Science News Feeds

• Science Visuals: The Genetic Map of Europe
  
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  Lafraise is a 500 items limited tshirts editor. It offers to graphists, designers a visual permanently contest and, for the winners, offers 1000? to print the tshirt. The purpose is finally to produce, sell the most appreciate visuals according to the visitors? vote.
  
• Navy Agrees to Sonar System Restriction
  
• Vital Signs: Mental Health: Exercise Is Found Not to Affect Depression
  
• Findings: Let the Games Be Doped
  

• Vega rocket set for maiden voyage
  After more than 10 years of development work, Europe's new small satellite launcher is ready for its first flight.
  
• Overfishing 'costing EU Ł2.7bn'
  Overfishing of EU fisheries is costing the European economy Ł2.7bn a year and 100,000 jobs, a report by a UK think-tank finds.
  
• Laser radar spots quake changes
  An earthquake fault zone in Mexico is imaged with unprecedented precision, thanks to improvements in Light Detection and Ranging - laser radar.
  

• Both maternal and paternal age linked to autism
  Older maternal and paternal age are jointly associated with having a child with autism, according to a recent study.
  
• Night, weekend delivery OK for babies with birth defects
  Weekday delivery is no better than night/weekend delivery for infants with birth defects, according to a new study. Researchers found that infants with birth defects that were delivered at night or over the weekend fared just as well as those delivered on a weekday -- they stayed at the hospital for the same amount of time, were admitted to the NICU at the same rate, and were given antibiotics or got help breathing just as often.
  
• Protein libraries in a snap
  One undergraduate student will depart university with not only a degree but also a possible patent for his invention of an efficient way to create protein libraries, an important component of biomolecular research.
  
• Cochlear implants may be safe, effective for organ transplant patients
  Cochlear implants may be a safe, effective option for some organ transplant patients who've lost their hearing as an unfortunate consequence of their transplant-related drug regime, researchers report.
  
• Numeracy: The educational gift that keeps on giving?
  Cancer risks. Investment alternatives. Calories. Numbers are everywhere in daily life, and they figure into all sorts of decisions. A new article examines how people who are numerate -- that's like literacy, but for numbers -- understand numbers better and process information differently so that they ultimately make more informed decisions.
  
• The power of estrogen: Male snakes attract other males
  A new study has shown that boosting the estrogen levels of male garter snakes causes them to secrete the same pheromones that females use to attract suitors, and turned the males into just about the sexiest snake in the neighborhood -- attracting dozens of other males eager to mate.
  
• Kids show cultural gender bias
  A recent study examining whether speaking French influenced how children assigned gender to objects yielded some interesting observations. Researchers found some differences between the monolingual English children and the bilingual French-English children they surveyed.
  
• A mineral way to catalysis?
  Catalytic materials, which lower the energy barriers for chemical reactions, are used in everything from the commercial production of chemicals to catalytic converters in car engines. However, with current catalytic materials becoming increasingly expensive, scientists are exploring viable alternatives.
  
• High school students test best with 7 hours of sleep at night
  New research finds that 16- to 18-year-olds perform better academically when they shave about two hours off what current guidelines prescribe.
  
• Controlling parents more likely to have delinquent children
  Authoritarian parents whose child-rearing style can be summed up as ?it?s my way or the highway? are more likely to raise disrespectful, delinquent children who do not see them as legitimate authority figures than authoritative parents who listen to their children and gain their respect and trust, according to new research.
  
• What lies beneath: Mapping hidden nanostructures within materials, and perhap...
  A new method to map nanostructures within materials may lead to biological imaging of the internal organization of cells.
  
• Unpicking HIV's 'invisibility cloak'
  Drug researchers hunting for alternative ways to treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections may soon have a novel target -- its camouflage coat. HIV hides inside a cloak unusually rich in a sugar called mannose, which it uses to slip past the immune system before infecting its host's cells. Recently, however, biochemists discovered a family of chemical compounds that stick strongly to mannose. Understanding how this mechanism works could reveal a way to make drugs adhere to and kill HIV.
  
• Accounting for missing meson particles
  Measurements from high-energy collision experiments lead to a better understanding of why meson particles disappear.
  
• Electrical engineers build 'no-waste' laser
  Researchers have built the smallest room-temperature nanolaser to date, as well as an even more startling device: a highly efficient, "thresholdless" laser that funnels all its photons into lasing, without any waste.
  
• 'Dark plasmons' transmit energy
  Microscopic channels of gold nanoparticles have the ability to transmit electromagnetic energy that starts as light and propagates via "dark plasmons," according to researchers.
  
• Ultraviolet protection molecule in plants yields its secrets
  Lying around in the sun all day is hazardous not just for humans but also for plants. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun can damage proteins and DNA inside cells, leading to poor growth and even death. But plants have evolved some powerful adaptive defenses, including a complex array of protective responses orchestrated by a UV-sensing protein molecule known as UVR8. Now, scientists have put together a detailed picture of UVR8's structure and inner workings.
  
• Tell me how you are, and I know how long you will live
  The way people rate their health determines their probability of survival in the following decades. Researchers have demonstrated that for ratings ranging from "excellent," "good," "fair," and "poor" to "very poor," the risk of mortality increases steadily ? independently of such known risk factors as smoking, low education levels or pre-existing diseases.
  
• Substance P causes seizures in patients infected by pork tapeworm
  A neuropeptide called Substance P is the cause of seizures in patients with brains infected by the pork tapeworm.
  
• Deconstructing a mystery: What caused Snowmaggedon?
  Scientists are using computer models to help unravel the mystery of a record-setting snowfall in the Washington, DC area in early 2010.
  
• Most lethal known species of prion protein identified
  Scientists have identified a single prion protein that causes neuronal death similar to that seen in "mad cow" disease, but is at least 10 times more lethal than larger prion species.