Global Warming 'Feedback' Less Than Thought?

A new estimate of the feedback between temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration has been derived from a comprehensive comparison of temperature and CO2 records spanning the past millennium.

New research implies that the amplification of current global warming by carbon-cycle feedback will be significantly less than recent work has suggested. (Credit: iStockphoto)

The result, which is based on more than 200,000 individual comparisons, implies that the amplification of current global warming by carbon-cycle feedback will be significantly less than recent work has suggested.

Mouse Sperm Cooperates With Its Brethren

Some mouse sperm can discriminate between its brethren and competing sperm from other males, clustering with its closest relatives to swim faster in the race to the egg. But this sort of cooperation appears to be present only in certain promiscuous species, where it affords an individual's sperm a competitive advantage over that of other males.

Male deer mouse. Some mouse sperm can discriminate between its brethren and competing sperm 

from other males, clustering with its closest relatives to swim faster in the race to the egg. 

(Credit: iStockphoto/Katherine Garrenson)

The work is described January 21 in the journal Nature by biologists Heidi S. Fisher and Hopi E. Hoekstra of Harvard University.

"The race among sperm toward the egg is fierce, but never more so than when sperm of different males compete," says Fisher, a postdoctoral researcher in Harvard's Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. "In some species where females mates with multiple males, groups of sperm join forces in order to outswim their uncooperative competitors. We've shown that in deer mice, cooperation only occurs among close relatives -- sperm from the same male."

Neuron Connections Seen in 3-D

A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, in Germany, led by the Spanish physicist Rubén Fernández-Busnadiego, has managed to obtain 3D images of the vesicles and filaments involved in communication between neurons. The method is based on a novel technique in electron microscopy, which cools cells so quickly that their biological structures can be frozen while fully active.

This three-dimensional visualization of synapses shows the tomography mail synaptic vesicles (yellow), cell membrane (purple), connectors between vesicles (red), filaments that anchor the vesicles to the cell membrane (blue), microtubule (dark green), material synaptic space (light green) and postsynaptic density (orange). (Credit: Fernández-Busnadiego et al.)

"We used electron cryotomography, a new technique in microscopy based on ultra-fast freezing of cells, in order to study and obtain three-dimensional images of synapsis, the cellular structure in which the communication between neurons takes place in the brains of mammals" Rubén Fernández-Busnadiego, lead author of the study which features on the front cover of this month's Journal of Cell Biology and a physicist at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, in Germany, said.

New 'Nanoburrs' Could Help Fight Heart Disease

Building on their previous work delivering cancer drugs with nanoparticles, MIT and Harvard researchers have turned their attention to cardiovascular disease, designing new particles that can cling to damaged artery walls and slowly release medicine.

Researchers have built targeted nanoparticles that can cling to artery walls and slowly release medicine, an advance that potentially provides an alternative to drug-releasing stents in some patients with cardiovascular disease. (Credit: Image courtesy of Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

The particles, dubbed "nanoburrs," are coated with tiny protein fragments that allow them to stick to damaged arterial walls. Once stuck, they can release drugs such paclitaxel, which inhibits cell division and helps prevent growth of scar tissue that can clog arteries.

Ozone Pollution in N. America from Asia

Springtime ozone levels above western North America are rising primarily due to air flowing eastward from the Pacific Ocean, a trend that is largest when the air originates in Asia.

A cadre of government and commercial aircraft helped collect data for a new study linking an increase in springtime ozone levels in western North America with pollutants drifting eastward from overseas, including Asia. (Credit: Image courtesy NOAA)

Such increases in ozone could make it more difficult for the United States to meet Clean Air Act standards for ozone pollution at ground level, according to a new international study. Published online January 20 in the journal Nature, the study analyzed large sets of ozone data captured since 1984.

New Visible Light Photocatalyst Kills Bacteria, Even After Light Turned Off

In the battle against bacteria, researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a powerful new weapon -- an enhanced photocatalytic disinfection process that uses visible light to destroy harmful bacteria and viruses, even in the dark.

Jian Ku Shang, a professor of materials science and engineering, holds a sample of a new photocatalytic material that uses visible light to destroy harmful bacteria and viruses, even in the dark.

Based upon a new catalyst, the disinfection process can be used to purify drinking water, sanitize surgical instruments and remove unwanted fingerprints from delicate electrical and optical components.

"The new catalyst also has a unique catalytic memory effect that continues to kill deadly pathogens for up to 24 hours after the light is turned off," said Jian Ku Shang, a professor of materials science and engineering at the U. of I.

