Public Release: 24-May-2009
Oceans Past II
Ocean life in olden days: Researchers upend modern notions of 'natural' animal sizes, abundance
Using such diverse sources as old ship logs, literary texts, tax accounts, newly translated legal documents and even mounted trophies, Census of Marine Life researchers are piecing together images -- some flickering, others in high definition -- of fish of such sizes, abundance and distribution in ages past that they stagger modern imaginations. They are also documenting the timelines over which those giant marine life populations declined.
Contact: Terry Collins
terrycollins@rogers.com
416-538-8712
Census of Marine Life
Public Release: 26-May-2009
PLoS ONE
Did the North Atlantic fisheries collapse due to fisheries-induced evolution?
The Atlantic cod has, for many centuries, sustained major fisheries on both sides of the Atlantic. However, the North American fisheries have now largely collapsed. A new paper in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE from scientists at the University of Iceland and Marine Research Institute in Reykjavik provides insights into possible mechanisms of the collapse of fisheries, due to fisheries-induced evolution.
Contact: Rebecca Walton
rwalton@plos.org
44-122-346-3333
Public Library of Science
Public Release: 25-May-2009
Journal of Cell Biology
Australian team reveals world-first discovery in a 'floppy baby' syndrome
In a world first, West Australian scientists have cured mice of a devastating muscle disease that causes a "floppy baby" syndrome -- a breakthrough that could ultimately help thousands of families across the globe.
Contact: Natalie Papadopoulos
natalie@capturemedia.com.au
61-040-798-4435
Research Australia
Rooks reveal remarkable tool use
Rooks have a remarkable aptitude for using tools, scientists have found.
By Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC News
26 May 2009 08:43 UK
Public Release: 25-May-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Smart and social?
New research from two evolutionary biologists questions the recent finding that sociality has played a key role in the evolution of larger brain size among several orders of mammals (Social Brain Hypothesis). Their sweeping analysis of many living and fossil carnivore species that places relative places brain size increase in an evolutionary context and finds that increased brain size is not routinely associated with sociality.
National Science Foundation, others
Contact: Kristin Elise Phillips
kphillips@amnh.org
212-496-3419
American Museum of Natural History
Public Release: 25-May-2009
PLoS Biology
What is the function of lymph nodes?
If we imagine our immune system to be a police force for our bodies, then previous work has suggested that the lymph nodes would be the best candidate structures within the body to act as police stations -- the regions in which the immune response is organized. However, Professor Burkhard Becher, University of Zurich, suggests in a new paper that lymph nodes are not essential in the mouse in marshalling T-cells to respond to a breach of the skin barrier.
Contact: Prof. Burkhard Becher
burkhard.becher@neuroimm.uzh.ch
41-446-353-703
University of Zurich
Space rock yields carbon bounty
Formic acid, a molecule implicated in the origins of life, has been found at record levels on a meteorite that fell into a Canadian lake in 2000.
By Jennifer Carpenter Science reporter, BBC News, Toronto
26 May 2009 14:25 UK
Public Release: 26-May-2009
Journal of Clinical Oncology
Green tea extract shows promise in leukemia trials
Mayo Clinic researchers are reporting positive results in early leukemia clinical trials using the chemical epigallocatechin gallate, an active ingredient in green tea.
Mayo Clinic, CLL Global Research Foundation, CLL Topics, Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research, Polyphenon E International
Contact: Robert Nellis
newsbureau@mayo.edu
507-284-5005
Mayo Clinic
Comment: Get real, drug czars
International drug policy has become absurd – it's time world leaders abandoned their futile pursuit of a drug-free world, says Robin Room
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:  16:55 26 May 2009
Public Release: 26-May-2009
PLoS ONE
Oldest evidence of leprosy found in India
Reporting in PLoS ONE, a biological anthropologist from Appalachian State University working with an undergraduate student from Appalachian, an evolutionary biologist from UNC Greensboro, and a team of archaeologists from Deccan College (Pune, India) recently reported analysis of a 4000-year-old skeleton from India bearing evidence of leprosy. This skeleton represents both the earliest archaeological evidence for human infection with Mycobacterium leprae in the world and the first evidence for the disease in prehistoric India.
Contact: Rebecca Walton
rwalton@plos.org
44-122-346-3333
Public Library of Science
Public Release: 26-May-2009
Journal of Immunology
Arthritis drug might prove effective in fighting the flu, study suggests
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have found that an approved drug for treating rheumatoid arthritis reduces severe illness and death in mice exposed to the Influenza A virus. Their findings, reported in The Journal of Immunology, suggest that tempering the response of the body's immune system to influenza infection may alleviate some of the more severe symptoms and even reduce mortality from this virus.
