Science News

Opening a Can of Worms A father’s determination to help his son resulted in an experimental treatment for autism that uses roundworms to modulate inflammatory immune responses. Can the worms be used to treat other diseases? Read more: Opening a Can of Worms - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/57941/#ixzz1DaDzYDR1

I went to a talk about it yesterday (where a bunch of us scientists, multiple professors and students, were sitting around and someone presented it). It seemed pretty cool. It came out last month, though. A critical role for IGF-II in memory consolidation and enhancement http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v469/n7331/full/nature09667.html From what I gather, injections of TGF-II help create a positive feedback loop that allows particular cells, those of which are involved in the retention and recall of memory, stay alive and generate even more TGF-II for themselves so they stick around. I could see some Flowers for Algernon (link) stuff being possible with…

http://urbantitan.co...tural-crystals/ Here, I originally saw this article on polish forum, and I thought that is a hopeful news. The scientist can make small thing invisible by put it in on the right side of calcite crystal. For now it's not enough big to see it with naked eye, but scientists are optymistic and said that it will be possible to enlarge it in near future.

I thought if you got a large flat donut shaped electromagnet and loaded it full of amps and voltage to where its super charged then run ionized plasma through ceramic tubes up to it and sprayed it into the hole of that magnet to where it was suspended by the field and kept building up the amount of plasma then suddenly reversed the polarity of the magnet that it would shoot a supercharged plasma ball. But then I realized that the charge wouldn't stay together through the air any suggestions on how to improve this idea.

New Reactor Paves the Way for Efficiently Producing Fuel from Sunlight Sossina Haile and William Chueh stand next to the benchtop thermochemical reactor used to screen materials for implementation on the solar reactor. (Credit: Courtesy of Caltech) ScienceDaily (Jan. 19, 2011) — Using a common metal most famously found in self-cleaning ovens, Sossina Haile hopes to change our energy future. The metal is cerium oxide -- or ceria -- and it is the centerpiece of a promising new technology developed by Haile and her colleagues that concentrates solar energy and uses it to efficiently convert carbon dioxide and water into fuels. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releas…

More Asteroids Could Have Made Life's Ingredients This artist's concept uses hands to illustrate the left and right-handed versions of the amino acid isovaline. (Credit: NASA/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith) ScienceDaily (Jan. 19, 2011) — A wider range of asteroids were capable of creating the kind of amino acids used by life on Earth, according to new NASA research. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110119100204.htm

Unlikely There Will Ever Be a Pure 'Cyber War,' Study Suggests Sailors on the watch-floor of the US Navy Cyber Defence Operations Command monitor. (Credit: US Navy) ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2011) — Heavy lobbying, lurid language and poor analysis are inhibiting government planning for cyber protection, according to a new report on Systemic Cyber Security published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on 17 January 2011. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110122111747.htm

Light Touch Transforms Material Into a Superconductor Professor Andrea Cavalleri used laser light to transform a material into a superconductor. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Oxford) ScienceDaily (Jan. 24, 2011) — A non-superconducting material has been transformed into a superconductor using light, Oxford University researchers report. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110122112044.htm

Contagious Cancer Thrives in Dogs by Adopting Host's Genes Black lab mix. An curious contagious cancer, found in dogs, wolves and coyotes, can repair its own genetic mutations by adopting genes from its host animal, according to a new study. (Credit: Copyright Michele Hogan) ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2011) — A curious contagious cancer, found in dogs, wolves and coyotes, can repair its own genetic mutations by adopting genes from its host animal, according to a new study in the journal Science. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110120141830.htm

http://www.theglobea...article1871149/ So, they're claiming to produce fossil fuels with photosynthesis, capturing carbon dioxide from the air. This is similar to research being done at my university: use algae that produce fuel compounds through photosynthesis, and just extract the fuel. But they're nowhere near producing $30/barrel of crude oil in the volumes that this company claims. If this company isn't full of BS, this promises a closed carbon cycle where carbon dioxide emitted by fossil fuel use is used to make more fossil fuels. If they are full of BS, well... we've seen this before.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/105811-NASA-Discovers-New-Life http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/astrobiology_toxic_chemical.html

Vladimir Romanov has released source code for an algorithm which he claims can solve 3-SAT problems. The 3-SAT problem is NP-complete - and Romanov claims his algorithm will solve in polynomial time, this would prove that P==NP as all NP problems can be mapped within polynomial time to the satisfiability problem. With such a seemingly easily falsifiable claim Romanov might be proved wrong quite quickly - for any with the maths and compsci skill here is Romanov's announcement and links to the source code and article - and for those who need a bit more background here is a link to a long slashdot ramble that has some good stuff in it

A great breakthrough in measuring "dark energy" in Universe has been found out. Check out this link for further understanding: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110113145054.htm After reading this I felt as if Supernovae also feel themselves the Doppler effect!

