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1MadScientist's Journal  Crocodile blood may yield powerful new antibiotics - Scientists in Australia's tropical north are collecting blood from crocodiles in the hope of developing a powerful antibiotic for humans, after tests showed that the reptile's immune system kills the HIV virus. Study: Pain Neurons Respond to Garlic - People tend to love garlic or hate it, but few probably associate it with pain. Nonetheless, it turns out that pain-sensing nerves respond to the sulfur-based chemicals in garlic. Emotional, not factual, ads win skeptical consumers, study shows - Consumers who are very skeptical about the truth of advertising claims are more responsive to emotionally appealing ads than ones peppered with information, according to a new study. EDITOR'S NOTE: No way! you're kidding. Really? e-Science methods reveal new insights into antibiotic resistance - Large-scale computer simulations have pinpointed a tiny change in molecular structure that could account for drug resistance in Streptomices pneumoniae, the organism that causes childhood pneumonia and claims 3.5 million lives a year, mainly in developing countries. Such knowledge could be invaluable in designing new drugs that are effective against the drug resistant strain. Tsunami clue to 'Atlantis' found - A submerged island that could be the source of the Atlantis myth was hit by a large earthquake and tsunami 12,000 years ago, a geologist has discovered. Plants Discriminate Between Self And Non Self - Two peas in a pod may not be so friendly when planted in the ground and even two parts of the same plant, once separated may treat the former conjoined twin as an alien "enemy," according to a Penn State researcher. "We were looking at how plants determine who is a competitor when competing with other roots for limited resources," says Dr. Omer Falik, postdoctoral researcher in plant ecology. "There is no reason for roots to fight if they belong to the same plant." Poaching making China elephants evolve tuskless - Chinese elephants are evolving into an increasingly tuskless breed because poaching is changing the gene pool, a newspaper reported on Sunday. Asthma, allergies may protect against brain cancer - Having asthma, hay fever or another allergic condition may reduce the risk of developing one fatal form of brain cancer, a new study suggests. Fake Shark Skin Could Make Navy Fleet Faster - Few creatures spawn more fear than sharks. But these complex fish also have provided inspiration for several useful technologies. One new idea has captured the interest of the U.S. Navy. Moral Debate: Procedure Risks Making Monkeys More Humanlike - The insertion of human stem cells into monkey brains runs a "real risk" of altering the animals' abilities in ways that might make them more like us, scientists said today. Texas A&M Leads World in Cloning Animals - Through painstaking experimentation, A&M is the world's first academic institution to clone six species in six years: cattle, a boer goat, pigs, a deer, a horse and — most famously — a cat named cc. Remains of New Species of Hobbit-Sized Human Found - Scientists in Australia have found a new species of hobbit-sized humans who lived about 18,000 years ago on an Indonesian island in a discovery that adds another piece to the complex puzzle of human evolution. NOTE: Extra points for the pop culture reference. Americans a Bit Taller, Much Heavier, Report Says - Americans are getting taller on average but they are much heavier too, according to government figures released on Wednesday showing that the U.S. population is, literally, growing. NOTE: Duh. Eight dead from bubonic plague in China - At least eight people have died from an outbreak of bubonic plague in northwestern China but authorities said the disease has been brought under control, state media reported. C-Section More Likely with Obesity, Diabetes - When women who have diabetes or are overweight become pregnant, they have an increased likelihood of having to undergo a cesarean delivery, according to a new report. WHO Takes Aim at Reducing Medical Mistakes - Citing statistics that one in 10 hospital patients are victims of preventable medical mistakes, the World Health Organization on Wednesday launched an initiative to create a "culture of safety" in health care. NOTE: Wait a second. Doctors need the WHO to tell them that they should be careful when cutting people open? Heartburn Drugs Linked to Pneumonia - Widely used heartburn and ulcer drugs such as Nexium, Pepcid and Prilosec can make people more susceptible to pneumonia, probably because they reduce germ-killing stomach acid, Dutch researchers found in a study of more than 300,000 patients. FDA Approves First Artificial Spinal Disc - The Food and Drug Administration granted approval Tuesday for the first artificial spinal disc for use in patients suffering from persistent lower back pain. Puberty Gene May Be Linked to ObesityA gene that delays female puberty and may be linked to obesity has been identified by Oregon Health & Science University researchers. Experiments with mice suggest that absence of the gene in the area of the brain called the hypothalamus delays the onset of puberty. Biotech Cats Wouldn't Trigger Allergies - The biotechnology revolution is shaking up the pet world. First came a cloned cat. Then came the fish genetically engineered to glow. Now, a Los Angeles company is exploiting the latest in biotechnology to create cats genetically engineered to be nearly free from the allergy-causing proteins that plague millions of people. U.S. to Poison Prairie Dogs in South Dakota - Wildlife workers have begun a program to poison thousands of prairie dogs in the grasslands of South Dakota to stop them from moving onto private ranch land parched by drought, a federal official said on Tuesday. S. Korea Backs U.N. Meeting on Stem Cell Research - South Korea said on Tuesday it asked the United States to accept another year's delay in the drafting of a divisive treaty banning human cloning to allow time for a U.N. conference on the pros and cons of embryonic stem cell research. Coalition warns about human cost of climate change - Environmental and development groups joined forces in warning here that global warming threatens to hit the world's poorest people hardest and magnify existing injustices. German man's bananas plan - A German man who earlier this year tried to have Santa Claus banned, says he has a device that can straighten bananas. Toothache 'made lion eat humans' - A man-eating lion linked to the deaths of at least 35 people in southern Tanzania may have killed because it had toothache, wildlife experts believe. Arctic Mystery No Longer: Dinosaurs Walked