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Geoscientists Find Key to Why Some Patients Get Infections from Cardiac Implants

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2011Health, Scienceamericans, antibiotics, atomic force microscopy, bacteria adhere to mineral surfaces, bacterial and human proteins, bacterial cells, biofilm, biofilm formation, biofilm of persistent bacteria, blood infection bacteremia, charles darwin, common human blood protein, contaminated device, deadly blood infection, defibrillators, duke university medical center, enriqueta barrera, eric taylor, fibronectin, fibronectin binding protein a, gene mutations, genetic variants, geobiologists, heart implants, human body, implanted cardiac devices, infections, l barth reller, molecular dynamics simulations, nadia casillas ituarte, national science foundation, ohio state university, pacemakers, patients with implants, prosthetic cardiac valves, proteins of infectious bacteria, ruchirej yongsunthon, single nucleotide polymorphisms, snips, snps, solid substrate, staph bacteria, staphylococcus aureus, steven lower, supaporn lamlertthon, united states, vance fowler

*Bacterial cells have gene mutations that allow them to ‘stick’ to the devices*

New research suggests that some patients develop a potentially deadly blood infection from their implanted cardiac devices because bacterial cells in their bodies have gene mutations that allow them to stick to the devices.

Geoscientists were the major contributors to the finding.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the study results online this week. (more…)

Manufacturing Goes Viral

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2011Sciencealzheimer, amyloid aggregation in our brain tissues, bacteria hunting virus, berkeley laboratory, bioengineering laboratories, biological helical nanofiber structures, biological tissues in nature, biomimetic, chiral materials, chiral strands, coax viruses, collagens for animals and celluloses for plants, corneas, e coli, Environment, environmental variables, escherichia coli, filamentous viruses, helical ribbons, hierarchical level of complexity, induce polarization, joseph akkara, m13, m13 phages, macroscale structures, national science foundation, Nature, periodic changes in cell activity, physical environment, ramen noodle like, range of the spectrum, seung wuk lee, skin, skin tissue, structural building blocks for materials, substrate, supramolecular structures, synthetics with microstructures, teeth, tissue regeneration and repair, university of california at berkeley, wavelengths, wavy, woo jae chung, zina deretsky

*Researchers coax viruses to assemble into synthetics with microstructures and properties akin to those of corneas, teeth and skin*

Using a simple, single-step process, engineers and scientists at the University of California at Berkeley recently developed a technique to direct benign, filamentous viruses called M13 phages to serve as structural building blocks for materials with a wide range of properties.

By controlling the physical environment alone, the researchers caused the viruses to self-assemble into hierarchically organized thin-film structures, with complexity that ranged from simple ridges, to wavy, chiral strands, to truly sophisticated patterns of overlapping strings of material–results that may also shed light on the self-assembly of biological tissues in nature. (more…)

West Nile Virus Transmission Linked with Land-Use Patterns and “Super-spreaders”

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2011Scienceagricultural fields, american robin, atlantic in an airplane, bird hosts, disease causing organisms, ecology of infectious diseases, Environment, house sparrows, human activities, human infections, key species, knowledge, land use, marm kilpatrick, mosquito borne, mosquito vectors, national science foundation, new york, north and south america, nsf, robins, sam scheiner, santa cruz, tick borne viruses, transmission rates, united states, university of california, west nile virus

*Spread highest in urbanized and agricultural habitats*

After its initial appearance in New York in 1999, West Nile virus spread across the United States in just a few years and is now well established throughout North and South America.

Both the mosquitoes that transmit it and the birds that are important hosts for the virus are abundant in areas that have been modified by human activities.

As a result, transmission of West Nile virus is highest in urbanized and agricultural habitats. (more…)

U.S. Rivers and Streams Saturated With Carbon

By Guest PostOctober 19, 2011Environmentatmosphere, carbon cycling, carbon dioxide, climate, coastal waterways, david butman, efflux of carbon dioxide, gasoline, global scales, henry gholz, national science foundation, nsf, peter raymond, rivers and streams in the united states, source of atmospheric carbon dioxide

*Significant amount of carbon in land is leaking into streams and rivers, then to the atmosphere*

Rivers and streams in the United States are releasing substantially more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than previously thought.

