Individuals In Vegetative States Can Learn, Scientists Find

Scientists have found that some individuals in the vegetative and minimally conscious states, despite lacking the means of reporting awareness themselves, can learn and thereby demonstrate at least a partial consciousness.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 21 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm

Portable And Precise Gas Sensor Could Monitor Pollution And Detect Disease

Researchers have demonstrated a method for identifying nitric oxide gas using lasers and sensors that are inexpensive, compact and highly sensitive. Such a portable device could be of great value to atmospheric science, pollution control, biology and medicine.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 21 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm

Pediatric Strokes More Than Twice As Common As Previously Reported

Stroke in infants and children may be two to four times more common than previously reported. Most studies rely on diagnostic codes for billing data to assess stroke rates, but this study also considered records of head imaging -- which revealed additional strokes. Researchers say stroke in children is still rare and parents need not be alarmed.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 21 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm

New Way To Calculate Body's 'Maximum Weight Limit'

Body Mass Index, or BMI, is an index used to determine healthy body weight. But, calculating BMI involves a complex formula, and then charts or online calculators are needed to convert the BMI information to a "healthy weight range." Researchers have now found a much simpler way of calculating a "Maximum Weight Limit," which closely corresponds to weight recommendations listed on BMI charts.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 21 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm

Molecules On A String: Why Size Isn't The Only Thing That Matters For Data Storage

Molecules of hydrogen are difficult to steer with electric fields because of the symmetrical way that charges are distributed within them. But now researchers in Switzerland have found a clever technique to get a grip on the molecules.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 21 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm

Persistent Pain May Accelerate Signs Of Aging By Two To Three Decades In Middle-Aged Adults

Younger people with pain look similar in terms of their disability to people who are two to three decades older without pain, according to a new study. The results of the study uncovered that people with pain develop the functional limitations classically associated with aging at much earlier ages.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 21 Sep 2009 | 12:00 pm

Scientists Make Paralyzed Rats Walk Again After Spinal-cord Injury

Researchers have found that drugs, electrical stimulation and regular exercise can enable paralyzed rats to walk and even run again. The finding may hold implications for human rehabilitation after spinal cord injuries.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 21 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am

Two Treatment Innovations Improve Heart Function After Heart Attack

Results of a clinical trial demonstrate that an infusion of blood that is "supersaturated" with oxygen (SS02) can reduce the amount of damaged heart muscle immediately following a life-threatening heart attack.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 21 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am

Researchers Prolong Half-life Of Biopharmaceutical Proteins: Biotech Innovation Could Extend Dosing Intervals, Simplify Production

To prolong the "half-life" of biopharmaceuticals such as interferon, biochemists in Germany are combining these small proteins with a molecular "balloon" that swells in the presence of water -- keeping them from being quickly filtered from the blood. The "balloon" itself consists of a biological polymer and can be produced together with the pharmaceutical protein by bacteria. In animal trials, this technology has prolonged interferon's half-life by a factor of 60.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 21 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am

New Blood Tests Promise Simple, Cost-effective Diagnosis Of Gastrointestinal Cancers

Researchers are reporting promising results from two new blood tests that can aid in the early identification of patients with gastrointestinal cancers. The tests will make GI cancer detection simpler, cost-effective, and more acceptable to patients than current methods, the researchers say.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 21 Sep 2009 | 9:00 am

Carbon emissions fall with global downturn: report (AFP)

AFP - Greenhouse gas emissions have fallen thanks to the global downturn, handing the world a chance to move away from high-carbon growth, a report said Monday, citing an International Energy Agency study.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Sep 2009 | 4:33 am

US ties, climate change focus of Hatoyama's debut (AP)

AP - Just five days in office, Japan's prime minister was leaving Monday for his debut on the world stage, where he is to meet with the leaders of the U.S., China and Russia and promote his ambitious plan to cut greenhouse gases in a speech at the U.N.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Sep 2009 | 4:29 am

Blair touts 10 million jobs from climate action (AP)

AP - Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he hopes to break the "deadlock" in global climate talks with evidence that 10 million jobs could be created by 2020, if developing nations agree to big cuts in greenhouse gases.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Sep 2009 | 4:20 am

