Public Release: 13-Apr-2008
2008 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting
Exercise may lead to faster prostate tumor growth
Prostate tumors grew more quickly in mice who exercised than in those who did not, leading to speculation that exercise may increase blood flow to tumors, according to a new study by researchers in the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Duke Prostate Center.
US Department of Defense, American Urological Association Foundation, Prostate Cancer Foundation
Contact: Lauren Shaftel Williams
lauren.shaftel@duke.edu
919-684-4966
Duke University Medical Center
Public Release: 13-Apr-2008
Nature
Insects evolved radically different strategy to smell
Researchers at Rockefeller University and the University of Tokyo have joined forces to reveal that insects have adopted a strategy to detect odors that is radically different from those of other organisms -- an unexpected and controversial finding that may dissolve a dominant ideology in the field.
National Institutes of Health
Contact: Thania Benios
tbenios@rockefeller.edu
212-327-7146
Rockefeller University
Public Release: 13-Apr-2008
2008 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting
Mouth may tell the tale of lung damage caused by smoking
Cells lining the mouth reflect the molecular damage that smoking does to the lining of the lungs, researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report today at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Contact: Scott Merville
smerville@mdanderson.org
713-792-0661
University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Public Release: 13-Apr-2008
2008 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting
Jefferson scientists' discovery may help explain smoking-pancreatic cancer link
If lung cancer and heart disease aren't enough, cigarette smokers are also at higher risk for developing, among other things, pancreatic cancer. Now, researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson have preliminary evidence indicating one possible reason why. Reporting during the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, the scientists show that nicotine in cigarettes increases the production of a protein that promotes cancer cell survival, invasion and spread.
Contact: Steve Benowitz
steven.benowitz@jefferson.edu
215-955-5291
Thomas Jefferson University
Idea Lab
Total Recall
By GARY MARCUS
How much would you pay to have a small memory chip implanted in your brain if that chip would double the capacity of your short-term memory? Or guarantee that you would never again forget a face or a name?
Public Release: 14-Apr-2008
2008 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting
Celebrex-Lipitor combo may halt prostate cancer
Researchers at Rutgers' Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy have shown that administering a combination of the widely used drugs Celebrex (celecoxib, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug) and Lipitor (atorvastatin, a cholesterol lowering drug) stops the transition of early prostate cancer to its more aggressive and potentially fatal stage.
National Institutes of Health, Rutgers University
Contact: Joseph Blumberg
blumberg@ur.rutgers.edu
732-932-7084 x652
Rutgers University
Public Release: 14-Apr-2008
Neurology
High blood pressure may protect against migraine
People with high blood pressure appear to be less likely to have migraine than those with low blood pressure. Researchers say stiff arteries associated with high blood pressure may play a role in protecting against migraine. The research is published in the April 15, 2008, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Contact: Angela Babb
ababb@aan.com
651-695-2789
American Academy of Neurology
Public Release: 14-Apr-2008
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Testosterone levels predict city traders' profitability
When city traders have high morning testosterone levels they make more than average profits for the rest of that day, researchers at the University of Cambridge have discovered. The scientists hypothesize that this may be because testosterone has been found to increase confidence and appetite for risk -- qualities that would augment the performance of any trader who had a positive expected return.
Contact: Genevieve Maul
Genevieve.maul@admin.cam.ac.uk
44-012-233-32300
University of Cambridge
Public Release: 14-Apr-2008
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
Excess pneumonia deaths linked to engine exhaust
Engine exhaust fumes are linked to excess deaths from pneumonia across England, suggests research published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Contact: Rachael Davies
rdavies@bma.org.uk
44-020-738-36529
BMJ-British Medical Journal
Public Release: 14-Apr-2008
2008 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting
Calorie restriction inhibits, obesity fuels development of epithelial cancers
A restricted-calorie diet inhibited the development of precancerous growths in a two-step model of skin cancer, reducing the activation of two signaling pathways known to contribute to cancer growth and development, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report today at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.
Contact: Scott Merville
smerville@mdanderson.org
713-792-0661
University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Public Release: 14-Apr-2008
Nature Neuroscience
Unconscious decisions in the brain
A team of scientists has unraveled how the brain unconsciously prepares our decisions.
