Tag Archives: environmental factors

Who’s Afraid of Math? Study Finds Some Genetic Factors

By Guest PostMarch 27, 2014Education, Scienceanxiety, christopher manser, environmental factors, fraternal twins, genetic factors, math skills, same sex, schockwelle, seismisches echo, zombie stern

Genetics plays a role, but researchers say environment still key

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study of math anxiety shows how some people may be at greater risk to fear math not only because of negative experiences, but also because of genetic risks related to both general anxiety and math skills.

The study, which examined how fraternal and identical twins differ on measures of math anxiety, provides a revised view on why some children – and adults – may develop a fear of math that makes it more difficult for them to solve math problems and succeed in school. (more…)

Made in IBM Labs: Scientists Turn Data into Disease Detective to Predict Dengue Fever and Malaria Outbreaks

By Guest PostSeptember 30, 2013Technologyclimate change, data, disease detective, disease modeling, eclipse foundation, environmental factors, epidemiology, ibm labs, infectious diseases, james kaufman, johns hopkins, justin lessler, made in, malaria outbreaks, new analytic measures, open source framework, predict dengue fever, spatio, stem, temporal epidemiological modeler, world health organization

IBM teams up with Johns Hopkins University and UC San Francisco to help public health officials model, predict and track the possible spread of infectious diseases

SAN JOSE, Calif., – 30 Sep 2013: Scientists from IBM are collaborating with Johns Hopkins University and University of California, San Francisco to combat illness and infectious diseases in real-time with smarter data tools for public health. The focus is to help contain global outbreaks of dengue fever and malaria by applying the latest analytic models, computing technology and mathematical skills on an open-source framework.

Vector-borne diseases, like malaria and dengue fever, are infections transmitted to humans and other animals by blood-feeding insects, such as mosquitoes, ticks and fleas. (more…)

Where Does Charcoal, or Black Carbon, in Soils Go?

By Guest PostMay 2, 2013Environmentbiochar technology, black carbon, bonanza creek, carbon cycle, carbon sequestration, charcoal, climate change, ecology, environmental factors, environmental fate, everglades, fate of charcoal, florida international university, georgia coastal ecosystems, german, Germany, global carbon budget, global scale, hubbard brook, konza prairie, marine geochemistry, max planck society, national science foundation, organic carbon, rudolf jaffe, saran twombly, soils, thorsten dittmar, university oldenburg, yan ding

Scientists find surprising new answers in wetlands such as the Everglades

Scientists have uncovered one of nature’s long-kept secrets–the true fate of charcoal in the world’s soils.

The ability to determine the fate of charcoal is critical to knowledge of the global carbon budget, which in turn can help understand and mitigate climate change.

However, until now, researchers only had scientific guesses about what happens to charcoal once it’s incorporated into soil. They believed it stayed there.

Surprisingly, most of these researchers were wrong. (more…)

March of the Pathogens: Parasite Metabolism Can Foretell Disease Ranges under Climate Change

By Guest PostFebruary 27, 2013Environment, Scienceandrew dobson, Arctic, arctic climate, attitude, bacteria, body temperature, bryanne hoar, california santa barbara, climate change, cold blooded intermediate, disease causing parasite, disease ranges, earth grows warmer, ecology, emerging disease, environmental factors, environmental temperatures, equator, fundamental thermal niche, global warming, humans, infectious diseases, infectivity, life cycle, life cycle components, livestock, malaria, metabolic patterns, metabolic theory, microorganism, migrate, model, mortality, nematode, ostertagia gruehneri, parasite life cycle, parasite metabolism, pathogens, peter molnar, plasmodium, princeton university, range, reproduction, roundworm, ryan hechinger, sky is falling, susan kutz, temperatures, territory, university, university of calgary, viruses, wildlife, wooly bovine, worms

Knowing the temperatures that viruses, bacteria, worms and all other parasites need to grow and survive could help determine the future range of infectious diseases under climate change, according to new research.

Princeton University researchers developed a model that can identify the prospects for nearly any disease-causing parasite as the Earth grows warmer, even if little is known about the organism. Their method calculates how the projected temperature change for an area would alter the creature’s metabolism and life cycle, the researchers report in the journal Ecology Letters. (more…)

Genomic Detectives Crack the Case of the Missing Heritability

By Guest PostFebruary 23, 2013Scienceantibiotics, bert vogelstein, caffeine, case, caused by mutation, common dna spelling, crohns disease, dna code, dna variation, drugs, environmental factors, eye color, family traits, genetic causes, genetic code, genetic factors, genomic detectives, gwas, ian ehrenreich, joshua bloom, leonid kruglyak, metal compounds, missing heritability, missing heritability problem, model organism, patterns of inheritance, physical characteristic, princeton university, regions of dna, researcher, risk, risk of diseases, schizophrenia, southern california, thuy lan lite, type 2 diabetes, university, variation, wesley loo, yeast cell

Despite years of research, the genetic factors behind many human diseases and characteristics remain unknown. The inability to find the complete genetic causes of family traits such as height or the risk of type 2 diabetes has been called the “missing heritability” problem.

