Author Archives: Guest Post

UCLA life scientists present new insights on climate change and species interactions

By Guest PostJune 11, 2013Environmentanthony dell, biotraits database, climate change, cold blooded animals, consumer, coral reefs, ecology, ecosystems, feeding event, feeding relationship, flowering in plants, fluctuation, Germany, global increase, global warming, immobile prey, interactions, juvenile possum, knowledge, life scientists, massive dataset, mean temperature, metabolic rate, mobile prey, moving prey, natural ecosystems, policymakers, predator, prey, python, rainforests, rate, resource, rising temperatures, samraat pawar, species, species interactions, timing, ucla, university of chicago, university of gottingen, van savage, variability in temperature

UCLA life scientists provide important new details on how climate change will affect interactions between species in research published online May 21 in the Journal of Animal Ecology. This knowledge, they say, is critical to making accurate predictions and informing policymakers of how species are likely to be impacted by rising temperatures.

“There is a growing recognition among biologists that climate change is affecting how species interact with one another, and that this is going to have very important consequences for the stability and functioning of ecosystems,” said the senior author of the research, Van Savage, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and of biomathematics at UCLA. “However, there is still a very limited understanding of exactly what these changes will be. Our paper makes progress on this very important question.” (more…)

New device can extract human DNA with full genetic data in minutes

By Guest PostJune 11, 2013Scienceblood, conventional methods, environmentally friendly, extract, genetic data, human dna, human fluid samples, jae hyun chung, knr systems, korean manufacturer, large scale handling, micro filter, microscopic probes, minutes, nanofacture, new device, olympia, prototype, saliva, sang gyeun ahn, sputum, Technology, toxic chemicals, university of washington

Take a swab of saliva from your mouth and within minutes your DNA could be ready for analysis and genome sequencing with the help of a new device.

University of Washington engineers and NanoFacture, a Bellevue, Wash., company, have created a device that can extract human DNA from fluid samples in a simpler, more efficient and environmentally friendly way than conventional methods. (more…)

Xbox One brings the future of gaming to life

By Guest PostJune 10, 2013Technologycapcom, crytek, dead rising 3, dice, e3, e3 press, electronic entertainment expo, gaming to life, halo universe, halo xbox one, history of xbox, insomniac games, microsoft corp., project spark, son of rome, xbox franchise, xbox one, xbox smartglass

Microsoft Studios and the world’s biggest and most renowned publishers unveil blockbuster games lineup for Xbox One, with more exclusive titles coming than any time in the history of Xbox.

LOS ANGELES — June 10, 2013 — Embark on a heroic adventure to seek vengeance across the battlefields of ancient Rome. Fire up the engines in the exhilarating return of the highest-rated racing franchise of the past 10 years.[1] Fight for survival in an immersive open world teeming with thousands of undead. Today, on the eve of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Microsoft Corp. kick-started a new era of games and entertainment with a stunning lineup of blockbusters for the highly anticipated Xbox One gaming and entertainment system, showcasing why it will be the premier platform to experience the future of games when it launches in 21 markets around the world this November. (more…)

Scientists Explore Roots of Future Tropical Rainfall

By Guest PostJune 10, 2013Environmentarabian sea, atmosphere, bay of bengal, climate prediction, earth, eastern africa, eastern indian ocean, evidence, future tropical rainfall, geological clues, hadley centre, indian, indo-pacific, indonesia, jessica tierney, last glacial maximum, last ice age, northern australia, numerical models, pacific regions, pedro dinezio, proxies, proxy evidence, rainfall patterns, roots, salinity, saltier waters, southeast asia, sunda shelf, surface waters, tropical climate change, university of hawaii, warm pool, western pacific, wetter

Analysis of the Last Glacial Maximum sheds light on climate models’ ability to simulate tropical climate change

How will rainfall patterns across the tropical Indian and Pacific regions change in a future warming world? Climate models generally suggest that the tropics as a whole will get wetter, but the models don’t always agree on where rainfall patterns will shift in particular regions within the tropics.

