No Scientific Link Between Childhood Vaccines And Autism, Review Shows

A new article explores vaccination history, vaccine safety monitoring systems in the US, and the two most publicized theoretical vaccine-related exposures associated with autism -- the vaccine preservative thimerosal and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. A review of published research shows that there is not convincing scientific evidence supporting a relationship between vaccines and autism.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm

Genome Sequence Published For Important Biofuels Yeast

A strain of yeast that thrives on turning sugar cane into ethanol for biofuel has had its genome completely sequenced. The findings could lead to more efficient biofuel production.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm

New Tumor Suppressor Destroys Key Link In Cancer Chain

A tumor-suppressing protein snatches up an important cancer-promoting enzyme and tags it with molecules that condemn it to destruction, a research team reports.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm

Bug Splatter On Your Car's Windshield Is A Treasure Trove Of Genomic Biodiversity

If you have ever taken a long road trip, the windshield of your car will inevitably be splattered with bugs by the time you arrive at your destination. Could the DNA left behind be used to estimate the diversity of insects in the region? In a new study, scientists answer this question, utilizing a novel analysis pipeline that will accelerate future studies of biodiversity.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm

Largest Dinosaur Footprints Ever Found Discovered Near Lyon, France

Footprints from sauropod dinosaurs, giant herbivores with long necks, were found in Plagne, near Lyon, France. According to the researchers' initial analysis, these dinosaur footprints are the largest found to date. Furthermore, the tracks spread over dozens and possibly even hundreds of meters.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm

Red Card For Faking Footballers (Soccer Players)

The game is up for football’s (soccer's) divers. A new study in the UK could help referees know when a top player has genuinely been fouled or taken a dive.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Oct 2009 | 3:00 pm

Receptor Activated Exclusively By Glutamate Discovered On Tongue

One hundred years ago, Kikunae Ikeda discovered the flavor-giving properties of glutamate, a non-essential amino acid traditionally used to enhance the taste of many fermented or ripe foods, such as ripe tomatoes or cheese. New research now reveals that the tongue has a receptor that is exclusively activated by glutamate.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Oct 2009 | 9:00 am

Gluten-free Diet Reduces Bone Problems In Children With Celiac Disease, Study Finds

Celiac disease (CD) is an inherited intestinal disorder characterized by life-long intolerance to the ingestion of gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. Although CD can be diagnosed at any age, it commonly occurs during early childhood. Reduced bone mineral density is often found in individuals with CD. A new article examines the literature on the topic and reveals that a gluten-free diet can affect children's recovery.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Oct 2009 | 9:00 am

Women With Breast Cancer Have Low Vitamin D Levels

Women with breast cancer should be given high doses of vitamin D because a majority of them are likely to have low levels of vitamin D, which could contribute to decreased bone mass and greater risk of fractures, according to scientists.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Oct 2009 | 9:00 am

Major Step Forward In Cell Reprogramming, Researchers Report

A team of researchers has made a major advance toward producing induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, that are safe enough to use in treating diseases in patients.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 10 Oct 2009 | 9:00 am

Clown beams message of water conservation from space (AFP)

AFP - The first clown in space, Guy Laliberte, has launched a 14-city poetic planetary extravaganza to promote clean drinking water, from the International Space Station.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Oct 2009 | 11:00 pm

'Space clown' hosts global show

Circus entrepreneur Guy Laliberte hosts a global water-awareness performance from on board the International Space Station.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Oct 2009 | 10:04 pm

Performers Celebrate Water from Earth and Space (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - Artists around the world, and one in space, joined together Friday in an unprecedented performance to celebrate water.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Oct 2009 | 9:16 pm

First clown in space hosts show to save Earth's water

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Wearing a red clown nose, the Canadian founder of Cirque du Soleil hosted an out-of-this-world performance event on Friday, saying he wanted to use his trip as a space tourist to highlight the scarcity of water on Earth.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 9 Oct 2009 | 8:49 pm

Moon crash: Public yawns, scientists celebrate (AP)

AP - NASA's great lunar fireworks finale fizzled. After gearing up for the space agency's much-hyped mission to hurl two spacecraft into the moon, the public turned away from the sky Friday anything but dazzled. Photos and video of the impact showed little more than a fuzzy white flash.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Oct 2009 | 8:04 pm

35 Years of the World’s Best Microscope Photography

This image of the male sex organ of a flowering plant took first place in Nikon’s annual Small World photomicrography competition this year.

Chosen for both its scientific and artistic qualities from among a record 2,000 entries, this image was captured by Estonian scientist Heiti Paves.

“As part of my work as a research scientist, I have been taking photographs through the microscope for almost 30 years to observe the processes in living cells,” Paves said Thursday in a press release.

Nikon honored 20 images this year including an anglerfish ovary, cotton fibers and fish scales.

