Public Release: 4-Aug-2008
PLoS Biology
Memory, depression, insomnia -- and worms?
Researchers have spent decades probing the causes of depression, schizophrenia and insomnia in humans. But a new study may have uncovered key insights into the origins of these and other conditions by examining a most unlikely research subject: worms.
NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
Contact: Adam Cohen
adam-cohen@omrf.org
405-271-7159
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation
Public Release: 4-Aug-2008
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
Stanford study uses genetic evidence to trace ancient African migration
Stanford University researchers peering at history's footprints on human DNA have found new evidence for how prehistoric people shared knowledge that advanced civilization.
Contact: Erin Digitale
digitale@stanford.edu
650-724-9175
Stanford University Medical Center
Ancient shark had colossal bite
By Jennifer Carpenter
Science reporter, BBC News
The great white shark may have awesome jaws but they are nothing compared with those of megalodon, its gigantic, whale-eating ancestor.
Public Release: 4-Aug-2008
Genome Biology
Human brains pay a price for being big
Metabolic changes responsible for the evolution of our unique cognitive abilities indicate that the brain may have been pushed to the limit of its capabilities. Research published today in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Biology adds weight to the theory that schizophrenia is a costly by-product of human brain evolution.
Contact: Graeme Baldwin
graeme.baldwin@biomedcentral.com
44-020-707-94804
BioMed Central
Public Release: 4-Aug-2008
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Little teeth suggest big jump in primate timeline
Tiny fossilized teeth excavated from an Indian open-pit coal mine could be the oldest Asian remains ever found of anthropoids, the primate lineage of today's monkeys, apes and humans, say researchers from Duke University and the Indian Institute of Technology.
India Department of Science and Technology, Duke Provost Research Fund, National Science Foundation
Contact: Monte Basgall
monte.basgall@duke.edu
919-681-8057
Duke University
Found: The hottest water on Earth

Black smokers deep in the Atlantic are spouting "supercritical" water at over 407 °C – something never before been seen in nature
12:05 04 August 2008
Bacteria were the real killers in 1918 flu pandemic
Records suggest that bacterial pneumonia along with influenza killed most victims and indicate that governments ought to stock up on antibiotics
14:02 04 August 2008
Vitamin C jabs may combat cancer
In pill form, the vitamin does little to counter cancers, and can even stop medications working, but injections reduce tumour growth in mice
22:00 04 August 2008
Public Release: 5-Aug-2008
PLoS ONE
Context and personality key in understanding responses to emotional facial expressions
It is well-appreciated that facial expressions play a major role in nonverbal social communication among humans and other primates, because faces provide rapid access to information about the identity and the internal states and intentions of others. New data now suggests that both the social context of a person's facial expression and certain facets of the viewer's personality could affect how our brain interprets the social meaning of someone else's smile or frown.
Contact: Pascal Vrticka
Pascal.Vrticka@medecine.unige.ch
Public Library of Science
Public Release: 5-Aug-2008
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
'Cosmic ghost' discovered by volunteer astronomer
When Yale astrophysicist Kevin Schawinski and his colleagues at Oxford University enlisted public support in cataloguing galaxies, they never envisioned the strange object Hanny van Arkel found in archived images of the night sky. The Dutch school teacher, a volunteer in the Galaxy Zoo project that allows members of the public to take part in astronomy research online, discovered a mysterious and unique object some observers are calling a "cosmic ghost."
Contact: Janet Rettig Emanuel
janet.emanuel@yale.edu
203-432-2157
Yale University
Public Release: 5-Aug-2008
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Duck-billed dinosaurs outgrew predators to survive
With long limbs and a soft body, the duck-billed hadrosaur had few defenses against predators such as tyrannosaurs. But new research on the bones of this plant-eating dinosaur suggests that it had at least one advantage: It grew to adulthood much faster than its predators, giving it superiority in size.
Contact: Andrea Gibson
gibsona@ohio.edu
740-597-2166
Ohio University
Public Release: 5-Aug-2008
Transplant International
Revolutionary technique could reduce lifelong drugs for transplant patients
German researchers have made an exciting break-through that could improve the lives of transplant patients, by reducing the drugs they need to take to prevent organ rejection. The ground-breaking technique, which uses tailor-made regulatory cells, is reported in a series of papers in the August issue of Transplant International.
Contact: Annette Whibley
wizard.media@virgin.net
Wiley-Blackwell
Arctic Map shows dispute hotspots
Scientists say they have drawn up the first detailed map showing Arctic areas that could become the centre of border disputes.