US chemist leaves Zurich post over doctored data (AP)

AP - Switzerland's top technology institute says a U.S. chemist has resigned as head of research after scientific data were found to have been manipulated.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Sep 2009 | 3:36 am

Vulture couture: scientists spot secret of birds' silvery wings

A previously unknown structure within feathers gives the wings of birds a silver sheen, scientists discover.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 21 Sep 2009 | 3:14 am

The Nation's weather (AP)

AP - There was forecast to be several main weather features that would drive weather activity across the nation Monday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 21 Sep 2009 | 3:02 am

Rare bat rewrites record books

One of the UK's rarest bats has been found further west than ever before - in a wooded valley in Pembrokeshire.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 21 Sep 2009 | 2:51 am

Stunning Views of Glaciers From Space

To a geologist, glaciers are among the most exciting features on Earth. Though they seem to creep along at impossibly slow speeds, in geologic time glaciers are relatively fast, powerful landscape artists that can carve out valleys and fjords in just a few thousand years.

Glaciers also provide an environmental record by trapping air bubbles in ice that reveal atmospheric conditions in the past. And because they are very sensitive to climate, growing and advancing when its cold and shrinking and retreating when its warm, they can be used as proxies for regional temperatures.

Over geologic time, they have ebbed and flowed with natural climate cycles. Today, the world’s glaciers are in retreat, sped up by relatively rapid warming of the globe. In our own Glacier National Park in Montana, only 26 named glaciers remain out of the 150 known in 1850. They are predicted to be completely gone by 2030 if current warming continues at the same rate.

Here we have collected 13 stunning images of some of the world’s most impressive and beautiful glaciers, captured from space by astronauts and satellites.

Above: Bear Glacier, Alaska

This image taken in 2005 of Bear Glacier highlights the beautiful color of many glacial lakes. The hue is caused by the silt that is finely ground away from the valley walls by the glacier and deposited in the lake. The particles in this “glacial flour” can be very reflective, turning the water into a distinctive greenish blue. The lake, eight miles up from the terminus of the glacier, was held in place by the glacier, but in 2008 it broke through and drained into Resurrection Bay in Kenai Fjords National Park.

The grey stripe down the middle of the glacier is called a medial moraine. It is formed when two glaciers flow into each other and join on their way downhill. When glaciers come together, their lateral moraines, long ridges formed along their edges as the freeze-thaw cycle of the glacier breaks off chunks of rock from the surrounding walls, meet to form a rocky ridge along the center of the joined glaciers.

Image: GeoEye/NASA, 2005.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 20 Sep 2009 | 10:01 pm

Climate deal in peril, says Brown

The climate deal planned for Copenhagen in 10 weeks' time is in grave danger of failure, the prime minister says.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 20 Sep 2009 | 7:08 pm

Fla.-bound space shuttle Discovery stops in La. (AP)

AP - The space shuttle Discovery is stopped for the night at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, La., as part of its cross-country flight to Florida.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 Sep 2009 | 7:00 pm

Spinal advance gets rats running

Hopes that people with spinal injuries could one day regain leg movement have been raised by research in rats.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 20 Sep 2009 | 5:51 pm

Return of the cat?

India plans to bring back the cheetah to its grasslands
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 20 Sep 2009 | 5:22 pm

Science Weekly podcast: Darwin and Dawkins

Caspar Melville, editor of the New Humanist magazine, is our studio guest. We look at some of the creationist topics in the latest issue of the magazine including Muslim anti-evolutionist Harun Yahya, a grid of disputation and the creationist zoo.

We also discuss the films Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which claims to expose "the widespread persecution of scientists and educators who are pursuing legitimate, opposing scientific views to the reigning orthodoxy [of evolution]", and House of Numbers, which questions the link between HIV and Aids.

The Guardian's Richard Lea speaks to evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins about his new book The Greatest Show on Earth. You can hear an extended version of this interview in the latest Science Weekly Extra podcast. There's also a video at guardian.co.uk/books.

