Public Release: 25-Jun-2007
PLoS Biology
Baby poop gives Stanford researchers inside scoop on development of gut microbes
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine are as interested in a baby's poop as doting parents are, and for good reason.
Contact: Mitzi Baker
mabaker@stanford.edu
650-725-2106
Stanford University Medical Center
Public Release: 25-Jun-2007
Archives of Internal Medicine
SARS survivors recover from physical illness, but may experience mental health decline
Most patients who survived severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) had good physical recovery, but they or their caregivers often reported a decline in mental health one year later, according to a study in the June 25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Contact: Eva Lannon
416-340-4011
JAMA and Archives Journals
Public Release: 25-Jun-2007
Archives of Internal Medicine
Personal comments by physicians distract from patient needs
In well-intentioned efforts to establish relationships, some physicians tell patients about their own family members, health problems, travel experiences and political beliefs. While such disclosures seem an important way to build a personal connection, a University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry investigation of secretly-recorded first-time patient visits to experienced primary care physicians has found these personal disclosures have no demonstrable benefits and may even disrupt the flow of important patient information.
US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Contact: Michael Wentzel
Michael_Wentzel@urmc.rochester.edu
585-275-1309
University of Rochester Medical Center
Public Release: 25-Jun-2007
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Substance in tree bark could lead to new lung-cancer treatment
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have determined how a substance derived from the bark of the South American lapacho tree kills certain kinds of cancer cells, findings that also suggest a novel treatment for the most common type of lung cancer.
National Institutes of Health
Contact: Connie Piloto
connie.piloto@utsouthwestern.edu
214-648-3404
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Public Release: 25-Jun-2007
PLoS Medicine
Penn researchers report that gene therapy awakens the brain despite blindness from birth
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated that gene therapy used to restore retinal activity to the blind also restores function to the brain's visual center, a critical component of seeing.
National Institutes of Health, Foundation Fighting Blindness, Macula Vision Research Foundation, Chatlos Foundation, Alcon Research Institute, Ruth and Milton Steinbach Fund, and others
Contact: Jordan Reese
jreese@pobox.upenn.edu
215-573-6604
University of Pennsylvania
Echinacea may halve the risk of catching cold
The herbal supplement seems to offer a beneficial boost to people with weak immune systems
11:58 25 June 2007
Weather observed on a star for the first time
Shifting mercury clouds on a star called Alpha Andromedae reveal that stars experience weather, too
22:38 25 June 2007
Egyptologists Think They Have Hatshepsut's Mummy
By Jonathan Wright
June 25, 2007
Egyptologists think they have identified with certainty the mummy of Hatshepsut, the most famous queen to rule ancient Egypt, found in a humble tomb in the Valley of the Kings, an archaeologist said on Monday.
The Human Family Tree Has Become a Bush With Many Branches
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
DNA is aiding fossil hunters in the search for human origins by approaching the search for human origins from a different angle.
Fast-Reproducing Microbes Provide a Window on Natural Selection
By CARL ZIMMER
Evolutionary experiments on microbes are under way in many laboratories and scientists can observe bacteria adapt over 40,000 generations of living in a beaker.
Humans Have Spread Globally, and Evolved Locally
By NICHOLAS WADE
Modern humans appeared 50,000 years ago, but genetic drift and natural selection have recently remolded the human clay.
Graphic: Genes and Human Migration
Public Release: 26-Jun-2007
PLoS ONE
Nepalese researchers identify cost-effective treatment for drug-resistant typhoid
New research carried out by researchers in Nepal has shown that a new and affordable drug, Gatifloxacin, may be more effective at treating typhoid fever than the drug currently recommended by the World Health Organization. The study, funded by the Wellcome Trust, has implications for the treatment of typhoid particularly in areas where drug resistance is a major problem.
Wellcome Trust
Contact: Craig Brierley
c.brierley@wellcome.ac.uk
44-207-611-7329
Wellcome Trust
Ancient 'Ondol' Heating Systems Discovered in Alaska
What are believed to be the world's oldest underfloor stone-lined-channel heating systems have been discovered in Alaska's Aleutian Islands in the U.S. The heating systems are remarkably similar to ondol, the traditional Korean indoor heating system.
Scientists expect to reproduce Neanderthal DNA
Technical study yields methods to sequence genome despite genetic decay
By Randolph E. Schmid
The Associated Press
June 25, 2007, 7:10 PM EDT
Researchers studying Neanderthal DNA say it should be possible to construct a complete genome of the ancient hominid despite the degradation of the DNA over time.  There is also hope for reconstructing the genome of the mammoth and cave bear, according to a research team led by Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
From a Few Genes, Life’s Myriad Shapes
By CAROL KAESUK YOON
Evo-devo researchers are finding that development appears to have been one of the major forces shaping the history of life on earth.
