Diamond Oceans Possible on Uranus, Neptune
By melting and resolidifying diamond, scientists explain how such liquid diamond oceans may be possible.
Public Release: 18-Jan-2010
Neurology
Drowsiness, staring and other mental lapses may signal Alzheimer's disease
Older people who have "mental lapses," or times when their thinking seems disorganized or illogical or when they stare into space, may be more likely to have Alzheimer's disease than people who do not have these lapses, according to a study published in the Jan. 19, 2010, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Contact: Rachel Seroka
rseroka@aan.com
651-695-2738
American Academy of Neurology
Rare glimpse of the crystal cave
BBC film-makers venture into Mexico's Cave of Crystals, which contains some of the largest natural crystals ever found.
Respectful Insolence
Pumping autistic children full of an industrial chelator
January 18, 2010
Public Release: 18-Jan-2010
  Archives of Surgery
Appendicitis may be related to viral infections
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center evaluated data over a 36-year period from the National Hospital Discharge Survey and concluded in a paper appearing in the January issue of Archives of Surgery that appendicitis may be caused by undetermined viral infection or infections, said Dr. Edward Livingston, chief of GI/endocrine surgery at UT Southwestern and senior author of the report.
Contact: Russell Rian
russell.rian@utsouthwestern.edu
214-648-3404
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Public Release: 18-Jan-2010
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Study suggests theory for insect colonies as 'superorganisms'
A team of researchers including scientists from the University of Florida has shown insect colonies follow some of the same biological "rules" as individuals, a finding that suggests insect societies operate like a single "superorganism" in terms of their physiology and life cycle.
Contact: John Pastor
jdpastor@ufl.edu
352-273-5815
University of Florida
Public Release: 18-Jan-2010
  Mayo Clinic Proceedings
Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Study finds decrease in postoperative delirium in elderly patients
A recent study, published in the January issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, demonstrates that in elderly patients undergoing hip fracture repair under spinal anesthesia with propofol sedation, the prevalence of delirium can be decreased by 50 percent with light sedation, compared to deep sedation.
Contact: Rebecca Finseth
newsbureau@mayo.edu
507-284-5005
Mayo Clinic
Public Release: 18-Jan-2010
  AIDS and Behavior
Call for AIDS denialists to be held accountable
Despite irrefutable proof that HIV treatments have proven benefits, AIDS denialists continue to deny their value. In a paper just published online in Springer's journal AIDS and Behavior, Professor Myron Essex and Dr. Pride Chigwedere, from the Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative in the US, provide additional proof that withholding HIV treatments with proven benefits led to the death of 330,000 people in South Africa as the result of AIDS denialist policies.
Contact: Joan Robinson
joan.robinson@springer.com
49-622-148-78130
Springer
Really?
The Claim: If You Have a Seafood Allergy, Avoid CT Scans
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
Can the iodine involved in CT scans affect those with seafood allergies?
Public Release: 19-Jan-2010
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
Vitamin D supplementation can reduce falls in nursing care facilities
Giving people living in nursing facilities vitamin D can reduce the rate of falls, according to a new Cochrane Review. This finding comes from a study of many different interventions used in different situations. In hospitals, multifactorial interventions and supervised exercise programs also showed benefit.
Contact: Jennifer Beal
medicalnews@wiley.com
44-012-437-70633
Wiley-Blackwell
Children Don’t Have Strokes? Just Ask Jared
By JONATHAN DIENST
A frantic mother rushed her son to the hospital, starting a family’s search for treatment and answers.
* Health Guide: Stroke
Genome Study Provides a Census of Early Humans
By NICHOLAS WADE
Geneticists computed the size of the human population 1.2 million years ago from which everyone in the world is descended.
Public Release: 19-Jan-2010
PLoS Biology
Most modern European males descend from farmers who migrated from the Near East
A new study from the University of Leicester has found that most men in Europe descend from the first farmers who migrated from the Near East 10,000 years ago. The findings are published Jan. 19 in the open-access journal PLoS Biology.
Wellcome Trust
Contact: Prof Mark Jobling
maj4@le.ac.uk
44-011-625-23427
University of Leicester
Public Release: 19-Jan-2010
Cancer Cell
The Cancer Genome Atlas identifies distinct subtypes of deadly brain cancer
The most common form of malignant brain cancer in adults, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is not a single disease but appears to be four distinct molecular subtypes, according to a study by the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network.
