The Brain 'Joins The Dots' When Drawing A Cartoon Face From Memory

Scientists used a brain scanner to record the brain's activity in each stage of the process of drawing faces. The researchers found that the captured visual information is stored as a series of locations or action plans to reach those locations. It is as if the brain remembers key locations and then "joins the dots" with a straight or curved line to achieve the desired image on the page.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Mar 2009 | 9:00 pm

Nanotechnology Boosts Efficiency In Converting Solar Energy Into Hydrogen In Fuel Cells

Researchers find great promise in a process that could use solar energy to use hydrogen, the third most abundant element on earth's surface, as the ultimate alternative to fossil fuels. This process increase dramatically the efficiency of titania photoanodes used to convert solar energy into hydrogen in fuel cells.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Mar 2009 | 9:00 pm

Cause For Severe Pediatric Epilepsy Disorder Identified

Researchers have discovered that convulsive seizures in a form of severe epilepsy are generated, not on the brain's surface as expected, but from within the memory-forming hippocampus. The scientists hope that their findings -- based on a mouse model of severe epilepsy -- may someday pave the way for improved treatments of childhood epilepsy, which affects more than two percent of children worldwide.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Mar 2009 | 9:00 pm

Living Model Of Basic Units Of Human Brain Created

Researchers are developing a novel new way to model how the human brain works by creating a living representation of the brain. They are using cells originally from a tumor which have been 'reprogrammed' to stop multiplying. Using the same natural molecule the body does to stimulate cellular development, the cells are turned into a co-culture of nerve cells and astrocytes - the most basic units of the human brain. The research could lead to improved treatments for Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Mar 2009 | 9:00 pm

HPV Vaccine May Prevent Preterm Births

Chronic human papilloma virus (HPV) infections can lead to cellular changes in the cervix that can be a pre-stage to cervical cancer. Surgical treatment of these pre-stages gives an increased risk of preterm birth in subsequent pregnancies. As the HPV vaccine can prevent pre-stages of cervical cancer, it may therefore reduce the number of preterm births. A new Norwegian study has calculated the benefits of HPV vaccination.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Mar 2009 | 9:00 pm

Synthetic Biology: Transforming Cells Into Microscopic Biological Computers

Synthetic biology is an emerging discipline through which scientists hope to transform cells into microscopic biological 'computers' programmed to perform specific tasks. Such capabilities would have a range of applications, including detecting toxic agents, generating clean energy, and large-scale drug manufacturing.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Mar 2009 | 9:00 pm

New Target For Heart Failure Therapy Identified

A novel signaling pathway plays a significant role in the production of aldosterone, a hormone that promotes heart failure after a myocardial infarction, according to a study conducted by Thomas Jefferson University researchers.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Mar 2009 | 3:00 pm

Four Of Saturn's Moons Parade By Their Parent

A new Hubble Space Telescope image shows four of Saturn's moons circling the ringed planet.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Mar 2009 | 3:00 pm

Search For Blood Pressure Secrets Reveals A Surprising New Syndrome

Researchers investigating the genetic causes of blood pressure variation have identified a previously undescribed syndrome associated with seizures, a lack of coordination, developmental delay and hearing loss.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Mar 2009 | 3:00 pm

Climate Warming Affects Antarctic Ice Sheet Stability

A five-nation scientific team has published new evidence that even a slight rise in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, one of the gases that drives global warming, affects the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The massive WAIS covers the continent on the Pacific side of the Transantarctic Mountains. Any substantial melting of the ice sheet would cause a rise in global sea levels.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 22 Mar 2009 | 3:00 pm

Space Shuttle Astronauts Get Time Off (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery are due for some much-deserved time off Sunday as NASA engineers draw up new plans for the crew's last spacewalk at the International Space Station.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Mar 2009 | 12:00 pm

Hurricane Season 2008 (weather.com)

weather.com -
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Mar 2009 | 10:05 am

Astronauts get Sunday morning off after busy week (AP)

In this image from NASA TV, space shuttle Discovery crew member Steven Swanson works outside the international space station during a space walk orbiting Earth, Saturday, March 21, 2009. This is the second spacewalk during shuttle Discovery's mission. (AP Photo/NASA TV)AP - The astronauts aboard the orbiting station-shuttle complex are finally getting a break.



Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Mar 2009 | 8:07 am

China prepares to send pandas to new Sichuan home (AP)

AP - Eight pandas were being readied for their journey back to central China on Sunday, ending a 10-month stay at the Beijing Zoo that was extended after their nature reserve was badly damaged in last year's massive earthquake, state television said.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Mar 2009 | 6:56 am

Crossing the icy unknown, hunting climate clues (AP)

AP - On the 27th day of their trek, a dozen "black specks" of humanity crawling across Antarctica's vast white silence, Lou Albershardt heard a sound she'd never heard in two decades on the ice.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Mar 2009 | 4:23 am

Spacewalking astronauts tackle station maintenance

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Space shuttle Discovery's lead spacewalker and his rookie partner floated outside the International Space Station on Saturday to prepare the complex for the debut flight of an unmanned Japanese cargo ship and future construction missions.

Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Mar 2009 | 12:53 am

Venezuela Chavez announcing economic measures (Reuters)

Reuters - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez began a broadcast on Saturday in which he will announce economic measures designed to offset lower oil revenue and the impact of the global financial crisis on the OPEC nation.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Mar 2009 | 11:49 pm

Complete dino skeleton doesn't sell at NY auction (AP)

In this photo released by the I.M. Chait Gallery, a complete 150-million-year-old dinosaur skeleton, top right, joins other fossils prior to an auction of prehistoric relics in New York, Saturday, March 21, 2009. The I.M. Chait Gallery of Beverly Hills, Calif., will offer it and other items such as a 7-foot-tall complete skeleton of a 20,000-year-old juvenile wooly mammoth, and the fossilized skeleton of 20-foot-long marine lizard at a New York auction later that day. (AP Photo/I.M. Chait Gallery, Josh Chait)AP - A New York gallery says a 150-million-year-old complete skeleton of a dinosaur has failed to sell at auction.



Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Mar 2009 | 10:00 pm

Gifts Burden Men, Gladden Women (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Thank you so much for reading this column. Really, I can't thank you enough. I am so grateful, and the good news is that I don't feel like I have to repay your kindness at all. I feel no obligation to, say, read something of yours. Instead, I can just enjoy your gift and feel happy. My happy gratitude when receiving a gift is, apparently, a typical response for a woman. ...
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Mar 2009 | 1:42 pm

Genetics Should Decide Warfarin Dose, Study Reiterates (HealthDay)

HealthDay - FRIDAY, March 20 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have confirmed previously reported genetic factors that may help doctors more accurately prescribe the proper dosage of the blood thinner warfarin to people at high risk of cardiovascular problems.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Mar 2009 | 1:23 pm