ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• Soldiers who desecrate the dead see themselves as hunters
• Brain injuries from blasts similar to football impacts
• Good news for nanomedicine: Quantum dots appear safe in pioneering study on primates
• First, do no harm: Danger in standard treatment for a serious lung disease
• Prenatal pollution exposure dangerous for children with asthma
• Children Exposed to Smoking Face Long-Term Respiratory Risks
• Treatment of childhood OSA reverses brain abnormalities
• Experimental bariatric surgery controls blood sugar in rodents with diabetes via novel sensing signals in gut
• New target to battle rheumatoid arthritis
• Songbirds' learning hub in brain offers insight into motor control
• Drug found for parasite that is major cause of death worldwide
• Arthritis drug effective against global parasite, study suggests
• Falcon 9 aborts launch attempt
• Acid in the brain: New way to look at brain function
• Performance boost for microchips
• DNA barcoding verified the discovery of a highly disconnected crane fly species
• Indoor navigation system for blind
• Teens especially susceptible to distracted driving
• Using graphene, scientists develop a less toxic way to rust-proof steel

Soldiers who desecrate the dead see themselves as hunters Posted: 20 May 2012 07:50 PM PDT Modern day soldiers who mutilate enemy corpses or take body-parts as trophies are usually thought to be suffering from the extreme stresses of battle. But, new research shows that this sort of misconduct has most often been carried out by fighters who viewed the enemy as racially different from themselves and used images of the hunt to describe their actions.

Brain injuries from blasts similar to football impacts Posted: 20 May 2012 06:54 PM PDT In an advance that may someday provide health benefits for soldiers and athletes, a team of researchers has discovered a mechanism that could be the cause of traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in blast-exposed soldiers.

Good news for nanomedicine: Quantum dots appear safe in pioneering study on primates Posted: 20 May 2012 10:39 AM PDT A pioneering study to gauge the toxicity of quantum dots in primates has found the tiny crystals to be safe over a one-year period, a hopeful outcome for doctors and scientists seeking new ways to battle diseases like cancer through nanomedicine.

First, do no harm: Danger in standard treatment for a serious lung disease Posted: 20 May 2012 10:38 AM PDT A combination of three drugs used worldwide as the standard of care for a serious lung disease puts patients in danger of death or hospitalization, and should not be used together to treat the disease, called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, according to the surprising results of a rigorous independent study. The findings show the importance of testing treatments that doctors give for any condition -- to see if they truly help, and don't harm, patients.

Prenatal pollution exposure dangerous for children with asthma Posted: 20 May 2012 10:36 AM PDT The link between prenatal exposure to air pollution and childhood lung growth and respiratory ailments is well established, and now a new study suggests that these prenatal exposures can be especially serious for children with asthma.

Children Exposed to Smoking Face Long-Term Respiratory Risks Posted: 20 May 2012 10:36 AM PDT A new study shows that the health risks associated with exposure to environmental tobacco smoke among children whose parents smoke persist well beyond childhood, independent of whether or not they end up becoming smokers.

Treatment of childhood OSA reverses brain abnormalities Posted: 20 May 2012 10:36 AM PDT Treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in children normalizes disturbances in the neuronal network responsible for attention and executive function, according to a new study.

Experimental bariatric surgery controls blood sugar in rodents with diabetes via novel sensing signals in gut Posted: 20 May 2012 10:35 AM PDT For the first time, scientists have shown that an experimental bariatric surgery can lower blood sugar levels in rats with type 1 diabetes.

New target to battle rheumatoid arthritis Posted: 20 May 2012 10:35 AM PDT Scientists have identified the mechanism by which a cell signaling pathway contributes to the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Songbirds' learning hub in brain offers insight into motor control Posted: 20 May 2012 10:35 AM PDT To learn its signature melody, the male songbird uses a trial-and-error process to mimic the song of its father, singing the tune over and over again, hundreds of times a day, making subtle changes in the pitch of the notes. To accomplish this feat, the Bengalese finch's brain must receive and process large quantities of information about its performance and use that data to precisely control the complex vocal actions that allow it to modify the pitch and pattern of its song. Now, scientists have shown that a key brain structure acts as a learning hub, receiving information from other regions of the brain and figuring out how to use that information to improve its song, even when it's not directly controlling the action.

Drug found for parasite that is major cause of death worldwide Posted: 20 May 2012 10:35 AM PDT An existing drug has been found to be effective against Entamoeba histolytica. This parasite causes amebic dysentery and liver abscesses and results in the death of more than 70,000 people worldwide each year.

Arthritis drug effective against global parasite, study suggests Posted: 20 May 2012 10:35 AM PDT Medical researchers have identified an approved arthritis drug that is effective against amoebas in lab and animal studies, suggesting it could offer a low-dose, low cost treatment for the amoebic infections that cause human dysentery throughout the world.

Falcon 9 aborts launch attempt Posted: 20 May 2012 08:24 AM PDT A SpaceX Falcon 9 aborted its launch May 19 moments after its engines ignited when computers detected higher pressure readings than allowed. The center engine pressure built above limits and a shutdown occurred one-half second before liftoff, SpaceX officials said.

Acid in the brain: New way to look at brain function Posted: 19 May 2012 06:32 PM PDT Researchers have developed an MRI-based method to detect and monitor pH changes in living brains. The new technique provides the best evidence so far that pH changes do occur with normal function in the intact human brain. The team hopes to use the method to investigate the role of pH changes in psychiatric disease, including anxiety and depression.

Performance boost for microchips Posted: 18 May 2012 10:28 AM PDT The semiconductor industry is faced with the challenge of supplying ever faster and more powerful chips. The Next-Generation Lithography with EUV radiation will help meeting that challenge. Researchers have now developed key components.

DNA barcoding verified the discovery of a highly disconnected crane fly species Posted: 18 May 2012 10:27 AM PDT Entomologists have discovered a new crane fly species on the Eurasian continent. The new species, Tipula recondita, has been documented in both Finnish Lapland and the Russian Far East in two apparently disconnected populations.

Indoor navigation system for blind Posted: 18 May 2012 10:27 AM PDT A computer science engineering team has developed an indoor navigation system for people with visual impairments. The researchers have explained how a combination of human-computer interaction and motion-planning research was used to build a low-cost accessible navigation system, called Navatar, which can run on a standard smartphone.

Teens especially susceptible to distracted driving Posted: 18 May 2012 10:27 AM PDT More than 5,000 people die each year in vehicle crashes caused by distracted driving, many who were texting and talking on cellphones behind the wheel, according to new research. Teen drivers appear to be especially susceptible to distraction.

Using graphene, scientists develop a less toxic way to rust-proof steel Posted: 18 May 2012 10:25 AM PDT Researchers are making significant progress on rust-proofing steel using a graphene-based composite that could serve as a nontoxic alternative to coatings that contain hexavalent chromium, a probable carcinogen.

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