab in the next few days. I'll post occasionally to @MarsPhoenix, too, with science updates and other news."

Over the course of its mission - which lasted five months in total, two more than initially planned - Phoenix took 25,000 images of the Martian landscape, became the first landing craft to taste the ice below the Martian surface and even found perchlorate salts, which left scientists speculating about the possibility of Martian life.

But Nasa's engineers had an off-again, on-again relationship with the machine, having lost contact last month before a brief rally when Phoenix got back in touch on Halloween. Its rise from the ashes did not last long, and communications went quiet again on November 2. This, said experts at JPL, means Phoenix is most likely now frozen beyond the point of repair.

Still, there is a faint glimmer of hope for Phoenix's legion of fans. Although the skies are too dark and the weather too cold for Phoenix to operate during the winter months, it has a special "Lazarus" mode which might see it hibernate through to the spring ... before rising once again to carry on with its mission. FTW!

Songbirds 'sing from hymn sheet'

Zebra finches learn to sing from a song sheet in their head, a new study has found, offering clues on how humans learn to speak.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 12 Nov 2008 | 11:41 pm

Earth: Out of the Freezer, Into the Fire

The good news: thanks to global warming, humanity doesn't have to worry about another Ice Age in just 10,000 years.

The bad news: global warming isn't all that much better, and we'll have to deal with it in our lifetimes.

So said Tom Crowley, a University of Edinburgh geoscientist, who predicts that Earth, left to its own devices, would enter long-term deep-freeze within 10,000 to 100,000 years.

According to Crowley, such a period would last far longer than the last Ice Age. It would represent a condition of planetary stability after fifty million years of wild climate fluctuations, which over the last few million years have become even more rapid and pronounced, like the final turns of a gyroscope.

However, Crowley's model, published today in Nature, is not likely to come true. Along came humanity and, to be more precise, the Industrial Age. Our greenhouse gas emissions, he said, are more than enough to alter the Earth's once-frigid destiny.

What's so bad about that?

We're putting so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, said Crowley, that the planet's climate isn't simply veering from a curve: it's departing at right angles.

Flooding coastal regions and risking drought across much of Earth's surface "does not seem like the normal thing a society would do for self-preservation," he said. "We're creating a situation at least as dangerous, only going in the opposite direction."

Transient nature of late Pleistocene climate variability [Nature]

Images: 1. Flickr/Angela7dreams 2. Two models of future global ice cover, with thickness denoted by spectral reddening/Nature

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 12 Nov 2008 | 11:39 pm

How Floating 'Energy Islands' Could Power the Future

The ocean harbors abundant energy in the form of wind, waves and sun.
Source: Livescience.com | 12 Nov 2008 | 9:25 pm

California starring in massive earthquake drill (AP)

AP - California will star Thursday in a mock earthquake disaster drill considered the largest in U.S. history with some 5 million people pledging to do everything from ducking for cover to rescuing faux victims.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Nov 2008 | 9:22 pm

Supreme Court: National Security Trumps Whales, Environmental Law

It's a loud, sad day off the coast of California: the Supreme Court today ruled in favor of the Navy and against environmentalists who argued that military sonar frequencies kill whales.

"The balance of equities and the public interest ... tip strongly in favor of the Navy," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority opinion. "The Navy’s need to conduct realistic training with active sonar to respond to the threat posed by enemy submarines plainly outweighs the interests advanced by the plaintiffs."

On the legal side of the whales is the Natural Resources Defense Council, who in 2005 filed a lawsuit in Santa Monica, California, contending that the Navy's use of mid-frequency sonar in whale-rich areas violates the Environmental Policy Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.

"By the Navy's own estimates, even 300 miles from the source these [low frequency] sonic waves can retain an intensity of 140 decibels — a hundred times more intense than the level known to alter the behavior of large whales," reads the NRDC's marine sonar page. "Mid-frequency sonar is more widely used and has been associated with mortalities of whales."

The NRDC produced graphic evidence of whales beaching themselves in distress, their brains and ears bleeding, or suffering from "the bends" — an affliction known to deep-sea divers who surface too quickly. Sonar appeared to have disoriented the whales, which rely on sound to navigate, in much the way that unrelenting and blinding light might make life difficult for people.

But it's hard to know exactly what's going on in the deep ocean, and the Navy argued that clear evidence of whale harm was uncertain, and certainly less important than threats posed by enemy submarines. Nevertheless, the court sided with the NRDC, ordering the Navy to stop sonar training exercises off the California coast. Then President Bush stepped in, giving the Navy an executive exemption from the ruling, followed by another federal court ruling that the Bush's say-so wasn't enough.

On it went to the Supreme Court, where the Navy won by a 5-to-4 margin. Critically, the court didn't address environmental concerns: It ruled that federal courts had abused their discretion in ordering the Navy to stop sonar training, or at least finding a better place to do it. Formally dissenting from the ruling were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter.

All the Navy had to do, they argued, is draft an environmental impact statement, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act — but the Navy didn't bother, and then called in the President to exempt them from the law, even though he had no legal standing to do so.