Canada's Great North - Hans Larsson, a McGill University palaeontologist (located in Montreal, Canada), has found physical proof that Canada's Arctic regions once had a Jurassic era. Scientists have suspected that dinosaurs lived in Canada's great north eons ago, yet it remained an unproven theory, since no bones had ever been uncovered. Plasma Beam Eyed in Space Travel - magine spaceships being catapulted and caught in space using "gloves" of high-energy plasma beams. That's the vision of Robert Winglee, a professor at the University of Washington who is leading the team that's pioneering the concept of the Mag-beam, or magnetized-beam plasma propulsion. Winglee wants to incorporate plasma beam stations at each end of an interplanetary flight path to speed up and slow down a spacecraft. Early life stress can inhibit development of brain-cell communication zones, UCI study finds - High stress levels during infancy and early childhood can lead to the poor development of communication zones in brain cells – a condition found in mental disorders such as autism, depression and mental retardation. The 'green' side of pumpkins — purging pollution from contaminated soils - While parents and youngsters are busy carving jack-o-lanterns in preparation for Halloween, Canadian scientists are hard at work on another way to use the popular yellow-orange plant. New research shows that pumpkins can clean up soil contaminated with DDT and other pollutants. Coffee Tied to Inflammation, Perhaps Heart Disease - Consuming moderate-to-high amounts of coffee is associated with increased levels of several inflammatory markers, a finding that could help explain previous reports linking the beverage to heart disease. Gene Therapy for Erectile Dysfunction on Horizon - The first three patients participating in an early test of a "revolutionary" human gene therapy for erectile dysfunction have not developed any treatment-related side effects, according to preliminary results released here this week at a meeting of the International Society for Sexual and Impotence Research. CERN to Probe Life, the Universe and Everything - It has revolutionized physics, made Nobel Prize winners and given birth to the World Wide Web -- now its successor looks set to answer some of the natural world's most fundamental questions. Note: Yeah, I mostly grabbed this one for the title. Temporary Artificial Heart Wins U.S. Approval - The first artificial heart won U.S. approval Monday for use as a temporary measure to keep alive patients on the verge of death while they wait for live organs to become available for transplants. Whites More Likely to Misidentify Tools as Guns when linked to Black Faces- People are more likely to misidentify tools as guns when they are first linked to African Americans, at least under extreme time pressure, new research suggests. Case Western Reserve University finds relaxation therapy reduces post-operative pain - A study conducted by researchers at Case Western Reserve University found that patients who used a relaxation technique, called "systematic relaxation," experienced a substantial decrease in pain after undergoing surgery. The systemic relaxation technique, which consists of sequentially relaxing each major muscle group in the body, was shown to improve comfort by more than 50 percent compared to patients not using the technique. Patients in the study could also request pain medication. Flat-screen TV emits international distress signal - An Oregon man discovered earlier this month that his year-old Toshiba Corporation flat-screen TV was emitting an international distress signal picked up by a satellite, leading a search and rescue operation to his apartment in Corvallis, Oregon, 70 miles south of Portland. A New Culprit In Depression? Study Finds Surprising Differences In Gene Activity In The Brains Of Depressed People - The brains of people with severe depression have lower levels of several related molecules that are key to the development, organization, growth and repair of the brain than the brains of people without the disease, or those with the bipolar form of depression, a new study finds. 'Frankenfish' Caught in Great Lakes - The dreaded Northern Snakehead, a voracious predator dubbed the "Frankenfish" that can breathe out of water and wriggle across land, has invaded the Great Lakes, authorities said on Friday. Study Suggests How Obesity Causes Diabetes - Scientists know that obesity is a key player in the development of type 2 diabetes, but exactly how excess weight causes the disease isn't clear. While trying to answer that question, Harvard University researchers have discovered a new pathway that sets in motion a series of reactions that leads to the development of insulin resistance, a precursor of type 2 diabetes, a new study reports. Square bacteria grown in lab for the first time - An unusual, square bacterium that has eluded scientists since its discovery almost 25 years ago has been grown in the lab, by two independent teams. This means researchers can finally investigate the lifestyle and physiology of what is one of the most salt-resistant microbes. Survival of genetic homosexual traits explained - Italian geneticists may have explained how genes apparently linked to male homosexuality survive, despite gay men seldom having children. Their findings also undermine the theory of a single “gay gene”. Study Links Mobile Phones, Benign Tumors - A Swedish study suggests that people who use a cell phone for at least 10 years might increase their risk of developing a rare benign tumor along a nerve on the side of the head where they hold the phone. U.N. Health Body Warns Against 'Kitchen Killer' - Nearly half of the world cooks using fuels like dung, wood, agricultural residues and coal, which give off a poisonous cocktail that "more than doubles the risk of respiratory illness such as bronchitis and pneumonia," it said in a joint statement with the U.N. Development Program (UNDP). Decaying Pig Corpses Reveal Forensic Secrets - Decaying pig corpses deposited in secret locations around London are providing scientists with forensic information that may help them solve crimes. Dear diary, you make me sick - Keeping a diary is bad for your health, say UK psychologists. They found that regular diarists were more likely than non-diarists to suffer from headaches, sleeplessness, digestive problems and social awkwardness. Divers Find Ancient Skeleton in Mexico - Divers making dangerous probes through underwater caves near the Caribbean coast have discovered what appears to be one of oldest human skeletons in the Americas, archaeologists announced at a seminar that was ending on Friday. |
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