This according to researchers publishing their results in the current issue of the journal Nature Geoscience. (more…)

New Technologies Challenge Old Ideas About Early Hominid Diets

By Guest PostOctober 15, 2011Sciencec3 photosynthetic pathway, chimpanzees, early hominids, gorillas, hominid teeth, long-held assumptions, national science foundation, nutcracker man, paranthropus boisei, sponheimer, unger, university of arkansas, university of colorado at boulder

New assessments by researchers using the latest high-tech tools to study the diets of early hominids are challenging long-held assumptions about what our ancestors ate, says a study by the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Arkansas.

By analyzing microscopic pits and scratches on hominid teeth, as well as stable isotopes of carbon found in teeth, researchers are getting a very different picture of the diet habitats of early hominids than that painted by the physical structure of the skull, jawbones and teeth. While some early hominids sported powerful jaws and large molars — including Paranthropus boisei, dubbed “Nutcracker Man” — they may have cracked nuts rarely if at all, said CU-Boulder anthropology Professor Matt Sponheimer, study co-author. (more…)

Scientists Identify Microbes Responsible for Consuming Natural Gas in Deepwater Horizon Spill

By Guest PostOctober 7, 2011Environmentapril spill, bacteria, cold loving bacteria, colwellia, cycloclasticus, david valentine, deepwater horizon oil spill, DNA, ecological history, ethane, geological past, gulf of mexico, methane, microbe, molly redmond, national science foundation, natural gas, oceanography, oceanospirillales, petroleum hydrocarbons, propane, psychrophilic, sequencing dna, spill, submerged plume, surface oil slicks, ucsb, university of california at santa barbara, water temperature

*Water temperature played key role*

In the results of a new study, scientists explain how they used DNA to identify microbes present in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill–and the particular microbes responsible for consuming natural gas immediately after the spill.

Water temperature played a key role in the way bacteria reacted to the spill, the researchers found. (more…)

Scientists Probe Indian Ocean for Clues to Worldwide Weather Patterns

By Guest PostSeptember 28, 2011Environmentaddu atoll, amie project, asian and australian monsoons, chidong zhang, chuck long, diego garcia, disturbance of the tropics, dual wavelength doppler radar, dynamics of the madden julian oscillation, dynamo, equator, hurricane activity in the northeast pacific and gulf of mexico, indian ocean, japan agency for marine earth science and technology, madden julian oscillation or mjo, maldives, manus island, mitchell moncrieff, national science foundation, numerical models, onset of el niño, s polka, source of atmospheric variability, super site, tropical weather, university of miami, west coast of north america, worldwide weather patterns

*Study how tropical weather brews in the Indian Ocean and moves eastward along the equator*

An international team of researchers will begin gathering in the Indian Ocean next month, using aircraft, ships, moorings, radars, numerical models and other tools to study how tropical weather brews there and moves eastward along the equator, with reverberating effects around the globe.

The six-month field campaign, known as DYNAMO or Dynamics of the Madden-Julian Oscillation, will help improve long-range weather forecasts and seasonal outlooks and enable scientists to further refine computer models of global climate. (more…)

Over the Hump: Ecologists Use Power of Network Science to Challenge Long-Held Theory

By Guest PostSeptember 26, 2011Nature, Sciencealpine tundra, british ecologist, bugle lily, ecologists, effects of environmental change on biodiversity, elizabeth borer, emperor new clothes, global sampling, grime unimodal pattern, habitats, henry gholz, hump shaped model, j philip grime, mt gilboa, national science foundation, peter adler, plant and animal species, productivity of the habitat, scientist, South Africa, utah state university

*Global sampling of 48 sites on five continents yields unprecedented data set*

For decades, ecologists have toiled to nail down principles explaining why some habitats have many more plant and animal species than others.

Much of this debate is focused on the idea that the number of species is determined by the productivity of the habitat.

Shouldn’t a patch of prairie contain a different number of species than an arid steppe or an alpine tundra? (more…)

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