A
good night's rest before studying something new has a significant
impact on your ability to remember the information, new research shows
18:00 11 February 2007
Public Release: 12-Feb-2007
Archives of Internal Medicine New study shows naps may reduce
coronary mortality
In a new large, prospective study, researchers found that midday
napping -- siestas -- reduced coronary mortality by about one-third
among men and women.
Europe Against Cancer Program of the European
Commission, Greek
Ministry of Health, Greek Ministry of Education, University of Athens
Contact: Todd Datz tdatz@hsph.harvard.edu
617-432-3952 Harvard School of
Public Health Public Release: 12-Feb-2007
PLoS Medicine Are some people immune to avian flu?
Are some people immune to avian flu? New results from Richard Webby at
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and colleagues published in the
international open-access medical journal PLoS Medicine suggest that
the answer might be yes.
Contact: Andrew Hyde ahyde@plos.org
44-122-346-3330 Public Library of Science Public Release: 12-Feb-2007
Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences Researchers unearth 4,300-year-old
chimpanzee technology
A University of Calgary archaeologist has discovered stone "hammers" in
the Taï rainforest of Africa's Côte
D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) that date
back 4,300 years. The primitive tools were used by chimpanzees and
constitute the very first and earliest-known prehistoric evidence of
chimpanzee technology.
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology, Canada Research Chairs program, University of Calgary
Contact: Gregory Harris gharris@ucalgary.ca
403-220-3506 University
of Calgary Public Release: 12-Feb-2007
Cognitive Behavioral Neurology Vasectomy may putmen atrisk fortype of dementia
Northwestern University researchers have discovered men with an unusual
form of dementia have a higher rate of vasectomy than men the same age
who are cognitively normal. The dementia is Primary Progressive Aphasia
(PPA), a disease in which people have trouble recalling and
understanding words. A vasectomy breeches the protective barrier
between the blood and the testes, provoking the immune system to
produce anti-sperm anti-bodies, which may reach the brain and cause
damage.
NIH/National Institute on Aging
Contact: Marla Paul marla-paul@northwestern.edu
312-503-8928 Northwestern
University Public Release: 12-Feb-2007
Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Surgeons
develop simpler way to cure atrial fibrillation
Physicians have an effective new option for treating atrial
fibrillation, a common irregular heart rhythm that can cause stroke.
Heart surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
have developed and tested a device that radically shortens and
simplifies a complex surgical procedure that has had the best long-term
cure rate for persistent atrial fibrillation.
National Institutes of Health
Contact: Gwen Ericson ericsong@wustl.edu
314-286-0141 Washington
University School of Medicine Public Release: 12-Feb-2007
Environmental Science & Technology Concentrations of certain toxins in
breast milk are low, study finds
Nursing mothers worried about passing harmful chemicals to their
infants through breast milk should be aware that the air inside their
home may pose a greater health risk. Researchers from Ohio State and
Johns Hopkins universities measured the levels of harmful gases called
"volatile organic compounds" (VOCs) in human milk and in the air inside
the homes of three lactating mothers in inner-city Baltimore.
Johns Hopkins NIEHS Center in Urban
Environmental Health, Johns Hopkins
Center for a Livable Future, US Environmental Protection Agency
Contact: Timothy Buckley tbuckley@sph.osu.edu
614-293-7161 Ohio
State University Public Release: 12-Feb-2007 Study to explore using magnets to
correct 'sunken chest'
Researchers at UCSF Children's Hospital in San Francisco have launched
a groundbreaking study to determine whether a new procedure using
magnets can correct sunken chest, the most common congenital chest
deformity, in the same way that orthodontic braces gradually realign
teeth.
Office of Orphan Products Development of the
FDA
Contact: Carol Hyman chyman@pubaff.ucsf.edu
415-476-2557 University
of California - San Francisco
Dialling
emergency services when a major disaster strikes is a typical first
response, and now US computer scientists are recommending a useful
follow-up
It
may be that viruses, and not mutant prions, are at the root of diseases
such as scrapie, BSE and vCJD, according to new research
22:00 12 February 2007
The
Consumer Pressing to Look Closer at Blood
Clots and the Pill By MICHAEL
MASON At every exit sign
Kathleen Biggins
wondered if she should turn and call for help. Suddenly she was gasping
for breath. Doctors discovered a blood clot in her left lung
and
put her on an anticoagulant. She had none of the risk factors
for
sudden blood clots, they determined, except one. Months earlier she had
begun taking a low-dose oral contraceptive called Cyclessa.
Faces, Faces Everywhere
At the Getty Institute,
conservators work to preserve art constructed out of an ever-expanding
array of synthetic products. Public Release: 13-Feb-2007
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology Nagging spouse? You
may have
an excuse for not
responding
New research findings now appearing online in the Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology began with a professor's desire to
understand why her husband often seemed to ignore her requests for help
around the house. The Duke University researchers have demonstrated
that some people will act in ways that are not to their own benefit
simply because they wish to avoid doing what other people want them to.