Public Release: 26-Jun-2007
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
How fish punish 'queue jumpers'
Fish use the threat of punishment to keep would-be jumpers in the mating queue firmly in line and the social order stable, a new study led by Australian marine scientists has found. Their discovery, which has implications for the whole animal kingdom including humans, has been hailed by some of the world's leading biologists as a "must read" scientific paper and published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B.
Contact: Dr. Marian Wong
marian.wong1@jcu.edu.au
074-781-5350
James Cook University
Public Release: 26-Jun-2007
Journal of Molecular Biology
Frog molecule could provide drug treatment for brain tumors
A synthetic version of a molecule found in the egg cells of the Northern Leopard frog (Rana pipiens) could provide the world with the first drug treatment for brain tumors.
Contact: Andrew McLaughlin
a.mclaughlin@bath.ac.uk
44-012-253-86883
University of Bath
Public Release: 26-Jun-2007
Journal of Labor Economics
Why do power couples migrate to metropolitan areas? Actually, they don't
More than half of all "power couples" -- couples in which both spouses are college graduates -- live in large metropolitan areas with more than two million residents. What causes the concentration of well-educated couples in big cities? A new study from the Journal of Labor Economics disputes prior research suggesting power couples migrate to large MSAs.
Contact: Suzanne Wu
swu@press.uchicago.edu
773-834-0386
University of Chicago Press Journals
Public Release: 27-Jun-2007
New England Journal of Medicine
Needle-stick injuries are common but unreported by surgeons in training
A survey of nearly 700 surgical residents in 17 US medical centers finds that more than half failed to report needle-stick injuries involving patients whose blood could be a source of HIV, hepatitis and other infections.
Contact: Eric Vohr
evohr1@jhmi.edu
410-955-8665
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Public Release: 27-Jun-2007
Psychological Reports and Análisis y Modificación de Conducta
A study confirms the importance of sexual fantasies in the experience of sexual desire
Researchers of the UGR have found that 32 percent of inhibited sexual desire in men is associated with negative sexual attitudes and the presence or absence of certain types of sexual fantasies, while, in women, just 18 percent of inhibited sexual desire can be explained. This 18 percent of inhibition of sexual desire in women is related to anxiety, negative sexual attitudes and the absence of sexual fantasies.
Contact: Professor Juan Carlos Sierra Freire
jcsierra@ugr.es
34-958-243-750
Universidad de Granada
Public Release: 28-Jun-2007
Cell
Loss of cell's 'antenna' linked to cancer's development
Most normal vertebrate cells have cilia, small hair-like structures that protrude like antennae into the surrounding environment to detect signals that control cell growth. In a new study published in the June 29 issue of Cell, Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers describe the strong link between ciliary signaling and cancer, and identify the rogue engineers responsible for dismantling the cell's antenna.
National Institutes of Health, US Department of Defense
Contact: Karen Mallet
Karen.Mallet@fccc.edu
215-728-2700
Fox Chase Cancer Center
Squash Seeds Show Andean Cultivation Is 10,000 Years Old, Twice as Old as Thought
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
The findings about Peru are evidence that some farming developed in parts of the Americas nearly as early as in the Middle East, considered the birthplace of agriculture.
Giant microwave turns plastic back to oil
A US company is taking plastics recycling to another level – zapping them with a variety of frequencies to break down the hydrocarbon chains
17:44 26 June 2007
Killifish can survive without oxygen for 60 days
A Venezuelan fish can cut its metabolic rate to ride out oxygen shortages
10:00 27 June 2007
Dying star generates the stuff of life
One of our galaxy's largest and most luminous stars is a surprisingly prolific building site for the molecules important to life
18:00 27 June 2007
Public Release: 28-Jun-2007
Scientists find that Earth and Mars are different to the core
Research comparing silicon samples from Earth, meteorites and planetary materials, published in Nature (June 28, 2007) provides new evidence that the Earth's core formed under very different conditions from those that existed on Mars. It also shows that the Earth and the moon have the same silicon isotopic composition, supporting the theory that atoms from the two mixed in the early stages of their development.
Contact: Gill Ormrod
gill.ormrod@stfc.ac.uk
01-793-442-012
Science and Technology Facilities Council
Essay
Human DNA, the Ultimate Spot for Secret Messages (Are Some There Now?)