It appears as if 2010 was the warmest year on record, equal with 2005, according to NASA and NOAA. It's interesting to note that the latter half of the year was actually influenced by a strong La Nina event, which is usually associated with cooler conditions. NOAA source NASA source

Four hours of TV a day raises heart risk (even if you’re fit) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1345951/Four-hours-TV-day-raises-heart-risk-fit.html#ixzz1Aq3vmfLN reported by a recent study at Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London by Dr. Emmanuel Stamatakis and his group published in titled Screen-Based Entertainment Time, All-Cause Mortality, and Cardiovascular Events: Population-Based Study With Ongoing Mortality and Hospital Events Follow-Up Read more: http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/content/abstract/57/3/292

A great event occurred on 11/1/2011 in China which almost went unnoticed and which I would like to discuss, "Phantom Sun" aka "Sun Dog" aka "Parhelia". Firstly, before jumping what is it, check the video link below for a primary idea what is it: The Phantom Sun [iTN News] Now goes the explanation: Basically, when the hexagonal snow crystals deflect the sunlight at an angle of minimum 22o, the crystals will act like a prism and will deflect light in such a manner that they will form a halo like reflection. But as the sun reaches at higher heights, the halo gets transformed to horizontal cup like reflections causing the Phantom Sun situation as below…

http://socyberty.com/issues/science-the-art-of-banana-vaccines/ Another share. This might have not been extremely recent, but scientists have finally figured out how to use genetic engineering on bananas to implement vaccines. Read more to find out.

Does anyone have any knowledge about the new conclusions how it is plasma and electric currents with magnetic fields that are the cause and effect of what we can see in the cosmos. Not gravity.

This is a relatively new discovery that is opening up a whole area of reseach. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/08/15/plankton-cause-hurricanes-urgent-action-required/ Plankton has more to do with weather than we preivously thought. Not all plankton is the same. We need to do more reseach before we can use this information effectively. I am wondering if we are doing something that has increased the growth of plankton and therefore contributes to global warming and the destructiveness of hurricanes?

WASHINGTON — German researchers who used a bone marrow transplant to treat a cancer patient with the AIDS virus, have declared him cured of the virus—a stunning claim in a field where the word “cure” is barely whispered. The patient, who had both HIV infection and leukemia, received the bone marrow transplant in 2007 from a donor who had a genetic mutation known to give patients a natural immunity to the virus. Nearly four years after the transplant, the patient is free of the virus and it does not appear to be hiding anywhere in his body, Thomas Schneider of Berlin Charite hospital and colleagues said. “Our results strongly suggest that cure of HIV has been a…

Discovery of new molecule can lead to more efficient rocket fuel Trinitramid – that's the name of the new molecule that may be a component in future rocket fuel. This fuel could be 20-30 percent more efficient in comparison with the best rocket fuels we have today. The discovery was made at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-12/src-don122210.php

Prions Mutate and Adapt to Host Environment This light photomicrograph of brain tissue reveals the presence of typical amyloid plaques found in a case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). (Credit: Sherif Zaki; MD; PhD; Wun-Ju Shieh; MD; PhD; MPH) ScienceDaily (Dec. 18, 2010) — Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have shown that prions, bits of infectious protein that can cause fatal neurodegenerative disease such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or "mad cow disease," have the ability to adapt to survive in a new host environment. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101217083232.htm

Total Lunar Eclipse and Winter Solstice Coincide on Dec. 21 Path of the Moon through Earth's umbral and penumbral shadows during the Total Lunar Eclipse of Dec. 21, 2010. (Credit: Fred Espenak/NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center) ScienceDaily (Dec. 17, 2010) — With frigid temperatures already blanketing much of the United States, the arrival of the winter solstice on December 21 may not be an occasion many people feel like celebrating. But a dazzling total lunar eclipse to start the day might just raise a few chilled spirits. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101217192856.htm

Recently published news from a German human rights group says that an oil company in southern Sudan is spoiling the drinking water by their oil drilling processes. The group warns that if this is not checked on time the activities of the company shall create serious ecological disasters in southern Sudan. The company has responded to this by starting their actions to curb the pollution caused by the oil production. Sign of hope, the German human right group, took samples of water from two major oil fields located at southern Sudan. The locals had complained that the water available had become salty. After conducting tests it was found that the samples of drinkin…

As expected, Acer announced not one, but three tablets today. However, even the company's CEO, Gianfranco Lanci, admitted that the 5-incher it also unveiled is primarily a phone. All these devices were in scarce supply at Acer's downtown Manhattan product unveiling, but we managed to grab a few moments with the still-unnamed 10-inch Android tablet. Roughly a half-inch thick and somewhat long longer (or narrower—it has a 16:9 aspect ratio) and heavier than the Apple iPad, the Acer tablet runs Android, though it wasn't clear which version. Acer execs said its release schedule for these Android tablets is dependent on when the tablet version of Android (code-named Honey…