http://www.sciencecentric.com/ Latest news in natural sciences and technology provided by Science Centric en-gb Copyright 2008, Science Centric contact@sciencecentric.com (Stanislav Abadjiev) Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:56:00 GMT Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:56:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss/ http://www.sciencecentric.com/images/sc_logo_news.jpg http://www.sciencecentric.com/ Dental caries, or tooth decay, continues to be the most prevalent infectious disease in the world, presenting significant public health challenges and socio-economic consequences. It leads to the loss of the hard tissues of the tooth, followed by inflammation and necrosis of the subjacent dental pulp... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070505 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070505 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:56:00 GMT Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder characterised by altered glucose tolerance and impaired lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, and is associated with a number of complications directly resulting from hyperglycaemia induced inflammation... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070504 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070504 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:53:00 GMT Dental researchers at the University of Washington have reported a significant reduction of tooth decay in toddlers who were treated with the topical syrup xylitol, a naturally occurring non-cavity-causing sweetener... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070503 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070503 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:51:00 GMT Young children from low-income families experience high levels of tooth decay and face many barriers to getting dental treatment and preventive services... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070502 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070502 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:49:00 GMT A member of staff at Cambridge University's Department of Earth Sciences has won a national competition with his image of Charles Darwin. Simon Crowhurst's quirky design gained him first prize in the adult (19+) category of the Designing Darwin Competition run by the British Society for the History of Science... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070501 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070501 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:46:00 GMT Six of every 100 patients who die in hospital do so as a consequence of an adverse drug reaction or, in other words, a fatal reaction to medicines... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070424 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070424 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:30:00 GMT Letting your imagination run away with you may actually influence how you see the world. New research from Vanderbilt University has found that mental imagery - what we see with the 'mind's eye' - directly impacts our visual perception. The research was published online 26 June by the journal Current Biology... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070423 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070423 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:28:00 GMT Staff in the University of Bradford's School of Health Studies have developed a device that will improve the recovery of patients and reduce risks for hospital workers. The newly-created powered leg suspension system, which is being launched by health innovation company Salitas, has the potential to reduce the risk of back injuries associated with manually lifting a leg in operating theatres and hospital wards... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070422 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070422 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:25:00 GMT The international archive for radiation data, the World Radiation Monitoring Centre (WRMC), provides climate research with high-precision meteorological series of measurements... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070421 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070421 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:23:00 GMT It's not just about climate change anymore. Besides loading the atmosphere with heat-trapping greenhouse gases, human emissions of carbon dioxide have also begun to alter the chemistry of the ocean - often called the cradle of life on Earth... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070420 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070420 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:21:00 GMT When tumour cells acquire the capacity to move around and invade other tissues, there is a risk of metastases and cancer treatment becomes more difficult. At the Institut Curie, CNRS Director of Research Philippe Chavrier and his group have just discovered how breast cancer cells break the bonds that tether them to the tumour... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070419 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070419 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:18:00 GMT A farm irrigation canal would seem a healthier place for toads than a ditch by a supermarket parking lot. But University of Florida scientists have found the opposite is true... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070418 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070418 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:22:00 GMT Researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA have solved the structure of a class of proteins known as sodium glucose co-transporters (SGLTs), which pump glucose into cells. These transport proteins are used in the treatment of chronic diarrhoea via oral rehydration therapy, saving the lives of millions of children each year... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070417 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070417 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:19:00 GMT A huge rise in the numbers of UK residents travelling to malaria endemic areas, combined with a failure to use prevention measures, has significantly increased cases of imported falciparum malaria in the UK over the past 20 years, according to a study published on BMJ.com... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070416 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070416 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:17:00 GMT Large doses of a red wine ingredient can ward off many of the vagaries of ageing in mice who begin taking it at midlife, according to a new report published online on 3rd July in Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070415 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070415 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:14:00 GMT They say, 'Build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door.' Biologists at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock hope it also works with gophers... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070414 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070414 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:12:00 GMT Rather than suppressing local communities in developing nations, nature reserves attract human settlement, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070413 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070413 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:09:00 GMT LSU associate professor of sociology Troy C. Blanchard recently found that a community's religious environment - that is, the type of religious congregations within a locale - affects mortality rates, often in a positive manner... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070412 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070412 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:03:00 GMT Researchers in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Gabon, Germany, Japan, Rwanda, the United Kingdom, and the United States have found that simian foamy virus (SFV) is widespread among wild chimpanzees throughout equatorial Africa... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070411 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070411 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:00:00 GMT Bacteria that cause pneumonic plague can evade our first-line defences, making it difficult for the body to fight infection. In fact, a signature of the plague is the lack of an inflammatory response... