Author Archives: Guest Post

Confirmed: Stellar Behemoth Self-Destructs in a Type IIb Supernova

Our Sun may seem pretty impressive: 330,000 times as massive as Earth, it accounts for 99.86 percent of the Solar System’s total mass; it generates about 400 trillion trillion watts of power; and it has a surface temperature of about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Yet for a star, it’s a lightweight. (more…)

Read More

Army drug users twice as likely to use synthetic marijuana as regular marijuana

Social work researchers from the University of Washington have found that among a group of active-duty Army personnel who use illicit drugs, the most abused substance is synthetic marijuana, which is harder to detect than other drugs through standard drug tests. (more…)

Read More

3-D ‘Map’ of Enzyme Completed by MU Scientists Could Lead to More Effective Drugs

Enzyme map created by using a high-powered X-ray device

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The human body is full of proteins called enzymes that help nearly every function in the body. Scientists have been studying enzymes for decades in order to learn how they work and how to create better drugs and medical treatments for many ailments. Now, University of Missouri researchers have completed a 3-D map of an enzyme called Proline utilization A (PutA). PutA facilitates metabolism by adding oxygen to molecules. John Tanner, a professor in the MU Department of Biochemistry, says mapping this enzyme will give researchers a better understanding of its function, which could help drug manufacturers create more effective drugs. (more…)

Read More

Watching HIV Bud from Cells

Study Shows Last-Minute Role of Protein Named ALIX

University of Utah researchers devised a way to watch newly forming AIDS virus particles emerging or “budding” from infected human cells without interfering with the process. The method shows a protein named ALIX gets involved during the final stages of virus replication, not earlier, as was believed previously. (more…)

Read More

Basstölpel für chinesische Bratpfannen?

„Der Falke“ berichtet über Seevogelfang vor Mauretanien

Vor der Küste Mauretaniens überwinternde europäische Seevögel werden möglicherweise zu Zehntausenden mit Fischereinetzen gefangen und zum Verzehr nach China exportiert. Dies berichtet das Vogelbeobachter-Magazin „Der Falke“ in seiner Juli-Ausgabe. (more…)

Read More

Steinzeitdiät – war früher alles besser?

Das Thema Ernährung ist ein medialer Dauerbrenner. Pünktlich zur Badesaison erscheinen jährlich neue Wunderdiäten und Geheimtipps – auch die Paläodiät kommt dabei immer wieder zur Sprache. Klaus Oeggl beschäftigt sich aus archäobotanischer Sicht mit frühzeitlichen Ernährungsgewohnheiten und erklärt, was damals auf dem Speiseplan stand. (more…)

Read More

A plan to share the carbon budget burden

For 20 years, the international community has been unable to agree on a coordinated way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. J. Timmons Roberts, the Ittleson Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology, has co-authored a four-step compromise toward emissions reduction that offers “effectiveness, feasibility, and fairness.”

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Climate change is an issue of urgent international importance, but for 20 years, the international community has been unable to agree on a coordinated way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In a “Perspective” piece published in the June issue of Nature Climate Change, J. Timmons Roberts, the Ittleson Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology, proposes a four-step compromise toward emissions reduction that offers “effectiveness, feasibility, and fairness.” (more…)

Read More

STD may heighten risk of prostate cancer

Could a common sexually transmitted infection boost a man’s risk for prostate cancer?

In a new study, Patricia Johnson, a professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, explored the connection between prostate cancer and the parasite that causes trichomoniasis, the most common non-viral sexually transmitted infection in men and women. (more…)

Read More