ScienceDaily for July 30, 2009 reported on smoking and Metastatic Pancreatic cancer.
The culprit behind the increased metastasis potential appears to be an isoform (variant type) of a protein called osteopontin, according to Hwyda Arafat, M.D. Ph.D., an associate professor of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and a member of the Jefferson Pancreatic, Biliary & Related Cancers Center.
ScienceDaily for July 30, 2009 reported on the nutritional value of organic vs. conventionally produced food.
Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine have now completed the most extensive systematic review of the available published literature on nutrient content of organic food ever conducted. The review focussed on nutritional content and did not include a review of the content of contaminants or chemical residues in foods from different agricultural production regimens.
ScienceDaily for July 30, 2009 reported on factors that increase death from strokes.
Detecting these factors associated with higher risk of death is important because they can be modified by lifestyle changes, strictly controlled medication or medical procedures in most patients, Putaala said.
An article in ScienceDaily for July 29, 2009 reported on health effects of freshly crushed garlic and processed garlic.
In the study, Dipak K. Das and colleagues point out that raw, crushed garlic generates hydrogen sulfide through a chemical reaction. Although best known as the stuff that gives rotten eggs their distinctive odor, hydrogen sulfide also acts as a chemical messenger in the body, relaxing blood vessels and allowing more blood to pass through. Processed and cooked garlic, however, loses its ability to generate hydrogen sulfide.
ScienceDaily for July 29, 2009 reported on health concerns about smokeless tobacco.
Peter Lee and Jan Hamling, from P.N. Lee Statistics and Computing Ltd, carried out the analysis of 89 studies from the United States and Scandinavia. They found that, after adjustment for concurrent smoking, any effect of current US products or Scandinavian snuff seems very limited. According to Lee, "It is clear that any effect of smokeless tobacco on risk of cancer, if it exists at all, is quantitatively very much smaller than the known effects of smoking".
ScienceDaily for July 29, 2009 reported on the effect later on of activity in young children.
The UI team tested the body fat and activity level of 333 kids at ages 5, 8 and 11 using gold-standard technology: a special scanner that accurately measures bone, fat and muscle tissue, and an accelerometer that measures movement every minute. The kids wore accelerometers to record their activity level for up to five days, providing much more reliable data than relying on kids or parents to track minutes of exercise.
ScienceDaily for July 28, 2009 reported on cigarette advertising.
"Research has already shown that using words such as 'light,' 'mild' and 'low tar' on cigarette packaging misleads consumers into thinking that one brand carries a lower health risk than another and that's why those words have been outlawed in more than 50 countries, but there has been virtually no independent research on these other packaging tactics to support broader regulation," said the study's leader, David Hammond, a professor of health studies at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. "Our study found that commonly-used words not covered by the bans, as well as other packaging design elements such as colour, the use of numbers and references to filters, were just as misleading, which means there's a loophole that needs to be closed."
ScienceDaily for July 28, 2009 reported on stress and teenage pregnancy.
The study, published in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, used data from two large long-term U.S. surveys that followed thousands of teen girls and women. Participants responded to items on symptoms associated with depression, such as how often they found things that did not usually bother them to be bothersome, how easily they could shake off feeling blue or whether they had trouble concentrating. The researchers did not use the term “depression,” which is a clinical diagnosis.
An article, dated July 29, 2009, in ScienceDaily reported on the use of stem cells in growing new bones.
So far, scientists have found they can grow small 'nodules' of what appeared to be bone-like material in the laboratory from different types of bone cells and stem cells. All of these cell types are attracting considerable interest as promising candidates for future implants in people with clinical trials already underway. However, scientists still need to thoroughly explore and understand the in-depth chemical properties and structure of the bone-like materials they are growing.
ScienceDaily for July 28, 2009 reported on giving flu antivirals to elderly people.
Merler and his colleagues modeled the effects of flu outbreaks of varying virulence, finding that, depending on the behavior of the virus, treatment of over 65s may not lead to any significant reduction in the cumulative number of cases. He said, "Although a policy of age-specific prioritization of antiviral use will be controversial ethically, it may be the most efficient use of stockpiled therapies. This is of particular importance for countries where the amount of drug stockpiled is well below the WHO's suggested level". Obtaining early estimates of the overall impact of the epidemic and of age-specific case fatality rates can thus be crucial for optimizing the use of antivirals during the ongoing influenza pandemic.
LiveScience for July 27, 20090 reported on effects of divorce or death of a spouse on ones health.
Scientists have known that marriage can boost a man's health and augment a women's purse. The new study shows that divorce or losing a spouse to death can exact an immediate and long-lasting toll on those mental and physical gains.
"That period during the time that this event is taking place is extremely stressful," said study researcher Linda Waite, a sociologist and director of the Center on Aging at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. "People ignore their health; they're stressed, which is itself a health risk; they're less likely to go to the doctor; they're less likely to exercise; they're sleeping poorly."
LiveScience for July 27, 2009 reported on the discovery of the oldest animal fossils.
These new findings not only raise questions as to where the earliest animals were living, but what factors drove animals to evolve in the first place.
Scientific American for July 28, 2009 discussed chemicals that are not filtered out by municipal water systems.
It is true that trace amounts of birth control and other medications—as well as household and industrial chemicals of every stripe—are present in many urban and suburban water supplies around the country, but there is considerable debate about whether their levels are high enough to warrant concern.
An article in ScienceDaily for July 27, 2009 reported on the transformation of hydrocarbons due to pressure and temperature.
Methane (CH4) is the main constituent of natural gas, while ethane (C2H6) is used as a petrochemical feedstock. Both of these hydrocarbons, and others associated with fuel, are called saturated hydrocarbons because they have simple, single bonds and are saturated with hydrogen. Using a diamond anvil cell and a laser heat source, the scientists first subjected methane to pressures exceeding 20 thousand times the atmospheric pressure at sea level and temperatures ranging from 1,300 F° to over 2,240 F°. These conditions mimic those found 40 to 95 miles deep inside the Earth. The methane reacted and formed ethane, propane, butane, molecular hydrogen, and graphite. The scientists then subjected ethane to the same conditions and it produced methane. The transformations suggest heavier hydrocarbons could exist deep down. The reversibility implies that the synthesis of saturated hydrocarbons is thermodynamically controlled and does not require organic matter.
