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EurekAlert! - Breaking News
The premier online source for science news since 1996. A service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
- Selenium may slow march of AIDS
Increasing the production of naturally occurring proteins that contain selenium in human blood cells slows down multiplication of the AIDS virus, according to biochemists. - 100-meter sprint world record could go as low as 9.48 seconds
During the last century human athletic records have continued tumbling, but are there limits to how fast elite athletes can run? Marathon runner Mark Denny from Stanford University has calculated human athletes' speed limits over distances ranging from 100m to the marathon and predicts that male runners may eventually sprint 100m in 9.48s - UBC researcher reveals humpback whales' dining habits -- and costs
As most American families sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, a University of British Columbia researcher is revealing how one of the largest animals on earth feasts on the smallest of prey -- and at what cost. - Major North American breakthrough for dialysis patients
Suffering from end-stage renal disease, a growing number of patients at the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, have become the beneficiaries of a North American breakthrough: high efficacy hemodiafiltration. - Climate change puts forests and people at risk, adaptation needed to avert crisis
Unless immediate action is taken, climate change could have a devastating effect on the world's forests and the nearly 1 billion people who depend on them for their livelihoods, warned a leading group of forest scientists in a report to be released next week. The researchers from the Center for International Forestry Research called for the implementation of adaptation measures to reduce the vulnerability of forests and forest-dependent communities. - Parents of new babies should be considered for a whooping cough booster, say experts
A booster vaccination for parents of new babies and other household members may be the most effective way of preventing the fatal form of whooping cough in young infants, say a group of paediatric intensive care doctors on bmj.com today. - New screening halves the number of children born with Down syndrome
A new national screening strategy in Denmark has halved the number of infants born with Down's syndrome and increased the number of infants diagnosed before birth by 30 percent, according to a study published on bmj.com today. - CSHL scientists discover a new way in which epigenetic information is inherited
CSHL scientists report that small RNA molecules called piRNAs can be passed directly from one generation to the next in fruit flies, thereby passing the trait of fertility from the mother to progeny. This process occurs independently of genomic DNA via direct deposits of maternal piRNAs into developing oocytes. The piRNAs suppress the expression of DNA sequences called "transposons" that would otherwise lead to infertility in the progeny fruit flies. - St. Jude identifies genomic causes of a certain type of leukemia relapse
Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have identified distinctive genetic changes in the cancer cells of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia that cause relapse. - Using invisibility to increase visibility
Research into the development of invisibility devices has spurred two physicists' thought on the behavior of light to overcome the seemingly intractable problem of optical singularities which could soon lead to the manufacturing of a perfect cat's eye. - Aged care workers to leave industry en masse due to stress, warns University of Melbourne study
Almost a third of registered aged care nurses are considering quitting in the next year because of job stress, says a new University of Melbourne study. The study, conducted by the Center for Human Resource Management at the University of Melbourne and the Australian Nursing Federation finds Victoria's registered nurses in Victoria's aged care sector are "emotionally exhausted" and not committed to their workplace. - Queen's University biologists find new environmental threat in North American lakes
A new and insidious environmental threat has been detected in North American lakes by researchers from Queen's and York universities. - Speed matters for ice-shelf breaking
It won't help the Titanic, but a newly derived, simple law may help scientists improve their climate models and glaciologists predict where icebergs will calve off from their parent ice sheets, according to a team of Penn State researchers. - Study identifies genetic variants giving rise to differences in metabolism
Common genetic polymorphisms induce major differentiations in the metabolic make-up of the human population, according to a paper published Nov. 28 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics. An international team of researchers, led by Karsten Suhre, has conducted a genome-wide association study with metabolomics, identifying genetic variants in genes involved in the breakdown of fats. The resulting differences in metabolic capacity can affect individuals' susceptibility to complex diseases such as diabetes and hyperactivity. - A novel target for therapeutics against Staph infection
Researchers at the Texas A&M Health Science Center Institute of Biosciences and Technology, and the University of Edinburgh have uncovered how a bacterial pathogen interacts with the blood coagulation protein fibrinogen to cause methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections, a finding that could aid in developing therapeutics against the potentially deadly disease. Their work appears Nov. 28 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens. - Experimental TB drug explodes bacteria from the inside out
An international team of biochemists has discovered how an experimental drug unleashes its destructive force inside the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. The finding could help scientists develop ways to treat dormant TB infections, and suggests a strategy for drug development against other bacteria as well. - Master gene plays key role in blood sugar levels
When mice that lack steroid receptor-2, a master regulator gene called a coactivator, fast for a day, their blood sugar levels plummet. If they go another day without food, they will die. The severity of the hypoglycemia was unexpected, said Dr. Bert W. O'Malley, chair of molecular and cellular biology at Baylor College of Medicine and senior author of the report on the study that appears in the current issue of the journal Science. - Keeping chromosomes from cuddling up
If chromosomes snuggle up too closely at the wrong times, the results can be a genetic disaster. Now researchers have found the molecular machines in fruit flies that yank chromosomes apart when necessary. The machines, proteins called condensin II, separate chromosomes by twisting them into supercoils that kink up and therefore can no longer touch. Scientists had known of condensin II, but did not know how it functioned inside cells. - Fast molecular rearrangements hold key to plastics toughness
In a UW-Madison study appearing Nov. 28 in Science Express, researchers report that subjecting a common plastic to physical stress - which causes the plastic to flow - also dramatically increases the motion of the material's constituent molecules, with molecular rearrangements occurring up to 1,000 times faster than without the stress. - UW tackles neglected realm of training for science professors in training
US science and engineering students emerge from graduate school exquisitely trained to carry out research. Yet when it comes to the other major activity they'll engage in as professors -- teaching -- they're usually left to their own devices. That's now beginning to change, thanks to