ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Short lives, violent deaths: Two CT-scanned Siberian mammoth calves yield trove of insights
• Belize's lobster, conch, and fish populations rebuild in no-take zones
• Smell and eye tests show potential to detect Alzheimer's early
• Cause of mysterious food allergy found, new treatment strategy suggested
• Researchers discover boron 'buckyball'
• Australia drying caused by greenhouse gases, study shows
• Deep within spinach leaves, vibrations enhance efficiency of photosynthesis
• Study of noninvasive retinal imaging device presented at Alzheimer's conference
• Does this trunk make me look fat? Overweight zoo elephants no laughing matter
• When good gut bacteria get sick
• Nutritional, food safety benefits of organic farming documented by major study
• Getting a charge out of water droplets: Water jumping from a superhydrophobic surface can be harnessed to produce electricity
• New metastasis-suppressor gene identified by cancer researchers
• Ecologists make first image of food niche
• New method may allow breast cancer drug to be given through skin
• Technology developed to redirect proteins towards specific areas of genome
• Window of opportunity against HIV comes from 'fitness bottleneck'

Short lives, violent deaths: Two CT-scanned Siberian mammoth calves yield trove of insights Posted: 13 Jul 2014 01:33 PM PDT CT scans of two newborn woolly mammoths recovered from the Siberian Arctic are revealing previously inaccessible details about the early development of prehistoric pachyderms. In addition, the X-ray images show that both creatures died from suffocation after inhaling mud.

Belize's lobster, conch, and fish populations rebuild in no-take zones Posted: 13 Jul 2014 12:55 PM PDT A new report shows that no-take zones in Belize can not only help economically valuable species such as lobster, conch, and fish recover from overfishing, but may also help re-colonize nearby reef areas. According to past studies, the recovery of lobster, conch, and other exploited species within marine protected areas with no-take zones, or fully protected reserves, could take as little as 1-6 years. Full recovery of exploited species, however, could take decades.

Smell and eye tests show potential to detect Alzheimer's early Posted: 13 Jul 2014 12:55 PM PDT A decreased ability to identify odors might indicate the development of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease, while examinations of the eye could indicate the build-up of beta-amyloid, a protein associated with Alzheimer's, in the brain, according to the results of four new research trials.

Cause of mysterious food allergy found, new treatment strategy suggested Posted: 13 Jul 2014 12:55 PM PDT A novel genetic and molecular pathway in the esophagus that causes eosinophillic esophagitis has been identified by researchers, opening up potential new therapeutic strategies for an enigmatic and hard-to-treat food allergy. The condition is triggered by allergic hypersensitivity to certain foods and an over-accumulation in the esophagus of white blood cells called eosinophils (part of the body's immune system).

Researchers discover boron 'buckyball' Posted: 13 Jul 2014 12:55 PM PDT The discovery of buckyballs -- soccer-ball-shaped molecules of carbon -- helped usher in the nanotechnology era. Now, researchers have shown that boron, carbon's neighbor on the periodic table, can form a cage-like molecule similar to the buckyball. Until now, such a boron structure had only been a theoretical speculation. The researchers dubbed their new-found nanostructure 'borospherene.'

Australia drying caused by greenhouse gases, study shows Posted: 13 Jul 2014 12:55 PM PDT A new high-resolution climate model has been developed that shows southwestern Australia's long-term decline in fall and winter rainfall is caused by increases in human-made greenhouse gas emissions and ozone depletion, according to research. Several natural causes were tested with the model, including volcano eruptions and changes in the sun's radiation. But none of these natural climate drivers reproduced the long-term observed drying, indicating this trend is due to human activity.

Deep within spinach leaves, vibrations enhance efficiency of photosynthesis Posted: 13 Jul 2014 12:55 PM PDT Biophysics researchers have used short pulses of light to peer into the mechanics of photosynthesis and illuminate the role that molecule vibrations play in the energy conversion process that powers life on our planet.

Study of noninvasive retinal imaging device presented at Alzheimer's conference Posted: 13 Jul 2014 12:55 PM PDT A noninvasive optical imaging device can provide early detection of changes that later occur in the brain and are a classic sign of Alzheimer's disease, according to preliminary results from investigators.