Contact: Laura Brinn laura.brinn@duke.edu
919-660-2903 Duke
University Public Release: 13-Feb-2007
Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases Study
shows how patients and therapists are 'wired to connect'
Empathy is well known to be an important component of the
patient-therapist relationship, and a new study has revealed the
biology behind how patients and therapists
“connect” during a clinical
encounter.
National Institutes of Health, MGH Endowment
for the Advancement of Psychotherapy
Contact: Sue McGreevey smcgreevey@partners.org
617-724-2764 Massachusetts
General Hospital Medscape
Alerts Excessive Use of Topical
Anesthetics Can Be Fatal Yael
Waknine
February 8, 2007 ― The
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned healthcare
professionals regarding potential risks associated with unsupervised
patient use of topical anesthetic products for cosmetic procedures. Public Release: 14-Feb-2007
Nature New accelerator technique doubles
particle energy in just 1 meter
Imagine a car that accelerates from zero to 60 in 250 feet, and then
rockets to 120 miles per hour in just one more inch.
That's essentially what a collaboration of more than a dozen
accelerator physicists has accomplished, using electrons for their
racecars and plasma for the afterburners. The researchers published
their work in the Feb. 15 issue of Nature.
US Department of Energy, National Science
Foundation
Contact: Neil Calder neil.calder@slac.stanford.edu
650-926-8707 Stanford University Public Release: 14-Feb-2007
New England Journal of Medicine Global study concludes 'attack rate' of
flu in kids is 55 percent lower with nasal spray vaccine
A new flu vaccine study led by a Saint Louis University researcher
appears today in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study
involved thousands of children across the world.
Medimmune Inc.
Contact: Joe Muehlenkamp muehlenk@slu.edu
314-977-8015 Saint
Louis University Public Release: 14-Feb-2007 US
teenage drinkers face alcohol test
A high school in New Jersey is to start using a controversial alcohol
test to detect if students have been drinking up to a week before. The
test called EtG is also growing in popularity in the US among hospital
staff and the military. However, despite EtG's growing popularity there
is a risk of false positives, which have already resulted in some
unfair dismissals.
Contact: Claire Bowles claire.bowles@rbi.co.uk
44-207-611-1210 New
Scientist Public Release: 14-Feb-2007
Tobacco Control Online Study finds Lexington economy unharmed
by smoke-free law
Lexington's smoke-free law implemented in 2004 has not caused a
negative economic impact in Lexington, a city located in the heart of a
tobacco-producing state with higher-than-average smoking rates. University
of Kentucky Research Program
Contact: Ann Blackford ann.blackford@uky.edu
859-323-6363 University
of Kentucky Public Release: 14-Feb-2007
Traffic Injury Prevention Better
designed roadway intersections can boost older drivers' performance
Changes in roadway intersection design can keep older drivers safer,
University of Florida researchers say.
Contact: Jill Pease jpease@phhp.ufl.edu
352-273-5816 University of Florida Public Release: 15-Feb-2007
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine Slow-release morphine reduces level of
intractable cough
Slow-release morphine helped a group of patients with long-term,
treatment-resistant chronic cough reduce their daily cough score levels
by 40 percent.
Contact: Suzy Martin smartin@thoracic.org
212-315-8631 American Thoracic
Society Public Release: 15-Feb-2007
2007 AAAS Annual Meeting
Science Orbiter provides new hints of past
groundwater flows on Mars
A spacecraft recently arrived at Mars has provided new evidence that
fluids, likely including water, once flowed widely through underlying
bedrock in a canyon that is part of the great Martian rift valley.
NASA
Contact: Earl Lane elane@aaas.org
202-326-6431 American Association for
the Advancement of Science Public Release: 15-Feb-2007
Science Red
hot chili pepper research spices up historical record
A team of international researchers, including three archaeologists
from the University of Calgary, have identified starch microfossils
from the common chili pepper on artifacts dating back 6,100 years. The
analysis adds new information on how the Capsicum species of pepper may
have first been domesticated and popularized.