National Institutes of Health, Bristol-Myers Squibb
Contact: Karen Warmkessel
kwarmkessel@umm.edu
410-328-8919
University of Maryland Medical Center
Public Release: 26-May-2009
Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
Is vitamin D deficiency linked to Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia?
There are several risk factors for the development of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. Based on an increasing number of studies linking these risk factors with Vitamin D deficiency, an article in the current issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease by William B. Grant, Ph.D., of the Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center suggests that further investigation of possible direct or indirect linkages between vitamin D and these dementias is needed.
Contact: Astrid Engelen
a.engelen@iospress.nl
31-206-883-355
IOS Press
Public Release: 26-May-2009
Cancer Prevention Research
Carbohydrate restriction may slow prostate tumor growth
Restricting carbohydrates, regardless of weight loss, appears to slow the growth of prostate tumors, according to an animal study being published this week by researchers in the Duke Prostate Center.
US Department of Veterans Affairs, US Department of Defense, American Urological Association, Foundation Astellas, Robert C. Atkins Foundation
Contact: Lauren Shaftel Williams
lauren.shaftel@duke.edu
919-684-4966
Duke University Medical Center
Public Release: 26-May-2009
Microfossils challenge prevailing views of the effects of 'Snowball Earth' glaciations on life
New fossil findings discovered by scientists at UC Santa Barbara challenge prevailing views about the effects of "Snowball Earth" glaciations on life, according to an article in the June issue of the journal Nature Geoscience.
Contact: Gail Gallessich
gail.g@ia.ucsb.edu
805-893-7220
University of California - Santa Barbara
Space storm caught slamming into Earth's atmosphere
Magnetic oscillations from a space storm have been spotted spreading out from a central point in Earth's upper atmosphere for the first time
18:16 26 May 2009
Public Release: 26-May-2009
Journal of Neuroimmunology
Diabetes drug shows promise against multiple sclerosis
A drug currently FDA-approved for use in diabetes shows some protective effects in the brains of patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine report in a study online in the Journal of Neuroimmunology.
Contact: Jeanne Galatzer-Levy
jgala@uic.edu
312-996-1583
University of Illinois at Chicago
Public Release: 26-May-2009
Nature Geoscience
A hidden drip, drip, drip beneath Earth's surface
There are very few places in the world where dynamic activity taking place beneath Earth's surface goes undetected.
Contact: Cheryl Dybas
cdybas@nsf.gov
703-292-7734
National Science Foundation
Global Update
Parasites: Giving a Deworming Drug to Girls Could Cut H.I.V. Transmission in Africa
May 25, 2009
Personal Health
A Brain Disorder Easily Missed
No one knows how often normal pressure hydrocephalus occurs because it is so often missed or misdiagnosed.
* Health Guide: Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (N.P.H.) »
By JANE E. BRODY
Essay
Referral System Turns Patients Into Commodities
Referrals are the currency of day-to-day transactions in medicine.
By SANDEEP JAUHAR, M.D.
Basics
Fungi, From Killer to Dinner Companion
A plague to bats, but a friend of humans in their bread and wine.
By NATALIE ANGIER
Q & A
Barnyard Pestilence
Did all human infectious diseases originate in domesticated animals?
By C. CLAIBORNE RAY
Mouse genome laid bare to science
Scientists have finished sequencing the mouse genome after a 10-year effort.
By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News
27 May 2009 01:23 UK
Giant dinosaurs 'held heads high'
Diplodocus's impressive neck sweeps along the main hall of London's Natural History museum, welcoming its visitors.
By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News
Religions owe their success to suffering martyrs
Willingness to endure suffering for your beliefs inspires others to believe too, according to an analysis of behavioural evolution
THIS WEEK:  18:00 27 May 2009
Public Release: 27-May-2009
Nature
A connected world gives viruses the edge
This paper explores the importance of dispersal to the evolution of parasites and suggests that as human activity makes the world more connected, natural selection will favor more virulent and dangerous parasites.
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Contact: Geoffrey Wild
gwild@uwo.ca
519-661-2111 x88784
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

Public Release: 27-May-2009
Nature
What goes down, must come up: Earth's leaky mantle
Research in this week's Nature takes aim at a conundrum that's long vexed geoscientists: How to reconcile convection of the Earth's mantle with observations of ancient noble gases in volcanic rocks. Solving the problem requires that the recycling of tectonic plates into the Earth's lower mantle is balanced by hot, buoyant mantle plumes that rise with little mixing to the Earth's surface, producing volcanic island chains like Hawaii.
