Public Release: 13-Apr-2009
Journal of Cell Biology
SIRT1 takes down tumors
Yuan et al. have identified another anti-cancer effect of the "longevity" protein SIRT1. By speeding the destruction of the tumor promoter c-Myc, SIRT1 curbs cell division.
Contact: Rita Sullivan
news@rupress.org
212-327-8603
Rockefeller University Press
Public Release: 13-Apr-2009
American Educational Research Association Meeting
Study finds link between Facebook use, lower grades in college
College students who use Facebook spend less time studying and have lower grade point averages than students who have not signed up for the social networking Web site, according to a pilot study at one university. However, more than three-quarters of Facebook users claimed that their use of the social networking site didn't interfere with their studies.
Contact: Aryn Karpinski
Karpinski.10@osu.edu
Ohio State University
Public Release: 13-Apr-2009
Archives of Internal Medicine
Review identifies dietary factors associated with heart disease risk
A review of previously published studies suggests that vegetable and nut intake and a Mediterranean dietary pattern appear to be associated with a lower risk for heart disease, according to a report published in the April 13 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, intake of trans-fatty acids and foods with a high glycemic index may be harmful to heart health.
Contact: Veronica McGuire
vmcguir@mcmaster.ca
905-525-9140 x22169
JAMA and Archives Journals
Public Release: 13-Apr-2009
Archives of Internal Medicine
Many clinicians unaware of federally funded research on alternative therapies
Approximately one in four practicing clinicians appear to be aware of two major federally funded clinical trials of alternative therapies, and many do not express confidence in their ability to interpret research results, according to a report in the April 13 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Contact: John Murphy
murphy.jj@mayo.edu
507-284-5005
JAMA and Archives Journals
Public Release: 13-Apr-2009
Archives of Ophthalmology
Erectile dysfunction treatments do not appear to damage vision over 6 months
Two medications used to treat erectile dysfunction in men (tadalafil and sildenafil) do not appear to have visual side effects when taken daily for six months, despite concerns about eye-related complications, according to a report in the April issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Contact: Eric Schoch
eschoch@iupui.edu
317-274-8205
JAMA and Archives Journals
Public Release: 13-Apr-2009
University of Toronto chemists uncover green catalysts
A University of Toronto research team has discovered useful green catalysts made from iron that might replace the much more expensive and toxic platinum metals typically used in industrial chemical processes to produce drugs, flavors and fragrances.
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Contact: Kim Luke
kim.luke@utoronto.ca
416-978-4352
University of Toronto
Public Release: 13-Apr-2009
International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders
UQ research reclaims the power of speech
A UQ researcher has revealed a new treatment for a speech disorder that commonly affects those who have suffered a stroke or brain injury.
Contact: Cameron Pegg
c.pegg@uq.edu.au
61-733-652-049
Research Australia
Public Release: 14-Apr-2009
Scientists discover way to jumpstart bone's healing process
Rarely will physicians use the word "miraculous" when discussing patient recoveries. But that's the very phrase orthopedic physicians and scientists are using in upstate New York to describe their emerging stem cell research that could have a profound impact on the treatment of bone injuries. Results from preliminary work being released today show patients confined to wheelchairs were able to walk or live independently again because their broken bones finally healed.
National Institutes of Health, Eli Lilly and Co.
Contact: Germaine Reinhardt
Germaine_Reinhardt@urmc.rochester.edu
585-275-6517
University of Rochester Medical Center
Public Release: 14-Apr-2009
Cochrane Library
Male circumcision reduces HIV risk: No further evidence needed
Three recent African trials support male circumcision for reducing the risk of contracting HIV in heterosexual men. After including new data from these trials in their review, Cochrane Researchers have changed their previous conclusions that there was insufficient evidence to recommend circumcision as an intervention to prevent HIV infection in heterosexual men.
Contact: Jennifer Beal
wbnewseurope@wiley.com
44-124-377-0633
Wiley-Blackwell
Public Release: 14-Apr-2009
Journal of Physiology
Energy drinks work -- in mysterious ways!
Writing in the latest issue oft he Journal of Physiology, Ed Chambers and colleagues not only show that sugary drinks can significantly boost performance in an endurance event without being ingested, but so can a tasteless carbohydrate -- and they do so in unexpected ways.