Winning the popular vote online out of 137 finalists was the image below of a bundle of fluorescent actin protein filaments captured by Dennis Breitsprecher of the Institute of Biophysical Chemistry at Germany’s Hannover Medical School.

See the winners of the competition over the last 35 years below and on the following pages.

Images: Above: Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) anther (20x) Confocal / Heiti Paves, Tallinn University of Technology, courtesy of Nikon Small World.

Below: Fluorescent actin protein filaments. / Dennis Breitsprecher, Institute of Biophysical Chemistry at Germany’s Hannover Medical School. Courtesy of Nikon Small World. 

Previous winners:

2008: Pleurosigma (marine diatoms) (200x), Darkfield and Polarized Light. / Michael Stringer, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, United Kingdom. Courtesy of Nikon Small World. The 2008 runners up. 

2007: Double transgenic mouse embryo, 18.5 days (17x), Brightfield, Darkfield, Fluorescence (GFP and RFP). / Gloria Kwon, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Insititute. Courtesy of Nikon Small World. The 2007 runners up.

2006: Mouse colon (740x), 2-Photon. / Paul L. Appleton, University of Dundee, UK. Courtesy of Nikon Small World. The 2006 runners up. 

2005: Muscoid fly (house fly) (6.25x), Reflected light. / Charles B. Krebs, Charles Krebs Photography, Issaquah, Washington, USA. Courtesy of Nikon Small World. The 2005 runners up.

2004: Quantum dot nanocrystals deposited on a silicon substrate (200x), Polarized reflected light. / Seth A. Coe-Sullivan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Courtesy of Nikon Small World. The 2004 runners up.

2003: Filamentous actin and microtubules (structural proteins) in mouse fibroblasts (cells) (1000x), Fluorescence. / Torsten Wittmann, The Scripps Research Institute. Courtesy of Nikon Small World. The 2003 runners up.

2002: Sagittal section of rat cerebellum (40x), Fluorescence and Confocal. / Thomas J. Deerinck, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, University of California, San Diego. Courtesy of Nikon Small World. The 2002 runners up.

2001: Fresh water rotifer feeding among debris (200x), Darkfield. / Harold TaylorKensworth, UK. Courtesy of Nikon Small World. The 2001 runners up.

2000: Avicennia marina (mangrove) leaf (40x), Fluorescence and Differential Interference Contrast. / Daphne Zbaeren-Colbourn, Bern, Switzerland. Courtesy of Nikon Small World. The 2000 runners up.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 9 Oct 2009 | 5:21 pm

TIMELINE: 'Ardi' and the Human Family Tree

The discovery of our oldest known ancestor sheds new light on human evolution.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm

SLIDE SHOW: The Week's Top Stories

Take a look at the past week's top news in the Flashback Slide Show.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm

WATCH: LCROSS Smashes Into The Moon

NASA just bombed the moon in a search for water. Take a closer look at how it happened.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Oct 2009 | 3:30 pm

History of the Wild Child

Colton Harris-Moore, a.k.a. the "Barefoot Burglar," is a far cry from truly "wild" children.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Oct 2009 | 3:30 pm

French arrest physicist suspected of al-Qaida link (AP)

AP - A physicist working at the world's largest atom smasher has been arrested on suspicion of links to al-Qaida, adding to the woes of the $10 billion project that ceased operation a year ago — just days after its celebrated start up.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Oct 2009 | 2:57 pm

EDF, Constellation nuclear venture get US nod (AFP)

AFP - US regulators have approved a plan for French-based EDF to take a stake in Constellation Energy Group, clearing a key hurdle for a new nuclear power plant in Maryland, the companies said Friday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Oct 2009 | 2:55 pm

Computers Faster Only for 75 More Years

Physicists determine nature's limit to making faster processors.
Source: Livescience.com | 9 Oct 2009 | 2:36 pm

U.S. spacecraft crash on moon in search of water

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (Reuters) - Two U.S. spacecraft were crashed into a lunar crater on Friday but scientists said it was too early to say whether the mission to search for supplies of water on the Moon had been a success.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 9 Oct 2009 | 2:13 pm

Landslide deaths lift Philippine storm toll past 540 (AFP)

AFP - The death toll from two weeks of unprecedented storms across the northern Philippines soared past 540 on Friday after landslides consumed homes and neck-deep floods inundated towns.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Oct 2009 | 1:35 pm

Study isolates virus in chronic fatigue sufferers

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A virus linked to prostate cancer also appears to play a role in chronic fatigue syndrome, according to research that could lead to the first drug treatments for a mysterious disorder that affects 17 million people worldwide.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 9 Oct 2009 | 1:25 pm

Africa wants $65 bln to meet climate change (AFP)

AFP - Two months before a crucial UN climate summit African leaders on Friday said the continent needs 65 billion dollars (44 billion euros) to deal with the effects of global warming.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Oct 2009 | 1:16 pm

Stolen Egyptian Relics On Their Way Home

Five Egyptian relics stolen from Luxor's Valley of the Kings will be returned to Egypt.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Oct 2009 | 12:00 pm

Can Life Survive Deep Space? Let’s Send It There!

