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Nice genes! What makes you genetically compatible with your partner?

By Guest PostSeptember 8, 2013Scienceankylosing spondylitis, anthony nolan trust, australia, auto immune disease, bbc breakfast, compatibility gene, DNA, eastern europe, Europe, genetic make up, hiv, human genes, India, penguin, problems in pregnancy, professor daniel davis, second world war, swiss zoologist, uk charity, wife katie

Professor Daniel Davis and his wife Katie’s experience is documented in The Compatibility Gene, published by Penguin, which discusses how our crucial compatibility genes may influence finding a life partner as well as our health and individuality.

Professor Davis said: “We each possess a similar set of around 25,000 human genes. Some of our genes vary from person to person, like those that give us a particular eye or hair colour. But my book is about the few genes – our compatibility genes – that vary the most between each of us. First and foremost these are immune system genes; they control how we combat disease. But recent research shows that they may be even more important than we once thought – there is evidence that they can influence how our brains are wired, how attractive we are, even how likely we are to reproduce.’’ (more…)

Spacecraft measures changes in direction of solar system’s interstellar winds

By Guest PostSeptember 8, 2013Scienceinterstellar boundary, interstellar cloud, interstellar medium, interstellar wind, interstellar wind direction

Data from NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer spacecraft reveal that neutral interstellar atoms are flowing into the solar system from a different direction than previously observed. (more…)

Catching Black Holes on the Fly

By Guest PostSeptember 7, 2013Scienceblack hole hunter, black hole population, black holes, new black hole, nustar mission, space telescope

NASA’s black-hole-hunter spacecraft, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has “bagged” its first 10 supermassive black holes. The mission, which has a mast the length of a school bus, is the first telescope capable of focusing the highest-energy X-ray light into detailed pictures. (more…)

‘We may be able to watch dark energy turn on’: U-M involved in unprecedented sky survey

By Guest PostSeptember 6, 2013Sciencedark energy, dark energy camera, dark energy survey, dark matter, galaxy clusters, structure of universe

ANN ARBOR — Moonless nights outside the Cerro Tololo astronomical observatory in Chile are so dark that when you look down, you can’t see your feet. (more…)

Supervolcanic Ash Can Turn To Lava Miles From Eruption, MU Scientists Find

By Guest PostSeptember 6, 2013Sciencepyroclastic flows, supervolcano eruption, supervolcanoes, viscous heating, volcanic ash, volcanic eruptions

“Viscous heating” can reheat volcanic ash enough to convert it to lava

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Supervolcanoes, such as the one sitting dormant under Yellowstone National Park, are capable of producing eruptions thousands of times more powerful than normal volcanic eruptions. While they only happen every several thousand years, these eruptions have the potential to kill millions of people and animals due to the massive amount of heat and ash they release into the atmosphere. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have shown that the ash produced by supervolcanoes can be so hot that it has the ability to turn back into lava once it hits the ground tens of miles away from the original eruption. (more…)

Declassified spy photographs reveal lost Roman frontier

By Guest PostSeptember 5, 2013Sciencedeclassified photographs, frontier barrier system, lost roman frontier, military surveillance, spy photographs, trajans rampart

Declassified spy photography has uncovered a lost Roman Eastern frontier, dating from the second century AD. (more…)

Physicists pinpoint key property of material that both conducts and insulates

By Guest PostSeptember 5, 2013Sciencebell laboratories, conductor, david cobden, electrical insulator, ice, jae hyung park, jim coy, liquid, metal insulator transition, phases of water, pressure, scott hunter, temperature, triple point, university of washington, vanadium dioxide, vapor

It is well known to scientists that the three common phases of water – ice, liquid and vapor – can exist stably together only at a particular temperature and pressure, called the triple point.

Also well known is that the solid form of many materials can have numerous phases, but it is difficult to pinpoint the temperature and pressure for the points at which three solid phases can coexist stably. (more…)

Poor concentration: Poverty reduces brainpower needed for navigating other areas of life

By Guest PostSeptember 4, 2013Scienceanandi mani, cognitive function, easy, eldar shafir, financial woe, hard, harvard university, ifmr trust, India, iq, jiaying zhao, journal science, mental tax, money situation, new jersey, poor concentration, poverty reduces brainpower, scenario, sendhil mullainathan, university of warwick in britain

Poverty and all its related concerns require so much mental energy that the poor have less remaining brainpower to devote to other areas of life, according to research based at Princeton University. As a result, people of limited means are more likely to make mistakes and bad decisions that may be amplified by — and perpetuate — their financial woes.

Published in the journal Science, the study presents a unique perspective regarding the causes of persistent poverty. The researchers suggest that being poor may keep a person from concentrating on the very avenues that would lead them out of poverty. A person’s cognitive function is diminished by the constant and all-consuming effort of coping with the immediate effects of having little money, such as scrounging to pay bills and cut costs. Thusly, a person is left with fewer “mental resources” to focus on complicated, indirectly related matters such as education, job training and even managing their time. (more…)

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