A new study by Princeton University researchers, however, suggests that missing heritability may not be missing after all — at least not in yeast cells, which the researchers used as a model for studying the problem. Published in the journal Nature, the results suggest that heritability in humans may be hidden due only to the limitations of modern research tools, but could be discovered if scientists know where (and how) to look. (more…)

Mussels Cramped by Environmental Factors

By Guest PostFebruary 22, 2013Environment, Natureautumn hurricanes, biodiversity, breed resistant, bungee cords, byssal threads, byssus, coast of washington, commercial growers, crabs, cramp, david garrison, emily carrington, environmental biologist, environmental factors, environmental fluctuation, fibrous threads, filaments, golden colored threads, hydrothermal vents, keystone species, laura newcomb, lobsters, marine food web, mass, mussel populations, mussels, Nature, ocean acidification, possible environmental culprits, rocky intertidal areas, science arena, sea anemones, seasonal weakening, spawning cycle, species, storms, stressor, typical summer temperatures, university of washington

The fibrous threads helping mussels stay anchored – in spite of waves that sometimes pound the shore with a force equivalent to a jet liner flying at 600 miles per hour – are more prone to snap when ocean temperatures climb higher than normal.

Emily Carrington, a University of Washington professor of biology, reported Saturday (Feb. 16) that the fibrous threads she calls “nature’s bungee cords” become 60 percent weaker in water that was 15 degrees F (7 C) above typical summer temperatures where the mussels were from. She spoke at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston. (more…)

Public Acceptance of Climate Change Affected by Word Usage, Says MU Anthropologist

By Guest PostJanuary 24, 2013Culture, Environmentanthropologist, biodiversity, climate change, climate change keywords, culturgen, current era, database, degree of variation, earth, english language, environmental factors, evolution of species, Google, history, Holocene, ice cores, last ice age, life cycle, life forms, mainstream, michael obrien, ngram, organism, paleoclimate, phenology, pollen, popular vocabulary, prehistoric climate, public acceptance, rate, scientific journal, sediments, statistical analysis, tree rings, university of missouri, usage rates, william brock, words

Better science communication could lead to a more informed American public.

Public acceptance of climate change’s reality may have been influenced by the rate at which words moved from scientific journals into the mainstream, according to anthropologist Michael O’Brien, dean of the College of Arts and Science at the University of Missouri. A recent study of word usage in popular literature by O’Brien and his colleagues documented how the usage of certain words related to climate change has risen and fallen over the past two centuries. Understanding how word usage affects public acceptance of science could lead to better science communication and a more informed public.

“Scientists can learn from this study that the general public shouldn’t be expected to understand technical terms or be convinced by journal papers written in technical jargon,” O’Brien said. “Journalists must explain scientific terms in ways people can understand and thereby ease the movement of those terms into general speech. That can be a slow process. Several words related to climate change diffused into the popular vocabulary over a 30-50 year timeline.” (more…)

Genes and obesity: Fast food isn’t only culprit in expanding waistlines — DNA is also to blame

By Guest PostJanuary 19, 2013Healthadipose, bmi, body fat response, body mass index, brian parks, cancer, control, degree of obesity, diverse mouse population, DNA, elin org, elizabeth nam, emrah kostem, environmental conditions, environmental factors, epidemic, fast food diet, fat, fat tissue, frode norheim, genetic factor, genetics, global gene expression, heart disease, high calorie diets, inbred strains, intestinal bacteria, intestinal flora, jake lusis, level, metabolic response, mice, modeling, obesity traits, sedentary lifestyles, strains, sugar, type 2 diabetes, ucla, weight gain

Researchers at UCLA say it’s not just what you eat that makes those pants tighter — it’s also genetics. In a new study, scientists discovered that body-fat responses to a typical fast-food diet are determined in large part by genetic factors, and they have identified several genes they say may control those responses.

The study is the first of its kind to detail metabolic responses to a high-fat, high-sugar diet in a large and diverse mouse population under defined environmental conditions, modeling closely what is likely to occur in human populations. The researchers found that the amount of food consumed contributed only modestly to the degree of obesity. (more…)