History in the Remaking-A temple complex in Turkey that predates even the pyramids is rewriting the story of human evolution
Newsweek
Public Release: 22-Feb-2010
Neurology
AAN guideline evaluates treatments for muscle cramps
A new guideline from the American Academy of Neurology recommends that the drug quinine, although effective, should be avoided for treatment of routine muscle cramps due to uncommon but serious side effects. The guideline is published in the February 23, 2010, 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
Public Release: 22-Feb-2010
PLoS Biology
Dry winters linked to seasonal outbreaks of influenza
The seasonal increase of influenza has long baffled scientists, but a new study published this week in PLoS Biology has found that seasonal changes of absolute humidity are the apparent underlying cause of these wintertime peaks. The study also found that the onset of outbreaks might be encouraged by anomalously dry weather conditions, at least in temperate regions.
Contact: Jeffrey Shaman
jshaman@coas.oregonstate.edu
Public Library of Science
Public Release: 22-Feb-2010
Journal of Clinical Investigation
The mouse with a human liver: A new model for the treatment of liver disease
How do you study -- and try to cure in the laboratory -- an infection that only humans can get? A team led by Salk Institute researchers does it by generating a mouse with an almost completely human liver. This "humanized" mouse is susceptible to human liver infections and responds to human drug treatments, providing a new way to test novel therapies for debilitating human liver diseases and other diseases with liver involvement such as malaria.
Contact: Gina Kirchweger
kirchweger@salk.edu
858-453-410-01340
Salk Institute
Public Release: 22-Feb-2010
Journal of Anatomy
Is an animal's agility affected by the position of its eyes?
New research from scientists in Liverpool has revealed the relationship between agility and vision in mammals.
Contact: Ben Norman
Benorman@wiley.com
44-124-377-0375
Wiley-Blackwell
Killer ants with taste for cat food attack toads
12:35 22 February 2010
Cat food lures meat ants into places where they will attack large cane toads – a pesky invasive species, writes Wendy Zukerman
Public Release: 22-Feb-2010
Archives of Internal Medicine
New study shows sepsis and pneumonia caused by hospital-acquired infections kill 48,000 patients
Two common conditions caused by hospital-acquired infections killed 48,000 people and ramped up health care costs by $8.1 billion in 2006 alone, according to a study released today in the Archives of Internal Medicine. This is the largest nationally representative study to date of the toll taken by sepsis and pneumonia, two conditions often caused by deadly microbes, including the antibiotic-resistant bacteria MRSA. Such infections can lead to longer hospital stays, serious complications and even death.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Contact: Kay Campbell
kcampbell@burnesscommunications.com
301-652-1558
Burness Communications
Public Release: 22-Feb-2010
Few professionals keep current
Researchers at the University of Gothenburg and the University of Boras in Sweden have looked at how professionals in different occupational groups seek and use information and keep updated after finishing their education. The results show that teachers seek information they can use in their own teaching and that librarians focus on helping library users find information, while nurses just don't have the time.
Contact: Anna Lundh
anna.lundh@hb.se
46-033-435-5991
University of Gothenburg
Hourglass Figures Affect Men's Brains Like a DrugPublic Release: 22-Feb-2010
Neuron
Remember magnesium if you want to remember
Published recently in the scientific journal Neuron, a new study from Tel Aviv University's Dr. Inna Slutsky found that a new synthetic magnesium compound works on both young and aging animals to enhance memory or prevent its impairment. The research was carried out over a five-year period and has significant implications for the use of over-the-counter magnesium supplements.
Contact: George Hunka
ghunka@aftau.org
212-742-9070
American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Public Release: 23-Feb-2010
Journal of Neuroscience
Gene mutation is linked to autism-like symptoms in mice, UT Southwestern researchers find
When a gene implicated in human autism is disabled in mice, the rodents show learning problems and obsessive, repetitive behaviors, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
Autism Speaks, Simons Foundation, NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, BRAINS for Autism, Hartwell Foundation
Contact: Aline McKenzie
aline.mckenzie@utsouthwestern.edu
214-648-3404
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Really?
The Claim: To Cut Calories, Eat Slowly
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR
Can stopping to savor every bite help you lose weight?