Contact: Prof. Dr. John-Dylan Haynes
haynes@bccn-berlin.de
49-302-093-6762
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Public Release: 14-Apr-2008
Genome Research
Clues to ancestral origin of placenta emerge in Stanford study
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have uncovered the first clues about the ancient origins of a mother's intricate lifeline to her unborn baby, the placenta, which delivers oxygen and nutrients critical to the baby's health.
Contact: Mitzi Baker
mabaker@stanford.edu
650-725-2106
Stanford University Medical Center
Public Release: 14-Apr-2008
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Too many choices -- good or bad -- can be mentally exhausting
Each day, we are bombarded with options -- at the local coffee shop, at work, in stores or on the TV at home. Do you want a double-shot soy latte, a caramel macchiato or simply a tall house coffee for your morning pick-me-up? Having choices is typically thought of as a good thing. Maybe not, say researchers who found we are more fatigued and less productive when faced with a plethora of choices
Contact: Audrey Hamilton
ahamilton@apa.org
202-336-5706
American Psychological Association
Hayabusa asteroid probe may never return to Earth
The troubled spacecraft's last reaction wheel, which helps point the craft, has failed - it may not be able to limp back to Earth as planned
Updated 21:06 14 April
Dumbo didn't fly – he swam
Teeth analysis suggests that the ancestors of elephants were aquatic – and supports the theory that the trunk evolved as a snorkel
22:00 14 April 2008
Sexually transmitted bug is the strongest organism

Gonorrhea bacteria pull with a force equal to 100,000 times their body weight
22:00 14 April 2008
Public Release: 15-Apr-2008
Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine
JCSM: A single subjective question can be an effective sleepiness screening tool
A single subjective question may be an effective screening tool for excessive daytime sleepiness.
Contact: Jim Arcuri
jarcuri@aasmnet.org
708-492-0930
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Chinese Herbal Medications for Dysmenorrhea: A Best Evidence Review
Although currently available treatments may be effective for dysmenorrhea, many young women may not seek treatment and are unaware of treatment options. Chinese herbal medications may be an attractive treatment alternative for many women, but there are questions regarding their efficacy.
Well
Raves (Yes, It’s True) for New Hearing Aid
By TARA PARKER-POPE
A new type of hearing aid, called the Lyric, appears to have overcome many of the problems associated with traditional hearing aids.
Canada Likely to Label Plastic Ingredient ‘Toxic’
By IAN AUSTEN
The Canadian government is said to be ready to declare as toxic the compound bisphenol-a, a chemical widely used in plastics for baby bottles, beverage and food containers.
Basics
Adored, Deplored and Ubiquitous
By NATALIE ANGIER
To condemn or condone plastics categorically makes no sense.
Citing Ethics, Some Doctors Are Rejecting Industry Pay
By GINA KOLATA
The decisions of a small group of scientists to stop accepting payment from food, drug and medical device companies repudiate decades of industry influence.
How Epidemics Helped Shape the Modern Metropolis
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
A cholera outbreak in New York in 1832 led to broad efforts to clean up the city and others like it.
Public Release: 15-Apr-2008
Archives of Internal Medicine
Creatinine increase in elderly means increased renal disease, mortality
Even small increases in serum creatinine levels during hospitalization raise the risk of end stage renal disease and mortality of elderly patients over the long term, according to a University of Alabama at Birmingham study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Contact: Jennifer Lollar
jpark@uab.edu
205-934-3888
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Public Release: 15-Apr-2008
Disturbances in brain circuitry linked to chronic exposure to solvents
Chronic occupational exposure to organic solvents, found in materials such as paints, printing and dry cleaning agents, is widespread all over the world, and is thought to damage the central nervous system.
Contact: Sean Wagner
swagner@bos.blackwellpublishing.com
781-388-8550
Wiley-Blackwell
Public Release: 15-Apr-2008
Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Combining liver cancer treatments doubles survival rates, UVA researchers find
By combining the use of stents and photodynamic therapy, also called SpyGlass, physicians at the University of Virginia have been able to significantly increase survival rates for patients suffering from advanced cholangiocarcinoma, cancer of the liver bile duct.
Contact: David Foreman
daf4n@virginia.edu
434-924-2242
University of Virginia Health System
Public Release: 15-Apr-2008
Cochrane Library
Health risks, benefits come with delayed umbilical cord clamping
Waiting just a few minutes to clamp the umbilical cord after a baby is born could boost iron stores in the newborn's blood, but delayed cord clamping comes with an increased risk of jaundice, according to a new review of studies.