ScienceDaily for July 27, 2009 reported on other ways besides use of stem cells to obtain repair of failing hearts.
Researchers appear to have a new way to fix a broken heart. They have devised a method to coax heart muscle cells into reentering the cell cycle, allowing the differentiated adult cells to divide and regenerate healthy heart tissue after a heart attack, according to studies in mice and rats reported in the July 24th issue of the journal Cell. The key ingredient is a growth factor known as neuregulin1 (NRG1 for short), and the researchers suggest that the factor might one day be used to treat failing human hearts.
ScienceDaily for July 26, 2009 reported on resistance strength training with older persons.
Muscle strength decreases naturally as people age. This reduction in muscle strength could affect older adults carrying out daily activities. Progressive resistance strength training is a type of strength training that uses free weights, exercise machines, or elastic bands to strengthen muscles. Key to this type of this exercise is adjusting the resistance, or weight, according to the person's progress. This exercise can be prescribed to help older adults gain the strength necessary to carry out everyday activities such as walking, climbing stairs, bathing or doing housework.
ScienceDaily for July 27, 2009 reported on a link between excessive teen drinking and several problems.
Boys who drank frequently were more likely to report conduct problems, while girls who drank frequently reported attention and conduct problems, along with depression and anxiety.
ScienceNOW for July 23, 2009 reported on successful attempts to reprogram adult mouse cells to form a complete mouse.
Scientists have for the first time demonstrated that a possible alternative to controversial embryonic stem (ES) cells shares one of their key abilities. So-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can generate a live mouse in an experiment scientists say is the gold standard for pluripotency, the ability to become any cell type in the body. The feat, performed by two independent groups, suggests that iPS cells may be as powerful as ES cells, which many scientists hope will someday help cure a variety of diseases.A NewsDaily article is here.
ScienceDaily for July 25, 2009 reported on observations of the Jupiter impact by the Hubble telescope.
The Hubble picture, taken on 23 July, is the sharpest visible-light picture taken of the feature and is Hubble's first science observation following its repair and upgrade in May. Observations were taken with Hubble's new camera, the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
ScienceDaily for July 25, 2009 reported on teen use of caffeine.
To gauge how heavily the study participants used technology at night, Calamaro and her team developed a measure they call “multitasking index.” The index took the total amount of hours a teen spent doing each of nine different activities—ranging from watching TV, listening to MP3s, watching DVDs, surfing the web and doing homework—and divided that by nine or the number of hours between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. The index was significantly related to falling asleep during school and difficulties falling asleep on weeknights.
ScienceDaily for July 24, 2009 reported on blood clots and long airplane flights.
During the travel season we often hear that long-haul flights increase the risk of deep vein thrombosis (sometimes called “economy class syndrome”). The Institute summarised the results of research on deep vein thrombosis and air travel, involving the experiences of millions of air travellers. They found that only about 2 to 5 out of every 10,000 people who took a flight longer than 6 to 8 hours developed deep vein thrombosis that caused symptoms (at the most 0.05%). Even people who had a higher risk – for example, because they had large varicose veins or were very overweight – were not highly likely to develop deep vein thrombosis: only 20 out of every 10,000 travellers were affected (0.2%). The Institute did not find any convincing evidence that people who flew for less than 4 to 6 hours had an increased risk of thrombosis.
ScienceDaily for July 25, 2009 reported on a link between Omega-3 fats and better vision in older persons.
A diet high in omega-3 fatty acids has been found to protect against a variety of diseases including atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's disease. Retrospective studies have suggested that diets high in fish oil or omega-3 fatty acids may also contribute to protection against AMD. A group led by Dr. Chi-Chao Chan at the National Eye Institute in Bethesda, MD examined the direct effect of omega-3 fatty acids on a mouse model of AMD. A diet with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids resulted in slower lesion progression, with improvement in some lesions. These mice had lower levels of inflammatory molecules and higher levels of anti-inflammatory molecules, which may explain this protective effect.
ScienceDaily for July 23l 2009 reported on the effect of caregivers on Alzheimer's patients.
"We've shown that the benefits of having a close caregiver, especially a spouse, may mean the difference between someone with AD staying at home or going to a nursing facility," says Constantine Lyketsos, M.D., M.H.S., the Elizabeth Plank Althouse Professor in Alzheimer's Disease Research and director of the Johns Hopkins Memory and Alzheimer's Treatment Center.
ScienceDaily for July 24, 2009 reported on the effect on our brains of HIV and chronic drinking.
"It has been consistently documented that chronic heavy drinking results in cognitive and motor deficits, particularly impairments in component processes of executive functions, memory, visuospatial abilities, and speed of cognitive processing and motor movements," said Edith V. Sullivan, professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine and corresponding author for the study. "Chronic heavy drinking co-occurring with HIV infection is highly prevalent, and the separate and combined untoward effects on the brain and its processes can be significant and disruptive of activities of daily living."
An article in ScienceDaily for July 24, 2009 reported on health benefits of drinking milk.
Professor Givens explained: “While growth and bone health are of great importance to health and function, it is the effects of milk and dairy consumption on chronic disease that are of the greatest relevance to reduced morbidity and survival. Our review made it possible to assess overall whether increased milk consumption provides a survival advantage or not. We believe it does.
ScienceDaily for July 24, 2009 reported on efforts to develop a vaccine for the H1N1 (swine) flu.
Bracing for an outbreak of 2009 H1N1 (swine-origin) flu that a Saint Louis University infectious diseases expert estimates could sicken one in five people this fall, scientists at eight Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are launching a series of clinical trials this summer to test vaccines to protect against the illness.
ScienceDaily for July 23, 2009 reported on a link between the inhaling of certain fragrances and stress.