Contact: Melanie Thomson
melanie.thomson@wiley.com
44-186-547-6270
Wiley-Blackwell
Public Release: 14-Apr-2009
PLoS ONE
The role of inbreeding in the extinction of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty
The powerful Habsburg dynasty ruled Spain and its empire from 1516 to 1700 but when King Charles II died childless, the male line died out and the French Bourbon dynasty came to power in Spain. Reporting in PLoS ONE, April 15, researchers at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, provide genetic evidence to support historical evidence that frequent inbreeding within the dynasty was a major cause for the extinction of its male line.
Contact: Rebecca Walton
press@plos.org
Savant skills may be widespread in people with autism
Savant-like abilities, such as astounding memory, may be much more common among people with autism than previously thought
12:15 14 April 2009
Public Release: 14-Apr-2009
PLoS ONE
Study confirms 3 Neanderthal sub-groups
The Neanderthals inhabited a vast geographical area extending from Europe to western Asia and the Middle East 30,000 to 100,000 years ago. Now, a group of researchers are questioning whether or not the Neanderthals constituted a homogenous group or separate sub-groups (between which slight differences could be observed). A new study published April 15 in the online, open-access, peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE may provide some answers.
Contact: Jen Laloup
press@plos.org
Public Library of Science
Public Release: 14-Apr-2009
Nature Neuroscience
Signals from stroking have direct route to brain
Nerve signals that tell the brain that we are being slowly stroked on the skin have their own specialized nerve fibers in the skin. This is shown by a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The discovery may explain why touching the skin can relieve pain.
Contact: Line Löken
line.loken@neuro.gu.se
46-070-565-8861
University of Gothenburg
Public Release: 14-Apr-2009
Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
Largemouth bass vulnerability to being caught by anglers a heritable trait
In an experiment spanning over 20 years, researchers at the University of Illinois have found that vulnerability to being caught by anglers is a heritable trait in largemouth bass.
Contact: Debra Levey Larson
dlarson@illinois.edu
217-244-2880
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Herbal wine, just the thing for ailing pharoahs
Philadelphia Inquirer
Low glycemic breakfast may increase benefits of working out
Individuals trying to shed fat may consider choosing Low Glycemic Index foods eaten prior to when they exercise.
Mars
Contact: Suzanne Price
sprice@nutrition.org
American Society for Nutrition
Q & A
Heartfelt Changes
After years of a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet, will shifting to a healthy diet with fiber, fruit and vegetables repair some of the damage to blood vessels?
By C. CLAIBORNE RAY
Public Release: 14-Apr-2009
Psychological Science
I feel like a different person
The results showed that feeling good encouraged the volunteers, both European and Asian, to explore values that are inconsistent with their cultural norms. The researchers surmise that positive feelings may send a signal that it's safe to broaden one's view of the world and to explore novel notions of one's self. In addition, feeling bad did the opposite: It reinforced traditional cultural stereotypes and constrained both Western and Eastern thinking about the world.
Contact: Barbara Isanski
bisanski@psychologicalscience.org
Association for Psychological Science
Public Release: 14-Apr-2009
MSU researcher develops E. coli vaccine
A Michigan State University researcher has developed a working vaccine for a strain of E. coli that kills 2 million to 3 million children each year in the developing world.
National Institutes of Health
Contact: Jason Cody
codyja@msu.edu
517-432-0924
Michigan State University
Public Release: 14-Apr-2009
Journal of Molecular Evolution
Tentacles of venom: New study reveals all octopuses are venomous
Once thought to be only the realm of the blue-ringed octopus, researchers have now shown that all octopuses and cuttlefish, and some squid are venomous. The work indicates that they all share a common, ancient venomous ancestor and highlights new avenues for drug discovery.
Contact: Nerissa Hannink
nhannink@unimelb.edu.au
61-383-448-151
University of Melbourne
Public Release: 15-Apr-2009
Neuron
Neurodegenerative diseases target healthy brain's intrinsic networks
New research suggests that neurodegenerative diseases are neither diffuse nor random but specifically target large-scale functional networks in the human brain. The study, published by Cell Press in the April 16 issue of the journal Neuron, may drive a new generation of network-based strategies for diagnosing and monitoring neurodegenerative diseases.