Contact: Lisa Esposito
hbns-editor@cfah.org
Center for the Advancement of Health
Public Release: 16-Apr-2008
Archives of Sexual Behavior
IU Health & Wellness: New research findings from the Kinsey Institute
Kinsey Institute researchers took a unique approach to examining the differences among men when it comes to sex -- they sat down with groups of men and talked with them. A second study in Archives of Sexual Behavior discusses progress in predicting sexual problems in women.
Contact: Jennifer Bass
jbass@indiana.edu
812-855-7686
Indiana University
Neanderthals speak out after 30,000 years

Researchers synthesise a Neanderthal's voice and find it lacks the nuances of modern human speech
15:00 15 April 2008
Gene activity may explain cancer's racial divide
African Americans are at more risk from cancer than white people – it could be because immune system genes are responding differently
20:00 15 April 2008
Drug giant Merck accused of deaths cover-up
Internal company documents suggest Merck hid fatality rates during trials of the withdrawn painkiller Vioxx
21:00 15 April 2008
Archaeology Magazine
Euro MPs urged to save tigers
MEPs are urged to use their influence to halt poaching of wild tigers and the illegal trade in tiger parts.'
Big brain' keeps dementia at bay
Having a large hippocampus - a part of the brain involved with memory - seems to provide protection against the symptoms of dementia, a study suggests.
Forecast for big sea level rise
Sea levels could rise by up to one-and-a-half metres by the end of this century, according to scientific analysis.
Public Release: 16-Apr-2008
Nature
Flu tracked to viral reservoir in tropics
Each winter, strains of influenza A virus infect North Americans, causing an average of 36,000 deaths. Now, researchers say the virus comes from a viral reservoir somewhere in the tropics, settling a key debate on the source of each season's infection. "We now know where the influenza A virus comes from every year," said Edward Holmes, professor of biology at Penn State. "And because we now know how the virus evolves, we have a much better chance of controlling it."
National Institutes of Health
Contact: Amitabh Avasthi
axa47@psu.edu
814-865-9481
Penn State
Public Release: 16-Apr-2008
Journal of Neuroscience
Intelligence and rhythmic accuracy go hand in hand
People who score high on intelligence tests are also good at keeping time, new Swedish research shows. The team that carried out the study also suspect that accuracy in timing is important to the brain processes responsible for problem solving and reasoning.
Contact: Katarina Sternudd
katarina.sternudd@ki.se
46-852-483-895
Karolinska Institutet
Public Release: 16-Apr-2008
Astrobiology
Is there anybody out there?
A mathematical model produced by professor Andrew Watson at the University of East Anglia suggests that the odds of finding new life on other Earth-like planets are low, given the time it has taken for beings such as humans to evolve and the remaining life span of the Earth.
Contact: Cat Bartman
c.bartman@uea.ac.uk
44-016-035-93007
University of East Anglia
Public Release: 16-Apr-2008
World's oldest living tree discovered in Sweden
The world's oldest recorded tree is a 9,550 year old spruce in the Dalarna province of Sweden. The spruce tree has shown to be a tenacious survivor that has endured by growing between erect trees and smaller bushes in pace with the dramatic climate changes over time.
Contact: Karin Wikman
karin.wikman@adm.umu.se
Swedish Research Council
Public Release: 16-Apr-2008
Neurology; Annals of Neurology
Different mutations in single gene suggest Parkinson's is primarily an inherited genetic disorder
Two new international studies by researchers at the Mayo Clinic site in Florida are rounding out the notion that Parkinson's disease is largely caused by inherited genetic mutations that pass through scores of related generations over hundreds, if not thousands of years. These genetic influences, which can be small but additive, or large and causative, overturn common beliefs that the neurodegenerative disease mostly occurs in a random fashion or is due to undetermined environmental factors.
National Institutes of Health, others
Contact: Cynthia Nelson
nelson.cynthia1@mayo.edu
904-953-2299
Mayo Clinic
Public Release: 16-Apr-2008
Journal of Human Evolution
Slowly-developing primates definitely not dim-witted
Some primates have evolved big brains because their extra brainpower helps them live and reproduce longer, an advantage that outweighs the demands of extra years of growth and development they spend reaching adulthood, anthropologists from Duke University and the University of Zurich have concluded in a new study.
