Red the color is a fine metaphoric mate for the complexity and contrariness of love.
Wartime secrets
Why Britain gave away its biggest technology breakthroughs in 1940 Public Release: 5-Feb-2007
PLoS Biology
Environmental toxicants like lead, mercury target stem cells
Low levels of toxic substances cause critical stem cells in the central nervous system to prematurely shut down. This research, the first to identify a common molecular trigger for the effects of toxicant exposure, may give scientists new insights into damage caused by toxicant exposure and new methods of evaluating the safety of chemicals.
NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Contact: Mark Michaud
mark_michaud@urmc.rochester.edu
585-273-4790
University of Rochester Medical Center
Public Release: 5-Feb-2007
Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine
Autism may not be the only childhood psychiatric disorder on the rise
The incidence of three childhood neuropsychiatric disorders, including autism, increased among Danish children between 1990 and 2004, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The findings suggest that recent upward trends in reported autism diagnoses may be part of a broader pattern in childhood mental illness.
Contact: Hjördís Ósk Atladóttir
hoa@soci.au.dk
JAMA and Archives Journals
Public Release: 5-Feb-2007
Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine Public Release: 5-Feb-2007
PLoS ONE
'Good vibrations' from deep-sea smokers may keep fish out of hot water
"Editors' Choice" in the current issue of Science magazine, tags them, "Singing Vents." Long assumed to be silent, fluids in black smoker hydrothermal vents not only produce a rumbling sound but, as an added surprise, are producing resonant tones. Have a listen to what University of Washington scientists have recorded.
W.M. Keck Foundation, University of Washington Royalty Research Fund
Contact: Sandra Hines
shines@u.washington.edu
206-543-2580
University of Washington
Public Release: 5-Feb-2007
Computer/Human Interaction Conference
Proceedings of Computer/Human Interaction
Looking for love on all the right Web sites?
If you're hoping for Cupid's online arrow, then watch out for tall stories and wide fabrications. Online daters, both men and women, usually fib about either their height or weight, and sometimes their age, according to a Cornell University communication researcher.
National Science Foundation, Institute of Social Sciences
Contact: Blaine Friedlander
bpf2@cornell.edu
607-254-8093
Cornell University News Service
Public Release: 6-Feb-2007
Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
2 new studies back vitamin D for cancer prevention
Two new vitamin D studies using a sophisticated form of analysis called meta-analysis, in which data from multiple reports is combined, have revealed new prescriptions for possibly preventing up to half of the cases of breast cancer and two-thirds of the cases of colorectal cancer in the United States. The work was conducted by a core team of cancer prevention specialists at the Moores Cancer Center at UCSD, and colleagues from both coasts.
US Navy
Contact: Nancy Stringer
nstringer@ucsd.edu
619-543-6163
University of California - San Diego
Public Release: 6-Feb-2007
Psychological Science
Action video games sharpen vision 20 percent
Video games that contain high levels of action, such as Unreal Tournament, can actually improve your vision. Researchers at the University of Rochester have shown that people who played action video games for a few hours a day over the course of a month improved by about 20 percent in their ability to identify letters presented in clutter -- a visual acuity test similar to ones used in regular ophthalmology clinics.
National Institutes of Health
Contact: Jonathan Sherwood
jonathan.sherwood@rochester.edu
585-273-4726
University of Rochester
Public Release: 6-Feb-2007
Cell Metabolism
Interfering with vagal nerve activity in mice prevents diabetes and hypertension
Interrupting nerve signals to the liver can prevent diabetes and hypertension in mice, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The finding is reported in the February issue of the journal Cell Metabolism. The research team surgically removed the vagus nerve in mice and found the procedure prevented or reversed the development of insulin resistance and high blood pressure in mice primed to develop these disorders through treatment with glucocorticoids.