Neighbours draw up battle lines
Russia ahead in Arctic 'gold rush'
Public Release: 5-Aug-2008
Human Reproduction
Scientists identify possible cause of endometriosis
Scientists at the University of Liverpool have identified an enzyme that could be responsible for a condition called endometriosis -- the most common cause of pelvic pain in women.
Contact: Samantha Martin
samantha.martin@liv.ac.uk
01-517-942-248
University of Liverpool
Public Release: 5-Aug-2008
Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
Sesame seed extract and konjac gum may help ward off Salmonella and E. coli
A new study in SCI's Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture shows that konjac gum and sesame seed extract may offer protection against different strains of E. coli and Salmonella bacteria.
Contact: Meral Nugent
meral.nugent@soci.org
020-759-81533
Society of Chemical Industry
Public Release: 5-Aug-2008
Antarctic fossils paint a picture of a much warmer continent
National Science Foundation-funded scientists working in an ice-free region of Antarctica have discovered the last traces of tundra -- in the form of fossilized plants and insects -- on the interior of the southernmost continent before temperatures began a relentless drop millions of years ago.
Contact: Peter West
pwest@nsf.gov
703-292-7761
National Science Foundation
Public Release: 5-Aug-2008
International Primatological Society 2008 Congress
Wildlife Conservation Society discovers 'Planet of the Apes'
The world's population of critically endangered western lowland gorillas received a huge boost today when the Wildlife Conservation Society released a census showing massive numbers of these secretive great apes alive and well in the Republic of Congo.
Contact: John Delaney
jdelaney@wcs.org
718-220-3275
Wildlife Conservation Society
Public Release: 5-Aug-2008
Molecular Cancer Therapeutics
VCU Massey Cancer researchers find gene therapy that kills pancreatic cancer cells
Researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center and the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine have published findings that implicate a new chemoprevention gene therapy for preventing and treating pancreatic cancer, one of the most lethal and treatment-resistant forms of cancer.
National Institutes of Health
Contact: Anne Buckley
albuckley@vcu.edu
804-828-6052
Virginia Commonwealth University
Public Release: 5-Aug-2008
Journal of Nutritional Medicine
Study: Spices may protect against consequences of high blood sugar
Herbs and spices are rich in antioxidants, and a new University of Georgia study suggests they are also potent inhibitors of tissue damage and inflammation caused by high levels of blood sugar.
USDA-CSREES Agricultural Experiment Station
Contact: Sam Fahmy
sfahmy@uga.edu
706-542-5361
University of Georgia
Five scientific discoveries that got the wrong name
Naming phenomena after their discoverers is a great way of honouring their work, but what happens when the system breaks down?
10:30 05 August 2008
Folklore gets it wrong on love matches
The old saying that opposites attract might be offering the wrong advice to potential couples, suggests new research
15:00 05 August 2008
Open promise for Phoenix
US space agency Nasa quashes any idea that it is hiding information related to discoveries made on Mars.
Personal Health
Sorting Out Coffee’s Contradictions
By JANE E. BRODY
As with any product used to excess, consumers often wonder about the health consequences of caffeine.
You’re Checked Out, but Your Brain Is Tuned In
By BENEDICT CAREY
Research suggests that falling into a numbed trance allows the brain to recast the outside world in ways that can be productive and creative.
Basics
The Nose, an Emotional Time Machine
By NATALIE ANGIER
Olfaction is an ancient sense and in many ways our sense of smell stands alone.
Pet dogs can 'catch' human yawns
By Jennifer Carpenter Science reporter, BBC News

Yawning is known to be contagious in humans but now scientists have shown that pet dogs can catch a yawn, too.
Public Release: 6-Aug-2008
Angewandte Chemie
Water is 'designer fluid' that helps proteins change shape, scientists say
According to new research, old ideas about water behavior are all wet. Ubiquitous on Earth, water also has been found in comets, on Mars and in molecular clouds in interstellar space. Now, scientists say this common fluid is not as well understood as we thought.
Human Frontier Science Program, National Science Foundation
Contact: James E. Kloeppel
kloeppel@illinois.edu
217-244-1073
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Public Release: 6-Aug-2008
Nature
Humans' response to risk can be unnecessarily dangerous, finds Tel Aviv University study
Our ancient instincts don't meet the decision-making needs of a modern world.
