Appalachian hardwood forests may be getting a respite from acid rain but data from a long-term ecological study of stream chemistry suggests that the drop in acid rain may be changing biological activity in the ecosystem and hiking dissolved carbon dioxide in forest streams. Read more…
For 21 days in a row, Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), has not only survived the most stringent conditions of the space environment, but it has successfully tested on the ground its flight software and hardware under the toughest simulated conditions of space vacuum, freezing temperatures and burning sun radiation. Read more…
Scientists have identified the first biochemical marker linked to sleep loss, an enzyme in saliva known as amylase, which increases in activity when sleep deprivation is prolonged. Read more…
An international team led by University of Adelaide palaeontologist Trevor Worthy has discovered a unique, primitive type of land mammal that lived at least 16 million years ago on New Zealand. The discovery of tiny fossilised bones of a mouselike creature in the Central Otago region is the first hard evidence that New Zealand once had its own indigenous land mammals. The finding could prompt a major rewrite of prehistory textbooks, say scientists. Read more…
Reuters - Astronauts aboard Discovery plan a final, routine check of the space shuttle's heat shield and the launch of two small satellites on Wednesday before landing two days later. Read more…
Reuters - Japan will boost its ability to detect seismic waves from nuclear tests after it failed to quickly analyze data from a test by North Korea in October, the Meteorological Agency said on Wednesday. Read more…
AFP - The Space Shuttle Discovery has undocked from the International Space Station at the end of a successful eight-day construction mission and begun preparations for a return to Earth. Read more…
Wildlife experts in the Seychelles have launched a last ditch attempt to save a rare tropical bird facing possible extinction in the Indian Ocean archipelago, conservationists said on Wednesday. There are only about 200 Paradise Flycatchers left, all of them confined to La Digue, the third largest of the Seychelles' 115 islands. Channel: Science Tags: Endangered species Paradise Flycatchers La Digue Read more…
The recent presidential election brought the topic of embryonic stem cell research to the forefront of public debate. Despite the moral controversy, stem cell research is a burgeoning field. Dr. George Q. Daley knows that it takes a thick skin to make it in the medical research field. Not only does he have to go toe to toe with his peers to defend Channel: Science Tags: embryonic stem cell harvard senate debate Read more…
AFP - Debate is raging over the plight of US zoo elephants, with activists charging confinement destroys their feet and even kills them, and the industry fiercely defending their top crowd pleaser. Read more…
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AP - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday withdrew its proposal to list as threatened a wildflower that grows only in areas of Utah and Colorado where oil shale and tar sand exploration are being done. Read more…
AP - The head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday his agency will start removing federal protections from gray wolves in Montana and Idaho by January, regardless of whether Wyoming has submitted an acceptable plan to manage its own wolves by then. Read more…
AP - A conservation group, alarmed at a decrease in the number of sea otters in southwest Alaska, filed a lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday to try to compel the government to designate critical habitat to help the endangered species recover. Read more…
The COROT mission is scheduled for launch on the 27th December 2006, from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. COROT will detect planets orbiting around other stars and probe the secrets of stellar interiors as never before. (20 December 2006) Read more…
Fresh analysis validates use of classic genetic system to study ancient migrations of people and to estimate the populations of people or animals as they existed tens of thousands of years ago. Read more…
Using a technique called laser temperature-jump, biophysicist Anjum Ansari and her colleagues have made the first direct observation of DNA bending when bound to a DNA-bending protein. DNA bending plays a key role in regulating gene expression, and better understanding of the process may help in developing gene-based therapies. Read more…
An anti-allergy drug in use for more than 40 years significantly reduced tumor growth in animal models of human pancreatic cancer and also increased the effectiveness of standard chemotherapy, say researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Read more…
In the first large-scale, prospective study to investigate the relationship between vitamin D levels and MS, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have found an association between higher levels of vitamin D in the body and a lower risk of MS. Read more…
The air could be teeming with more than 1,800 types of bacteria, according to a first-of-its-kind census of airborne microbes recently conducted by scientists from the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Read more…
Clinical characteristics of tinnitus such as duration, consistency and other factors influence the way individuals perceive loudness and annoyance associated with the condition, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Otolaryngology -- Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Read more…
Two articles that will appear in the Jan. 16, 2007, issue of Canadian Medical Association Journal provide new insights into the use of drug-eluting stents. Read more…
A groundbreaking new study reveals an unanticipated way freshwater fish may respond to water diversion and climate change. Endangered naked carp migrate annually between freshwater rivers, where they spawn, and a lake in Western China, where they feed and grow. However, Lake Qinghai is drying up and becoming increasingly more saline -- leading to surprising adjustments to the carps' metabolic rate. Read more…
Following kidney transplantation, some recipients may face a three-fold increased risk of certain cancer types, according to a study in the Dec. 20 issue of JAMA. Read more…
Do animals use their two nostrils to locate scents in the same way they use two ears to locate sounds? UC Berkeley neuroscientists Noam Sobel and Jess Porter set out to test that question, using human volunteers on all fours to track a chocolate scent through the grass. With other senses blocked by gloves, earplugs and a blindfold, they were able to track scents and did better with two open nostrils than one. Read more…