Does this trunk make me look fat? Overweight zoo elephants no laughing matter Posted: 13 Jul 2014 12:53 PM PDT The birthrate for African elephants in zoos is declining, and researchers look for a link between inflammation and obesity that may be connected to the increase in infertility. "Obesity affects about 40 percent of African elephants in captivity," said one researcher. "Much as we see in humans, excess fat in elephants contributes to the development of heart disease, arthritis, a shorter lifespan and infertility."

When good gut bacteria get sick Posted: 11 Jul 2014 12:33 PM PDT Unique computational models have been used by researchers to show how infection can affect bacteria that naturally live in our intestines. The findings may ultimately help clinicians to better treat and prevent gastrointestinal infection and inflammation through a better understanding of the major alterations that occur when foreign bacteria disrupt the gut microbiota.

Nutritional, food safety benefits of organic farming documented by major study Posted: 11 Jul 2014 12:33 PM PDT Organic foods and crops have a suite of advantages over their conventional counterparts, including more antioxidants and fewer, less frequent pesticide residues, the largest study of its kind has found. The study looked at an unprecedented 343 peer-reviewed publications comparing the nutritional quality and safety of organic and conventional plant-based foods, including fruits, vegetables, and grains. The study team applied sophisticated meta-analysis techniques to quantify differences between organic and non-organic foods.

Getting a charge out of water droplets: Water jumping from a superhydrophobic surface can be harnessed to produce electricity Posted: 11 Jul 2014 10:28 AM PDT Last year, researchers discovered that when water droplets spontaneously jump away from superhydrophobic surfaces during condensation, they can gain electric charge in the process. Now, the same team has demonstrated that this process can generate small amounts of electricity that might be used to power electronic devices.

New metastasis-suppressor gene identified by cancer researchers Posted: 11 Jul 2014 10:26 AM PDT A new suppressor of cancer metastasis, FOXO4, has been identified by cancer researchers. Among patients with deadly cancers, more than 90 percent die because of metastatic spread of their disease. The new findings may point the way toward development of more effective treatments for prostate cancers and other malignant solid tumors.

Ecologists make first image of food niche Posted: 11 Jul 2014 07:13 AM PDT The ecological niche concept is very important in ecology. But what a niche looks like is fairly abstract. Now, for the first time, researchers have concretely visualized the ecological niche. The biologists have been able to determine the position of fourteen fish species in relationship to their food in a four-dimensional food diagram.

New method may allow breast cancer drug to be given through skin Posted: 10 Jul 2014 03:34 PM PDT Endoxifen, a drug that has proven effective in the prevention and treatment of breast cancer, but with serious side-effects, may be delivered effectively through the skin using a new topical drug-delivery system. Endoxifen, one of the most commonly used hormone therapy for breast cancer, has also been shown to prevent the disease. However, taken orally, the drug can cause side-effects such as hot flashes and vaginal atrophy, along with increased risk of endometrial cancer and stroke, that leave it wanting as a routine method of chemoprevention.

Technology developed to redirect proteins towards specific areas of genome Posted: 10 Jul 2014 11:16 AM PDT A research group has managed to reprogram the binding of a protein called BuD to DNA in order to redirect it towards specific DNA regions. The lead researcher says the discovery "will allow us to modify and edit the instructions contained in the genome to treat genetic diseases or to develop genetically-modified organisms."

Window of opportunity against HIV comes from 'fitness bottleneck' Posted: 10 Jul 2014 11:15 AM PDT New research on HIV transmission among heterosexual couples in Zambia shows that viral fitness is an important basis of a 'genetic bottleneck' imposed every time a new person is infected. The findings define a window of opportunity for drugs or vaccines to prevent or limit infection. HIV represents evolution on overdrive. Every infected individual contains a swarm of viruses that exhibit variability in their RNA sequence, and new mutations are constantly appearing. Yet nearly every time someone new is infected, this diverse population of viruses gets squeezed down to just one individual.

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