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34,724 articles z ScienceDaily
- title
- ScienceDaily
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- description
- Daily headlines about discoveries in the physical and life sciences, health and medicine, the environment, and technology, from the world's leading universities and research centers.
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- March 10, 2010 (23:45)
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- September 3, 2007 (19:52)
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- alexa, technorati, rojo
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SATURDAY 1. SEPTEMBER, 2007
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The reported sighting of a Yangtze River dolphin, or Baiji, means there is still a chance for people to take further action and protect the cetaceans in the Yangtze from extinction, according to World Wildlife Fund. Based on the river's geographic and hydrological complexity and the official definition of extinction by IUCN, WWF and many scientists agreed that this species was "functionally extinct", but thought it was still too early to declare its extinction.
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Studying the DNA of 889 people, gene hunters have identified a region on chromosome 5p that is significantly associated with dense breast tissue, a known risk factor for breast cancer. The study suggests that genes which influence breast density could serve as a predictive marker for disease and provide a biological target for agents that may reduce breast cancer risk by reducing breast density. Women with dense breasts -- meaning the breast has a smaller proportion of fat relative to stromal and epithelial tissues - are three to five times more likely to develop breast cancer than women with less dense breasts.
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Antarctica is home to the largest body of ice on Earth. Prior to approximately 10 years ago, no one thought that life could exist beneath the Antarctic ice sheets, which can be more than two miles thick in places, because conditions were believed to be too extreme. Now there is hope. If confirmed, "immortal cells" could prove potential for life on Mars and Europa, one of Jupiter's moons.
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SUNDAY 2. SEPTEMBER, 2007
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Creating ultrasmall grooves on microchips -- a key part of many modern technologies -- is about to become as easy as making a sandwich, using a new process invented by Princeton engineers. The simple, low-cost technique results in the self-formation of periodic lines, or gratings, separated by as few as 60 nanometers -- less than one ten-thousandth of a millimeter -- on microchips.
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Using a new "genome-scanning" method, a team of scientists has identified the first robust link between genes and stature in humans. A single letter change in a gene called HMGA2 enables people who carry it to gain as much as a centimeter in height. The work provides insights into how genes hardwire growth in humans and suggests that finding additional height-related genes may be feasible.
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A blood cell known as a troublemaker for triggering the itch and inflammation in allergy attacks, the mast cell, can also calm down the flare-ups, researchers have found. The findings reveal that, in mice, mast cells help decrease skin damage over time from sun exposure or from poison oak.
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Our brains are buzzing with electrical activity created by sodium and potassium ions moving in and out of neurons through specialized pores. To prevent the constant chatter from descending into chaos the activity of these ion channels has to be tightly regulated. One possibility is to issue the channels a ticket straight to the cellular dumpster, discovered researchers.
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The rise in year-round consumption of fresh leafy greens such as lettuce and baby spinach is increasing the difficulty of keeping produce free from contamination by food poisoning bacteria, according to scientists.
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Viruses found in the River Cam in Cambridge, famous as a haunt of students in their punts on long, lazy summer days, could become the next generation of antibiotics, according to scientists. With antibiotics now over-prescribed for treatments of bacterial infections, and patients failing to complete their courses of treatment properly, many bacteria are able to pick up an entire array of antibiotic resistance genes easily by swapping genetic material with each other. MRSA -- the multiple drug resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus - and newly emerging strains of the superbug Clostridium difficile have forced medical researchers to realise that an entirely different approach is required to combat these bacteria.
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Mouse mammary glands deficient in PPAR³, a nuclear receptor that regulates the storage of fat, produce toxic milk that causes inflammation and baldness in suckling pups, report scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. "We were quite surprised by the unexpected quality control mechanism that ensures the quality of breast milk," says Ronald M. Evans, Ph.D., professor in the Salk Institute's Gene Expression Laboratory and a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator. "Our finding explains why breast milk is always clean and healthful, even when there's a lot of inflammation going on in the mother's body," he adds.
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New technology can warn people if their local water or air is contaminated with dangerous levels of toxic heavy metals and metal-like substances. They are studying the changes that take place in a unique water microbe when it is exposed to arsenic, cadmium and lead -- industrial and natural contaminants around the world.
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Mice that are part of the Collaborative Cross project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are helping scientists around the world learn more about possible causes of drug abuse, diabetes, sleep disorders, stress and pain, kidney disease and a number of other conditions that affect millions of people.
