Category Archives: Science

Hungry Black Hole

By Guest PostOctober 28, 2012Sciencea star, asteroid, astronomers, astronomical observatory, australia, billion year, black hole, celestial fireworks, center, chow down, comet, dark gray, delaware, double star, dust, dust cloud, emission, explosion, g2, galactic, Galaxy, gas, gravitational pull, harry shipman, hungry, infrared, keck observatory, light year, mark morris, microwave, Milky Way, mount cuba, optics, sagittarius a, slumbering giant, so 16, spatial fluctuation, telescope, turbulent atmosphere, university, x ray, xray data, YouTube

Astronomers poised for galactic chow-down

The super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy has a healthy appetite, frequently snacking on asteroids and comets. Now, a cloud of gas and dust called G2 is on a dangerous course to become its next meal.

Even though Sagittarius A* (pronounced “Sagittarius A-star”) hasn’t been easy to see through the cosmic dust, sitting 25,000 light years away at galaxy central, scientists know it is a black hole — and a hungry one at that. Its weight has been estimated to be more than that of 4 million suns. (more…)

University of Toronto Study Demonstrates Impact of Adversity on Early Life Development

By Guest PostOctober 28, 2012Sciencebehavioural geneticist, biology, british columbia, childhood adversity, chris reaume, cifar, dna sequence, drosophila melanogaster, ebbd, Environment, enzyme, evidence, evolutionary biology, food, for, foraging gene, fruit fly, gene, gene robinson, human development, illinois, interaction, james burns, kindergartener, larvae, marla sokolowski, molecular genetics, Nature, neuroscience, pkg, pnas, pre programmed, protein, reproductive fitness, rna, rovers, sitters, tom boyce, toronto, transgenic manipulation, university

Study part of growing body of knowledge surrounding gene-environment interplay

TORONTO, ON – It is time to put the nature versus nurture debate to rest and embrace growing evidence that it is the interaction between biology and environment in early life that influences human development, according to a series of studies recently published in a special edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Biologists used to think that our differences are pre-programmed in our genes, while psychologists argued that babies are born with a blank slate and their experience writes on it to shape them into the adults they become. Instead, the important question to be asking is, ‘How is our experience in early life getting embedded in our biology?’” says University of Toronto behavioural geneticist Marla Sokolowski. She is co-editor of the PNAS special edition titled “Biological Embedding of Early Social Adversity: From Fruit Flies to Kindergarteners” along with professors Tom Boyce (University of British Columbia) and Gene Robinson (University of Illinois). (more…)

How Silver Turns People Blue

By Guest PostOctober 27, 2012Scienceabsorb, acidic environment, agnes kane, antimicrobial, argyria, base membrane, bioavailable salt, bloodstream, brown researcher, brown university, charged ions, disorder, electron, environmental impact, exposure scenario, frances liu, germs, gi tract, grayish blue, health tonics, jingyu liu, medical treatment, nanoparticle, particle, photochemical reaction, protein, robert hurt, salt ion, silver, silver atom, silver salt, skin, toxic, toxicity, zhongying wang

Ingesting silver — in antimicrobial health tonics or for extensive medical treatments involving silver — can cause argyria, condition in which the skin turns grayish-blue. Brown researchers have discovered how that happens. The process is similar to developing black-and-white photographs, and it’s not just the silver.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Researchers from Brown University have shown for the first time how ingesting too much silver can cause argyria, a rare condition in which patients’ skin turns a striking shade of grayish blue.

“It’s the first conceptual model giving the whole picture of how one develops this condition,” said Robert Hurt, professor of engineering at Brown and part of the research team. “What’s interesting here is that the particles someone ingests aren’t the particles that ultimately cause the disorder.” (more…)

Ghost Busting

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2012Scienceelectromagnetic field detector, ghost busting, ghost hunters, haunted houses, paranormal activity, paranormal entertainment, paranormal investigators

Study examines influence of media messages on perceptions of paranormal investigators’ credibility

The fourth installment of the Paranormal Activity films topped the box office last week. Television channel SyFy’s hit show Ghost Hunters scares up big ratings, and has spawned copycat series on networks ranging from Biography to Animal Planet. (more…)

Analysis of Dinosaur Bone Cells Confirms Ancient Protein Preservation

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2012Scienceancient dinosaur, antibodies, backbone, bone cell, brachylophosaurus canadensis, cellular structure, collagen, dinosaurian, DNA, dna molecule, evolutionary change, fibrous material, fibrous matrix, histochemistry, marshall bern, mary schweitzer, mass spectrometry, microbe, microscopy, north Carolina, origin, osteocytes, ostrich osteocytes, palo alto, parc, phex, protein, reactivity, research center, sample contamination, state university, tyrannosaurus rex, vertebrate, wenxia zheng

A team of researchers from North Carolina State University and the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has found more evidence for the preservation of ancient dinosaur proteins, including reactivity to antibodies that target specific proteins normally found in bone cells of vertebrates. These results further rule out sample contamination, and help solidify the case for preservation of cells – and possibly DNA – in ancient remains.