In the new study, Akio Nakamura and colleagues note that people have inhaled the scent of certain plants since ancient times to help reduce stress, fight inflammation and depression, and induce sleep. Aromatherapy, the use of fragrant plant oils to improve mood and health, has become a popular form of alternative medicine today. And linalool is one of the most widely used substances to soothe away emotional stress. Until now, however, linalool's exact effects on the body have been a deep mystery.
SF Gate for July 24, 2009 reported on studies of the impact of a asteroid or comet with Jupiter.
Imke de Pater, a UC Berkeley astronomer who has long studied the atmosphere and storm-battered gaseous surface of Jupiter, said her observations show that the crash of the unknown object has heated the planet's upper atmosphere at the impact site, and made it possible to study phenomena such as the swirling ammonia gas and dust within the planet's varied atmospheric layers.
NewsDaily for July 20, 2009 reported on the use of ordinary cells that have been programmed to behave like stem cells to repair damage in the heart of a mouse.
The team used a promising new type of embryonic-like stem cell called an induced pluripotent stem cell, or iPS cell, made from ordinary cells. Many teams are using this new technology to look for ways to repair the body, a fast-growing field of research known as regenerative medicine.
ScienceDaily for July 22, 2009 reported on a link between parents who suffer from stress and childhood asthma.
According to the study that appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the risk of asthma associated with traffic-related pollution was significantly higher for children of parents reporting high levels of stress. Stress, as well as low parental education, was also associated with larger effects of exposure to tobacco smoke during pregnancy.
An article in ScienceDaily for July 22, 2009 reported on the diet of women before they became pregnant.
Mothers' health in the days and weeks prior to becoming pregnant may determine the health of offspring much later in life, according to results of studies reported at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction, which takes place July 18 to 22 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. These studies demonstrate that maternal nutrition, protein intake and level of fat in the diet may cause epigenetic changes in the developing fetus that can have long-term health consequences.
ScienceDaily for July 22, 2009 reported on possible causes of death of a Neandertal in what is now Iraq.
But Churchill's analysis indicates the wound was from a thrown spear, and it appears that modern humans had a thrown-weapons technology and Neandertals didn't. "We think the best explanation for this injury is a projectile weapon, and given who had those and who didn't that implies at least one act of inter-species aggression."A National Geographic News article is here.
ScienceDaily for July 21, 2009 reported on an aspect of evolution.
"Our work shows how partial penetrance can play a role in evolution by allowing a species to gradually evolve from producing 100 percent of one form to developing 100 percent of another, qualitatively different, form," says Michael Elowitz, the Caltech assistant professor of biology and applied physics, Bren Scholar, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator who led the team. "The intermediate states that occur along the way are not intermediate forms, but rather changes in the fraction of individuals that develop one way or the other."
ScienceDaily for July 21, 2009 reported on stress and our health.
Whether it's getting a cold during exam time or feeling run-down after a big meeting, we've all experienced feeling sick following a particularly stressful time at work or school. Is this merely coincidence, or is it possible that stress can actually make us sick? In a new report in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologist Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser from the Ohio State University College of Medicine reviews research investigating how stress can wreak havoc on our bodies and provides some suggestions to further our understanding of this connection.
In an article dated July 19, 2009, ScienceDaily discussed nutrition and Dementia.
“There have been some intriguing epidemiological studies that the consumption of flavonoid-rich vegetables, fruit juices and red wine delays the onset of the disease,” says Dr Williams, a Biochemist working at Kings College London. “These reports, while not as powerful as controlled, randomised clinical trials, have encouraged a number of research groups, including our own, to investigate the biology of flavonoids in more detail.”
ScienceDaily for July 21, 2009 reported on evidence of a comet impact about 12,900 years ago.
The age of this event also matches the extinction of the pygmy mammoth on the Northern Channel Islands, as well as numerous other North American mammals, including the horse, which Europeans later reintroduced. In all, an estimated 35 mammal and 19 bird genera became extinct near the end of the Pleistocene with some of them occurring very close in time to the proposed cosmic impact, first reported in October 2007 in PNAS.
ScienceDaily for July 20, 2009 reported on cognitive decline in older persons.
Eating a "heart healthy" diet and maintaining or increasing participation in moderate physical activity may help preserve our memory and thinking abilities as we age, according to new research reported July 14 at the Alzheimer's Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna.
An article in ScienceDaily for July 20, 2009 reported on obesity and oral contraceptives.
Although conventional oral contraceptives appear to eventually reach the effective blood concentrations needed in the body to prevent conception in obese women, it appears to take twice as long, leaving a "window of opportunity" every month where the contraceptive may not be at a high enough level to prevent a pregnancy.
ScienceDaily for July 21, 2009 reported on a link between types of blood clots.
"Superficial vein thrombosis is a common disease that most often affects the veins of the leg but can also be found in other locations," the authors write as background information in the article. Different risk factors have been reported, many of which are the same as risk factors for deep vein thrombosis—varicose veins, thrombophilia (a disorder in which the blood clots too easily), use of oral contraceptives, trauma, malignancy or a period of immobility. "In the past, not much interest has been focused on superficial vein thrombosis because of its generally benign course. However, recent investigations showed an unsuspected association of superficial vein thrombosis with deep vein thrombosis and thromboembolism [blockage of a blood vessel by a clot that has broken apart]."
ScienceDaily for July 21, 2009 reported on green tea and cancer.
Researchers looked at 51 medium- to high-quality studies that included more than 1.6 million participants. The studies focused on the relationship between green tea consumption and a variety of cancers, including breast, lung, digestive tract, urological prostate, gynecological and oral cancers.
ScienceDaily for July 20, 2009 reported on the influence of fathers who help with child rearing.
"If we want fathers to be involved in school, we need to focus on men building close, loving relationships with their children in the preschool years. When fathers do this, they're writing a script that says they're involved in their child's life, and their expectation is that they'll go on being involved in that child's life," said Brent McBride, a U of I professor of human development.
ScienceDaily for July 20, 2009 reported on the behavior of young men who stay at home with parents.