Contact: Cathleen Genova
cgenova@cell.com
617-397-2802
Cell Press
Opinion
Boldly Going Nowhere
The desire to walk on an alien planet will not ― any century soon ― be sated by human-filled starships. Instead, we will extend our senses beyond Earth with telepresence proxies and data collectors.
By SETH SHOSTAK
Fishing fleets squander half their catches
New study shows that 40 per cent of fish caught are thrown back in the sea, often unrecorded
00:01 15 April 2009
Public Release: 15-Apr-2009
American Journal of Play
'Free play' for children, teens is vital to social development, reports BC psychologist
A new theory about early human adaptation suggests that use of "free" self-organized play for children, teens and even among adults is a key element in the development of cooperative social skills. Boston College psychologist Peter Gray suggests that the self-centered actions that led to the current economic collapse may, in part, be symptoms of a society that has replaced what used to be known as "play" with more competitive activities that require a drive to win.
Contact: Patti Delaney
delaneyp@bc.edu
617-552-3352
Boston College
Public Release: 15-Apr-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Long-lasting nerve block could change pain management
Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have developed a slow-release local anesthetic that could potentially revolutionize treatment of pain during and after surgery. By encapsulating anesthetics in fatty particles and injecting them into rats, they created a long-lasting nerve block that blocked pain without being toxic to nerves or muscles. The research could also have a large impact on chronic pain management, avoiding the need for systemic narcotics.
NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences
Contact: Rob Graham
rob.graham@childrens.harvard.edu
617-919-3110
Children's Hospital Boston
Public Release: 15-Apr-2009
Journal of American Chemical Society
Chemists synthesize herbal alkaloid
Synthetic chemists from Vanderbilt University have found an efficient way to create one of the complex alkaloids found in club moss, a plant used in traditional Chinese medicine, so that it can be made in sufficient quantity to test the compound's therapeutic value.
NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Eli Lily and Co., Pfizer
Contact: David F. Salisbury
david.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu
615-343-6803
Vanderbilt University
Why some people sneeze when the sun comes out
The strange phenomenon of "photic sneezing" might shed light on just how muddled our brains can be
FEATURE:  18:00 15 April 2009
Public Release: 16-Apr-2009
Science
Microbes thrive in harsh, isolated water under Antarctic glacier
A reservoir of briny liquid buried deep beneath an Antarctic glacier supports hardy microbes that have lived in isolation for millions of years, researchers report this week in the journal Science. The discovery of life in a place where cold, darkness, and lack of oxygen would previously have led scientists to believe nothing could survive comes from a team led by researchers at Harvard University and Dartmouth College.
National Science Foundation, NASA, Harvard University
Contact: Steve Bradt
steve_bradt@harvard.edu
617-496-8070
Harvard University
Public Release: 16-Apr-2009
PLoS Pathogens
Study points to disruption of copper regulation as key to prion diseases
An investigation of a rare, inherited form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease suggests that disrupted regulation of copper ions in the brain may be a key factor in this and other prion diseases.
Contact: Tim Stephens
stephens@ucsc.edu
831-459-2495
University of California - Santa Cruz
Public Release: 16-Apr-2009
Science
New nucleotide could revolutionize epigenetics
In experiments to be published in Science, researchers reveal an additional character in the mammalian DNA code, opening an entirely new front in epigenetic research.
National Institutes of Health
Contact: Brett Norman
bnorman@rockefeller.edu
212-327-7613
Rockefeller University
Public Release: 17-Apr-2009
Pain Medicine
Inexpensive drug appears to relieve fibromyalgia pain in Stanford pilot study
A small pilot study at Stanford was conducted over a 14-week period to test the new use of a low dose of a drug called naltrexone for the treatment of chronic pain. The drug, which has been used clinically for more than 30 years to treat opioid addiction, was found to reduce symptoms of pain and fatigue an average of 30 percent over placebo, according to the results of the study to be published April 17 online in the journal Pain Medicine.
Contact: Margarita Gallardo
mjgallardo@stanford.edu
650-723-7897
Stanford University Medical Center
Public Release: 17-Apr-2009
Experimental Biology 2009
'Antedrugs': A safer approach to drug therapy
Antedrug design is a new approach to creating safer drugs that attack a problem such as inflammation then quickly become inactive before they can cause damage. In a new study researchers synthesize a group of corticosteroids that have anti-asthmatic and anti-inflammatory properties but without adverse side effects.