Contact: Gregory Harris gharris@ucalgary.ca
403-220-3506 University of Calgary Bald Mexican dogs defied daggers By
Catherine Bremer
Wed Feb 14, 11:23 AM ET The hairless
Mexican Xoloizcuintle dog once warmed the beds of Aztecs, when they
weren't used as food or sacrificial victims. Now the dog has bounced
back from the brink of extinction to become a status symbol. Brain
creates 'new' nerve cells Last Updated: Friday, 16
February 2007, 00:01 GMT
A store of regenerating cells has been found in the human
brain
Researchers have discovered a type of brain cell that continuously
regenerates in humans. Deaf to sign via
video handsets Last
Updated: Friday, 16 February 2007, 11:51 GMT
Deaf people could soon be using video mobiles to chat with their
friends using sign language. Infants Form Memories, but
Forget Them
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published:
February 17, 2007 Filed at 12:44 a.m. ET
Adults thinking back rarely can remember anything before preshool, but
those bright infant eyes staring back at mommy and daddy really are
forming memories. It's just that babies also forget. Frog
In Amber May Be 25M Years Old
AP Miner Stumbles Onto A
Tiny "First Of It's Kind"
Find. A
miner in the state
of Chiapas found a tiny tree frog that has been preserved in amber for
25
million years, a researcher said.
Tires Meant to Foster Sea Life Choke It Instead
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
In 1972, tires were used to create an artificial reef off Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., but decades later the idea has proved a huge
ecological blunder.
Public Release: 15-Feb-2007
2007 AAAS Annual Meeting How do we stop genocide when we begin to lose interest after the first victim?
Follow your intuition and act? When it comes to genocide, forget it. It
doesn't work, says a University of Oregon psychologist. The large
numbers of reported deaths represent dry statistics that fail to spark
emotion and feeling and thus fail to motivate actions. Even going from
one to two victims, feeling and meaning begin to fade, he said.
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Contact: Jim Barlow jebarlow@uoregon.edu
541-346-3481 University of Oregon Public Release: 15-Feb-2007
British Medical Journal US health system getting worse, says expert
The problems of the US healthcare system are growing, warns an expert in this week’s BMJ.
Contact: Emma Dickinson edickinson@bmj.com
44-020-738-36529 BMJ-British Medical Journal Public Release: 16-Feb-2007
2007 AAAS Annual Meeting Birth rate, competition are major players in hominid extinctions
Modern human mothers are probably happy that they typically have one,
maybe two babies at a time, but for early hominids, low birth numbers
combined with competition often spelled extinction.
Contact: A'ndrea Elyse Messer aem1@psu.edu
814-865-9481 Penn State Public Release: 16-Feb-2007
2007 AAAS Annual Meeting Programmed for obesity
Environmental chemicals found in everyday plastics and pesticides may
influence obesity. Frederick vom Saal, professor of biological sciences
in MU's College of Arts and Science, has found that when fetuses are
exposed to these chemicals, the way their genes function may be altered
to make them more prone to obesity and disease.
Contact: Katherine Kostiuk KostiukK@missouri.edu
573-882-3346 University of Missouri-Columbia Public Release: 16-Feb-2007
2007 AAAS Annual Meeting Studies of population genetics, evolution are an exercise in bad taste
Scientific studies of why foods such as Brussels sprouts and stout beer
are horribly bitter-tasting to some people but palatable to others are
shedding light on a number of questions, from the mechanisms of natural
selection to understanding how our genes affect our dietary habits.
Contact: Amanda Siegfried Amanda.siegfried@utsouthwestern.edu
214-648-3404 UT Southwestern Medical Center
Current
US government recommendations on seafood during pregnancy might be
hampering, not helping, children, a new study suggests
00:01 16 February 2007 Public Release: 16-Feb-2007
2007 AAAS Annual Meeting Hunting martian fossils best bet for locating Mars life, says ASU researcher
Hunting for traces of life on Mars calls for two radically different
strategies, says Arizona State University professor Jack Farmer. Of the
two, he says, with today's exploration technology we can most easily
look for evidence for past life, preserved as fossil "biosignatures" in
old rocks.
Farmer is reporting on his work today (February 16) at the annual
meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in
San Francisco.
Contact: Skip Derra skip.derra@asu.edu
602-510-3402 Arizona State University Public Release: 16-Feb-2007
2007 AAAS Annual Meeting Charting our health by the stars
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council grantee Peter Austin
and three other researchers have just completed a survey of hospital
visits in Ontario, Canada, showing that, compared to people born under
other astrological signs, Virgos have an increased risk of vomiting
during pregnancy, Pisces have an increased risk of heart failure, and
Libras have an increased risk of fracturing their pelvises. In fact,
each of the 12 astrological signs had at least two associated medical
disorders.
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
Contact: Doré Dunne dore.dunne@nserc.ca
613-851-8677 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Public Release: 16-Feb-2007
Agronomy Journal Is biodiversity the future of farming?
If we can design complex farming systems that are less energy
intensive, more resilient in unstable climates, and that begin to
out-produce industrial monocultures, the economic advantages may be an
incentive to change, says author Fred Kirschenmann, Leopold Center for
Sustainable Agriculture, in the March-April 2007 issue of Agronomy
Journal.
Contact: Sara Uttech suttech@agronomy.org
608-268-4948 American Society of Agronomy
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