By DENNIS OVERBYE
A team of Japanese geneticists announced that they had taught relativity to a bacterium, sort of.
The Japanese group wrote four copies of Albert Einstein's famous formula, E=mc2, along with "1905", into the bacterium's genome.
9,000-Year-Old Beer Tastes Great
By Liu Enming Delaware 26 June 2007
A Delaware brewery known for its specialty beers has created a new one based on a 9,000-year-old recipe. VOA's Liu Enming recently traveled to Dogfish Head Craft Brewery to taste Chateau Jiahu beer.
Public Release: 28-Jun-2007
Therapeutic value of meditation unproven, says study
"There is an enormous amount of interest in using meditation as a form of therapy to cope with a variety of modern-day health problems, especially hypertension, stress and chronic pain, but the majority of evidence that seems to support this notion is anecdotal, or it comes from poor quality studies," say Maria Ospina and Kenneth Bond, researchers at the University of Alberta/Capital Health Evidence-based Practice Center in Edmonton, Canada.
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Contact: Isabela C. Varela
isabela.varela@ualberta.ca
780-492-6041
University of Alberta
Public Release: 28-Jun-2007
Drug and Alcohol Dependence
Researchers identify alcoholism subtypes
Analyses of a national sample of individuals with alcohol dependence (alcoholism) reveal five distinct subtypes of the disease, according to a new study by scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health.
Contact: John Bowersox
jbowersox@mail.nih.gov
301-443-3860
NIH/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Public Release: 28-Jun-2007
Cell
Critical protein prevents DNA damage from persisting through generations
A protein called ATM, long known to be involved in protecting cells from genetic damage, is also part of a system that prevents damage from being passed on when the cells divide.
National Institutes of Health
Contact: Joseph Bonner
bonnerj@rockefeller.edu
212-327-8998
Rockefeller University
Public Release: 29-Jun-2007
Cell
Modern brains have an ancient core
Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory now reveal that the hypothalamus and its hormones are not purely vertebrate inventions, but have their evolutionary roots in marine, worm-like ancestors. In this week's issue of the journal Cell they report that hormone-secreting brain centres are much older than expected and likely evolved from multifunctional cells of the last common ancestor of vertebrates, flies and worms.
Contact: Anna-Lynn Wegener
wegener@embl.de
49-622-138-7452
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Public Release: 29-Jun-2007
More than 80 percent of NYC restaurants now using fry oils with 0 grams trans fat
Facing a July 1 deadline, most restaurants have already eliminated artificial trans fat in oils used for frying, a new Health Department survey shows.
Contact: Andrew Tucker
atucker@health.nyc.gov
212-788-5290
New York City Health Department
Public Release: 1-Jul-2007
Neuropsychology
Cognitive scores vary as much within test takers as between age groups making testing less valid
How precise are tests used to diagnose learning disability, progressive brain disease or impairment from head injury? Timothy Salthouse, Ph.D., a noted cognitive psychologist at the University of Virginia, has demonstrated that giving a test only once isn't enough to get a clear picture of someone's mental functioning. It appears that repeating tests over a short period may give a more accurate range of scores, improving diagnostic workups.
Contact: Pam Willenz
public.affairs@apa.org
202-336-5700
American Psychological Association
Found: The clearest ocean waters on Earth
The cleanest, most lifeless ocean waters on Earth are found in the Pacific – visibility extends over 100 metres deep in the unique area
12:38 29 June 2007
McDonald's puts oil to green use
The firm says it is determined to reduce its carbon footprint
McDonald's is to convert all its UK delivery vehicles to run on biodiesel, using the firm's supply of cooking oil.
Iron Age 'Mickey Mouse' Found
Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
June 15, 2007 — One thousand years before the cartoon character Mickey Mouse was even a glint in Walt Disney's eye, a French artist created a bronze brooch that looks remarkably like the famous rodent, according to archaeologists at Sweden's Lund Historical Museum, which houses the recent find.
Public Release: 1-Jul-2007
Nature Medicine
Scientists discover key to manipulating fat
In what they call a "stunning research advance," investigators at Georgetown University Medical Center have been able to use simple, nontoxic chemical injections to add and remove fat in targeted areas on the bodies of laboratory animals. They say the discovery, published online in Nature Medicine on July 1, could revolutionize human cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery and treatment of diseases associated with human obesity.
National Institutes of Health
Contact: Becky Wexler
rjw43@georgetown.edu
202-687-5100
Georgetown University Medical Center