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Preventing youth smoking could take a village or a neighborhood. Church and school activities may help reduce smoking among youth in disadvantaged areas, according to a new survey. African-American youths reported less cigarette use overall than white youths. Across racial lines however, young people involved in extracurricular school activities or programs at church were less likely to smoke even though they were exposed to same neighborhood risks as the smokers.
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Exposure to passive smoking is linked to increased prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This association could cause 1.9 million excess deaths* among never smokers in China. The scientists found that people exposed to high levels of passive smoking (equivalent to 40 hours a week for more than five years) were on average 48% more likely to develop COPD.
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Warnings signs such as increased stress could indicate that pregnancy-induced hypertension is reaching life-threatening levels. The condition is variable and can change quickly. A higher number of symptoms, such as headaches and dizziness, could also mean the condition is getting worse. Also known as preeclampsia and gestational hypertension, pregnancy-induced hypertension occurs at about 20 weeks in 6 percent to 8 percent of pregnancies. The exact cause is not known. Severe forms of these conditions can play a role in perinatal developmental issues of the fetus or even death for both the mother and fetus.
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For the first time, researchers have recorded "megapclicks" -- a series of clicks and buzzes from humpback whales apparently associated with nighttime feeding behaviors -- in and around NOAA's Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. This acoustically active species has been known to produce complex "songs" on their breeding grounds, but knowledge of sound production on northern feeding grounds has been limited.
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Observational and theoretical studies of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the target of ESA's Rosetta mission, are building a detailed portrait of the comet's nucleus as it travels around the Sun. Surprisingly, although the comet was not active, they found that a faint dust trail is visible in the images of the comet, extending more than 500 000 km along the comet's orbital path.
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Scientists hope to learn more about climate changes here on Earth by studying Venus. A prototype balloon could eventually study the planet's surface and examine its atmosphere and the bizarre winds and chemistry within it. A team of JPL, ILC Dover and NASA Wallops Flight Facility engineers designed, fabricated and tested the balloon.
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A new study has identified a regionally-specific distribution of aluminum in breast tissue which may have implications for the cause of breast cancer. Scientists have found that the aluminum content of breast tissue and breast tissue fat was significantly higher in the outer regions of the breast, in close proximity to the area where there would be the highest density of antiperspirant.
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The debate about what constitutes "dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate" has almost exclusively focused on how much the temperature can be allowed to increase. But we have perhaps just as much reason to be concerned about how quickly these changes take place. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aims to avoid what is called "dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system."
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Combining radiation therapy with a drug that helps destroy blood vessels nourishing malignant tumors has been shown in mice to be significantly more effective in treating lung cancer than either approach alone, researchers have found. The study used human lung-cancer cells implanted in mice.
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The conception and birth of a child are emotional events that influence the dreams of most new mothers. In a surprisingly high number of cases, this influence reflects negative aspects of maternal responsibility, depicting the new infant in dreamed situations of danger and provoking anxiety in the mother that often spills over into wakefulness. These kinds of dreams are also accompanied by complex behaviors by new moms such as motor activity, speaking and expressing emotion.
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MONDAY 3. SEPTEMBER, 2007
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Sorghum-related biofuels research is taking a localized approach, with the aim of making possible the effective production of ethanol in the farmer's own field. Sweet sorghum can be grown throughout temperate climate zones of the United States and elsewhere. It provides high biomass yield with low irrigation and fertilizer requirements. Corn ethanol, in contrast, requires significant amounts of water for growing and processing. Best of all, producing ethanol from sweet sorghum is relatively easy, said Danielle Bellmer, biosystems engineer with the OSU Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources' Robert M. Kerr Food and Agricultural Products Center.
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A survey of the religious beliefs and practices of American physicians has found that the least religious of all medical specialties is psychiatry. Among psychiatrists who have a religion, more than twice as many are Jewish and far fewer are Protestant or Catholic. The study also found that religious physicians, especially Protestants, are less likely to refer patients to psychiatrists, and more likely to send them to members of the clergy or religious counselors.
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With the world's first global inventory of farm animals showing many breeds of African, Asian, and Latin American livestock at risk of extinction, scientists have called for the rapid establishment of genebanks to conserve the sperm and ovaries of key animals critical for the global population's future survival.
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