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070410 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070410 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:58:00 GMT Scientists have uncovered a new target for the potential treatment of TB, finally resolving a long-running debate about how the bacterial cell wall is built. The research, published in the July issue of Microbiology reveals several molecules that could be developed into drugs to treat tuberculosis... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070409 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070409 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:55:00 GMT In response to the global health crisis, 26 leading authorities in competency-based and accreditation movements in global health promotion, health education, and public health reached an accord last week on what should comprise the domains of core competency in health promotion and health education... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070408 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070408 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:53:00 GMT Diversity among the ancestors of such marine creatures as clams, sand dollars and lobsters showed only a modest rise beginning 144 million years ago with no clear trend afterwards, according to an international team of researchers... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070407 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070407 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:50:00 GMT Two unusual high-altitude wetlands in South America were declared sites of international importance on 25 June 2008 after a five-year campaign for northern Andean wetlands by WWF, other NGOs, governments and local communities... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070406 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070406 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:21:00 GMT Athletes who take part in competitive sport should be screened for potentially fatal heart problems before they compete, according to a study published on BMJ.com today... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070405 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070405 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:19:00 GMT Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Centre (BMC) found that patients who disclose intimate partner violence (IPV) to their clinicians of any type did not experience serious harm... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070404 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070404 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:17:00 GMT Acoustic waves play many everyday roles - from communication between people to ultrasound imaging. Now the highest frequency acoustic waves in materials, with nearly atomic-scale wavelengths, promise to be useful probes of nanostructures such as LED lights... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070403 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070403 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:14:00 GMT A 'fragile' land tenure system and 'a scarce presence' by the State were identified as key factors in rising Amazon deforestation last week. The diagnosis was delivered to the 3rd International Congress on Bioenergy last week by WWF-Brazil forest engineer Ana Euler, who said there was a need to re-discuss the Brazilian development model... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070402 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070402 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:11:00 GMT Scientists have long anguished over how little is known about Mercury, the innermost of the four terrestrial planetary bodies in our solar system. The gaps in knowledge covered such basic information as the planet's geology, how it was formed and evolved and whether its interior was still active... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070401 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070401 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:07:00 GMT Eclipses in a unique system of two dead stars, called pulsars, has shown that one of the pair is 'wobbling' in space - just like a spinning top. The effect, called precession, is precisely as predicted by Albert Einstein and is thus a new and exciting confirmation of his theory... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070360 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070360 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:00:00 GMT By measuring the charged particles in the planet Mercury's magnetic field, a University of Michigan sensor enabled the first observations about the surface and atmospheric composition of the closest world to the sun... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070359 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070359 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:00:00 GMT Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is a condition that unexpectedly and unexplainably takes the lives of seemingly healthy babies aged between a month and a year... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070358 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070358 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:00:00 GMT Even in geology, it's not often a date gets revised by 500 million years. But University of Florida geologists say they have found strong evidence that a half-dozen major basins in India were formed a billion or more years ago, making them at least 500 million years older than commonly thought... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070357 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070357 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:31:00 GMT Scientists of the University of Granada, in collaboration with the University of Leon, have confirmed that stem cells from human umbilical cord blood can be an appropriate therapy for the treatment of hepatic diseases such as hepatitis, and therefore mean an effective alternative to bone marrow... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070356 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070356 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:29:00 GMT A dynamic way to alter the shape and size of microscopic three-dimensional structures built out of proteins has been developed by biological chemist Jason Shear and his former graduate student Bryan Kaehr at The University of Texas at Austin... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070355 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070355 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:58:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have identified a specific tumour suppressor that manages membrane traffic routes for cellular cleaning and recycling... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070354 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070354 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:56:00 GMT A woman in southern Ontario is one of the first cases in Canada of a rare neurological syndrome in which a person starts speaking with a different accent, McMaster University researchers report in the July issue of the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070353 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070353 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:53:00 GMT Beginning in September 2008, the first Dutch Masters programme in the scientific field of climate change will be offered at Wageningen University. The programme is intended for students who are interested in climate from an approach that combines natural science expertise with socioeconomic expertise... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070352 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070352 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:15:00 GMT Two Texas A and M University researchers have developed a computational tool that will help scientists more accurately study complex units of clustered genes, called operons, in bacteria... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070351 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070351 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:13:00 GMT Women over 90 are significantly more likely to have dementia than men of the same age, according UC Irvine researchers involved with the 90+ Study, one of the nation's largest studies of dementia and other health factors in the fastest-growing age demographic... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070350 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070350 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:10:00 GMT Geological evidence found in Ohio and Indiana in recent weeks is strengthening the case to attribute what happened 12,900 years ago in North America - when the end of the last Ice Age unexpectedly turned into a phase of extinction for animals and humans - to a cataclysmic comet or asteroid explosion over top of Canada... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070349 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070349 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:08:00 GMT Delaying childbirth has substantially contributed to recent rises in caesarean section rates, according to a paper published this week by scientists at Cambridge University... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070348 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070348 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:05:00 GMT Extinction risks for natural populations of endangered species are likely being underestimated by as much as 100-fold because of a mathematical 'misdiagnosis,' according to a new study led by a University of Colorado at Boulder researcher... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070347 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070347 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:03:00 GMT An international research team has published the first clear example of how climate extremes can create conditions in which diseases that are normally tolerated singly may converge and bring about mass die-offs in wildlife... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070346 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070346 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:59:00 GMT In the first study of its kind, using sophisticated methods to measure body composition, the nationally known commercial weight loss program, Weight Watchers, was compared to gym membership programs to find out which method wins in the game of good health... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070345 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070345 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:56:00 GMT Standing in a greenhouse at the University of Rhode Island, Rebecca Brown was smiling even though it appeared that something had gone terribly wrong. Almost all of the 16 species of grass she planted last February in hundreds of small pots were dead... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070344 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070344 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:54:00 GMT Cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have a profound effect on an elite group of cells important to brain health as we age, scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Centre have found. The new findings shed light on a long-debated potential role for statins in the area of dementia... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070343 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070343 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:52:00 GMT Compact, bedside brain-activity monitors detected most seizures in at-risk infants, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis showed. That means the compact units could assist clinicians in monitoring for electrical seizures until confirmation with conventional EEG... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070342 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070342 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:49:00 GMT Two University of Iowa space physicists report that the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which has been travelling outward from the Sun for 31 years, has made the first direct observations of the solar wind termination shock, according to a paper published in the 3 July issue of the journal Nature... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070341 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070341 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:46:00 GMT The rarest marine dolphin in the world - down to 111 individuals following decades of entanglement in fishing nets - is to receive protection over more of its range from the New Zealand government following several years of sustained WWF campaigning... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070340 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070340 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:37:00 GMT The mature heart is composed by different cell types, including contractile cardiac cells, vascular cells, smooth muscle cells as well as pacemaker cells. During embryonic development as well as during embryonic stem cell differentiation, the different cardiovascular cell types arise from the differentiation of multipotent cardiovascular progenitors... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070339 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070339 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:35:00 GMT Spacecraft controllers have just awoken Rosetta from hibernation to prepare for its encounter with asteroid (2867) Steins on 5 September. ESA's comet chaser will study the relatively rare asteroid as it flies by on its way to comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070338 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070338 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:32:00 GMT Collisions have consequences. Everyone knows that. Whether it's between trains, planes, automobiles or atoms, there are always repercussions. But while macroscale collisions may have the most obvious effects - mangled steel, bruised flesh - sometimes it is the tiniest collisions that have the most resounding repercussions... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070337 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070337 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:30:00 GMT The problem with antibiotics is that, eventually, bacteria outsmart them and become resistant. But by targeting the gene that confers such resistance, a new drug may be able to finally outwit them... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070336 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070336 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:45:00 GMT IBM announced it has acquired Platform Solutions, Inc. (PSI), a privately held technology company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. PSI's technologies and employees will become part of the IBM System z business unit of the IBM Systems and Technology Group. Financial terms were not disclosed... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070335 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070335 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:43:00 GMT A Court of First Instance ruling has cleared the way for even more intensive fishing of one of the Atlantic's most diverse deep sea habitats. 'The people of the Azores have used small vessels and traditional fishing methods for generations without endangering fish stocks or the environment,' said Stephan Lutter of WWF Germany... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070334 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070334 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:41:00 GMT A device consisting of a giant rubber tube may hold the key to producing affordable electricity from the energy in sea waves. Invented in the UK, the 'Anaconda' is a totally innovative wave energy concept... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070333 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070333 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:39:00 GMT The Ulysses spacecraft, whose mission was expected to end on 1 July 2008, is hanging on valiantly as spacecraft controllers wait for a sign of the fuel freeze that would end the mission. This could happen any time now. Controllers will know that the fuel needed to keep the antenna pointing towards Earth has started to freeze when Earth-pointing manoeuvres become less efficient and the radio signals from the spacecraft grow weaker... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070332 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070332 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:36:00 GMT Minor earthquake, 3.2 on Richter magnitude scale, was registered at 15:12 EEST (12:12 GMT) in Sofia, Bulgaria. The epicentre was 15 km S from the centre of the capital... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070331 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070331 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:03:00 GMT World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is alarmed by the dramatic decline of at least 30 percent in the Bengal tiger population of Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in Nepal, once a refuge that boasted among the highest densities of the endangered species in the Eastern Himalayas... http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070330 http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=08070330 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:19:00 GMT