Tie Light in Knots by Physicists

The remarkable feat of tying light in knots has been achieved by a team of physicists working at the universities of Bristol, Glasgow and Southampton, UK, reports a paper in Nature Physics this week.

The colored circle represents the hologram, out of which the knotted optical vortex emerges. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Bristol)

Understanding how to control light in this way has important implications for laser technology used in wide a range of industries.

Dr Mark Dennis from the University of Bristol and lead author on the paper, explained: "In a light beam, the flow of light through space is similar to water flowing in a river. Although it often flows in a straight line -- out of a torch, laser pointer, etc -- light can also flow in whirls and eddies, forming lines in space called 'optical vortices'.

How Music 'Moves' Us: Listeners' Brains Second-Guess the Composer

Have you ever accidentally pulled your headphone socket out while listening to music? What happens when the music stops? Psychologists believe that our brains continuously predict what is going to happen next in a piece of music. So, when the music stops, your brain may still have expectations about what should happen next.

New research predicts that expectations about what is going to happen next in a piece of music should be different for people with different musical experience and sheds light on the brain mechanisms involved. (Credit: iStockphoto/Anna Bryukhanova)

A new paper published in NeuroImage predicts that these expectations should be different for people with different musical experience and sheds light on the brain mechanisms involved.

Research by Marcus Pearce Geraint Wiggins, Joydeep Bhattacharya and their colleagues at Goldsmiths, University of London has shown that expectations are likely to be based on learning through experience with music. Music has a grammar, which, like language, consists of rules that specify which notes can follow which other notes in a piece of music. According to Pearce: "the question is whether the rules are hard-wired into the auditory system or learned through experience of listening to music and recording, unconsciously, which notes tend to follow others."

Biologists Wake Dormant Viruses and Uncover Mechanism for Survival

It is known that viral "squatters" comprise nearly half of our genetic code. These genomic invaders inserted their DNA into our own millions of years ago when they infected our ancestors. But just how we keep them quiet and prevent them from attack was more of a mystery until EPFL researchers revived them.

This shows the functioning of Kap1 protein in mouse embrocation cells. (Credit: Pascal Coderay, pascal@salut.ch)

The reason we survive the presence of these endogenous retroviruses -- viruses that attack and are passed on through germ cells, the cells that give rise to eggs and sperm -- is because something keeps the killers silent. Now, publishing in the journal Nature, Didier Trono and his team from EPFL, in Switzerland, describe the mechanism. Their results provide insights into evolution and suggest potential new therapies in fighting another retrovirus -- HIV.

'Wet' Computing Systems to Boost Processing Power

A new kind of information processing technology inspired by chemical processes in living systems is being developed by researchers at the University of Southampton.

Sketch of artificial wet neuronal networks. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Southampton)

Dr Maurits de Planque and Dr Klaus-Peter Zauner at the University's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) are working on a project which has just received €1.8 from the European Union's Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Proactive Initiatives, which recognises ground-breaking work which has already demonstrated important potential.

Rise in Certain Disorders can be Explain by Human Evolution

The subtle but ongoing pressures of human evolution could explain the seeming rise of disorders such as autism, autoimmune diseases, and reproductive cancers, researchers write in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Certain adaptations that once benefited humans may now be helping such ailments persist in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- advancements in modern culture and medicine.

New research suggests that certain adaptations that once benefited humans may now be helping such ailments persist in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- advancements in modern culture and medicine. (Credit: iStockphoto/Mads Abildgaard)

"This work points out linkages within the plethora of new information in human genetics and the implications for human biology and public health, and also illustrates how one could teach these perspectives in medical and premedical curricula," says author Peter Ellison, John Cowles Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University.

Evolutionary Surprise: Eight Percent of Human Genetic Material Comes from a Virus

About eight percent of human genetic material comes from a virus and not from our ancestors, according to researchers in Japan and the U.S.

A new study shows that the genomes of humans and other mammals contain DNA derived from the insertion of bornaviruses, RNA viruses whose replication and transcription takes place in the nucleus. (Credit: iStockphoto)

The study, and an accompanying News & Views article by University of Texas at Arlington biology professor Cédric Feschotte, is published in the journal Nature.

The research showed that the genomes of humans and other mammals contain DNA derived from the insertion of bornaviruses, RNA viruses whose replication and transcription takes place in the nucleus. Feschotte wrote on recent research led by Professor Keizo Tomonaga at Osaka University in Japan. Feschotte said this virally transmitted DNA may be a cause of mutation and psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and mood disorders.