National Institutes of Health
Contact: Geoff Spencer
spencerg@mail.nih.gov
301-451-8325
NIH/National Human Genome Research Institute
Public Release: 19-Jan-2010
PLoS ONE
Researchers find that common stomach pathogen may protect against tuberculosis
It's been implicated as the bacterium that causes ulcers and the majority of stomach cancers, but studies by researchers at Stanford University, UC Davis, and the University of Pittsburgh have found that Helicobacter pylori also may play a protective role -- against the worldwide killer, tuberculosis.
  Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, National Institutes of Health
Contact: Dorsey Griffith
dorsey.griffith@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
916-206-5166
University of California - Davis - Health System
Public Release: 19-Jan-2010
  Administration & Society
Archaeologists have begun the search for an ancient civilization in southern Spain
Telegraph UK
Public Release: 19-Jan-2010
American Journal of Psychiatry
Gene linked to schizophrenia may reduce cancer risk
A specific form of a gene that puts people on the road to schizophrenia may protect against some forms of cancer.
Contact: Jamie Talan
jtalan@nshs.edu
516-562-1232
North Shore-Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health System
Public Release: 19-Jan-2010
Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions
UCI cardiologists discover 'pouch' in heart that may raise stroke risk
UC Irvine cardiologists have found a pouchlike structure inside the heart's left atrial chamber that may be a potent source of stroke-causing blood clots.
Contact: Tom Vasich
tmvasich@uci.edu
949-824-6455
University of California - Irvine
Public Release: 20-Jan-2010
PLoS ONE
PrEP treatment prevented HIV transmission in humanized mice
Systemic pre-exposure administration of antiretroviral drugs provides protection against intravenous and rectal transmission of HIV in mice with human immune systems, according to a new study published January 21, 2010, in the online journal PLoS ONE.
  National Institutes of Health, AmFAR
Contact: Lisa Chensvold
lisa_chensvold@med.unc.edu
919-843-5719
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Public Release: 20-Jan-2010
Nature
Some mouse sperm can identify, and even cooperate with, its brethren
Some mouse sperm can discriminate between its brethren and competing sperm from other males, clustering with its closest relatives to swim faster in the race to the egg. But this sort of cooperation appears to be present only in certain promiscuous species, where it affords an individual's sperm a competitive advantage over that of other males.
National Institutes of Health, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation
Contact: Steve Bradt
steve_bradt@harvard.edu
617-496-8070
Harvard University
Public Release: 20-Jan-2010
American Naturalist
'Survival of the cutest' proves Darwin right
Domestic dogs have followed their own evolutionary path, twisting Darwin's directive "survival of the fittest" to their own needs -- and have proved him right in the process, according to a new study by biologists Chris Klingenberg, of the University of Manchester and Abby Drake, of the College of the Holy Cross in the US.
Contact: Mikaela Sitford
mikaela.sitford@manchester.ac.uk
44-161-275-2111
University of Manchester
The drifters
Did mammals float to Madagascar on vegetation?
Smart mud could be the new plastic
NEWS:  18:00 20 January 2010
A mixture of clay and water produces a strong self-healing hydrogel that could help wean the world off oil
Public Release: 20-Jan-2010
Nature
MIT: New research suggests that near-Earth encounters can 'shake' asteroids
New research by MIT Professor of Planetary Science Richard Binzel examines the opposite scenario: that Earth has considerable influence on asteroids -- and from a distance much larger than previously thought. The finding helps answer an elusive, decades-long question about where most meteorites come from before they fall to Earth and also opens the door to a new field study of asteroid seismology.
Contact: Jen Hirsch
jfhirsch@mit.edu
617-253-1682
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Public Release: 20-Jan-2010
Nature
The human brain uses a grid to represent space
"Grid cells" that act like a spatial map in the brain have been identified for the first time in humans, according to new research by UCL scientists which may help to explain how we create internal maps of new environments.