National Science Foundation, University of Hawaii
Contact: Jade Boyd
jadeboyd@rice.edu
713-348-6778
Rice University
Rising sea levels: Survival tips from 5000 BC
As sea levels rise, we need to find ways to adapt. Ancient civilisations could give us some tips
26 May 2009 by Catherine Brahic
Public Release: 27-May-2009
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Geographic isolation drives the evolution of a hot springs microbe
Sulfolobus islandicus, a microbe that can live in boiling acid, is offering up its secrets to researchers hardy enough to capture it from the volcanic hot springs where it thrives. In a new study, researchers report that populations of S. islandicus are more diverse than previously thought, and that their diversity is driven largely by geographic isolation.
Contact: Diana Yates
diya@illinois.edu
217-333-5802
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Virtual fossils reveal how ancient creatures lived
A flood of spectacular new insights is emerging as palaeontologists swap hammers and chisels for X-rays and high-speed computers
THIS WEEK:  18:00 27 May 2009
Public Release: 27-May-2009
Criminology
When is it safe to hire someone with a criminal record?
Carnegie Mellon University researchers have created a model for providing empirical evidence on when an ex-convict has been "clean" long enough to be considered "redeemed" for employment purposes.
National Institute of Justice
Contact: Alyssa Mayfield
amayfiel@andrew.cmu
412-268-2900
Carnegie Mellon University
Public Release: 27-May-2009
Archives of Internal Medicine
Dementia drugs may put some patients at risk, Queen's study shows
Effects associated with several commonly-prescribed dementia drugs may be putting elderly Canadians at risk, says Queen's University geriatrics professor Sudeep Gill.
Contact: Jeff Drake
jeff.drake@queensu.ca
613-533-2877
Queen's University
Public Release: 28-May-2009
PLoS Genetics
How oxidative stress may help prolong life
Oxidative stress has been linked to aging, cancer and other diseases in humans. Paradoxically, researchers have suggested that small exposure to oxidative conditions may actually offer protection from acute doses. Now, scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have discovered the gene responsible for this effect. Their study, published in PLoS Genetics on May 29, explains the underlying mechanism of the process that prevents cellular damage by reactive oxygen species.
NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Contact: Debra Kain
ddkain@ucsd.edu
619-543-6163
University of California - San Dieg
A Human Language Gene Changes the Sound of Mouse Squeaks
Mice that are engineered with a human gene for language grow more complex structures in a region of the brain associated with speech in humans.
By NICHOLAS WADE
Anthropologist advances 'kelp highway' theory for Coast settlement
Vancouver Sun
A Human Language Gene Changes the Sound of Mouse Squeaks
Mice that are engineered with a human gene for language grow more complex structures in a region of the brain associated with speech in humans.
Public Release: 28-May-2009
Hitting cancer where it hurts
Two studies in the May 29 issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication, have taken advantage of new technological advances to search for and find previously unknown weaknesses in a hard to treat form of cancer. The discoveries lend new hope in the fight again tumors that are today considered "undruggable."
Contact: Cathleen Genova
cgenova@cell.com
617-397-2802
Cell Press
A Human Language Gene Changes the Sound of Mouse Squeaks
Mice that are engineered with a human gene for language grow more complex structures in a region of the brain associated with speech in humans.
By NICHOLAS WADE
Cottonseed-based drug shows promise in treating severe brain cancer
An experimental compound showed good results for months in patients with glioblastoma multiforme, UAB researchers say. After undergoing other treatments, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, the trial patients' brain cancer had begun to grow again prior to starting on the current clinical trial.
Contact: Troy Goodman
tdgoodman@uab.edu
205-934-8938
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Public Release: 28-May-2009
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
Non-toxic hull coating resists barnacles, may save ship owners millions
North Carolina State University engineers have created a non-toxic "wrinkled" coating for use on ship hulls that resisted buildup of troublesome barnacles during 18 months of seawater tests, a finding that could ultimately save boat owners millions of dollars in cleaning and fuel costs.
US Office of Naval Research
Contact: Nate DeGraff
nate_degraff@ncsu.edu
919-515-3848
North Carolina State University
Public Release: 28-May-2009
Sociology of Education
Roommate assignments key in increasing interracial friendships in college
White students generally increased their number of interracial friendships during their first year of college, while black students showed a slight decrease, according to a study at one highly selective private university. Results showed that students were particularly likely to develop more interracial friendships if they were paired with a residence-hall roommate of a different race.
