Public Release: 9-Jun-2008
Archives of Internal Medicine
Racial disparities exist among diabetes patients treated by the same physician
Black patients with diabetes are less likely than white patients to achieve long-term control of their blood glucose, blood cholesterol and blood pressure levels, even when they are treated by the same physician, according to a report in the June 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Contact: Leah Gourley
617-695-9555
JAMA and Archives Journals
Public Release: 9-Jun-2008
BMC Biology
Arsenic and new rice
Amid recent reports of dangerous levels of arsenic being found in some baby rice products, scientists have found a protein in plants that could help to reduce the toxic content of crops grown in environments with high levels of this poisonous metal. Publishing in the open access journal BMC Biology, a team of Scandinavian researchers has revealed a set of plant proteins that channel arsenic in and out of cells.
Contact: Charlotte Webber
charlotte.webber@biomedcentral.com
44-020-763-19980
BioMed Central
Public Release: 9-Jun-2008
BMC Evolutionary Biology
ADHD an advantage for nomadic tribesmen?
A propensity for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder might be beneficial to a group of Kenyan nomads, according to new research published in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. Scientists have shown that an ADHD-associated version of the gene DRD4 is associated with better health in nomadic tribesmen, and yet may cause malnourishment in their settled cousins.
Contact: Graeme Baldwin
graeme.baldwin@biomedcentral.com
44-020-763-14804
BioMed Central
Public Release: 9-Jun-2008
Neurobiology of Aging
World's oldest woman had normal brain
A 115-year-old woman who remained mentally alert throughout her life had an essentially normal brain, with little or no evidence of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study in the August issue of Neurobiology of Aging.
Contact: Anna Hogrebe
newsroom@elsevier.com
31-204-853-269
Elsevier
Public Release: 9-Jun-2008
Nature Reviews Cancer
Solid tumor cells not killed by radiation and chemotherapy become stronger
Because of the way solid tumors adapt the body's machinery to bring themselves more oxygen, chemotherapy and radiation may actually make these tumors stronger.
Contact: Mary Jane Gore
mary.gore@duke.edu
919-660-1309
Duke University Medical Center
Public Release: 9-Jun-2008
Nature Genetics
Stem cell discovery sheds light on placenta development
By manipulating a specific gene in a mouse blastocyst -- the structure that develops from a fertilized egg but is not yet an actual embryo -- scientists with the University of Florida's McKnight Brain Institute and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute caused cells destined to build an embryo to instead change direction and build the cell mass that leads to the placenta.
National Institutes of Health
Contact: John Pastor
jdpastor@ufl.edu
352-273-5815
University of Florida
Pesticides blamed for plummeting salmon stocks
A weak mix of chemicals dampens a salmon's ability to sniff out predators and may make it harder to find food and mates
12:52 09 June 2008
New research refutes myth of pure Scandinavian race
University of Copenhagen
Archaeologists in Jordan have discovered a cave underneath one of the world's oldest churches that may have once been an even more ancient site of Christian worship
MSNBC
Public Release: 10-Jun-2008
Engineer develops detergent to promote peripheral nerve healing
A detergent solution developed at the University of Texas at Austin that treats donor nerve grafts to circumvent an immune rejection response has been used to create acellular nerve grafts now used successfully in hospitals around the country. Research also shows early promise of the detergent solution having possible applications in spinal cord repair.
Contact: Christine Schmidt
schmidt@che.utexas.edu
512-471-1690
University of Texas at Austin
Public Release: 10-Jun-2008
Journal of Clinical Investigation
The cause of all hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type II cases has been established
A major discovery that details the existence of a neuronal specific form of the WNK1 gene, henceforth referred to as the WNK1/HSN2 isoform, was recently completed by the research group of Dr. Guy A. Rouleau and published in the scientific journal the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Contact: Nathalie Forgue
nathalie.forgue.chum@ssss.gouv.qc.ca
514-801-5762
University of Montreal
Public Release: 10-Jun-2008
Arecibo joins global network to create 6,000-mile telescope
On May 22, Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico joined other telescopes in North America, South America, Europe and Africa in simultaneously observing the same targets, simulating a telescope more than 6,800 miles (almost 11,000 kilometers) in diameter.