National Institutes of Health, American Diabetes Association
Contact: Jim Dryden
jdryden@wustl.edu
314-286-0110
Washington University School of Medicine
Public Release: 6-Feb-2007
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Vitamins: Science doesn't always match policy
A gap exists between scientific knowledge of vitamins and how they are popularly used. Translating emerging science to better policy will require a regulatory framework that addresses the content and labeling of vitamins and the effects on nutrient adequacy and chronic degenerative disease prevention.
Contact: Siobhan.Gallagher@tufts.edu
Siobhan.Gallagher@tufts.edu
617-636-6586
Tufts University
Public Release: 6-Feb-2007
Psychological Science
Selectivity is ultimate aphrodisiac
Speed daters who romantically desired most of their potential partners were rejected overwhelmingly, according to a new Northwestern University study. Conventional wisdom has long taught that one of the best ways to get someone to like you is to make it clear that you like them. But the more you tend to experience romantic desire for all potential romantic partners you meet, the less likely it is that they will desire you in return.
Contact: Pat Vaughan Tremmel
p-tremmel@northwestern.edu
847-491-4892
Northwestern University
Public Release: 6-Feb-2007
Psychological Science
Mind-set matters -- Why thinking you got a work out may actually make you healthier
A new study shows that many of the beneficial results of exercise may be due to the placebo effect.
Contact: Ellen Langer
langer@wjh.harvard.edu
Association for Psychological Science
Public Release: 6-Feb-2007
Journal of American Chemical Society
Man-made proteins could be more useful than real ones
Researchers have constructed a protein out of amino acids not found in natural proteins, forming a complex, stable structure closely resembling a natural protein. Their findings could help scientists design drugs that look and act like real proteins but won't be degraded by enzymes or targeted by the immune system, as natural proteins are.
Contact: Jennifer Donovan
donovanj@hhmi.org
301-215-8859
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Public Release: 6-Feb-2007
Journal of Neuroscience
Male sweat boosts women's hormone levels
Male sweat, and one particular chemical in male sweat, is known to influence women's moods, and even increase their sexual arousal. Now, a study by Claire Wyart at UC Berkeley shows that the chemical andrastadienone in male sweat also boosts levels of the hormone cortisol in women who sniff it. These findings suggest that andrastadienone may be a human pheromone, causing both behavioral and hormonal changes in women.
National Institutes of Health, US Army
Contact: Robert Sanders
rsanders@berkeley.edu
510-643-6998
University of California - Berkeley
Public Release: 7-Feb-2007
Nature
Prehistoric origins of stomach ulcers uncovered
Scientists have discovered that the ubiquitous bacteria that causes most painful stomach ulcers has been present in the human digestive system since modern man migrated from Africa over 60,000 years ago. They compared DNA sequence patterns of humans and the Helicobacter pylori bacteria now known to cause most stomach ulcers and found that the genetic differences between human populations that arose as they dispersed from Eastern Africa over thousands of years are mirrored in H.pylori.
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Contact: Matt Goode
matt.goode@bbsrc.ac.uk
44-179-341-3299
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Public Release: 7-Feb-2007
Nature
Enhancing activity of marijuana-like chemicals in brain helps treat
Marijuana-like chemicals in the brain may point to a treatment for the debilitating condition of Parkinson's disease.
Ruth L. Kirchenstein Fellowship
Contact: Mitzi Baker
mitzibaker@stanford.edu
650-725-2106
Stanford University Medical Center
Public Release: 7-Feb-2007
Geophysical Research Letters
New data shakes accepted models of collisions of the Earth's crust
New research findings may help refine the accepted models used by earth scientists over the past 30 years to describe the ways in which continents clash to form the Earth's landscape. This work addressed a fundamental question that geologists have been debating for the past 40 years: Are continents strong and brittle or weak and viscous?
National Science Foundation
Contact: Elizabeth Gardner
ekgardner@purdue.edu
765-494-2081
Purdue University
Public Release: 7-Feb-2007
Can an ugly toenail predict amputation?