Sigma Xi, American Museum of Natural History, Ruggles Gates Fund for Biological Anthropology
Contact: Monte Basgall
monte.basgall@duke.edu
919-681-8057
Duke University
Public Release: 16-Apr-2008
FASEB Journal
Your belly fat could be making you hungrier
The extra fat we carry around our middle could be making us hungrier, so we eat more, which in turn leads to even more belly fat. Dr. Kaiping Yang and his colleagues at the Lawson Health Research Institute affiliated with the University of Western Ontario found abdominal fat tissue can reproduce a hormone that stimulates fat cell production. The researchers hope this discovery will change in the way we think about and treat abdominal obesity.
Contact: Kathy Wallis
kwallis3@uwo.ca
519-661-2111 x81136
University of Western Ontario
Public Release: 17-Apr-2008
American Academy of Neurology 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting
Using anti-cholinergic drugs may increase cognitive decline in older people
Anticholinergic drugs, such as medicines for stomach cramps, ulcers, motion sickness and urinary incontinence, may cause older people to experience greater decline in their thinking skills than people not taking the drugs, according to research that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 12, 2008.
Contact: Rachel Seroka
rseroka@aan.com
651-695-2738
American Academy of Neurology
Public Release: 17-Apr-2008
Journal of AAPOS
Infantile esotropia linked to developmental delays
Babies with an eye-alignment disorder called infantile esotropia have delays in motor development milestones, but development "catches up" after corrective surgery, reports a study in the April Journal of AAPOS.
Contact: Jayne Dawkins
ja.dawkins@elsevier.com
215-239-3674
Elsevier
Public Release: 17-Apr-2008
Science
Antidepressants enhance neuronal plasticity in the visual system
In the April 18 issue of Science, scientists from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy and the Neuroscience Centre at the University of Helsinki, Finland, provide new information about the mechanism of action of antidepressant drugs. In addition, the study suggests that antidepressants could also be used for the treatment of amblyopia. However, to produce a functional effect, antidepressant treatment also seems to require environmental stimuli, such as rehabilitation or therapy.
Contact: Eero Castrén
eero.castren@helsinki.fi
358-919-157-626
University of Helsinki
Public Release: 17-Apr-2008
Rice and UT-Houston join DOD push for regenerative medicine
The Department of Defense today announced that Rice University and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston will spearhead the search for innovative ways to quickly grow large volumes of bone tissue for craniofacial reconstruction for soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
US Department of Defense
Contact: David Ruth
druth@rice.edu
713-348-6327
Rice University
On the Origin of Muffin Pudding, by Emma Darwin
The private notes of Charles Darwin, including his wife's recipe book, are released online
00:01 17 April 2008
Dark matter may have been found on Earth
An Italian team claim to have observed dark matter particles in a detector, replicating an earlier finding, but physicists remain sceptical
14:45 17 April 2008
Public Release: 18-Apr-2008
6th European Breast Cancer Conference
Breast cancers behave differently before and after the age of 70
Researchers in Belgium have discovered that increasing age affects the way breast cancer behaves. As women approach the age of 70, they become less likely to be diagnosed with aggressive tumors that have spread to the lymph nodes. But after 70, the cancer is increasingly likely to spread, particularly if the tumors are small. The research was presented on Friday at the 6th European Breast Cancer Conference in Berlin.
Contact: Emma Mason
wordmason@mac.com
ECCO-the European CanCer Organisation
Public Release: 18-Apr-2008
Breast Cancer Research
Vitamin D and breast cancer risk
High blood levels of vitamin D protect post-menopausal women from breast cancer. This connection has been confirmed by research of the German Cancer Research Center. It also shows that a particular gene variant of the vitamin D receptor is associated with an elevated breast cancer risk if the tumor has receptors for the female sex hormone estrogen.
German Cancer Aid, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Contact: Dr. Sibylle Kohlstaedt
s.kohlstaedt@dkfz.de
Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Babelfish' to translate alien tongues could be built
If all languages have a universal structure, we could understand the speech and mathematical ideas of extraterrestrial civilisations
15:30 18 April 2008
Food miles don't feed climate change - meat does
Eating locally-produced food has little impact on your carbon footprint, but going veggie for one day a week makes a big difference
17:00 18 April 2008