|
|
|
|
Pancreatic Cancer Affects Blacks At Higher RatesRegardless of risk factors linked to pancreatic cancer, such as smoking and body mass index, African Americans experience higher rates of pancreatic cancer death than whites, a new study finds.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Termites Eavesdrop On Competitors To SurviveThe drywood termite, Cryptotermes secundus, eavesdrops on its more aggressive subterranean competitor, Coptotermes acinaciformis, to avoid contact with it, according to scientists in Australia.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Hydrogen Storage Gets New HopeA new method for "recycling" hydrogen-containing fuel materials could open the door to economically viable hydrogen-based vehicles. In a new study, researchers describe a significant advance in hydrogen storage science.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Why Cry? Evolutionary Biologists Show Crying Can Strengthen RelationshipsMedically, crying is known to be a symptom of physical pain or stress. But now an evolutionary biologist looks to empirical evidence showing that tears have emotional benefits and can make interpersonal relationships stronger.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Organic Electronics A Two-way Street, Thanks To New Plastic SemiconductorA new organic material lets both positive and negative charges flow efficiently. It permits a simpler design of organic electronics, using a single material for transporting positive and negative charges.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Scientists Move Closer To A Safer Anthrax VaccineResearchers have identified two small protein fragments that could be developed into an anthrax vaccine that may cause fewer side effects than the current vaccine.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm Molecular Decay Of Enamel-specific Gene In Toothless Mammals Supports Theory Of EvolutionBiologists report new evidence for evolutionary change recorded in both the fossil record and the genomes (or genetic blueprints) of living organisms, providing fresh support for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The researchers were able to correlate the progressive loss of enamel in the fossil record with a simultaneous molecular decay of a gene, called the enamelin gene, that is involved in enamel formation in mammals.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am Natural Compounds, Chemotherapeutic Drugs May Become Partners In Cancer TherapyResearch suggests that some natural food compounds, which previously have been studied for their ability to prevent cancer, may be able to play a more significant role in treating it -- working side-by-side with the conventional drugs that are now used in chemotherapy.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am Diabetes Advance: Researchers Find Gene That Causes Resistance To InsulinA breakthrough by an international team of researchers in Canada, France, the UK and Denmark has uncovered a new gene that could lead to better treatment of type 2 diabetes, as well as a better understanding of how this widespread disease develops.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am Chemotherapy For Breast Cancer Is Associated With Disruption Of Sleep-wake Rhythm In WomenA new study shows that the sleep-wake activity rhythms of breast cancer patients are impaired during the administration of chemotherapy. Results indicate that the first cycle of chemotherapy is associated with a temporary disruption of these rhythms, while repeated administration of chemotherapy results in progressively worse and more enduring impairments.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 7 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am Turtle thought to be extinct spotted in Myanmar (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Sep 2009 | 4:33 am In Pictures: Weird crater creaturesStunning photographs of unusual and unknown invertebrates discovered in a 'lost volcano' in Papua New GuineaSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Sep 2009 | 4:07 am Japan vows big climate change cutJapan's PM-elect Yukio Hatoyama pledges a 25% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, much more than his predecessor.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 7 Sep 2009 | 3:16 am Green group WWF hails next Japan PM's climate pledge (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Sep 2009 | 3:10 am Breakthrough Discoveries of Alzheimer's Genes (Time.com)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Sep 2009 | 3:05 am The Nation's weather (AP)AP - The nation's main weather stories were expected to develop in the Northwest and the Southeast on Monday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Sep 2009 | 2:52 am India to set industry efficiency targets by Dec 2010 (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Sep 2009 | 2:52 am Japan's next PM to slash emissions, name cabinet (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 7 Sep 2009 | 2:46 am Astronauts pack trash, surplus gear for ride home (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Sep 2009 | 11:27 pm Seas 'threaten 20m in Bangladesh'Up to 20 million people in parts of Bangladesh are at risk from rising sea levels in the coming decades, says new research.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 6 Sep 2009 | 10:59 pm Sun, sea, sewageBad weather - the dirty story of some UK beachesSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 6 Sep 2009 | 9:17 pm For real - researchers call for changes in 'honesty' testResearchers say the current "honesty test" should be reviewed after discovering big differences in judging what makes a dishonest act.