"And these are more common among young men who do not have responsibilities of providing their own accommodation, supporting dependent children, or experiencing beneficial effects on their behaviour from living with a female partner.
An article in ScienceDaily, dated July 20, 2009, reported on air pollution and the IQ of babies exposed to the air during the pregnancy of the mother.
The study found that children exposed to high levels of PAHs in New York City had full scale and verbal IQ scores that were 4.31 and 4.67 points lower, respectively than those of less exposed children. High PAH levels were defined as above the median of 2.26 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m3).
LiveScience for July 20, 2009 reported on one cause of the demise of the mammoths.
To date, two major explanations — human overhunting and climate change — were insufficient by themselves to account for the mega die-off. But add in the comet impact, and all three factors may have combined to create a deadly "perfect storm," said study researcher Allen West of GeoScience Consulting in Arizona.
ScienceNOW for July 14, 2009 reported on an increase in the earth's temperature 55 million years ago.
But a new analysis doesn't fully support this scenario. Oceanographer Richard Zeebe of the University of Hawaii, Manoa, and colleagues ran carbon-cycle simulations of the oceans and atmosphere based on the data yielded by the sediment cores. They even simulated what would happen to global temperatures when they increased the atmosphere's sensitivity to doubling CO2 levels--to 2000 ppm--during the PETM. The most they could achieve was a warming of 3.5°C, they report online this week in Nature Geoscience. That means some other phenomenon must have pushed up temperatures by as much as 5.5°C, the team says. So at present, the unexplained warming represents a gap in understanding about what causes significant and rapid climate change.
ScienceNOW for July 20, 2009 reported on a recent collision between Jupiter and an object.
The impact "was a bit of a surprise," says astronomer Heidi Hammel of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, who observed the 1994 impacts with the Hubble Space Telescope. "We all thought these were a little more rare." This one--a solitary event so far--looks like one of Shoemaker-Levy 9's medium-size impacts, says Hammel. How large the rocky asteroid or icy comet was is hard to estimate, says astronomer Harold Weaver of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. There was never any consensus on the size of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 objects, but this one might have been several hundred meters across--a kilometer at most--and traveling at tens of thousands of kilometers per hour.A National Geographic News article is here.
The editors of Science magazine have started a blog called Origins that focuses on the history of our beginnings.
Had Charles Robert Darwin had access to the Internet, he would have been a blogger. The prolific 19th century naturalist--and father of evolution--eagerly shared his ideas and observations with the world around him through 16 books and pamphlets and more than 5000 letters to the scientific and cultural luminaries of his day. He covered everything, from the formation of mold or the perception of ants, to the movement of leaves.
2009 is the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and 150 years after he published On the Origin of Species. As part of its celebration of these two anniversaries, Science will be blogging, with Darwin as our inspiration. On this site, our writers and editors, as well as guest researchers and blog readers, will share their thoughts, not just about the origin of species but also about key nodes throughout the evolution of life, just as Darwin did.
Scientific American for August 2009 reported on the downfall of the Neandertals.
Some 28,000 years ago in what is now the British territory of Gibraltar, a group of Neandertals eked out a living along the rocky Mediterranean coast. They were quite possibly the last of their kind. Elsewhere in Europe and western Asia, Neandertals had disappeared thousands of years earlier, after having ruled for more than 200,000 years. The Iberian Peninsula, with its comparatively mild climate and rich array of animals and plants, seems to have been the final stronghold. Soon, however, the Gibraltar population, too, would die out, leaving behind only a smattering of their stone tools and the charred remnants of their campfires.A LiveScience article is here.
ScienceDaily for July 19, 2009 reported on a genetic link to skin cancer.
It is already well known that red-haired people, those with fair skin and those who sunburn easily are most at risk of melanoma, and the people who had been diagnosed with melanoma were found to be much more likely to be carrying the genes most closely associated with red hair and freckles. "This is what we expected to find," said Professor Bishop of the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine and the Cancer Research UK Centre at Leeds. "But the links seemed to be much stronger than we anticipated."
An article in ScienceDaily for July 19, 2009 reported on the eating of fruit and vegetables and Dementia.
However, a new concept is emerging that suggests flavonoids do not act simply as antioxidants but exert their biological effects through other mechanisms. A small number of recent studies carried out in models of Alzheimer’s disease have found that oral administration of green tea flavonoids or grape flavonoids reduces brain pathology and, in some cases, improves cognition. Dr Williams and colleagues have focused their own cellular studies on a flavonoid called epicatechin, which is abundant in a number of foodstuffs, including cocoa.
ScienceDaily for July 20, 2009 reported on children with Fetal Alconhol Spectrum disorders and their behavioral problems.
Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) have a high risk of psychiatric problems, particularly attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder, or both. Often children with FASD are initially diagnosed with ADHD. A new study is the first to examine a range of cognitive factors and social behavior in children with FASD and ADHD, finding that those with FASD have significantly weaker social cognition and facial emotion-processing abilities.
ScienceDaily for July 19, 2009 reported on learning as a combination of things.
Writing in the July 17 edition of the journal Science, researchers report that this shift is being driven by three principles that are emerging from cross-disciplinary work: learning is computational, learning is social, and learning is supported by brain circuits linking perception and action that connect people to one another. This new science of learning, the researchers believe, may shed light into the origins of human intelligence.
In an article for July 17, 2009, ScienceDaily reported on adolescent girls and peer-judgment.
The researchers looked at mostly White psychiatrically healthy Americans ages 9 to 17 to determine what happens in the brains of preteens and teens at a time of significant change in social behavior. The youths looked at photos of peers and rated their interest in interacting with each one. Then they underwent a brain scan while reviewing the pictures and rated how much each young person in the picture might want to interact with them in return. The youths were told they would be matched with a peer for a chat after the scan.
ScienceDaily for July 17, 2009 reported on effects of obesity on pregnant women.
Research by the University of Edinburgh found that obese mothers-to-be were nearly 10 times more likely to suffer from chest infections, and more than twice as likely to suffer from headaches and heartburn, compared with pregnant women of a healthy weight.