Public Release: 23-Feb-2010
PLoS ONE
A magnetometer in the upper beak of birds?
Frankfurt neurobiologists show similar structural candidates for a magnetoreceptor in different bird species -- a cooperation with physicists of the Hamburg DESY.
Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft, Kassel-Stiftung, Goethe University, Hertie-Stiftung, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Contact: Dr. Gerta Fleissner
fleissner@bio.uni-frankfurt.de
49-170-208-3495
Goethe University Frankfurt
Public Release: 23-Feb-2010
Journal of Neuroscience
Protecting the brain from a deadly genetic disease
Huntington's disease (HD) is a cruel, hereditary condition that leads to physical and mental deterioration and eventually, death. HD sufferers are born with the disease although they don't show symptoms until late in life. In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, Stephen Ferguson and Fabiola Ribeiro of Robarts Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario identified a protective pathway in the brain that may explain why symptoms take so long to appear.
Canadian Insitutes of Health Research
Contact: Kathy Wallis
kwallis3@uwo.ca
519-661-2111 x81136
University of Western Ontario
Observatory
Forgetting, With a Purpose
By SINDYA N. BHANOO
New research suggests that short-term memory is erased by the brain on purpose, so that new, more relevant memories can be recorded.
Public Release: 23-Feb-2010
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
Prednisolone not beneficial in most cases of community-acquired pneumonia
Patients hospitalized with mild to moderate community-acquired pneumonia should not be routinely prescribed prednisolone, a corticosteroid, as it is associated with a recurrence of symptoms after its withdrawal, according to the first randomized double-blind clinical trial to address the subject.
Contact: Keely Savoie
ksavoie@thoracic.org
212-315-8620
American Thoracic Society
Transplants That Do Their Job, Then Fade Away
By DENISE GRADY
Thanks to the liver’s ability to regenerate, a small number of children in the United States have undergone an unusual type of surgery that offers a normal life.
Public Release: 23-Feb-2010
Psychological Science
The science of Hollywood blockbusters
There is something about the rhythm and texture of early cinema that has a very different "feel" than modern films. But it's hard to put one's finger on just what that something is. New research may help explain this elusive quality.
Contact: Catherine Allen-West
cwest@psychologicalscience.org
202-293-9300
Association for Psychological Science
Findings
When It Comes to Salt, No Rights or Wrongs. Yet.
By JOHN TIERNEY
There’s plenty of menacing talk about the perils of excess sodium. But where’s the evidence?
Public Release: 23-Feb-2010
Journal of Adolescent Health
Stress hormone, depression trigger obesity in girls
Depression raises stress hormone levels in adolescent boys and girls but may lead to obesity only in girls, according to researchers. Early treatment of depression could help reduce stress and control obesity -- a major health issue.
National Institutes of Health
Contact: Amitabh Avasthi
aem1@psu.edu
814-865-9481
Penn State
Public Release: 23-Feb-2010
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DNA sequencing unlocks relationships among flowering plants
The origins of flowering plants from peas to oak trees are now in clearer focus thanks to the efforts of University of Florida researchers.
Contact: Pam Soltis
psoltis@flmnh.ufl.edu
352-273-1964
University of Florida
Public Release: 23-Feb-2010
Neurobiology of Aging
Damaged protein identified as early diagnostic biomarker for Alzheimer's disease in healthy adults
Researchers at NYU School of Medicine have found that elevated cerebrospinal fluid levels of phosphorylated tau231, a damaged tau protein found in patients with Alzheimer's disease, may be an early diagnostic biomarker for Alzheimer's disease in healthy adults.
National Institutes of Health
Contact: Lauren Woods
lauren.woods@nyumc.org
212-404-3753
NYU Langone Medical Center / New York University School of Medicine
Public Release: 24-Feb-2010
Pediatric Dermatology
Study shows that suffocating head lice works in new treatment
A new non-neurotoxic treatment for head lice has been found to have an average of 91.2 percent treatment success rate after one week, and to be safe in humans from six months of age and up. This is the finding of a study published today in Pediatric Dermatology.