Dr. Mary Schweitzer, professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences with a joint appointment at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, first discovered what appeared to be preserved soft tissue in a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex in 2005. Subsequent research revealed similar preservation in an even older (about 80-million-year-old)Brachylophosaurus canadensis. In 2007 and again in 2009, Schweitzer and colleagues used chemical and molecular analyses to confirm that the fibrous material collected from the specimens was collagen. (more…)

Breakthrough Technique Images Breast Tumors in 3-D with Great Clarity, Reduced Radiation

By Guest PostOctober 23, 2012Health, Science3d picture, alberto mittone, aniko sztrokay, blind evaluation, bone, breakthrough, breast cancer, breast tissue, computing algorithm, ct scanner, digital, dual view, equally sloped tomography, est, european, european colleague, france, Germany, image, jianwei miao, ludwig maximilians university, mammogram, mammography, maximilian reiser, oscillation, paola coan, patient, paul claude diemoz, radiation, radiation facility, researcher, scientist, screening, sergei gasilov, susanne liebhardt, synchrotron, technique, three-dimensional, tomography, tumor, ucla, united states, xray, yunzhe zhao, zhifeng huang

Like cleaning the lenses of a foggy pair of glasses, scientists are now able to use a technique developed by UCLA researchers and their European colleagues to produce three-dimensional images of breast tissue that are two to three times sharper than those made using current CT scanners at hospitals. The technique also uses a lower dose of X-ray radiation than a mammogram.

These higher-quality images could allow breast tumors to be detected earlier and with much greater accuracy. One in eight women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime.

The research is published the week of Oct. 22 in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)

Germs in Space: Preventing Infection on Long Flights

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2012Sciencedisease risk, germs in space, pre flight screening, space missions, spaceflight, vaccinating astronauts

On a long spaceflight unique conditions including microgravity could give microbes the upper hand, but not if astronauts and their spacecrafts are properly prepared. In a new paper, infectious disease expert Dr. Leonard Mermel brings together a broad base of research to come up with specific recommendations for keeping astronauts safe in deep space

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The cabin of a spacecraft halfway to Mars would be the least convenient place — one cannot say “on earth” — for a Salmonella or Pneumococcus outbreak, but a wide-ranging new paper suggests that microgravity and prolonged space flight could give unique advantages to germs. What’s a space agency to do? Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital infectious disease expert Dr. Leonard Mermel offers several ideas. (more…)

Another Advance on the Road to Spintronics

By Guest PostOctober 21, 2012Sciencealbert einstein, alexander gray, analyzer, basis, berkeley lab, charles fadley, computing industry, contamination, data, dilute, electron, electronic structure, energy conversion, energy-efficient, exchange model, facility, ferromagnetic, gallium arsenide, gallium atom, gamnas, harpes, hyogo, jan minar, Japan, jun fujii, kelvin, magnetic atom, magnetic semiconductor, memory architecture, nanoscale device, new technique, p d, peter stone, photoelectric effect, photoemission, photovoltaic cell, processing, room temperature, shigenori ueda, spin, spintronic application, spintronic technology, spring8, storage, surface reaction, synchrotron radiation, xray angle, yoshiyuki yamashita

Berkeley Lab Researchers Unlock Ferromagnetic Secrets of Promising Materials

Spintronic technology, in which data is processed on the basis of electron “spin” rather than charge, promises to revolutionize the computing industry with smaller, faster and more energy efficient data storage and processing. Materials drawing a lot of attention for spintronic applications are dilute magnetic semiconductors – normal semiconductors to which a small amount of magnetic atoms is added to make them ferromagnetic. Understanding the source of ferromagnetism in dilute magnetic semiconductors has been a major road-block impeding their further development and use in spintronics. Now a significant step to removing this road-block has been taken.

A multi-institutional collaboration of researchers led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), using a new technique called HARPES, for Hard x-ray Angle-Resolved PhotoEmission Spectroscopy, has investigated the bulk electronic structure of the prototypical dilute magnetic semiconductor gallium manganese arsenide. Their findings show that the material’s ferromagnetism arises from both of the two different mechanisms that have been proposed to explain it. (more…)