Author Archives: Guest Post

Multi-Toxin Biotech Crops Not Silver Bullets, UA Scientists Warn

The popular new strategy of planting genetically engineered crops that make two or more toxins to fend off insect pests rests on assumptions that don’t always apply, UA researchers have discovered. Their study helps explain why one major pest is evolving resistance much faster than predicted and offers ideas for more sustainable pest control.

A strategy widely used to prevent pests from quickly adapting to crop-protecting toxins may fail in some cases unless better preventive actions are taken, suggests new research by University of Arizona entomologists published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)

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‘Sideline quasars’ helped to stifle early galaxy formation, says CU study

University of Colorado Boulder astronomers targeting one of the brightest quasars glowing in the universe some 11 billion years ago say “sideline quasars” likely teamed up with it to heat abundant helium gas billions of years ago, preventing small galaxy formation.

CU-Boulder Professor Michael Shull and Research Associate David Syphers used the Hubble Space Telescope to look at the quasar — the brilliant core of an active galaxy that acted as a “lighthouse” for the observations — to better understand the conditions of the early universe. The scientists studied gaseous material between the telescope and the quasar with a $70 million ultraviolet spectrograph on Hubble designed by a team from CU-Boulder’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy. (more…)

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Men May Have Natural Aversion to Adultery with Friends’ Wives, Says MU Researcher

Findings about testosterone levels illuminate how humans evolved to form alliances

COLUMBIA, Mo. – After outgrowing teenage infatuations with the girl next door, adult males seem to be biologically designed to avoid amorous attractions to the wife next door, according to a University of Missouri study that found adult males’ testosterone levels dropped when they were interacting with the marital partner of a close friend. Understanding the biological mechanisms that keep men from constantly competing for each others’ wives may shed light on how people manage to cooperate on the levels of neighborhoods, cities and even globally. (more…)

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Study Shows How Vitamin E Can Help Prevent Cancer

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers have identified an elusive anti-cancer property of vitamin E that has long been presumed to exist, but difficult to find.

Many animal studies have suggested that vitamin E could prevent cancer, but human clinical trials following up on those findings have not shown the same benefits. (more…)

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Power of integrity

Hutchinson Lecture features financial economics expert Jensen

It can be easy to miss what’s right in front of you, said Michael Jensen as he shared an awareness test video of basketball players and a “hidden” moonwalking bear in the opening of the 23rd annual Hutchinson Lecture last week at the University of Delaware.

“In effect, integrity is the unforeseen bear in our lives and my intention is to shift the parts of our world group, our frames of reference, relevant to our view of integrity so that we see it differently, in fact as it is, or much closer to what it is,” said Jensen, who presented “The Hidden Power of Integrity and Access to Vast Increases in Performance.” (more…)

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After Newtown: A new use for a weapons-detecting radar?

ANN ARBOR — In the weeks after the Connecticut school shooting, as the nation puzzled over how it happened and what might prevent it from happening again, Kamal Sarabandi was listening to the news. Talk turned to giving teachers guns, and he paused. (more…)

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