Contact: Jennifer Beal
medicalnews@wiley.com
44-124-377-0633
Wiley-Blackwell
Drug laws are painful for cancer patients
11:46 24 February 2010
Overzealous regulation of opioids is having a painful knock-on effect on eastern Europeans with cancer
Public Release: 24-Feb-2010
Chemical element 112 is named 'Copernicium'
The heaviest recognized chemical element with the atomic number 112 was discovered at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung and -- since Feb. 19, 2010, -- officially carries the name copernicium and the chemical symbol "Cn." The name was approved and officially announced today by the international union for chemistry IUPAC. The name "Copernicium" honors scientist and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.
Contact: Ingo Peter
i.peter@gsi.de
49-615-971-1500
Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Public Release: 24-Feb-2010
Annals of Neurology
Dementia in extreme elderly population expected to become epidemic according to the 90+ study
University of California researchers found that the incidence rate for all causes of dementia in people age 90 and older is 18.2 percent annually and significantly increases with age in both men and women. Findings of the 90+ study appear in the February issue of Annals of Neurology, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Neurological Association.
Contact: Dawn Peters
medicalnews@wiley.com
781-388-8408
Wiley-Blackwell
Public Release: 24-Feb-2010
2010 Ocean Sciences Meeting
Optical system promises to revolutionize undersea communications
In a technological advance that its developers are likening to the cell phone and wireless Internet access, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientists and engineers have devised an undersea optical communications system that -- complemented by acoustics -- enables a virtual revolution in high-speed undersea data collection and transmission.
National Science Foundation
Contact: WHOI Media Relations
media@whoi.edu
508-289-3340
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Public Release: 24-Feb-2010
Gastroenterology
New tool developed to help guide pancreatic cyst treatment
A UCLA–Veterans Affairs research team has developed an evaluation tool to help guide asymptomatic pancreatic cyst treatment. The tool takes into account overall health, age, cyst size, surgical risk and patients' views about quality of life.
Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development, Career Development Transition Award, CURE Digestive Diseases Research Center, National Institutes of Health
Contact: Rachel Champeau
rchampeau@mednet.ucla.edu
310-794-2270
University of California - Los Angeles
Public Release: 24-Feb-2010
Langmuir
Water may not run uphill, but it practically flies off new surface
Engineering researchers have crafted a flat surface that refuses to get wet. Water droplets skitter across it like ball bearings tossed on ice.
OMNOVA Solutions Foundation
Contact: Wolfgang Sigmund
sigmund@ufl.edu
352-246-3396
University of Florida
Public Release: 24-Feb-2010
Social Psychology Quarterly
Intelligent people have 'unnatural' preferences and values that are novel in human evolution
Higher intelligence is associated with liberal political ideology, atheism, and men's (but not women's) preference for sexual exclusivity. More intelligent people are statistically more likely to exhibit social values and religious and political preferences that are novel to human evolution. Specifically, liberalism and atheism, and for men (but not women), preference for sexual exclusivity correlate with higher intelligence, a new study finds.
Contact: Lee Herring
pubinfo@asanet.org
202-383-9005
American Sociological Association
Public Release: 24-Feb-2010
International Stroke Conference 2010
Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association
Stroke incidence rising among younger adults, decreasing among elderly
Stroke, often considered a disease of old age, is declining in the elderly and increasing at younger ages. The percentage of strokes occurring in people under age 45 has grown significantly since the 1990s.
Contact: Bridgette McNeill
bridgette.mcneill@heart.org
214-706-1396
American Heart Association
Public Release: 24-Feb-2010
American Naturalist
New clues found linking larger animals to colder climates
A pair of University of Houston researchers found a possible new solution to a 163-year-old puzzle. Ecological factors can now be added to physiology to explain why animals grow bigger in the cold. Their results were published in the February issue of the American Naturalist, offering new insight to Bergmann's rule that animals grow larger at high, cold latitudes than their counterparts closer to the equator, hypothesizing that better food makes high-latitude animals bigger.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Lisa Merkl
lkmerkl@uh.edu
713-743-8192
University of Houston
Public Release: 24-Feb-2010
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
UCLA study finds genetic link between misery and death
UCLA researchers have discovered what they describe as a biochemical link between misery and death, and in addition found a specific genetic variation that seems to break that link. Additionally, they have developed a computer model of gene-environment interactions to more efficiently probe the "genetic haystack."