ScienceDaily for July 16, 2009 reported on vitamin D and Alzheimer's Disease.
The early research findings, which appear in the July issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, may lead to new approaches in preventing and treating Alzheimer's by utilizing the property of vitamin D3 — a form of vitamin D — both alone and together with natural or synthetic curcumin to boost the immune system in protecting the brain against amyloid beta.
ScienceDaily for July 17, 2009 reported on links between obesity and social networks.
"Although this link between obesity and social networks was expected, it was surprising how strong the peer effect is and how early in life it starts," says lead author Thomas Valente, Ph.D., professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine.
LiveScience for July 16, 2009 reported on speculation why the Neanderthals went extinct.
The Neanderthals inhabited the plains of Europe and parts of Asia as far back as 230,000 years ago. They disappeared from the fossil record more than 20,000 years ago, a few thousand years after modern humans appeared on the scene.
ScienceDaily, in an article dated July 15, 2009, reported on obesity and loss of cartilage.
Dr. Roemer's study consisted of 347 knees in 336 patients. The patient group was comprised of 65.2 percent women, mean age 61.2, with a mean BMI of 29.5, which is classified as overweight. Recommended BMI typically ranges from 18.5 to 25. Only knees with minimal or no baseline cartilage damage were included. Of 347 knees selected for the study, 20.2 percent exhibited slow cartilage loss over the 30-month follow-up period and 5.8 percent showed rapid cartilage loss. Rapid cartilage loss was defined by a whole organ magnetic imaging score of at least 5, indicating a large full thickness loss of 75 percent in any subregion of the knee during the follow-up period.
ScienceDaily for July 15, 2009 reported on violence with university students and a connection to drinking.
“We’ve known that drinking increases the risk of perpetrating violence,” says Saewyc. “But in this study we found alcohol consumption puts both young men and women at higher risk of being victimized, too.”
ScienceDaily for July 15, 2009 reported on a link between brain-matter and Dementia.
For the study, researchers followed 49 people age 65 and older who had no memory or thinking problems for an average of 9.5 years. The participants had at least three brain scans and annual tests of thinking skills. During the study, 24 of the participants developed persistent cognitive impairment, or memory problems that are a potential precursor to Alzheimer's disease or another type of dementia.
An article in ScienceDaily for July 14, 2009 reported on smoking and Multiple Sclerosis.
Brian C. Healy, Ph.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and colleagues studied 1,465 patients with MS who visited a referral center between February 2006 and August 2007. Participants had an average age of 42 and had MS for an average of 9.4 years. Their progression was assessed by clinical characteristics as well as by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) over an average of 3.29 years.
ScienceDaily for July 15, 2009 reported on reduction of calories and its effect on longevity of life.
Working with fruit flies, Schneider and his graduate student Janelle Ayres have shown that caloric restriction can indeed alter the flies' response to infection, but in different directions depending on what they've been infected with. (Ayres has since received her PhD and is a now postdoctoral researcher at the University of California-Berkeley.) This has potentially significant implications for humans, since flies are an excellent model system for studying certain aspects of our immune response.
ScienceDaily for July 15, 2009 reported on a link between Cannabis and Morphine.
To these rats, placed under stress from birth, the researchers intermittently administered increasingly high doses of THC (5 or 10 mg/kg) during the period corresponding to their adolescence (between 35 and 48 days after birth). By measuring their consumption of morphine in adulthood, they observed that, unlike results previously obtained, the rats no longer developed typical morphine-dependent behavior. Moreover, biochemical and molecular biological data corroborate these findings. In the striatum, a region of the brain involved in drug dependence, the production of endogenous enkephalins was restored under THC, whereas it diminished in rats stressed from birth which had not received THC.
ScienceDaily for July 13, 2009 reported on an increase of people with Parkinson's Disease.
At 81, Alberta Sabin’s mind is not as sharp as it used to be, and she knows it. She frequently misplaces common items, forgets names and appointments, some of the most frustrating aspects of memory loss, she says.
ScienceDaily for July 14, 2009 reported on pesticide levels and Parkinson's Disease.
“There’s been a link between pesticide use and Parkinson’s disease for a long time, but never a specific pesticide,” said Dr. Dwight German, professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern and a senior author of the paper. “This is particularly important because the disease is not diagnosed until after significant nerve damage has occurred. A test for this risk factor might allow for early detection and protective treatment.”
ScienceDaily, in an article dated July 14 2009, reported on drinking and Prostate Cancer.
They used data from more than 10,000 men participating in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT). They found participants who reported heavy alcohol consumption (≥50 g alcohol/day) and regular heavy drinking (≥4 drinks/day on ≥5 days per week) were twice as likely or more to be diagnosed with high-grade prostate cancer (RR: 2.01, and 2.17, respectively). Less heavy drinking was not associated with risk.
An article dated July 14, 2009 in ScienceDaily reported on smoking amd Mjultiple Sclerosis.
Cigarette smokers are at higher risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), according to background information in the article. However, the effect of smoking on the progression of MS remains uncertain.
ScienceDaily for July 14, 2009 reported on an effect of cohabitation before marriage on the relationship between the two people.
"We think that some couples who move in together without a clear commitment to marriage may wind up sliding into marriage partly because they are already cohabiting," Rhoades says.
ScienceDaily for July 13, 2008 reported on violence between husbands and wives, during and after separation.
Violence inflicted by an intimate partner lasts longer if the couple has children together, and the violence continues after the relationship ends. In addition, children are harmed more by witnessing violence between their parents than previously thought.
In an article in ScienceDaily dated July 13, 2009, the magazine reported on an enzyme that affects aging.
"Controlling the availability of IGF in the thymus by targeted manipulation of PAPPA could be a way to maintain immune protection throughout life," Dr. de Vallejo said. "This study has profound implications for the future study of healthy aging and longevity."
ScienceDaily for July 13, 2009 reported on peer influence on drinking by college-age students.
