SciNews20071126

Excavations reveal ancient civilization with a sense of style
Neolithic Vinca proved to be a metallurgical culture
PLOCNIK, Serbia (Reuters)
If the figurines found in an ancient European settlement are any guide, women have been dressing to impress for at least 7,500 years.
Public Release: 18-Nov-2007
Quaternary Science Reviews
'Noah's flood' kick-started European farming
The flood believed to be behind the Noah's Ark myth kick-started European agriculture. This research paper assesses the impact of the collapse of the North American (Laurentide) Ice Sheet, 8,000 years ago. The results indicate a catastrophic rise in global sea level led to the flooding of the Black Sea and drove dramatic social change across Europe. The research team argues that, in the face of rising sea levels driven by contemporary climate change, we can learn important lessons from the past
Contact: Sarah Hoyle
s.hoyle@exeter.ac.uk
01-392-262-062
University of Exeter
Public Release: 19-Nov-2007
Archives of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery
Sinus problems are treated well with safe, inexpensive treatment
An inexpensive, safe and easy treatment is an effective method for treating chronic nasal and sinus symptoms -- more effective, in fact, than commonly used saline sprays, according to a new study from University of Michigan Health System researchers.
NeilMed Pharmaceuticals
Contact: Katie Vloet
kgazella@umich.edu
734-764-2220
University of Michigan Health System
Public Release: 19-Nov-2007
EMBO reports
Gender roles and not gender bias hold back women scientists
Traditional roles of women in the home and a negative bias in workplace support result in less career success for women versus men at the same stage of their research careers, determined researchers at the European Molecular Biology Organization in a study appearing in the November 2007 issue of EMBO reports.
European Molecular Biology Organization
Contact: Suzanne Beveridge
communications@embo.org
49-622-188-91108
European Molecular Biology Organization
Public Release: 19-Nov-2007
Brain, Behavior and Immunity
Stress hormone may hasten the progression of certain blood cancers
Researchers here have shown that in cell cultures, the stress hormone norepinephrine appears to promote the biochemical signals that stimulate certain tumor cells to grow and spread. The finding, if verified, may suggest a way of slowing the progression and spread of some cancers enough so that conventional chemotherapeutic treatments would have a better chance to work.
NIH/National Cancer Institute
Contact: Eric Yang
yang.3@osu.edu
614-292-0364
Ohio State University
Public Release: 19-Nov-2007
Nature Neuroscience
How do we make sense of what we see?
When presented with ambiguous visual data, like an M.C. Escher drawing, how does our brain decide which shape to "see?"
National Institutes of Health
Contact: Lisa DeNike
Lde@jhu.edu
443-287-9960
Johns Hopkins University
Public Release: 19-Nov-2007
International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health
Diabetes
MU study finds that sitting may increase risk of disease
University of Missouri-Columbia researchers have found that standing during the day not only burns double the number of calories as sitting, but also has some long-lasting healthy benefits for the body.
Contact: Christian Basi
BasiC@missouri.edu
573-882-4430
University of Missouri-Columbia
Sun may be smaller than thought
New calculations of how light propagates in the Sun's atmosphere may have resolved a puzzle over the Sun's true radius
10:48 19 November 2007
Public Release: 19-Nov-2007
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Student Facebook use predicted by race, ethnicity, education
A study finds student use of social network sites such as Facebook and MySpace can be predicted by race, ethnicity and parent education, challenging popular notions of the democratic nature of online communication. The study finds less intermingling of users from diverse backgrounds on these sites than previously believed. White students prefer Facebook; Hispanics prefer MySpace. Asian and Asian-American students use less popular sites including Xanga more than other groups.
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Initiative
Contact: Wendy Leopold
w-leopold@northwestern.edu
847-491-4890
Northwestern University
Public Release: 19-Nov-2007
International Journal of Medical Sciences
Rogue bacteria involved in both heart disease and infertility
By focusing on the immune system mechanisms in chlamydia infections, Azenabor has identified an important link in seemingly unrelated health problems. The result could be new treatments and prevention strategies for both heart disease and infertility.