Contact: Claudia Buchmann
Buchmann.4@osu.edu
614-247-8363
Ohio State University
Public Release: 28-May-2009
PLoS ONE
How many scientists fabricate and falsify research?
It's a long-standing and crucial question that, as yet, remains unanswered: just how common is scientific misconduct? In the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE, Daniele Fanelli of the University of Edinburgh reports the first meta-analysis of surveys questioning scientists about their misbehaviors. The results suggest that altering or making up data is more frequent than previously estimated and might be particularly high in medical research.
Contact: Rebecca Walton
rwalton@plos.org
44-122-346-3333
Public Library of Science
Public Release: 28-May-2009
American Journal of Physiology: Heart and Circulatory Physiology
Adult bone marrow stem cells injected into skeletal muscle can repair heart tissue
University at Buffalo researchers have demonstrated for the first time that injecting adult bone marrow stem cells into skeletal muscle can repair cardiac tissue, reversing heart failure.
National Institutes of Health, New York State Stem Cell Science
Contact: Lois Baker
ljbaker@buffalo.edu
716-645-5000 x1417
University at Buffalo
Public Release: 28-May-2009
American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting
New blood test greatly reduces false-positives in prostate cancer screening
A new blood test used in combination with a conventional prostate-specific antigen screening sharply increases the accuracy of prostate cancer diagnosis, and could eliminate tens of thousands of unneeded, painful, and costly prostate biopsies annually, according to a study led by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Source MDx, SPORE, Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center
Contact: Anne Doerr
anne_doerr@dfci.harvard.edu
440-670-6563
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
 Public Release: 28-May-2009
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Spanish prostitutes least likely to use condoms
Catalan researchers have studied the prevalence of sexually-transmitted diseases among female sex workers. Their results show that 95.5 percent of the women surveyed (from eastern European countries, Africa, Latin America and Spain) always use condoms during vaginal sex with their clients. The Spanish women had the highest rate of intravenous drug use, and were also the least likely to use condoms with their clients.
Contact: SINC
info@plataformasinc.es
0091-425-1820
FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology
Public Release: 28-May-2009
PLoS ONE
How many scientists fabricate and falsify research?
It's a long-standing and crucial question that, as yet, remains unanswered: just how common is scientific misconduct? In the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE, Daniele Fanelli of the University of Edinburgh reports the first meta-analysis of surveys questioning scientists about their misbehaviors. The results suggest that altering or making up data is more frequent than previously estimated and might be particularly high in medical research.
Contact: Rebecca Walton
rwalton@plos.org
44-122-346-3333
Public Library of Science
Public Release: 29-May-2009
Clinical Nursing Research
Marijuana rivals mainstream drugs for HIV/AIDS symptoms
Those in the United States living with HIV/AIDS are more likely to use marijuana than those in Kenya, South Africa or Puerto Rica to alleviate their symptoms, according to a new study published in Clinical Nursing Research, published by SAGE.
Contact: Mithu Mukherjee
mithu.mukherjee@sagepub.co.uk
44-020-732-42223
SAGE Publications UK
Public Release: 29-May-2009
Psychology of Women Quarterly
Pressure to look attractive linked to fear of rejection in men and women
People who feel pressure to look attractive are more fearful of being rejected because of their appearance than are their peers, according to a new study by researchers at the University at Buffalo and the University of Kent.
Contact: Patricia Donovan
pdonovan@buffalo.edu
716-645-5000 x1414
University at Buffalo
Public Release: 29-May-2009
Physics Review Letters
Regular light bulbs made super-efficient with ultra-fast laser
An ultra-powerful laser can turn regular incandescent light bulbs into power-sippers, say optics researchers at the University of Rochester. The process could make a light as bright as a 100-watt bulb consume less electricity than a 60-watt bulb while remaining far cheaper and radiating a more pleasant light than a fluorescent bulb can.
Contact: Jonathan Sherwood
jonathan.sherwood@rochester.edu
585-273-4726
University of Rochester
Public Release: 30-May-2009
Heart Failure Congress 2009
Recognizing signs and symptoms of acute HF
Although heart failure is a chronic condition, acute exacerbations are frequent and occur with serious complications; patients with heart failure and their families can help improve prognosis in acute events if they are taught to recognize the tell-tale signs of worsening condition and seek immediate medical help.
Contact: ESC Press Office
press@escardio.org
33-062-241-8492
European Society of Cardiology