Researchers in the 22 studies placed students into either intervention or control groups. Those in the intervention groups received personalized feedback about actual college students’ normal drinking habits, their own personal drinking profiles — quantity of alcohol consumed, calorie intake and money spent on alcohol — as well as the health risk factors involved in heavy drinking.
An article in ScienceDaily for July 13, 2009 reported on a link between obese parents and obese children.
"These findings could turn our thinking on childhood obesity dramatically on its head. Money and resources have focussed on children over the past decade in the belief that obese children become obese adults, and that prevention of obesity in children will solve the problem in adulthood. EarlyBird's evidence supports the opposite hypothesis – that children are becoming obese due to the influence of their same-sex parents, and that we will need to focus on changing the behaviour of the adult if we want to combat obesity in the child
ScienceDaily for July 12, 2009 reported on diet and health.
Hujoel reviewed the relationships between diet, dental disease, and chronic systemic illness in a report published July 1 in the Journal of Dental Research. He weighed two contradictory viewpoints on the role of dietary carbohydrates in health and disease. The debate surrounds fermentable carbohydates: foods that turn into simple sugars in the mouth. Fermentable carbohydrates are not just sweets like cookies, doughnuts, cake and candy. They also include bananas and several tropical fruits, sticky fruits like raisins and other dried fruits, and starchy foods like potatoes, refined wheat flour, yams, rice, pasta, pretzels, bread, and corn.
Scientific American for July 9, 2009 reported on the effect on aging of eating fewer calories.
A 20-year-long rhesus monkey study, released today in Science, found that monkeys that consumed 30 percent less calories than average peers were one third as likely to get a age-related disease and were likely to live longer.A ScienceNOW article is here.
World Science for November 13, 2008 reported on photographs of three planets going around a nearby star.
Members of Marois’ group said they developed an advanced computer processing method that helped distinguish the planets from the starlight. Their findings appear in the Nov. 13 issue of Science Express, the advance online edition of the research journal Science.
ScienceDaily for July 11, 2009 reported on an effect of pregnant women eating fruits and vegetables.
URTIs include the common cold and sinus infections, which can lead to lower respiratory problems, such as asthma or pneumonia. Even though the majority of URTIs are uncomplicated colds, identifying ways to prevent their occurrence is important because colds are the most common reason for school and work absences. Eating nutritious foods, especially fruits and vegetables, improves immunity but hadn't previously been associated with reducing the risk of URTIs in pregnant women.
ScienceDaily for July 9, 2009 reported on lower Dementia later on when they as children had language skills.
People who have superior language skills early in life may be less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease decades later, despite having the hallmark signs of the disease, according to research published in the July 9, 2009, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
ScienceDaily for July 9, 2009 reported on iron supplements and susceptibility to Malaria.
"Based on our review, children should not be denied iron supplements, even if they are living in areas where malaria is prevalent," says lead researcher, Juliana Ojukwu of the Department of Paediatrics at the Ebonyi State University in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. "Iron is important for growth and development, and maintaining a healthy immune system."
ScienceDaily, in an article for July 9, 2009 reported on the activity of children as a result of support from their parents.
Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and Duke University studied a sample of 681 parents of 433 fourth- and fifth-graders from 12 schools in Houston. They found that those parents who conveyed the importance of high-intensity team sports to their children had more active children. Both the boys and girls watched less TV and spent less time on their computers.
ScienceDaily for July 9, 2009 reported on a drug-compound that extends the life of older mice.
On July 8, in the journal Nature, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and two collaborating centers reported that the Easter Island compound – called "rapamycin" after the island's Polynesian name, Rapa Nui – extended the expected lifespan of middle-aged mice by 28 percent to 38 percent. In human terms, this would be greater than the predicted increase in extra years of life if cancer and heart disease were both cured and prevented.A ScienceNOW article is here.
In an article dated July 8, 2009, ScienceDaily reported on parenting that is biased by a resemblance between father and child.
The investment of a father in the care and education of a child is a decisive factor for the child's development, growth and even survival, particularly in countries with high infant mortality. As this behavior is transmitted from generation to generation, it can evolve by natural selection. Evolutionary theory predicts that men should have developed the capacity to recognise their biological children. This recognition of paternity can be made on the basis of physical resemblance.
ScienceDaily for July 8, 2009 reported on birth complications from mothers who were survivors of childhood cancer.
Dr. Lie Fong and colleagues studied data on the pregnancies of 40 women who had been treated for cancer during their childhood, the majority of them for leukaemia, but also for solid tumours. Six had had radiation treatment directly to the abdomen. The data were compared with those from a control group of more than 9,000 women who had not had cancer treatment. All data were obtained from The Netherlands Perinatal Register, a nationwide database of pregnancy outcomes. Data were matched for age at pregnancy, year and month of delivery, and the number of times the woman had given birth.
ScienceDaily for July 7, 2009 reported on exercise and fatty-liver disease.
NAFLD is the most common form of chronic liver disease in developed countries. It is associated with the metabolic syndrome, which also includes obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, and is characterized by elevated liver enzymes. Currently, patients with NAFLD are encouraged to alter their lifestyles, however the focus has been on weight loss through dietary changes. The effects of increasing physical activity alone have not been thoroughly investigated.
An article in ScienceDaily for July 8, 2009 reported on new developments of reprogramming adult cells into stem cells.
With their work, Ko and his colleagues wanted to establish clarity from the outset. To this end, they started by culturing a precisely defined type of cell, so-called germline stem cells (GSCs), from the testis of adult mice. In their natural environment, these cells can only do one thing: constantly generate new sperm. Moreover, their own reproduction is an extremely rare occurrence. Only two or three of them will be found among the 10,000 cells in the testis tissue of a mouse. However, they can be isolated individually and reproduced as cell lines with stable characteristics. Under the usual cell culturing conditions, they retain their unipotency for weeks and years. Consequently, all they can do is reproduce or form sperm.
ScienceDaily for July 8, 2009 reported on student perceptions of drinking.
Researchers analysed data from 22 trials that together included 7,275 college and university students, mostly studying in the US. They found that students who were provided with personalised feedback via the internet or individual face-to-face sessions drank less often and indulged in less binge drinking than those in control groups. Web-based feedback also resulted in significant reductions in blood alcohol content and alcohol related problems.