Medical Research Council, European Union
Contact: Ruth Howells
ruth.howells@ucl.ac.uk
44-207-679-9739
University College London
Public Release: 20-Jan-2010
Chemical Research in Toxicology
Consumers over age 50 should consider steps to cut copper and iron intake
With scientific evidence linking high levels of copper and iron to Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, and other age-related disorders, a new report in ACS' Chemical Research in Toxicology suggests specific steps that older consumers can take to avoid build up of unhealthy amounts of these metals in their bodies.
Contact: Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
202-872-6042
American Chemical Society
Public Release: 20-Jan-2010
Blood test for schizophrenia could be ready this year
A blood test for diagnosing schizophrenia -- the most serious form of mental illness -- could be available this year, according to an article in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly news magazine. The disorder, with symptoms that can include hallucinations and delusional thoughts, affects more than two million people in the United States and millions more worldwide.
Contact: Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
202-872-6042
American Chemical Society
What a maze-solving oil drop tells us of intelligence
  THIS WEEK:  13:56 21 January 2010
A drop of oil doped with acid has been filmed "solving" a complex maze. But is it really intelligent?
Viruses use 'hive intelligence' to focus their attack
19:00 21 January 2010
By hopping over cells that are already infected, viruses can concentrate their efforts on previously uninfected cells
Engineers 'can learn from slime'
The way fungus-like slime moulds grow could help engineers design computer and communication networks, say researchers.
In Transit
NASA Announces Designs for Personal Flying Suit
By DAN SALTZSTEIN
Two major elements distinguish the Puffin suit from the jet packs of ’50s-era sci-fi flicks.
Engineered cells produce light show
Scientists have produced a very unusual light show by engineering bacterial cells to fluoresce in synchrony.
Public Release: 21-Jan-2010
British Medical Journal
Lung cancer patients who quit smoking double their survival chances
People diagnosed with early stage lung cancer can double their chances of survival over five years if they stop smoking compared with those who continue to smoke, finds a study published on bmj.com today.
Contact: Emma Dickinson
edickinson@bmj.com
44-207-383-6529
BMJ-British Medical Journal
Public Release: 21-Jan-2010
Journal of Vision
How does an outfielder know where to run for a fly ball?
To test three theories that might explain an outfielder's ability to catch a fly ball, researcher Philip Fink, Ph.D., from Massey University in New Zealand and Patrick Foo, Ph.D., from the University of North Carolina at Ashville programmed Brown University's virtual reality lab, the VENLab, to produce realistic balls and simulate catches. The team then lobbed virtual fly balls to a dozen experienced ball players.
Contact: Jessie Williams
jwilliams@arvo.org
240-221-2924
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
Public Release: 21-Jan-2010
Journal of Applied Physiology
New study: Human running speeds of 35 to 40 mph may be biologically possible
A new study in the Journal of Applied Physiology offers intriguing insights into the biology of human running speed. The study identifies the critical variable imposing the biological limit to running speed, and projects how the biological limits might be pushed beyond speeds achieved by Usain Bolt to perhaps 35 or even 40 miles per hour, said two of the study's authors: Peter Weyand, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, and Matthew Bundle, University of Wyoming.
Contact: Kim Cobb
cobbk@mail.smu.edu
214-768-7654
Southern Methodist University
Public Release: 21-Jan-2010
Annals of Neurology
Common heart medications may also protect against Parkinson's disease, study finds
In the first large-scale population-based study of its kind, UCLA researchers have found that a specific type of medication used to treat such cardiovascular conditions as hypertension, angina and abnormal heart rhythms, may also decrease the risk of developing Parkinson's disease.
Contact: Mark Wheeler
mwheeler@mednet.ucla.edu
310-794-2265
University of California - Los Angeles
Public Release: 22-Jan-2010
American Journal of Pathology
Double trouble: Bacterial super-infection after the flu
Current research suggests that the flu may predispose to secondary bacterial infections, which account for a significant proportion of mortality during flu pandemics. The related report by Lee et al., "A mouse model of lethal synergism between influenza virus and Haemophilus influenzae," appears in the February 2010 issue of the American Journal of Pathology.
Contact: Angela Colmone, Ph.D.
acolmone@asip.org
301-634-7953
American Journal of Pathology
Prions 'may keep nerves healthy'
Experiments on mice may help scientists understand the workings of the prion protein linked to brain disease vCJD.
25 January 2010