A new study, published online May 19 in the journal Nature Geoscience, looks to the past to learn about the future of tropical climate change, and our ability to simulate it with numerical models. (more…)

Flawed Diamonds Promise Sensory Perfection

By Guest PostJune 10, 2013Scienceandrey jarmola, berkeley lab, binary digit, biophysics, carbon atoms, center, defense, degrees kelvin, diamond defect, dmitry budker, electron spin coherence, electrons, flawed diamonds, fluoresce, gyroscopes, hebrew university, Jerusalem, liquid nitrogen, magnetic resonance imaging, mri, nanoscale, nir bar gill, nitrogen vacancy, nuclear spin, nv, oscillating magnetic fields, quadrillionths, quantum computer, quantum information, ronald walsworth, rotational sensors, second, sensory perfection, smart phones, temperature

Berkeley Lab researchers and their colleagues extend electron spin in diamond for incredibly tiny magnetic detectors

From brain to heart to stomach, the bodies of humans and animals generate weak magnetic fields that a supersensitive detector could use to pinpoint illnesses, trace drugs – and maybe even read minds. Sensors no bigger than a thumbnail could map gas deposits underground, analyze chemicals, and pinpoint explosives that hide from other probes.

Now scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley, working with colleagues from Harvard University, have improved the performance of one of the most potent possible sensors of magnetic fields on the nanoscale – a diamond defect no bigger than a pair of atoms, called a nitrogen vacancy (NV) center. (more…)

A tangle of talents untangles neurons

By Guest PostJune 10, 2013Sciencebiological phenomenon, brain science, brown university, cell cultures, cristina lopez fagundo, diane hoffman kim, jennifer mitchel, microfabrication facility, mike cohea, nerve cells, neurons, puerto rico, rat neural tissue, schwann cells, semiconductor, substrates, talisha ramchal, tangle of talents, techniques, technological ingenuity, topography, university, yu ting dingle

Brown’s growing programs in brain science and engineering come together in the lab of Diane Hoffman-Kim. In a recent paper, her group employed techniques ranging from semiconductor-style circuit patterning to rat cell culture to optimize the growth of nerve cells for applications such as reconstructive surgery.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Two wrongs don’t make a right, they say, but here’s how one tangle can straighten out another.

Diane Hoffman-Kim, associate professor of medicine in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biotechnology, is an affiliate of both Brown’s Center for Biomedical Engineering and the Brown Institute for Brain Science. Every thread of expertise woven through those multidisciplinary titles mattered in the Hoffman-Kim lab’s most recent paper, led by graduate student Cristina Lopez-Fagundo. (more…)

Meeting online leads to happier, more enduring marriages

By Guest PostJune 9, 2013Culture, Generalamericans, eharmony, elizabeth ogburn, find, gestalt research, gian gonzaga, happier, harris interactive, john cacioppo, marital satisfaction, marriages, meeting online, online dating encounters, partner, survey, tyler vanderweele, university of chicago

More than a third of marriages between 2005 and 2012 began online, according to new research at the University of Chicago, which also found that online couples have happier, longer marriages.

Although the study did not determine why relationships that started online were more successful, the reasons may include the strong motivations of online daters, the availability of advance screening and the sheer volume of opportunities online. (more…)

Bittersweet: Bait-Averse Cockroaches Shudder at Sugar

By Guest PostJune 9, 2013Nature, Scienceayako wada katsumata, behavior, behavioral resistance, bittersweet, coby schal, cockroaches, entomologist, genetic changes, german cockroaches, glucose, glucose averse roaches, jules silverman, loss of function, memory, mutations, normal cockroaches, north Carolina, paraglossae, receptor neurons, roach bait poison, state university, sugar, types of food

Sugar isn’t always sweet to German cockroaches, especially to the ones that avoid roach baits.

In a study published May 24 in the journal Science, North Carolina State University entomologists show the neural mechanism behind the aversion to glucose, the simple sugar that is a popular ingredient in roach-bait poison. Glucose sets off bitter receptors in roach taste buds, causing roaches to avoid foods that bring on this taste-bud reaction. This aversion has a genetic basis and it eventually spreads to offspring, resulting in increasingly large groups of cockroaches that reject glucose and any baits made with it.

In normal German cockroaches, glucose elicits activity in sugar gustatory receptor neurons, which react when exposed to sugars like glucose and fructose – components of corn syrup, a common roach-bait ingredient. Generally, roaches have a sweet tooth for these sugars. (more…)