ScienceDaily for July 7, 2009 reported on depression and attending college.
However, the research also indicates that lower grade point averages depended upon a student's type of depression, according to Daniel Eisenberg, assistant professor in the University of Michigan School of Public Health and principal investigator of the study.
An article in ScienceDaily for July 7, 2009 reported on teen smoking.
Anna M. Adachi-Mejia, Ph.D., of Hood Center for Children and Families, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, N.H., and colleagues analyzed data from school- and telephone-based surveys that assessed movie smoking exposure and team sports participation in 2,048 youths from September 1999 through November 1999 and February 2006 through February 2007. Baseline movie smoking exposure was reported when respondents were ages 9 to 14 and team sport participation was assessed at ages 16 to 21 at follow-up. Movie smoking exposure was classified in quartiles with 0 to 522 smoking occurrences for the first quartile, 523 to 947 for the second, 948 to 1,649 for the third and 1,650 to 5,308 for the fourth.
ScienceDaily for July 7, 2009 reported on a use of string theory to describe a phenomenon in physics. [String theory is important to this blog because it gives a theoretical basis for a belief in other dimensions and universes]
String theory has come under fire in recent years. Promises have been made that have not been lived up to. Leiden theoretical physicists have now for the first time used string theory to describe a physical phenomenon -- the quantum-critical state of electrons leading to high-temperature superconductivity. Their discovery has been reported recently in the journal Science.A World Science article is here.
ScienceDaily for July 7, 2009 reported on a link between vinegsr and control of fat.
Tomoo Kondo and colleagues note in the new study that vinegar has also been used as a folk medicine since ancient times. People have used it for a range of ills. Modern scientific research suggests that acetic acid, the main component of vinegar, may help control blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and fat accumulation.
ScienceDaily for July 6, 2009 reported on vitamin D deficiencies.
A new report issued by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) and published in the scientific journal Osteoporosis International1, shows that populations across the globe are suffering from the impact of low levels of vitamin D. The problem is widespread and on the increase, with potentially severe repercussions for overall health and fracture rates.
In an article dated July 6, 2009 ScienceDaily reported on a link between's ones immune system and Schizophrenia.
Now following on their earlier work that identified three gene locations that may be implicated in schizophrenia, researchers at UCLA and colleagues from around the world have, for the first time, identified additional genes that confirm what scientists have long suspected — that the immune system may play a role in the development of the disorder. Further, they have also identified genetic anomalies that disrupt the cellular pathways involved in brain development, memory and cognition, all markers of schizophrenia.
ScienceDaily for July 6, 2009 reported on caffeine and Alzheimer's.
Back-to-back studies published online July 6 in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, show caffeine significantly decreased abnormal levels of the protein linked to Alzheimer's disease, both in the brains and in the blood of mice exhibiting symptoms of the disease. Both studies build upon previous research by the Florida ADRC group showing that caffeine in early adulthood prevented the onset of memory problems in mice bred to develop Alzheimer's symptoms in old age.
ScienceDaily for July 6, 2009 reported on a link between being overweight and memory problems.
“The adverse effects of being overweight and obese are not limited to cardiac function, but also extend to brain function,” says Anna Dahl doctoral student at the School of Health Sciences, Jönköping. Several studies, including studies from the Swedish Twin Registry, have shown that individuals who are overweight or obese in mid-life are at an increased risk of suffering from dementia.
In an article dated July 7, 2009, ScienceDaily reported on possible a link between vitamin D and cancer.
One gene identified in this previous study was CST5, which is responsible for making the protein cystatin D. Now, a team of researchers, at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, and the Universidad de Oviedo, Spain, has studied this protein in detail and determined that it has tumor suppressor activity that likely accounts for some of the anticancer effects of the active form of vitamin D3.
ScienceDaily for July 3, 2009 reported on an effect on children of being overweight.
"We found that both boys and girls who were overweight from kindergarten through third grade displayed more depression, anxiety and loneliness than kids who were never overweight, and those negative feelings worsened over time," said Sara Gable, associate professor of human development and family studies in the MU College of Human Environmental Sciences. "Overweight is widely considered a stigmatizing condition and overweight individuals are typically blamed for their situation. The experience of being stigmatized often leads to negative feelings, even in children."
ScienceDaily for July 5, 2009 reported on research into the Swine flu.
The current H1N1 swine flu strain has genetic roots in an illness that sickened pigs at the 1918 Cedar Rapids Swine Show in Iowa, report infectious disease experts at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health in the New England Journal of Medicine. Their paper, published online June 29 and slated for the July 16 print issue, describes H1N1's nearly century-long and often convoluted journey, which may include the accidental resurrection of an extinct strain.
Discover Blogs reported on dinosaur skin.
The duck-billed dinosaurs have been giving up their secrets lately. Just yesterday researchers revealed new details of how hadrosaurs chewed their food, using a set of teeth that look like a “cranial cuisinart.” Today, paleontologists have put the hadrosaur’s skin on display, thanks to a “mummified” creature that shows the shape of its soft tissue and cell-like structures.A related article from ScienceDaily is here.
ScienceNOW for July 2, 2009 reported on heart stem cells.
The cells in question express a protein, called Islet 1, which is present in the early stages of fetal heart formation. In recent years, scientists have identified the cells in embryonic mouse hearts. And now, a team in the laboratory of Kenneth Chien, director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, has found the same cell type in human fetal hearts.A Discover Blogs article is here.
The July issue of Scientific American reported on the effect of fructose on our memory.
Neuroscientist Marise B. Parent of Georgia State University and her colleagues fed 11 adolescent rats a diet in which fructose supplied 60 percent of the calories. For 10 other rats, cornstarch took the place of the sweetener. The scientists trained the rats to find a submerged platform in a pool, with the help of surrounding cues.
Two days after the training ended, Parent’s group removed the pool’s platform and recorded where the rats—now adults—swam. Whereas the control group spent most of its time around the platform’s old location, the fructose-fed rats visited this area significantly less often. “They can learn” the platform’s location, Parent notes, “but they just can’t remember it for long periods.”