Contact: Blaine Friedlander
bpf2@cornell.edu
607-254-8093
Cornell University Communications
Public Release: 10-Jun-2008
Journal of Environmental Psychology
Scenes of nature trump technology in reducing low-level stress
Technology can send a man to the moon, help unlock the secrets of DNA and let people around the world easily communicate through the Internet. But it can't replace nature in reducing low-level stress.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Joel Schwarz
joels@u.washington.edu
206-543-2580
University of Washington
Public Release: 10-Jun-2008
Journal of Archaeological Science
Cutting-edge weapons result of prehistoric experimentation
When the "cutting-edge" technology of the bow and arrow was introduced to the world, it changed the way humans hunted and fought. University of Missouri archaeologists have discovered that early man, on the way to perfecting the performance of this new weapon, engaged in experimental research, producing a great variety of projectile points in the quest for the best, most effective system.
Contact: Bryan E. Jones
jonesbry@missouri.edu
573-882-9144
University of Missouri-Columbia
'Party chat' brain filter discovered

The brain region that lets humans distinguish one voice from many others talking at once has been mapped for the first time
01:00 10 June 2008
Robot Asimo can understand three voices at once
For the first time a robot comes close to having the human ability to single out one voice from many -- and in some ways it surpasses human performance
15:55 10 June 2008
Personal Health
Disorder Magnifies Blood Clot Risk
By JANE E. BRODY
Factor V Leiden (pronounced factor five) is the most common hereditary clotting disorder in the United States.
 * Health Guide: D.V.T ?
Vital Signs
Outcomes: Tooth Loss Tied to Pregnancy
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Published: June 10, 2008
A new study suggests that the more babies a woman has, the more likely she is to lose teeth.
Cases
Showing the Patient the Door, Permanently
By RAHUL K. PARIKH, M.D.
The physician-patient contract gives a doctor the right to dismiss a patient, but could I fire a patient because I didn’t like his mother?
Basics
Tallying the Toll on an Elder of the Sea
By NATALIE ANGIER
The loss of the horseshoe crab would be tragic, researchers say, because so many contemporary life forms depend on them.
Loyal to Its Roots
By CAROL KAESUK YOON
Confounding scientists, some plant species show an ability to recognize (and prefer) their own relatives.
Brainpower May Lie in Complexity of Synapses
By NICHOLAS WADE
A whole new dimension of evolutionary complexity for the brain has now emerged from a cross-species study.
Public Release: 11-Jun-2008
'Electron turbine' could print designer molecules
Slotting nanotubes together and running current along them could create the simplest nanomotor yet – it could find use as a tiny printer or digital memory
12:31 11 June 2008
Public Release: 11-Jun-2008
Plutoid chosen as name for solar system objects like Pluto
The International Astronomical Union has decided on the term plutoid as a name for dwarf planets like Pluto at a meeting of its executive committee in Oslo.
Contact: Lars Lindberg Christensen
lars@eso.org
49-893-200-6306
International Astronomical Union
From Canada to the Caribbean: Tree Leaves Control Their Own Temperature, Penn Study Reveals
The temperature inside a healthy, photosynthesizing tree leaf, about 21°C, is affected less by outside environmental temperature than originally believed, according to new research from biologists at the University of Pennsylvania.
Public Release: 11-Jun-2008
EULAR 2008
50 percent of recent onset RA patients become free of signs and symptoms within 36 weeks
At least 50 percent of recent onset rheumatoid arthritis patients achieve remission within 36 weeks when following a systematic approach of step-up DMARD treatment in combination with tight control, according to results of a study presented today at EULAR 2008, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism in Paris, France.