Following last week's British Science Festival we take a quick look at hydrogen and carbon dioxide storage.

Creation is a new film about Charles Darwin which got its UK premier last week at the Science Museum in London. We spoke to the director John Amiel, screenwriter John Collee and gauged the reaction of atheist bus campaigner Ariane Sherine and other members of the audience. Watch a video recorded at the screening, including some clips from the film.

Caspar also explains why Charles Darwin was worried about his family's inbreeding.

The Guardian's Nell Boase and James Randerson were on hand to share their wisdom.

WARNING: contains strong language.

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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 | 20 Sep 2009 | 5:12 pm

Fish policy blighted by 'failure'

The Common Fisheries Policy needs to be overhauled because of "systemic failures", a new study concludes.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 20 Sep 2009 | 5:07 pm

New blood tests promise simple cancer detection

BERLIN (Reuters) - Two new blood tests could help doctors detect colon and stomach cancers simply, cheaply and early without the need for invasive procedures or unpleasant examinations, researchers said on Monday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 20 Sep 2009 | 5:06 pm

Eerie Cloud Created by NASA Rocket Experiment (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - An eerie cloud that glowed briefly in the night sky Saturday was no UFO. It was created by humans - more specifically a NASA rocket built to make clouds that shine at night.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 Sep 2009 | 4:03 pm

Shuttle Discovery Begins Ferry Flight to Florida (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - The space shuttle Discovery began a cross-country ferry flight to its home port in Florida Sunday more than a week after returning to Earth from its latest mission to orbit.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 Sep 2009 | 2:45 pm

River heals as lawsuit against Big Poultry looms (AP)

AP - David Overbey is no scientist, but he says a person doesn't have to be to see how much the Illinois River has improved in recent years.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 Sep 2009 | 1:12 pm

Paralysed rats walk again after rehabilitation programme

A combination of drugs, electrical stimulation and treadmill exercises was used to reawaken 'walking circuits' in the spinal cords of paralysed rats

People who are left wheelchair-bound by spinal cord injuries could regain some of their mobility through a rehabilitation programme being developed by scientists. Guardian neuroscience stories have found that a combination of drugs, muscle stimulation and treadmill exercises helps paralysed rats to recover the ability to walk normally.

The animal tests pave the way for clinical trials in humans, which scientists hope to begin in the US and Switzerland within five years.

The treatment, developed by neurologists at the University of Zurich and the University of California in Los Angeles, taps into neural circuits in the spinal cord that control the muscles used for walking.

In able-bodied people, these "walking circuits" spring into action when they receive a signal from the brain, but if the spinal cord is damaged, the message from the brain never arrives. When contact with the brain is lost, the circuits shut down.

"We've known for more than a century that there are networks of neurons in the spinal cord that generate the rhythmic activity needed for walking," said Grégoire Courtine at the Experimental Neurorehabilitation laboratory in Zurich. "Our study suggests that the brain mostly sends a go or no-go signal."

A team led by Courtine used drugs known as serotonin agonists to awaken the walking circuits in paralysed rats whose spines had been severed. The researchers then used tiny electrodes to stimulate the animals' spinal circuitry, according to a report in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

During the eight-week study, the rats spent 20 minutes a day walking on a treadmill. At first they were unable to move their hind legs at all, but by the end of the study they could support their weight and walk almost perfectly. Although the rats had regained the ability to walk, they were still reliant on an electrical wire to switch their movements on and off.

Courtine said the group is eager to begin human trials, but first needs to develop implantable electrodes to stimulate the walking circuits in patients' spines.

"With a neuroprosthesis, we could get some improvement in function in patients with severe spinal cord injuries," he said. "The majority of patients have some intact spinal nerves that give them a limited ability to move their muscles. For these patients, our intervention could be extremely beneficial."

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 20 Sep 2009 | 11:00 am

Pandas to return to famous China reserve in 2012 (AP)

AP - Sixty pandas relocated last year from a famous Chinese nature reserve after their breeding center was severely damaged by a massive earthquake will return home after repairs in 2012.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 20 Sep 2009 | 3:04 am