Contact: Anthony Azenabor
aazenabo@uwm.edu
414-229-5637
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Public Release: 20-Nov-2007
Simple recipe turns human skin cells into embryonic stem cell-like cells
A simple recipe -- including just four ingredients -- can transform adult human skin cells into cells that resemble embryonic stem cells, researchers report in an immediate early publication of the journal Cell, a publication of Cell Press. The converted cells have many of the physical, growth and genetic features typically found in embryonic stem cells and can differentiate to produce other tissue types, including neurons and heart tissue, according to the researchers.
Program for Promotion of Fundamental Studies in Health Sciences of NIBIO, Leading Project of MEXT, Uehara Memorial Foundation, Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research of JSPS and MEXT
Contact: Cathleen Genova
cgenova@cell.com
617-397-2802
Cell Press
Public Release: 20-Nov-2007
JAMA
Use of pedometer associated with increased physical activity, decreased blood pressure and weight
A review of previous studies indicates that use of a pedometer, especially with a daily step goal, is associated with significant increases in physical activity (additional walking of about a mile a day) and decreases in body mass index and blood pressure, according to an article in the Nov. 21 issue of JAMA.
Contact: Michelle Brandt
650-723-0272
JAMA and Archives Journals
Giant claw points to monster sea scorpion
A fossilised claw that once belonged to a sea scorpion 2.5 metres long – the largest arthropod ever known – is discovered in Germany
00:01 21 November 2007
Public Release: 20-Nov-2007
PLoS ONE
Carnivorous plants use pitchers of 'slimy saliva' to catch their prey
Carnivorous plants supplement the meager diet available from the nutrient-poor soils in which they grow by trapping and digesting insects and other small arthropods. Pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes were thought to capture their prey with a simple passive trap but in a paper in this week's PLoS ONE, French researchers show that they employ slimy secretions to doom their victims.
Contact: Laurence Gaume
laurence.gaume@cirad.fr
Public Library of Science
Public Release: 20-Nov-2007
Journal of Infectious Diseases
Recently discovered virus associated with pediatric respiratory tract infection in Germany
Using a rapid, sensitive, and inexpensive diagnostic tool called MassTag PCR, scientists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health's Center for Infection and Immunity implicated a new human rhinovirus as the cause of severe pediatric respiratory tract infections in Europe.
Contact: Randee Sacks Levine
rs363@columbia.edu
212-305-8044
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
Well
Ate Too Much? Tight Pants May Be the Smallest Worry
By TARA PARKER-POPE
The fat-laden Thanksgiving Day binge touches off a digestive workout that raises health risks.
Ideas & Trends
Japan Hunts the Humpback. Now Comes the Backlash.
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
The Japanese ritual of killing whales in the name of scientific research may inspire new protest with the targeting of the endangered species.
Public Release: 21-Nov-2007
Nature
Don't judge a brook by its color -- brown waters are more natural
Over the last 20 years lakes and streams in remote parts of the UK, southern Scandinavia and eastern North America have been increasingly stained brown by dissolved organic matter. In this week's Nature journal (Nov. 22) an international team, led by researchers from UCL and the US Environmental Protection Agency, demonstrates that the color change is indicative of a return to a more natural, pre-industrial state following a decline in the level of acid rain.
Contact: Dave Weston
d.weston@ucl.ac.uk
44-020-767-97678
University College London
Public Release: 21-Nov-2007
New England Journal of Medicine
Lung transplants bring more harm than good to children with cystic fibrosis
Lung transplantation rarely helps children with Cystic Fibrosis live longer, according to a University of Utah study that appears in the Nov. 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Contact: Chris Nelson
christopher.nelson@hsc.utah.edu
801-581-5148
University of Utah Health Sciences
Public Release: 21-Nov-2007
Nature
Antidepressant found to extend lifespan in C. elegans
The antidepressant mianserin can extend the lifespan of the the roundworm by about 30 percent. The drug may act by mimicking the effects of caloric restriction, which has been shown to retard the effects of aging in a variety of animals ranging from worms and flies to mammals.