Contact: Camilla Dormer / Rory Berrie
eularpressoffice@uk.cohnwolfe.com
44-077-892-70392
European League Against Rheumatism
Public Release: 11-Jun-2008
Fossils found in Tibet by FSU geologist revise history of elevation, climate
About 15,000 feet up on Tibet's desolate Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau, an international research team led by Florida State University geologist Yang Wang was surprised to find thick layers of ancient lake sediment filled with plant, fish and animal fossils typical of far lower elevations and warmer, wetter climates.
Contact: Yang Wang
ywang@magnet.fsu.edu
850-644-1121
Florida State University
Public Release: 11-Jun-2008
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Woolly-mammoth gene study changes extinction theory
A large genetic study of the extinct woolly mammoth has revealed that the species was not one large homogenous group, as scientists previously had assumed, and that it did not have much genetic diversity. The discovery is particularly interesting because it rules out human hunting as a contributing factor, leaving climate change and disease as the most probable causes of extinction.
Penn State University, Roche Applied Sciences, others
Contact: Barbara K. Kennedy
science@psu.edu
814-863-4682
Penn State
Long-Tailed Macaques Spotted Catching Fish
By Lauren Miura
Long-tailed macaques eat mostly fruit ― but when resources are scarce, they’ve been known to get creative with their cuisine. When living near humans, they raid gardens and learn to beg for food. Sometimes they even steal food from inside houses.  Now, for the first time, scientists have observed long-tailed macaques fishing with their bare hands.
Public Release: 12-Jun-2008
Primary tumors can drive the growth of distant cancers
Primary tumors can encourage the growth of stray cancer cells lurking elsewhere in the body that otherwise may not have amounted to much. As people age, most may have such indolent cancer cells given the sheer number of cells in the body, although their rarity makes them impossible to detect, the researchers said.
David H. Koch Cancer Research Fund, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, NIH/National Cancer Institute
Contact: Cathleen Genova
cgenova@cell.com
617-397-2802
Cell Press
Public Release: 12-Jun-2008
Journal of Biological Chemistry
Ancient antibody molecule offers clues to how humans evolved allergies
Scientists have discovered how evolution may have lumbered humans with allergy problems. The team are working on a molecule vital to a chicken's immune system which represents the evolutionary ancestor of the human antibodies that cause allergic reactions. Crucially, they have discovered that the chicken molecule behaves quite differently from its human counterpart, which throws light on the origin and cause of allergic reactions in humans and gives hope for new strategies for treatment.
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Contact: Nancy Mendoza
press.office@bbsrc.ac.uk
01-793-413-355
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Public Release: 12-Jun-2008
Annals of Neurology
Tsunami in the brain
After a stroke, even unaffected areas of the brain are at risk -- depolarization waves arise at the edges of the dead tissue and spread through the adjacent areas of the brain. If these waves are repeated, more cells die. This has previously been observed only in animal studies.
Contact: Dr. Annette Tuffs
annette.tuffs@med.uni-heidelberg.de
49-622-156-4536
University Hospital Heidelberg
First space ad targets hungry aliens
A commercial for tortilla chips is beamed towards another star system – such ads may help fund pure science research
19:46 12 June 2008
Drugs Being Tested For Alzheimer's Disease Work In Unexpected And Beneficial Ways
ScienceDaily (Jun. 13, 2008)
Researchers at Mayo Clinic, with their national and international collaborators, have discovered how a class of agents now in testing to treat Alzheimer's disease work, and say they may open up an avenue of drug discovery for this disease and others.
Public Release: 13-Jun-2008
British Medical Journal
What's wrong with selling kidneys?
Doctor's in this week's BMJ debate the issue of selling kidneys.
Contact: Arthur Matas
matas001@umn.edu
612-625-9192
BMJ-British Medical Journal
Public Release: 13-Jun-2008
British Medical Journal
1 patient's account of becoming a live kidney donor
Hospitals need to make the process of live donation easier for potential donors, says a patient in this week's BMJ. Annabel Ferriman, an editor at the BMJ, gives a frank first person account of her journey through the "protracted" and sometimes "frustrating" process of becoming a live kidney donor to her friend, Ray, who had been suffering from polycystic kidney disease for eight years.