Evolution's Footprints in Human Genome Precisely Tracked Using New Approach

Fossils may provide tantalizing clues to human history but they also lack some vital information, such as revealing which pieces of human DNA have been favored by evolution because they confer beneficial traits -- resistance to infection or the ability to digest milk, for example. These signs can only be revealed through genetic studies of modern humans and other related species, though the task has proven difficult.

Researchers have developed a new method for pinpointing pieces of human DNA have been favored by evolution within the human genome. The technique offers greater precision and resolution than ever before. (Credit: iStockphoto)

Now, in a paper appearing in the January 7 edition of Science Express, researchers describe a method for pinpointing these preferred regions within the human genome that offers greater precision and resolution than ever before, and the possibility of deeply understanding both our genetic past and present.

The Large Hadron Collider : Physicists Beginning to See Data

Three Iowa State University physicists who took winter trips to the Large Hadron Collider for meetings and experimental work are starting to see real data from the planet's biggest science experiment.

Last month the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider began recording proton-proton collisions at a record energy of 2.36 trillion electron volts. Image courtesy of the ATLAS experiment. (Credit: Image courtesy of Iowa State University)

Finally.

The multibillion-dollar collider made international news on Sept. 10, 2008, when it sent its first beam of protons around 17 miles of underground tunnel near Geneva, Switzerland. But breakdowns in the machine's high-current electrical connections forced a complete shutdown for more than a year of repairs and tests.

Obesity Now Poses as Great a Threat to Quality of Life as Smoking

As the US population becomes increasingly obese while smoking rates continue to decline, obesity has become an equal, if not greater, contributor to the burden of disease and shortening of healthy life in comparison to smoking.

In a new study, researchers calculate that the Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) lost due to obesity is now equal to, if not greater than, those lost due to smoking -- both modifiable risk factors. (Credit: iStockphoto)

In an article published in the February 2010 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers from Columbia University and The City College of New York calculate that the Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) lost due to obesity is now equal to, if not greater than, those lost due to smoking -- both modifiable risk factors.

Elusive Protein Points to Mechanism Behind Hearing Loss

A serendipitous discovery of deaf zebra fish larvae has helped narrow down the function of an elusive protein necessary for hearing and balance. The work, led by Rockefeller University's A. James Hudspeth, suggests that hearing loss may arise from a faulty pathway that translates sound waves into electrical impulses the brain can understand.

All ears. Electron micrographs of two hair cell bundles in the zebra fish ear show the difference between those born with (left) and without (right) the protein Tmie. (Credit: Image courtesy of Rockefeller University)

"These zebrafish larvae were originally pegged for another study, but then we saw that one-fourth of them failed to respond to acoustic stimuli and made erratic spiraling movements,

and that suggested that they were born deaf," says first author Michelle R. Gleason, who spearheaded the project. "So we took this opportunity to examine what could be responsible for this extreme hearing loss."

Scientists to Control Quantum Mechanical Force

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory are developing a way to control the Casimir force, a quantum mechanical force that attracts objects when they are only hundred nanometers apart.

These are MEMS used to detect the presence of the Casimir Force. (Credit: Image courtesy of DOE/Argonne National Laboratory)

"The Casimir force is so small that most experimentation has dealt simply with its characteristics," said Derrick Mancini, interim director of the Center for Nanoscale Materials. "If we can control this force or make it repulsive, it can have dramatic effects on the development of nanoelectromechanical systems."

Lithium-Air Batteries might Displace Gasoline in Future Cars

Inside surplus of seven million barrels of gasoline are consumed by vehicles in the United States each time. Equally scientists rush to discover environmentally sound solutions to fuel the world's ever-growing moving needs, battery researchers are exploring the look good of lithium-air battery equipment.

Argonne researcher Lynn Trahey tons a coin-sized cell on a trying thing used to evaluate electrochemical cycling performance in batteries. (Credit: Photo by Wes Agresta / Courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory)

Li-air batteries aid a catalytic air cathode with the intention of equipment oxygen, an electrolyte and a lithium anode. The equipment has the the makings to pile almost as much energy as a tank of gasoline, and will be inflicted with a room pro energy storage space with the intention of is five to 10 era greater than with the intention of of Li-ion batteries, a join equipment. That the makings, however, will not be realized until vital methodical challenges be inflicted with been solved.