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 6 Sep 2009 | 8:14 pm Tiny creature in UK record firstA 1mm long wingless insect found in the Scottish hills is confirmed as the first recorded sighting from the UK.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 6 Sep 2009 | 5:29 pm Spacewalkers outfit station for final nodeCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A pair of spacewalking astronauts from the U.S. shuttle Discovery worked outside the International Space Station on Saturday to lay power cables for the orbital outpost's last connecting node.Source: Reuters: Science News | 6 Sep 2009 | 5:21 pm Beatboxing and the PestivalDan Stowell, a computer scientist at Queen Mary University of London, demonstrates his research in which he digitally transforms the human voice in real-time to create weird musical instruments and interactive experiences. He is also part of the Noisemakers programme to get youngsters talking about science. Check out the video of his digital voice-analysis "cube", and spectrograms for the musical challenge Dan set the podcast team. In the newsjam, we look at the latest climate change evidence, advances in IVF treatment, a quantum mechanical quandary, and music that soothes and angers monkeys. To mark Pestival - Glastonbury for insects - at London's Southbank Centre we speak to Deborah Gordon from Stanford University about her study of ants. She gives us some fascinating insights into their sexual habits. Fly expert Steve Connor adds to the discussion in our Pestival video. We have an update on the progress of the 10:10 climate change campaign. Guardian science correspondent Ian Sample and our very own bee expert Alison Benjamin are also in the studio. Post your comments about the programme below. Join our Facebook group. Listen back through our archive. Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science. Subscribe free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed).
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 6 Sep 2009 | 5:14 pm Lost world of fanged frogs and giant rats discovered in Papua New GuineaIn pictures: Lost land of the colcano A lost world populated by fanged frogs, grunting fish and tiny bear-like creatures has been discovered in a remote volcanic crater on the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea. A team of scientists from Britain, America, Hawaii and Papua New Guinea found more than 40 previously unidentified species when they climbed into the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and explored a pristine jungle habitat teeming with life that has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago. In a remarkably rich haul from just five weeks of exploration, the biologists discovered 16 frogs which have never before been recorded by science, at least three new fish, a new bat and a giant rat, which may turn out to be the biggest in the world. The discoveries are being seen as fresh evidence of the richness of the world's rainforests and the explorers hope their finds will add weight to calls for international action to prevent the demise of similar ecosystems. They said Papua New Guinea's rainforest is currently being destroyed at the rate of 3.5% a year. "It was mind-blowing to be there and it is clearly time we pulled our finger out and decided these habitats are worth us saving," said Dr George McGavin who headed the expedition. The team of biologists included experts from Oxford University, the London Zoo and the Smithsonian Institution and are believed to be the first scientists to enter the mountainous Bosavi crater. They were joined by members of the BBC Natural History Unit which filmed the expedition for a three-part documentary which starts tomorrow night. They found the three-kilometre wide crater populated by spectacular birds of paradise and in the absence of big cats and monkeys, which are found in the remote jungles of the Amazon and Sumatra, the main predators are giant monitor lizards while kangaroos have evolved to live in trees. New species include a camouflaged gecko, a fanged frog and a fish called the Henamo grunter, named because it makes grunting noises from its swim bladder. "These discoveries are really significant," said Steve Backshall, a climber and naturalist who became so friendly with the never-before seen Bosavi silky cuscus, a marsupial that lives up trees and feeds on fruits and leaves, that it sat on his shoulder. "The world is getting an awful lot smaller and it is getting very hard to find places that are so far off the beaten track." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 6 Sep 2009 | 5:05 pm Honesty not best policy, survey of public attitudes suggestsHang your head in shame. A major survey of public attitudes towards dishonesty has revealed a nation dominated by chancers, cheats and petty thieves. More than two-thirds of people have stolen stationery from work, copied CDs for friends, or kept quiet when undercharged in shops, a study by British criminal lawyers shows. Meanwhile, significant numbers confessed they would make fraudulent insurance claims, deceive people online and plagiarise internet articles for college assignments if the chance arose. Others said they would steal DVDs or use a colleague's account to shop online. The lawyers asked more than 15,000 people in England and Wales to give their views on morally dubious scenarios, from picking up coins in the street to setting fire to one's garage to claim the insurance. They found stark differences in attitude, with women and older people taking a generally dimmer view of events than males and younger people. Opportunistic theft, especially from large corporations, was common despite broad agreement that it was dishonest. "It's almost part of human nature. If we think we can get away with something that's not causing a huge amount of harm to an identifiable person, we do it," said Stefan Fafinski, who helped devise the survey carried out at Brunel University. Details of the "honesty lab" survey will be announced at the British Science Association festival in Guildford this week. The lawyers set up the survey to investigate whether "ordinary standards of reasonable and honest people" existed. The phrase, a cornerstone of criminal law in Britain, is used in the Ghosh test to help determine whether a defendant has behaved honestly. The survey found that even when it came to clear crimes, such as burning down one's garage to claim the insurance, some people argued the act was not dishonest or worthy of conviction. "The Ghosh test assumes there is a standard of reasonable and honest people, but even in extreme cases there are disagreements about what is honest. What we can say for sure is that the test is based on an unattainable standard of honesty in society," said Fafinski. Participants watched videos of actors describing scenarios and then decided whether they had behaved dishonestly and whether the offence was serious enough for a conviction. After watching one scenario 66% said it was dishonest to cash a winning lottery ticket they found in the street but 41% said they would do it. The next phase of research will use mock-up courts to see whether private views change when people join a jury and are required to discuss their opinions. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 6 Sep 2009 | 5:05 pm Leading scientist calls on religious leaders to tackle climate changePresident of the British Science Association, Lord May, says faith groups could lead policing of social behaviour Religious leaders should play a frontline role in mobilising people to take action against global warming, according to a leading scientist. Lord May, a former chief scientist to the government, said religious groups could use their influence to motivate believers into reducing the environmental impact of their lives. The international reach of faith-based organisations and their authoritarian structures give religious groups an almost unrivalled ability to encourage a large proportion of the world's population to go green, he said. Lord May highlighted the value of religion in uniting communities to tackle environmental challenges ahead of his presidential address to the British Science Association festival at the University of Surrey in Guildford today. He will use the address to raise what Charles Darwin considered one of the great unsolved problems of his time: the evolution of co-operation. While scientists can explain the emergence of co-operative behaviour in small, related groups of animals, understanding co-operation among distant human societies has been more difficult, he said. May will argue that the puzzle is as pressing today as it was to Darwin 150 years ago, because of the urgent need for global co-operation to tackle the environmental issues of water shortages, greenhouse gas emissions and unsustainable energy consumption. The world's population has risen roughly sevenfold since Darwin's day, with a similar increase in the amount of energy each individual uses. That suggests the ecological footprint of humanity upon the planet has increased fiftyfold since Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859. "In all of this, probably the biggest difficulty is that globally co-operative actions are required. These difficulties are compounded by the fact that not only must nations co-operate, but – given past history – they must do so in equitable proportions," May will say, according to an advance copy of his address. Experiments using what scientists call "game theory" show that groups of people can achieve their goals if cheats and those who fail to pull their weight are punished. Speaking before the address, May said religion had historically played a major role in policing social behaviour through the notion of a supernatural "enforcer", a system that could help unify communities to tackle environmental challenges. "How better it is if the punisher is an all-powerful, all-seeing deity," he said. According to May, humans are causing enough damage to ecosystems that we may have to resort to dramatic engineering projects to replace the roles they play in sustaining the planet, such as stabilising the climate, purifying water and pollinating crops. "Maybe we could be clever enough artificially to engineer substitutes for these lost ecosystem services, although I fear this could see us living, at best, in the world of the cult movie, Blade Runner, and more likely Mad Max," his address states. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 6 Sep 2009 | 5:05 pm Crater creaturesStrange animals are discovered in a 'lost volcano'Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 6 Sep 2009 | 4:57 pm Giant rat found in 'lost volcano'A BBC expedition discovers a new species of giant rat in the jungle of Papua New Guinea, one of the largest ever found.