Contact: Mark Wheeler
mwheeler@mednet.ucla.edu
310-794-2265
University of California - Los Angeles
'Rubbish patch' blights Atlantic
Plastic debris tends to accumulate in a well defined region of the western North Atlantic, scientists say.
Public Release: 24-Feb-2010
New England Journal of Medicine
Health care volunteers and disasters: First, be prepared
A surge in volunteers following a major disaster can overwhelm a response system, and without overall coordination, can actually make a situation worse instead of better. The outpouring of medical volunteers who responded to the devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti in January provides a roadmap for health care providers during future disasters, say the authors of a New England Journal of Medicine "Perspectives" piece that will be published online Feb. 24.
Contact: Holly Auer
holly.auer@uphs.upenn.edu
215-200-2313
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Public Release: 24-Feb-2010
International Stroke Conference 2010
Children can have recurrent strokes
Children can have strokes, and the strokes can recur, usually within a month, according to pediatric researchers. Unfortunately, the strokes often go unrecognized the first time, and the child does not receive treatment before the recurrence.
Contact: Rachel Salis-Silverman
Salis@email.chop.edu
267-426-6063
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Newborns' blood used to build secret DNA database
19:00 24 February 2010
Texas state health officials secretly gave hundreds of babies' blood samples to the federal government to build a DNA database, reports Ewen Callaway
Ten days to save hearing after deafening sound
IN BRIEF:  11:54 25 February 2010
A shot of gene therapy was enough to restore dying hair cells in guinea pigs – if administered soon enough after the damage
Public Release: 25-Feb-2010
Circulation Research
Exploiting the body's own ability to fight a heart attack
Scientists trying to find a way to better help patients protect themselves against harm from a heart attack are taking their cues from cardiac patients. The work on "ischemic preconditioning" mirrors a perplexing curiosity that physicians have long observed in their patients: When faced with a heart attack, people who have had a previous one oftentimes fare better than patients who have never had one.
NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; National Institute of General Medical Sciences; American Heart Assn.
Contact: Tom Rickey
tom_rickey@urmc.rochester.edu
585-275-7954
University of Rochester Medical Center
Public Release: 25-Feb-2010
International Stroke Conference 2010
Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association
Intracranial stenting, injecting clot-busting drugs directly to brain
Placing stents in the brain and injecting clot-busting drugs directly to the brain had better success rates for acute ischemic stroke than other treatments. There was no excess risk of hemorrhage from either of the two treatments.
Contact: Bridgette McNeill
bridgette.mcneill@heart.org
214-706-1396
American Heart Association
Public Release: 25-Feb-2010
Molecular Cell
MeCP2 goes global -- redefining the function of the Rett syndrome protein
A paper published online today in Molecular Cell proposes that Methyl CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2) impacts the entire genome in neurons, rather than acting as a regulator of specific genes. Mutations in MeCP2 cause the autism spectrum disorder Rett syndrome as well as some cases of neuropsychiatric problems including autism, schizophrenia and learning disabilities
Wellcome Trust, 'Epigenome' European Union Network of Excellence
Contact: Monica Coenraads
monica@rsrt.org
203-445-0041
Rett Syndrome Research Trust
Public Release: 25-Feb-2010
European Urology
Do men with early prostate cancer commit suicide more frequently?
The risk of suicide is increased among cancer patients including men with PCa. To assess the risk of suicide among men diagnosed with PCa subsequent to PSA testing, a nation-wide study was carried out in Sweden. The results are published in the March issue of European Urology, the scientific journal of the European Association of Urology.
Contact: Lindy Brouwer
l.brouwer@uroweb.org
European Association of Urology
Doctor and Patient
A Surgeon Learns of the Choking Game
By PAULINE W. CHEN, M.D.
A doctor knew nothing about a strangulation game in which youths try to achieve a legal high until her encounter with a boy who had died “playing” it.