LIFE on Earth was all neatly packed up inside a pucklike container and ready to blast off on an unmanned Russian mission to a Martian moon this month.
Stranger

After more than 10 months traveling through deep space, the Planetary Society’s Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment would land on the surface of the Martian moon Phobos with its cargo of voyagers from all three kingdoms of life, including tiny, extremely hardy animals called tardigrades.

Then, after a couple of weeks on the surface, the first Earthly life to have lived on another solar body would return to Earth. A tiny, robotic, interplanetary lander was going to spring off the base craft, fire off its rocket, and hurtle through space before crash landing in Kazakhstan.

Now, though, Russian space officials have delayed the mission due to safety and technical problems that typically plague ambitious trips beyond low-Earth orbit. And because of the nature of Earth’s orbit in relation to Mars, the Planetary Society-backed researchers will have to wait two long years before their next launch window to determine if life could have originated outside Earth and hitched a ride here.

Despite the delay, LIFE will eventually get a chance to fly, assuming the funding will remain in place.

“LIFE is a test of part of the so-called transpermian theory to see whether life can travel through space between planets,” said Bruce Betts, the experiment’s manager at the Planetary Society, which was co-founded by Carl Sagan. “If we send a bunch of microorganisms out to space for three years, will they still be alive?”

We already know that plenty of life forms can survive in low-Earth orbit. In fact, we’ve sent up all kinds of living things, including dozens of animals and various kinds of nasty bacteria.

But deep space is different. At the International Space Station, say, the Earth’s magnetosphere protects life from radiation. We’re not really sure what will happen when life is exposed to the depths of space for years. The Biostack 1 and 2 experiments, flown during the Apollo 16 and 17 missions to the moon proved organisms could survive during a two-week journey through space. But that’s not long enough to simulate the hypothetical journey of bacteria from Mars to Earth.

“It’s a see-what-happens experiment, which you don’t get a lot of anymore,” Betts said.

If the living things in the LIFE experiment survive the 34-month journey aboard the spacecraft Phobos Grunt, it would provide support for the idea that living things could travel between planets aboard rocks ejected by cosmic collisions.

On the other hand, Betts said, “If you find everything is dead and confirm it’s not some fluky other thing, then it casts more doubt on whether life can travel between the planets.”

They fought through months of bureaucracy, both in the United States and Russia, to make the mission happen.

“Because this launch is on a spacecraft, we are subject to [International Traffic in Arms Regulations], so the Planetary Society is registered as what you might call an arms tracker,” Betts said.

If the governments were a hassle, the engineering assignment was much worse. Completing the packaging of 30 living specimens into a tiny 100-gram “BioModule” consumed the team as they raced to send off their part of the mission to Russia.

“You need to understand the constraints for the Phobos mission,” Betts said. “We had 100 grams. We had to be passive. We had to not interfere with anything else. And, by the way, you have to survive a 4,000-g impact.”

The Phobos lander won’t have a parachute, so it’s possible the landing will bring intense forces to bear on the scientific instruments. It’s imperative, too, that the organisms remain sealed in their container for the duration of the journey, so they won’t contaminate Phobos.

To test the BioModule’s durability, they first filled the inside with fluorescent liquid, so that any leakage would be apparent. Then, the scientists strapped it to a shake table and violently vibrated it. Then, they shot it out of an air cannon onto a target. The first iteration of the BioModule leaked a bit of its fluorescent liquid, but held tough in the second round.

Sitting tight now, though, has become the scientists’ main task.

More photos of the assembly and testing of the LIFE experiment can be found on the following page.

Images: 1) The LIFE BioModule. 2) The BioModule strapped to the shake table.
Bruce Betts

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 9 Oct 2009 | 11:45 am

Monkey Mamas and Babies Communicate

Macaque mothers and infants, like human moms and babies, share exchanges.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Oct 2009 | 11:35 am

France confirms will hand back Egyptian murals

PARIS (Reuters) - France will return five segments of an ancient Egyptian tomb mural held by the Louvre museum, committee, Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said Friday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 9 Oct 2009 | 11:29 am

'Al-Qaeda-link' Cern worker held

France arrests a researcher at Europe's top particle physics lab who is suspected of links to al-Qaeda, officials say.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Oct 2009 | 11:24 am

Nasa's moon shot: LCROSS plume wilts

Nasa disappointed as LCROSS fails to produce the large plume of debris needed to prove water exists on lunar surface
Nasa moon LCROSS strike - as it happened

Nasa's hopes of filming a spectacular crash on the moon were dashed today when satellite and telescope imagery failed to record the enormous plume of rock and dust that scientists had predicted.