National Institutes of Health
Contact: Donna Krupa
dkrupa@the-aps.org
703-967-2751
American Physiological Society
Public Release: 17-Apr-2009
Science
Fossils suggest earlier land-water transition of tetrapod
New evidence gleaned from CT scans of fossils locked inside rocks may flip the order in which two kinds of four-limbed animals with backbones were known to have moved from fish to landlubber.
Winston Churchill Foundation, Swedish Research Council
Contact: Monte Basgall
monte.basgall@duke.edu
919-681-8057
Duke University
Public Release: 17-Apr-2009
Science
Increasing carbon dioxide and decreasing oxygen make it harder for deep-sea animals to "breathe"
New calculations made by marine chemists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute suggest that low-oxygen "dead zones" in the ocean could expand significantly over the next century. These predictions are based on the fact that, as more and more carbon dioxide dissolves from the atmosphere into the ocean, marine animals will need more oxygen to survive.
David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Contact: Kim Fulton-Bennett
kfb@mbari.org
831-775-1835
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Public Release: 17-Apr-2009
Nature Medicine
Autopsy study links prostate cancer to single rogue cell
One cell... one initial set of genetic changes -- that's all it takes to begin a series of events that lead to metastatic cancer. Now, Johns Hopkins experts have tracked how the cancer process began in 33 men with prostate cancer who died of the disease.
Contact: Vanessa Wasta
wastava@jhmi.edu
410-955-1287
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Public Release: 17-Apr-2009
Journal of Neuroimmunology
Maternal immune response to fetal brain during pregnancy a key factor in some autism
New studies in pregnant mice using antibodies against fetal brains made by the mothers of autistic children show that immune cells can cross the placenta and trigger neurobehavioral changes similar to autism in the mouse pups.
Hussman Foundation
Contact: Ekaterina Pesheva
epeshev1@jhmi.edu
410-516-4996
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Forests as carbon sinks 'at risk'
Forests' role as massive carbon sinks is "at risk of being lost entirely", a global assessment warns.
Public Release: 19-Apr-2009
Experimental Biology 2009
Risk of vibration-induced vascular injuries linked to vibration frequency differences
Dr. Kristine Krajnak, a team leader in the Engineering and Control Technologies Branch of the Health Effects Laboratory Division of NIOSH in Morgantown, W.Va., describes results from the first study to directly link the different physical responses of tissue that occur with exposure to different vibration frequencies with biological mechanisms underlying the development of vascular dysfunction at Experimental Biology 2009.
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health
Contact: Sylvia Wrobel
ebpress@gmail.com
770-722-0155
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Public Release: 19-Apr-2009
AACR 100th Annual Meeting 2009
New drug achieves pancreatic cancer tumor remission and prevents recurrence
Pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest cancers, but researchers may have found a combination therapy to reduce cancer stem cells and stop pancreatic cancer growth. Results will be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research 100th Annual Meeting 2009.
Contact: Jeremy Moore
Jeremy.moore@aacr.org
267-646-0557
American Association for Cancer Research
Public Release: 19-Apr-2009
Nature Geoscience
Clouds: Lighter than air but laden with lead
Researchers have shown for the first time a direct relation between lead in the sky and the formation of ice crystals that foster clouds. The results, published in May's Nature Geoscience, suggest that lead generated by human activities causes clouds to form at warmer temperatures and with less water. Not only could this alter precipitation but, under some conditions, these clouds let more of the earth's heat waft back into space, cooling the world slightly.
Atmospheric Composition Change the European Network for Excellence, ETH Zurich, German Research Foundation, US Department of Energy
Contact: Mary Beckman
mary.beckman@pnl.gov
509-375-3688
DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Public Release: 19-Apr-2009
AACR 100th Annual Meeting 2009
An herbal extract inhibits the development of pancreatic cancer
An herb recently found to kill pancreatic cancer cells also appears to inhibit development of pancreatic cancer as a result of its anti-inflammatory properties, according to researchers from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson. The data were presented at the AACR 100th Annual Meeting 2009 in Denver.
Contact: Emily Shafer
emily.shafer@jefferson.edu
215-955-5291
Thomas Jefferson University
MI5 set to recruit science chief
MI5 is to appoint a chief scientific adviser, BBC News has learned.
By Pallab GhoshScience correspondent, BBC News
17 April 2009 03:19 UK