Even if the Navy wouldn't admit in court to hurting whales, wrote Ginsburg and Souter, their own Environmental Assessment — a less-formal version of an environmental impact statement — predicted that sonar training exercises would drive entire whale populations mad.

"This likely harm," wrote the justices, "cannot be lightly dismissed.... There is no doubt that the training exercises serve critical interests. But those interests do not authorize the Navy to violate a statutory command."

Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. [Supreme Court of the United States] (.pdf)

Image: Nagillum

WiSci 2.0: Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and Del.icio.us feed; Wired Science on Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 12 Nov 2008 | 9:10 pm

Shock Waves Could Create Ingredients for Planets

The raw ingredients for planets could be created by supersonic shock waves around young stars, a new study to appear in the Astrophysical Journal suggests.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope recently examined five baby solar systems with planets just beginning to form. The observations revealed the presence of tiny quartz crystals that can only form after flash heating followed by rapid cooling, conditions that scientists think could be the result of shock waves of pressure, akin to those from jets that cause sonic booms.

The quartz crystals Spitzer found, called cristobalite and tridymite, are some of the building blocks of planets. During the early stages of planet formation, dust grains in the pancake-like disks of dust and gas surrounding young stars crystallize and stick together, eventually snowballing to form a planet.

Shock waves might arise when clouds of gas swirling around these planet-forming disks collide at high speeds. And this, scientists say, could jump start the process of birthing planets.

"By studying these other star systems, we can learn about the very beginnings of our own planets 4.6 billion years ago," astronomer William Forrest of the University of Rochester who led the research, said in a release. "Spitzer has given us a better idea of how the raw materials of planets are produced very early on."

In fact, the observations of these star systems about 400 light-years away agree with findings in our own neighborhood. Ancient meteorites that fell to Earth have been found to harbor round grains called chondrules. These pebbles also require special circumstances to form, and shock waves in our solar system’s early disk could be responsible.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 12 Nov 2008 | 8:30 pm

Risks seen in opposite-sex heart transplants

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Men and women who get heart transplants are more likely to die when the donor was of the opposite sex, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 12 Nov 2008 | 8:05 pm

GM crops found to affect reproduction in mice: Austrian study (AFP)

AFP - Genetically-modified maize can affect reproduction in mice, an Austrian study has found, although its authors have dismissed warnings by environmental groups that it could also harm humans.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Nov 2008 | 7:35 pm

U.S. top court rules for Navy in whales-sonar case

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy can conduct sonar training exercises off the southern California coast without restrictions designed to protect whales, dolphins and other marine mammals, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday in a defeat for environmentalists.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 12 Nov 2008 | 7:26 pm

CO2 Emissions May Prevent Projected Ice Age

Earth may avert a far projected deep freeze thanks to greenhouse gases.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Nov 2008 | 7:22 pm

Woolly Rhinoceros Discovery Is Oldest in Europe

The skull of a woolly rhinoceros suggests the beast was an efficient grazer.
Source: Livescience.com | 12 Nov 2008 | 7:15 pm

T. Boone Pickens: Wind Can Wait

With oil prices down, the Pickens Plan is up in the air for now.
Source: Livescience.com | 12 Nov 2008 | 6:39 pm

Sonar Ruling Worries Whale Advocates

The Supreme Court rules that the U.S. Navy can continue to use long-range sonar.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Nov 2008 | 6:22 pm

Mysterious Light Show Seen at Saturn

Cassini spacecraft photographs new aurora at Saturn's pole.
Source: Livescience.com | 12 Nov 2008 | 6:16 pm

Study clears fertility treatment of causing breast cancer

Fertility treatment does not increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer, according to a study of more than 25,000 women with fertility problems in the Netherlands.

The study will help to reassure patients concerned that the powerful doses of hormones that are part of fertility treatment might put them at risk of developing cancer in the future.

At the beginning of an IVF treatment cycle, women are given a course of hormone drugs to stimulate their ovaries to produce more eggs than usual so that clinicians can produce several fertilised embryos in vitro.

The treatment causes large spikes in oestrogen levels in the body. In theory this could promote the development of breast cancer, which is sensitive to the hormone.

The Dutch study, carried out by Dr Alexandra van den Belt-Dousebout at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, examined patient records from all 12 IVF clinics in the country between 1980 and 1995.

Her team compared 18,970 women who had had at least one cycle of IVF treatment and 7,536 other women with fertility problems who had not received fertility treatment. They matched these patients to records in the National Cancer Registry to establish whether they had gone on to develop breast cancer.

Of the 378 women who developed breast cancer, 266 were in the IVF group and 112 were in the non-IVF group. After adjusting for known risk factors such as age, the number of children the women already had, the age they began menstruating, family history of breast cancer and body mass index, the team found no statistical difference between the two groups, suggesting that IVF treatment does not increase a woman's chances of developing breast cancer.

Van den Belt-Dousebout presented her results at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in San Francisco.