Scientific American for July, 2009 reported on the effect of exercise on our mind and on our aging.
As everybody knows, if you do not work out, your muscles get flaccid. What most people don’t realize, however, is that your brain also stays in better shape when you exercise. And not just challenging your noggin by, for example, learning a new language, doing difficult crosswords or taking on other intellectually stimulating tasks. As researchers are finding, physical exercise is critical to vigorous mental health, too.
ScienceDaily for July 3, 2009 reported on water on Mars.
The landing site was an ejecta field. A comet or asteroid that crashed into the surface melted the ice below creating a sheet of dust and water that flowed across a shallow valley. Smith said that event also covered any large rocks that could have interfered with the ability of the Phoenix to safely land.
In an article dated July 3, 2009, ScienceDaily reported on an effect of children being overweight.
As childhood obesity rates continue to increase, experts agree that more information is needed about the implications of being overweight as a step toward reversing current trends. Now, a new University of Missouri study has found that overweight children, especially girls, show signs of the negative consequences of being overweight as early as kindergarten.
ScienceDaily for July 3, 2009 reported on differences between embryonic stem cells and reprogrammed skin cells.
The data from the study suggest that embryonic stem cells and the reprogrammed cells, known as induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, have overlapping but still distinct gene expression signatures. The differing signatures were evident regardless of where the cell lines were generated, the methods by which they were derived or the species from which they were isolated, said Bill Lowry, a researcher with the Broad Stem Cell Research Center and a study author.
ScienceDaily for July 2, 2009 reported on a genetic factor of Schizophrenia.
Researchers at Stanford and 14 other institutions carried out a study of common DNA variations throughout the genome, and then combined forces with two independent studies to complete a pooled analysis of 27,000 individuals. The largest genetic differences between the study participants with and without schizophrenia were found on a stretch of chromosome 6 containing numerous genes associated with immune response (and some with other roles). This raises the possibility that immune function plays a role in schizophrenia.
An article in ScienceDaily for July 3, 2009 reported on sleep and depression in women.
A study in the journal Sleep suggests that postpartum depression may aggravate an already impaired sleep quality, as experiencing difficulties with sleep is a symptom of depression. Twenty-one percent of depressed postpartum women included in the study reported having also been depressed during pregnancy and 46 percent reported at least one previous depressive episode prior to conception, suggesting that new mothers diagnosed with postpartum depression are not merely reporting symptoms of chronic sleep deprivation.
ScienceDaily for July 3, 2009 reported on the influence on teenagers of movie characters who smoke.
"Previous studies have confirmed a link between smoking in movies and the initiation of smoking by adolescents, and we wanted to dig deeper into the data to see if the type of character who is smoking matters. Is it 'good guys' or 'bad guys' that have more of an influence?" said Susanne Tanski, the lead author on the study, and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School. "It's true that 'bad guys' are more often smokers in the movies, but there really are not that many 'bad guys' compared to 'good guys'. Episode for episode, youth who saw negative character smoking were more likely to start smoking, but since overall there is so much more exposure to 'good guy' smoking, the net effect is similar."
ScienceDaily for July 3, 2009 reported on nutrition and vegetarian diets.
"It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life-cycle including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence and for athletes."
ScienceDaily, in an article for July 1, 2009, reported on the effect of daily sex on sperm quality.
Daily sex (or ejaculating daily) for seven days improves men’s sperm quality by reducing the amount of DNA damage, according to an Australian study presented June 30 to the 25th annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Amsterdam.
ScienceDaily for July 2, 2009 reported on the effect of antibiotics in ones digestive system.
It’s common knowledge that a protective navy of bacteria normally floats in our intestinal tracts. Antibiotics at least temporarily disturb the normal balance. But it’s unclear which antibiotics are the most disruptive, and if the full array of “good bacteria” return promptly or remain altered for some time.
An article in ScienceDaily for July 1, 2009 reported on stress and risk-taking.
New research, to be published July 1 in the journal PLoS One, shows that men under stress may be more likely to take risks, correlating to such real-life behavior as gambling, smoking, unsafe sex and illegal drug use.
ScienceDaily for July 1, 2009 reported on the effect of orange juice on teeth.
Eastman Institute’s YanFang Ren, DDS, PhD, and his team determined that the effects of 6 percent hydrogen peroxide, the common ingredient in professional and over-the-counter whitening products, are insignificant compared to acidic fruit juices. Orange juice markedly decreased hardness and increased roughness of tooth enamel.
ScienceDaily for July 1, 2009 reported on sleep and women.
Lead author of the study, Associate Professor of Biochemical Medicine at Warwick Medical School Michelle Miller said short-term sleep deprivation studies have shown that inflammatory markers are elevated in sleep-deprived individuals, suggesting that inflammatory mechanisms may play a role in the cardiovascular risk associated with sleep deprivation.
ScienceDaily for June 30, 2009 reported on sleep problems and irregular heartbeats in older men.
Reena Mehra, M.D., M.S., of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, and colleagues studied 2,911 men who underwent sleep testing by polysomnography between 2003 and 2005. The number of times they experienced apnea (brief pauses in breathing) or hypopnea (shallow breathing) during sleep was recorded, as were any periods of time in which the oxygen level of blood in their arteries dipped below 90 percent (hypoxia).
In an article dated June 30, 2009, ScienceDaily reported on a new hybrid of sweet potato.
Lim said purple sweet potatoes have high contents of anthocyanin, which is a pigment that presents the purple color in the vegetable. The pigment can produce red, blue and purple colors depending on the source's chemical structure, such as in foods like blueberries, red grapes and red cabbage.
ScienceDaily for June 30, 2009 reported on the use of pig heart valves humans.
In the four patients affected, the pig valves failed after 3, 14, 19 and 44 months. Each patient underwent a second operation to replace the defective valve with a valve made from cow heart tissue. No patient died as a direct consequence of the pig heart valve impairment.