Nearly three in four people with diabetes at high risk for amputation have diseased toenails. These are the findings of a recent study presented at the Council of Nail Disorders last week in Washington, D.C. The study, coauthored by Drs. Stephanie Wu and David G. Armstrong of Scholl's Center for Lower Extremity Ambulatory Research at Rosalind Franklin University, was the first to rigidly evaluate a controlled group such as this.
Contact: Kathy Peterson
kathy.peterson@rosalindfranklin.edu
847-578-8344
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
Public Release: 7-Feb-2007
Mechanisms of Ageing and Development
Good for the goose, not so great for the gander
A provocative new model proposed by USC molecular biologist John Tower may help answer an enduring scientific question: Why do women tend to live longer than men? The model suggests how, on a genetic level, the evolution of aging and sex may be inextricably linked. It concludes that sexual differentiation processes may exact a high biological cost -- reduced function of the cell's mitochondria and shorter life span in males.
NIH/National Institute on Aging, Ellison Medical Foundation
Contact: Eva Emerson
eemerson@usc.edu
213-821-2480
University of Southern California
Public Release: 8-Feb-2007
Science
Reversal of symptoms in an autism spectrum disorder
The Rett Syndrome Research Foundation announces results of a landmark study reversing the symptoms of Rett Syndrome in a genetic mouse model. The findings, by Adrian Bird, Ph.D., of the University of Edinburgh and Chairman of the RSRF Scientific Advisory Board, appear online in Science Express on February 8, 2007. Rett Syndrome is a severe childhood neurological disease that is the most physically disabling of the autism spectrum disorders. The experiments were funded in part by the Rett Syndrome Research Foundation.
Wellcome Trust, Rett Syndrome Research Foundation, Rett Syndrome UK/Jeans for Genes
Contact: Monica Coenraads
monica@rsrf.org
203-243-5733
Rett Syndrome Research Foundation
Brain scan 'can read your mind'
The researchers used scans of the brain to predict decisions
Brain scans have been developed which it is claimed can predict what a person is about to do.
EU gets tough on 'green crimes'
By Alix Kroeger
BBC News, Brussels
Waste - from household to nuclear - is covered in the proposals
The European Commission has unveiled plans to turn environmental offences over to criminal courts across the European Union.
Public Release: 8-Feb-2007
Social Forces
Love, not money, inspires immigrants to become US citizens
Love, more than money, inspires legal immigrants to go through the naturalization process to become American citizens, according to new research from UC Irvine.
NIH/National Institute of Child Health and Development
Contact: Christine Byrd
cbyrd@uci.edu
949-824-9055
University of California - Irvine
Public Release: 8-Feb-2007
Journal of Clinical Oncology
Lung cancer rates higher among female nonsmokers than previously
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Northern California Cancer Center have taken the first steps toward analyzing why people who never smoked get lung cancer.
Contact: Amy Adams
amyadams@stanford.edu
650-723-3900
Stanford University Medical Center
Public Release: 8-Feb-2007
Study profiles rate of autism in Wisconsin
A Wisconsin autism surveillance project reported today that approximately five out of every 1,000 Wisconsin children born in 1994 display symptoms indicative of autism.
Contact: Maureen Durkin
mdurkin@wisc.edu
608-263-2128
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Public Release: 9-Feb-2007
Pitt professor contends biological underpinnings
Jeffrey H. Schwartz's most recent article, "Critique of Molecular Systematics," is the next step towards a counter evolutionary theory that takes a critical look at the theory of cellular and molecular change.
Contact: Patricia Lomando White
laer@pitt.edu
412-624-9101
University of Pittsburgh
Public Release: 9-Feb-2007
Current Directions in Psychological Science
Males have adapted to battle with competing sperm
A new article suggests that the human male has evolved mechanisms to pass on his genes during post-copulation -- a phenomenon dubbed "sperm competition."
Contact: Todd Shackelford
tshackel@fau.edu
Association for Psychological Science