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 6 Sep 2009 | 4:56 pm Where did you get that hat? Easter Island mystery solvedUK researchers believe they can now better describe how the famous Easter Island statues got their red hats.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 6 Sep 2009 | 4:56 pm Shuttle Astronauts in Homestretch of Space Mission (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - Space shuttle Discovery astronauts entered the homestretch of their busy flight to the International Space Station Sunday and are packing up for their trip home later this week.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Sep 2009 | 3:01 pm Gossip GirlSue Nelson reports from the British Science FestivalSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 6 Sep 2009 | 2:10 pm NY researchers give ladybugs a birds-and-bees talk (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Sep 2009 | 1:46 pm Scientists find three new gene links to Alzheimer'sLONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found three new major genetic links to Alzheimer's, affecting up to 20 percent of people with the brain-wasting disease, and said on Sunday it was the most significant such discovery in 15 years.Source: Reuters: Science News | 6 Sep 2009 | 11:08 am Alzheimer's research links three genes to diseaseFindings hailed as 'huge step' towards earlier testing and better treatment for Alzheimer's Scientists have discovered a trio of genetic mutations that account for nearly 100,000 cases of Alzheimer's disease in Britain today. Three genes that protect the brain from damage and ensure neurons work properly were found to be impaired in many patients with the disease, in the largest genetic study of the condition yet. The work has been hailed as a "huge step" towards earlier testing and better treatment for Alzheimer's and is the first in 15 years to find new genes associated with the disease. Previously, scientists knew of only one gene, called APOE4, which increases the risk of developing the most common form of the disease. "If we were able to remove the detrimental effects of these genes, we could reduce the proportion of people suffering Alzheimer's disease by approximately 20%," said Julie Williams, an Alzheimer's researcher at Cardiff University. "In the UK alone this would prevent just under 100,000 people developing the disease." About 417,000 people have Alzheimer's disease in Britain, the vast majority of whom have the late-onset form that develops after the age of 65. A very rare form of Alzheimer's disease that runs in families can affect much younger people. Scientists believe that genes account for 80% of our chance of developing late-onset Alzheimer's, the rest coming from lifestyle and environmental factors. The newly discovered genes have challenged scientists' thinking on how Alzheimer's disease develops in older people. Patients often suffer inflammation of the brain, an effect that was thought to be a symptom of the disease. But the latest findings suggest that unchecked inflammation may actually play a role in causing the condition. Scientists believe they will find more genes linked to Alzheimer's that in future could help in assessing a person's risk of developing the disorder. "This study is a huge step towards achieving an earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer's and improving the lives of the many people affected by the disease," said Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, chief executive of the Medical Research Council, which partly funded the work. Williams's team conducted a "genome wide association study", in which the genetic codes of nearly 4,000 Alzheimer's patients were compared with the genomes of almost 8,000 healthy individuals. The researchers found variants of three genes that were risk factors for developing Alzheimer's. One of the genes was APOE4, but the other two had not previously been linked to the disease. One gene, called clusterin, helps to protect the brain from exessive inflammation caused by infections and other illnesses. The gene is also involved in removing clumps of rogue protein known as amyloid plaques, which are commonly seen in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Defects in the gene hamper its ability to do these jobs and increase the risk of Alzheimer's. The second new gene, called Picalm, is crucial for maintaining the health of connections between brain cells. Mutations in the Picalm gene are thought to disrupt the ability of brain neurons to talk to each other and form memories. A related study of more than 7,000 Alzheimer's patients and healthy volunteers, led by Philippe Amouyel at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Lille, also identified a variant of the clusterin gene as a risk factor for the disease. When the two groups combined their data, they discovered a third new gene called CR1 that was also linked to Alzheimer's disease. The CR1 gene is involved in protecting the brain by clearing out amyloid plaques that can build up in Alzheimer's patients. The work will enable scientists to start work on drugs that mimic the effects of the healthy genes and so help to prevent Alzheimer's developing in patients who carry mutated variants. Rebecca Wood, of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, which part-funded the study, said the work was "a leap forward for dementia research". guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 6 Sep 2009 | 11:05 am Iran says OPEC unhappy over oil price (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 6 Sep 2009 | 5:07 am
|