Contact: Jennifer Michalowski
michalow@hhmi.org
301-215-8576
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Public Release: 21-Nov-2007
Have we sealed the universe's fate by looking at it?
Have we hastened the demise of the universe just be looking at it? That's the startling question posed by a pair of physicists who suggest that by observing and measuring dark energy we may have accidentally nudged the universe back to a point early in its history when it was more likely to end. The researchers in the US came to the conclusion by calculating how the energy state of our universe might have evolved.
Contact: Claire Bowles
claire.bowles@rbi.co.uk
44-207-611-1210
New Scientist
Public Release: 21-Nov-2007
New England Journal of Medicine
Oral drug sets a new survival standard for bone marrow cancer
Findings from two large, international clinical trials show "unprecedented" survival for patients with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that occurs in the blood-making cells of bone marrow. The findings demonstrate that with Revlimid, an oral cancer drug, all measures of myeloma showed significant improvement in patients where previous treatments had failed.
Contact: Kim Waterman
Kimberly_Waterman@rush.edu
312-942-7820
Rush University Medical Center
Public Release: 21-Nov-2007
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Bioclocks work by controlling chromosome coiling
A new study provides direct evidence that biological clocks can influence the activity of a large number of different genes in an ingenious fashion, simply by causing chromosomes to coil more tightly during the day and to relax at night.
NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences
Contact: David F. Salisbury
david.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu
615-343-6803
Public Release: 21-Nov-2007
Neuron
Why you remember names and ski slopes
Researchers at Northwestern University have discovered the brain protein kalirin-7 is critical for helping you learn and remember what you learned. Previous studies by other researchers found that kalirin levels are reduced in brains of people with diseases like Alzheimer's and schizophrenia. Thus, the discovery of kalirin's role in learning offers new insight into the pathophysiology of these disorders and makes it a new target for future drug therapy to treat or delay the progression of these diseases.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health, National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, National Alliance for Autism Research
Contact: Marla Paul
Marla-Paul@northwestern.edu
312-503-8928
Northwestern University
Public Release: 22-Nov-2007
PLoS Genetics
MIT: Prenatal arsenic exposure detected in newborns
MIT researchers have found that the children of mothers whose water supplies were contaminated with arsenic during their pregnancies harbored gene expression changes that may lead to cancer and other diseases later in life. In addition to establishing the potential harmful effects of these prenatal exposures, the new study also provides a possible method for screening populations to detect signs of arsenic contamination.
NIH/National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences, Chulabhorn Research Institute
Contact: Elizabeth Thomson
thomson@mit.edu
617-258-5402
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Public Release: 22-Nov-2007
Science Express
Rising tides intensify non-volcanic tremor in Earth's crust
Researchers find eidence that slow-slip events, essentially ultra-slow-motion earthquakes, are affected by the rise and fall of ocean tides.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Vince Stricherz
vinces@u.washington.edu
206-543-2580
University of Washington
Public Release: 22-Nov-2007
Science
Liquid crystal phases of tiny DNA molecules point up new scenario for first life on Earth
A team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Milan has discovered some unexpected forms of liquid crystals of ultrashort DNA molecules immersed in water, providing a new scenario for a key step in the emergence of life on Earth.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Noel Clark
noel.clark@colorado.edu
303-492-6420
University of Colorado at Boulder
Babies 'show social intelligence'
By Helen Briggs
Science reporter, BBC News
At the age of six months, most babies have barely learnt to sit up, let alone crawl, walk or talk. But, according to new research, they can already assess someone's intentions towards them, deciding who is a likely friend or enemy.
Archaeology unearths gout in early Pacific people
OTAGO (Pacnews) — High rates of gout among Mâori and Pacific Island men may have a genetic basis going back thousands of years to the time when Polynesia and Melanesia were being colonized from South East Asia.