Contact: George Hunka
ghunka@aftau.org
212-742-9070
American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Public Release: 6-Aug-2008
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Jupiter and Saturn full of liquid metal helium
A strange metal brew lies buried deep within giant gaseous planets such as Jupiter and Saturn, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and in London. The study demonstrates that metallic helium is less rare than was previously thought, and is produced under the kinds of conditions present at the centers of giant gaseous planets such as Jupiter and Saturn, mixing with metal hydrogen to form a liquid metal alloy.
National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy
Contact: Rachel Tompa
rmtompa@yahoo.com
510-643-1331
University of California - Berkeley
First 'virophage' could take the fight to viruses
A virus that spreads at the expense of other viruses, could be used to combat viral infections, say researchers
18:00 06 August 2008
Scientists use CT technology to virtually reconstruct Hadropithecus skull
Science Centric
Cairo paternity test for King Tut
DNA tests are to be conducted on the mummified remains of two stillborn children found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, Egyptian officials say.
Public Release: 7-Aug-2008
Journal of American Chemical Society
Researchers find cancer-inhibiting compound under the sea
University of Florida researchers have discovered a marine compound off the coast of Key Largo that inhibits cancer cell growth in laboratory tests. Largazole, named for its Florida location and structural features, seeks out a family of enzymes called histone deacetylase. Overactivity of certain HDACs has been associated with several cancers such as prostate and colon tumors, and inhibiting HDACs may activate tumor-suppressor genes that have been silenced in these cancers.
Contact: Linda Homewood
homewood@ufl.edu
352-273-6873
University of Florida
Solar systems like ours may be rare
Planetary systems like ours formed just 1% of the time in a new computer model of planet-forming discs
19:13 07 August 2008
Mystery killer disease may be spread by vampire bats
An indigenous tribe of Venezuela is under attack from a mystery disease – it could turn out to be bat-transmitted rabies
11:38 08 August 2008
Love of Milk Dated Back to 6000 B.C.
By Andrea Thompson, Senior Writer
06 August 2008 01:02 pm ET
The answer to “Got milk?” just got a little older: A new study indicates that people have been milking cattle and other domesticated animals as well as processing and storing milk products for 2,000 years longer than originally thought.
Public Release: 8-Aug-2008
Ecological Society of America 93rd Annual Meeting
Testosterone key to disease transmission
High levels of testosterone may be a key factor in spreading disease among mice, according to biologists. The findings could help explain why males in a population are often more likely to get infected, and transmit disease.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Amitabh Avasthi
axa47@psu.edu
814-865-9481
Penn State
Public Release: 8-Aug-2008
BJU International
PSA screening may be biased against obese men, leading to more aggressive cancers
Testing men for elevated levels of prostate-specific antigen in the blood -- the gold standard screening test for prostate cancer -- may be biased against obese men, whose PSA levels tend to be deceptively low. And this bias may be creating more aggressive cancers in this population by delaying diagnosis, according to a new study led by investigators in the Duke Prostate Center and the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
US Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institutes of Health, Georgia Cancer Coalition, US Department of Defense, Prostate Cancer Research Program, American Urological Association
Contact: Debbe Geiger
Debbe.Geiger@duke.edu
919-660-9461
Duke University Medical Center
Cases
The Germs Are Potent. But So Is a Kiss.
By MANOJ JAIN, M.D
Published: August 5, 2008
“I have been waiting to see you, and I want answers now,” my patient said angrily as I entered her hospital room.
Fingerprint Test Tells What a Person Has Touched
By KENNETH CHANG
A new analytical technique could be used to identify substances like drugs, explosives or poisons on fingerprints.
Public Release: 8-Aug-2008
Science
Unlocking mystery of why dopamine freezes Parkinson's patients
A dopamine imbalance triggers Parkinson's disease and drug addition -- two opposite diseases. How it worked to do this in the brain had been a mystery. New esearch shows dopamine strengthens and weakens the two primary circuits in the brain that control our behavior. This provides new insight into why a flood of dopamine can lead to compulsive, addictive behavior and too little dopamaine can leave Parkinson's patients frozen and unable to move.
NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Picower Foundation
Contact: Marla Paul
marla-Paul@northwestern.edu
312-503-8928
Northwestern University
Eat kangaroo to 'save the planet'
Switching from beef to kangaroo burgers could significantly help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, an Australian scientist says.
Science Times
To Heal the Wounded
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
A new textbook is the first guidebook of new techniques for American battlefield surgeons to be published while the wars it analyzes are still being fought.
* Audio Audio: Interview With an Author of the Textbook