The US space agency steered two parts of a spacecraft, called LCROSS, into the moon at more than 9,000 kilometres per hour, in the final act of a mission designed to look for signs of water.

Nasa scientists anticipated the impact would knock enough dust and rock out of the lunar surface to form a 10km-high cloud of debris that could be scanned for evidence of frozen water.

But when the collision occurred at 12.31pm today, no signs of the plume were spotted, even from the nearby second stage, which crashed into the moon four minutes later.

The disappointment came a day after staff at Nasa's headquarters in Washington DC faced a flood of calls from people who objected to the agency "bombing" the moon, some of whom feared the damage would disrupt tides on Earth and even their menstrual cycles.

At a Nasa press conference, Anthony Colaprete, principal investigator on the LCROSS mission, said of the missing plume: "We haven't been able to see it clearly in our data yet." He added that scientists were working "feverishly" on information sent back from LCROSS.

The spacecraft ploughed into an existing 100km-wide moon crater called Cabeus which is permanently in shade at the lunar south pole. Scientists believe the crater may contain frozen water that would be kicked up by the impact.

One theory is that the impact site was unexpectedly hard and that rock and soil gouged out by the impact failed to rise high enough to be lit up by sunlight.

"If it turns out to be as dull as it looked, I'd imagine the soil just didn't respond as was hoped to being hit," said Vincent Eke, an astronomer at the University of Durham who helped Nasa choose the impact site. "It might mean we don't get sufficient data, which would be a shame," he added.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 9 Oct 2009 | 11:09 am

Nasa team scours Moon crash data

Nasa scientists outline preliminary results after crashing two spacecraft into the Moon in a bid to detect water-ice.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Oct 2009 | 10:57 am

How 'superswarms' of krill gather

Scientists find out how trillions of individual krill gather together into gigantic "superswarms" in the Southern Ocean.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Oct 2009 | 10:41 am

Spaceman

Nasa impacts: Did the Moon move for you?
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Oct 2009 | 10:12 am

No deal on crucial issues as UN climate talks end (AP)

AP - The United States was heavily criticized Friday at the U.N. climate talks in Bangkok for failing to offer emission cuts or financing for developing countries — both considered crucial to reaching a global warming pact this year.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Oct 2009 | 9:59 am

Building Tsunami-resistant Cities

An engineer studies ways to make coastal cities tsunami-resistant
Source: Livescience.com | 9 Oct 2009 | 9:44 am

Hot and cold

Whatever has happened to global warming?
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Oct 2009 | 9:22 am

Obama's Nobel Seen as Award for Potential

Many say President Obama's Nobel award is based on potential, not accomplishments.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Oct 2009 | 8:35 am

QUIZ: Test Your Cyber Crime I.Q.

Test your knowledge of some of most notorious cyber crimes ever committed.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Oct 2009 | 8:30 am

When Quakes Swarm: Are Quakes Contagious?

A recent cluster of seven big quakes has some wondering if quakes trigger more quakes.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Oct 2009 | 8:14 am

Real Tsunami May Have Inspired Legend of Atlantis (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - The volcanic explosion that obliterated much of the island that might have inspired the legend of Atlantis apparently triggered a tsunami that traveled hundreds of miles to reach as far as present-day Israel, scientists now suggest.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Oct 2009 | 7:39 am

Real Tsunami May Have Inspired Legend of Atlantis

The volcanic explosion that obliterated much of the island that might have inspired the legend of Atlantis.
Source: Livescience.com | 9 Oct 2009 | 7:25 am

UK urged to go nuts in the woods to help save the dormouse

The public is urged to scour woods for half-eaten hazelnuts to help trace the endangered dormouse.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Oct 2009 | 7:15 am

Moon Hit, Plume With Water Possible

A rocket barreled into the moon, though there was no immediate sign of a dust plume.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Oct 2009 | 6:30 am

Woman wins RSPCA inheritance battle (AFP)

AFP - A woman who contested her parents' decision to leave their two million pound estate to the RSPCA has won her legal battle and will now inherit the farm, a court ruled on Friday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 9 Oct 2009 | 6:12 am

UN climate talks split on treaty

The latest round of UN climate talks in Bangkok ends with divisions between nations over the shape of a new global treaty.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Oct 2009 | 5:12 am

ME virus discovery raises hopes

US research suggests a single virus may play a role in the development of chronic fatigue syndrome.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Oct 2009 | 3:11 am

Race for time... India to survey sites for cheetah return

The Indian government approves a survey of sites which can accommodate the cheetah, in an effort to reintroduce the animal.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 9 Oct 2009 | 2:51 am