Disease gene blocker sneaks past cell defences
THIS WEEK:  15:57 25 February 2010
RNA interference molecules that can slip into cells with no outside help could speed treatments for diseases such as cancer
Public Release: 25-Feb-2010
Emerging Infectious Diseases
Emerging tick-borne disease
A new assay allows scientists to discover whether ticks are carrying disease-causing bacteria and which animals provided their last blood meal. Assay results suggest three emerging diseases in the St. Louis area are carried by lone star ticks feeding on record-high populations of white tailed deer.
Contact: Diana Lutz
dlutz@wustl.edu
314-935-5272
Washington University in St. Louis
Public Release: 25-Feb-2010
Nature Neuroscience
Why symptoms of schizophrenia emerge in young adulthood
In reports of two new studies, researchers led by Johns Hopkins say they have identified the mechanisms rooted in two anatomical brain abnormalities that may explain the onset of schizophrenia and the reason symptoms don't develop until young adulthood. Both types of anatomical glitches are influenced by a gene known as DISC1, whose mutant form was first identified in a Scottish family with a strong history of schizophrenia and related mental disorders.
Contact: Christen Brownlee
cbrownlee@jhmi.edu
410-955-7832
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
The Fix
A Sticky Little Lizard Inspires a New Adhesive Tape
By ARIANNE COHEN
Scientists have developed a prototype for a very strong tape based on the gecko.
Public Release: 25-Feb-2010
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Others may know us better than we know ourselves, study finds
Humans have long been advised to "know thyself," but new research suggests we may not know ourselves as well as we think we do. While individuals may be more accurate at assessing their own neurotic traits, such as anxiety, it seems friends, and even strangers, are often better barometers of traits such as intelligence, creativity and extroversion.
Contact: Gerry Everding
gerry_everding@wustl.edu
314-935-6375
Washington University in St. Louis
The changing image of spam
GALLERY:  10:54 26 February 2010
Five snapshots of the spam lexicon that illustrate spammers' changing tactics
Spamdemic: Tracking the plague of junk mail
FEATURE:  08:00 26 February 2010
From Monty Python to mass-mailing misery, New Scientist charts the unstoppable rise of spam
Public Release: 26-Feb-2010
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
News brief: Poorer breast cancer survival associated with micrometastases in axillary lymph nodes
Metastases that were 2 millimeters or less in diameter ("micrometastases") in axillary lymph nodes detected on examination of a single section of the lymph nodes were associated with poorer disease-free and overall survival in breast cancer patients, according to a new study published online February 26 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Contact: Steve Graff
jncimedia@oxfordjournals.org
301-841-1285
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
China, Kenya to search for ancient Chinese wrecks
Washington Post
Public Release: 26-Feb-2010
Journal of Immunology
Multiple sclerosis, Italian researchers discover a possible onset mechanism for the disease
After the contact with an innocuous modified bacterium, some lab mice develop an autoimmune disease. This is an unprecedented mechanism, described on the Journal of Immunology, which could explain how this terrible central nervous system disease breaks out in humans
Contact: Francesco Ria
fria@rm.unicatt.it
39-338-466-2776
Catholic University of Rome
Public Release: 26-Feb-2010
Journal of Clinical Oncology
Breast cancer screening: No added value through mammography
Do we need a revision of current recommendations for breast cancer screening? According to a recent prospective multicenter cohort study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, this appears advisable at least for young women carrying an increased risk of breast cancer. The results of the EVA trial confirm once more that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is substantially more accurate for early diagnosis of breast cancer than digital mammography or breast ultrasound: MRI is three times more sensitive for breast cancer than digital mammography.
Contact: Professor Dr. Christiane Kuhl
kuhl@uni-bonn.de
49-228-287-19875
University of Bonn
Public Release: 26-Feb-2010
Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice
The most frequent error in medicine
Only 71 percent of patients age 65 or older who are referred to a specialist are actually scheduled to be seen by that physician. Furthermore, only 70 percent of those with an appointment actually went to the specialist's office. Thus, only 50 percent (70 percent of 71 percent) of those referred to specialist had opportunity to receive treatment their primary care doctor intended them to have, according to findings by researchers from the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine.
  NIH/National Institute on Aging
Contact: Cindy Fox Aisen
caisen@iupui.edu
317-274-7722
Indiana University School of Medicine
Roman remains in York are 'elite' African woman
BBC News