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Berkeley Lab’s Saul Perlmutter wins Nobel Prize in Physics

By Guest PostOctober 4, 2011Scienceaccelerating universe expansion, dark energy nature, physics nobel prize, saul perlmutter, supernova cosmology project

BERKELEY, CA — Saul Perlmutter, an astrophysicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor of physics at the University of California at Berkeley, has won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe through observations of distant supernovae.” Perlmutter heads the international Supernova Cosmology Project, which pioneered the methods used to discover the accelerating expansion of the universe, and he has been a leader in studies to determine the nature of dark energy. (more…)

Extreme Space Weather at Mercury Blasts the Planet’s Poles

By Guest PostOctober 4, 2011Scienceatmosphere, aurora borealis, charged particles, earth, exosphere, fast imaging plasma spectrometer, fips, fundamental science about the sun, jim raines, magnetosphere, mercury, messenger spacecraft, NASA, oxygen particles, polar regions, sodium, solar system, solar wind sandblasts, space environment, squall of hot plasma, surface of planet mercury, thomas zurbuchen, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— The solar wind sandblasts the surface of planet Mercury at its poles, according to new data from a University of Michigan instrument on board NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft.

The sodium and oxygen particles the blistering solar wind kicks up are the primary components of Mercury’s wispy atmosphere, or “exosphere,” the new findings assert. Through interacting with the solar wind, they become charged in a mechanism that’s similar to the one that generates the Aurora Borealis on Earth. (more…)

‘Back-up system’ Reduces Heart Disease Deaths

By Guest PostOctober 3, 2011Health, Scienceback up system, blood vessels, bypass vessels, christian seiler, clotted coronary artery, coronary artery disease, coronary collaterals, counterpulsation, g csf, growth factor, heart disease, heart main arteries, pascal meier, patients with a heart attack, role of natural bypass vessels, university of bern, yale university

Small bypass vessels which act as a ‘back-up system’ for the heart’s main arteries play a significant role in reducing the mortality of patients with coronary artery disease, according to new research. (more…)

Researchers Develop System that Finds Prostate Cancer Metastases Earlier

By Guest PostOctober 2, 2011Health, Scienceandrogen deprivation therapy, bone metastasis model, bony metastasis, castration resistant prostate cancer, conventional imaging techniques, gene based imaging system, hormone treatment, jonsson comprehensive cancer center, lily wu, metastatic prostate cancers, oncologists, PET, positron emission tomography scanning, prostate, prostate cancer, prostate specific enhancing sequence, pses, tumor growth rate, ziyue karen jiang

Researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a way to image the spread of a dangerous form of prostate cancer earlier than today’s conventional imaging techniques. The new method may allow oncologists to find and treat metastases more quickly and give patients a better chance at survival.

The gene-based imaging system targets castration-resistant prostate cancer, an aggressive form of the disease that has become resistant to the hormone treatment known as androgen-deprivation therapy. Once this treatment no longer works, the cancer will progress within 12 to 18 months, and the prognosis becomes grim, said senior study author Dr. Lily Wu, a professor of molecular and medical pharmacology and a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher. (more…)

NASA Leads Study of Unprecedented Arctic Ozone Loss

By Guest PostOctober 2, 2011Science1989 montreal protocol, alfred wegener institute for polar and marine research, amount of ozone, Antarctic, antarctic ozone hole, Arctic, arctic ozone loss, arctic polar vortex, arctic stratospheric temperatures, aura and calipso spacecraft, boulder, canada, chemical ozone destruction, chlorine monoxide, denmark, depletion of earth ozone layer, finland, Germany, gloria manney, Japan, jet propulsion laboratory in pasadena, low temperatures, NASA, new mexico institute of mining and technology in socorro, noaa earth system research laboratory, ozone hole, potsdam, russia, spain, stratosphere, stratospheric ozone layer, the netherlands, ultraviolet rays, united states, winter

PASADENA, Calif. – A NASA-led study has documented an unprecedented depletion of Earth’s protective ozone layer above the Arctic last winter and spring caused by an unusually prolonged period of extremely low temperatures in the stratosphere.

The study, published online Sunday, Oct. 2, in the journal Nature, finds the amount of ozone destroyed in the Arctic in 2011 was comparable to that seen in some years in the Antarctic, where an ozone “hole” has formed each spring since the mid-1980s. The stratospheric ozone layer, extending from about 10 to 20 miles (15 to 35 kilometers) above the surface, protects life on Earth from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. (more…)

MU Researchers Find New Insight into Fatal Spinal Disease

By Guest PostOctober 2, 2011Health, Scienceamyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cells, degeneration of skeletal muscles, duchenne muscular dystrophy, dysfunctions of the synapses, global neurofilament alterations, human disease, jeffrey m dale, michael garcia, motor neurons, protein deficiency, sma, spinal muscular atrophy, system, treatments for muscular dystrophy, university of missouri, virginia garcia

*Discovery could lead to treatments for muscular dystrophy and ALS*

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Researchers at the University of Missouri have identified a communication breakdown between nerves and muscles in mice that may provide new insight into the debilitating and fatal human disease known as spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

“Critical communication occurs at the point where nerves and muscles ‘talk’ to each other. When this communication between nerves and muscles is disrupted, muscles do not work properly,” said Michael Garcia, associate professor of biological sciences in the College of Arts and Science and the Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center. “In this study, we found that delivery of ‘the words’ a nerve uses to communicate with muscles was disrupted before they arrived at the nerve ending.” (more…)

When You Really, Really Have to go: Study Wins Ig Nobel Prize

By Guest PostOctober 2, 2011Entertainment, Scienceig nobel prize, miss sweety poo, scientific humor magazine

Past winners have included scientists who found that asthma symptoms can be treated with a roller coaster ride and veterinarians who reported cows with names give more milk than those without. (more…)

NASA Space Telescope Finds Fewer Asteroids Near Earth

By Guest PostOctober 1, 2011Scienceamy mainzer, asteroids, astronomers, dinosaurs, distant galaxies, jupiter, lindley johnson, mars, NASA, near earth asteroids, neowise, spaceguard, survey project, tim spahr, wide field infrared survey explorer, wise

PASADENA, Calif. –– New observations by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, show there are significantly fewer near-Earth asteroids in the mid-size range than previously thought. The findings also indicate NASA has found more than 90 percent of the largest near-Earth asteroids, meeting a goal agreed to with Congress in 1998.

Astronomers now estimate there are roughly 19,500 — not 35,000 — mid-size near-Earth asteroids. Scientists say this improved understanding of the population may indicate the hazard to Earth could be somewhat less than previously thought. However, the majority of these mid-size asteroids remain to be discovered. More research also is needed to determine if fewer mid-size objects (between 330 and 3,300-feet wide) also mean fewer potentially hazardous asteroids, those that come closest to Earth. (more…)

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