"From 10 years after treatment breast cancer risk was moderately increased in the IVF group but also in the non-IVF group, compared to the general population," van den Belt-Dousebout and her colleagues wrote in their presentation, "This may be explained by a lower number of children compared to the general population."

Having children is known to reduce the risk of breast cancer in women.

Key 'switch' found for popular breast cancer drug (AP)

AP - Scientists have pinpointed the molecular on-off switch that the powerful drug tamoxifen uses to attack breast cancer and which prevents it from working in some women.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Nov 2008 | 6:00 pm

Live Video Chat With Wired Science Reporter at 11 a.m. PST

Today, we're embarking on a grand experiment to see what happens when you take a sleep-deprived, stressed-out science reporter and put him live in front of the world.

That him, as you might guess, is me. You, or whoever tunes in, play the part of the world.

I'll be talking about Wired Science stories this week including the sad news that the Mars Phoenix Lander mission is over, developing world technology, urban goat farming, and whatever else you ask me about.

We're envisioning the video sessions as another way to provide you with access to our journalistic process. And we're hoping it will just be fun: for example, we might have to devote a few minutes to talking about the Puppy Cam, and how Wired Science's love for the puppies inspired the best Twitter feed you've ever read.

Photo illustration: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter , Google Reader feed, and webpage; Wired Science on Facebook.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 12 Nov 2008 | 5:48 pm

NASA clears shuttle Endeavour for Friday launch (AP)

AP - NASA cleared space shuttle Endeavour for a Friday night launch to the international space station, but the weather outlook was not too promising.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 12 Nov 2008 | 5:43 pm

Oceans exploits

Exploring the world's last great wilderness
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 12 Nov 2008 | 4:54 pm

US Court allows navy sonar use

The US Supreme Court lifts restrictions on the US Navy's use of sonar in training exercises off the California coast.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 12 Nov 2008 | 4:45 pm

Weather Could Thwart Friday Shuttle Launch

An approaching cold front threatens the planned shuttle launch on Friday.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Nov 2008 | 4:04 pm

Science Extra podcast: Google Flu Trends uses search data to track outbreaks

Google already has a window into our souls through our internet searches and it now has insight into our ailing bodies too.

The internet giant is using its vast database of individual search terms to predict the emergence of flu up to two weeks before government epidemiologists.

Feel free to post your comments about the story below.

You can also join our Facebook group, where you can scrawl your thoughts on our wall.

Don't forget to listen to our Science Weekly podcast special on what Barack Obama's election will mean for science and the environment across the world.

Source: Science | guardian.co.uk | 12 Nov 2008 | 4:04 pm

Brisk Walk Can Curb Chocolate Cravings

Walking can reduce cravings for chocolate, even during activities that increase munchies.
Source: Livescience.com | 12 Nov 2008 | 3:56 pm

Fat Kids Have Arteries of 45-year-olds

Obese children as young as 10 had the arteries of 45-year-olds and other heart abnormalities.
Source: Livescience.com | 12 Nov 2008 | 3:54 pm

Philips develops "intelligent pill"

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch group Philips has developed an "intelligent pill" that contains a microprocessor, battery, wireless radio, pump and a drug reservoir to release medication in a specific area in the body.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 12 Nov 2008 | 3:53 pm

Offshore Wind Power Alters Ocean Currents

Offshore wind farms alter ocean currents and stir up ocean nutrients, research shows.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 12 Nov 2008 | 3:04 pm

Wild Birds Learn Foreign 'Languages'

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Google hits to warn of flu epidemics

Google already has a window into our souls through our internet searches and it now has insight into our ailing bodies too.

The internet giant is using its vast database of individual search terms to predict the emergence of flu up to two weeks before government epidemiologists.

Google Flu Trends uses the tendency of people to seek online help for their health problems.

By tracking searches for terms such as 'cough', 'fever' and 'aches and pains' it claims to be able to accurately estimate where flu is circulating.

Google tested the idea in nine regions of the US and found it could accurately predict flu outbreaks between seven and 14 days earlier than the federal centres for disease control and prevention.

Google hopes the idea could also be used to help track other diseases. Flu Trends is limited to the US.

Jeremy Ginsberg and Matt Mohebb, two software engineers involved in the project, said: "Patterns in Google search queries can be very informative."

In a blogpost on the project they wrote: "It turns out that traditional flu surveillance systems take one-two weeks to collect and release surveillance data but Google search queries can be automatically counted very quickly.

"By making our estimates available each day, Flu Trends may provide an early-warning system for outbreaks of influenza."

They explained that private information health would be kept confidential. " Flu Trends can never be used to identify individual users because we rely on anonymised, aggregated counts of how often certain search queries occur each week."

A paper on the project has been accepted by the respected journal Nature.

"This seems like a clever way of using data that is created unintentionally by the users of Google to see patterns in the world that would otherwise be invisible," Thomas Malone, a professor at the MIT Sloan school of management, told the New York Times.

Alok Jha speaks to Jeremy Ginsberg, one of the engineers on the Google Flu Trends project

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