Contact: Annabel Ferriman
aferriamn@bmj.com
44-020-738-36285
BMJ-British Medical Journal
Public Release: 13-Jun-2008
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
Drug commonly used for alcoholism curbs urges of pathological gamblers
A drug commonly used to treat alcohol addiction has a similar effect on pathological gamblers -- it curbs the urge to gamble and participate in gambling-related behavior, according to a new research at the University of Minnesota.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health
Contact: Nick Hanson
hans2853@umn.edu
612-624-2449
University of Minnesota
Genetic building blocks may have formed in space
A meteorite that landed in Australia in 1969 appears to contain genetic components that formed in space
21:59 13 June 2008
Public Release: 13-Jun-2008
Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Ancient mineral shows early Earth climate tough on continents
A new analysis of ancient minerals called zircons suggests that a harsh climate may have scoured and possibly even destroyed the surface of the Earth's earliest continents.
Contact: John Valley
valley@geology.wisc.edu
608-238-2778
University of Wisconsin-Madison
'Consciousness meter' may predict coma recoveries
Analysing part of the brain responsible for daydreaming may separate people who are brain-damaged but "in there" from those who are brain-dead
10:12 13 June 2008
Is a sniff of coffee as good as a sip?
The way genes in sleep-deprived rats respond to the smell of coffee could explain why humans find the smell invigorating
10:20 13 June 2008
Public Release: 14-Jun-2008
Genes & Development
How Montezuma gets his revenge
Every year, about 500 million people worldwide are infected with the parasite that causes dysentery, a global medical burden that among infectious diseases is second only to malaria. In a new study appearing in the June 15 issue of Genes and Development, Johns Hopkins researchers may have found a way to ease this burden by discovering a new enzyme that may help the dysentery-causing amoeba evade the immune system.
National Institutes of Health, Burroughs-Wellcome Fund
Contact: Audrey Huang
audrey@jhmi.edu
410-614-5105
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Haggling over the hobbits
13/06/2008 15:26:45
The ongoing drama that is debate over the hobbit fossils of Flores has been reignited by a recent paper suggesting H. floresiensis is actually H. sapiens suffering from cretinism. An interesting theory or a ‘travesty’?
Public Release: 15-Jun-2008
Nature
Stem cell researchers give old muscle new pep
When UC Berkeley bioengineers tweaked how adult stem cells reacted to biochemical signals regulating cell division, they gave muscle in old mice a shot of youthful vigor. The research sets the path for research on new treatments for age-related degenerative conditions, including muscle atrophy and Alzheimer's disease.
National Institutes of Health, The Ellison Medical Foundation, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
Contact: Sarah Yang
scyang@berkeley.edu
510-643-7741
University of California - Berkeley
Public Release: 15-Jun-2008
Nature Neuroscience
Hunger hormone increases during stress, may have antidepressant effect
New research at UT Southwestern Medical Center may explain why some people who are stressed or depressed overeat.
National Institutes of Health, Foundation for Prader-Willi Research, National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, Disease-Oriented Clinical Scholars Program at UT Southwestern
Contact: Kristen Holland Shear
kristen.hollandshear@utsouthwestern.edu
214-648-3404
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Public Release: 15-Jun-2008
Nature
Ebb and flow of the sea drives world's big extinction events
If you are curious about Earth's periodic mass extinction events such as the sudden demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, you might consider crashing asteroids and sky-darkening super volcanoes as culprits.
Contact: Shanan E. Peters
peters@geology.wisc.edu
608-262-5987
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Plastics unite to make unexpected 'metal'
Sticking two polymers together creates a region where they meet that conducts like a metal – the discovery could lead to a whole new way of making electronics or superconductors
18:00 15 June 2008
The Face of Fear Explained
By Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Staff Writer
Everyone knows the face of fear.
Upon beholding the chainsaw-wielding ax-murderer in a slasher movie, the damsel in distress usually widens her eyes and flares her nostrils in horror.
It turns out this expression isn't merely for cinematic effect, but actually serves a biological function, scientists have found, by altering the way our senses perceive the world.