http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- Hawaii may be paradise for vacationers, but for geologists it has long been a puzzle. Plate tectonic theory readily explains the existence of volcanoes at boundaries where plates split apart or collide, but mid-plate volcanoes such as those that built the Hawaiian island chain have been harder to fit into the theory. A classic explanation, proposed nearly 40 years ago, has been that magma is supplied to the volcanoes from upwellings of hot rock, called mantle "plumes," that originate deep in the Earth's mantle. Evidence for these deep structures has been sketchy, however. http://www.physorg.com/news179074389.html Space & Earth Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:53:40 EST news179074389 Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers have identified a new factor that is necessary for the development of many forms of medulloblastoma, the most common type of malignant childhood brain cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news179072176.html Medicine & Health Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:50:11 EST news179072176 A team of University of Minnesota researchers have discovered how PTTH, a hormone produced by the brain, controls the metamorphosis of juvenile insects into adults. http://www.physorg.com/news179072031.html Biology Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:14:39 EST news179072031 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from Intel Labs demonstrated an experimental, 48-core Intel processor, or "single-chip cloud computer," that rethinks many of the approaches used in today's designs for laptops, PCs and servers. http://www.physorg.com/news179071360.html Electronics Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:03:07 EST news179071360 Most scientists believe that staph infections are caused by many bacterial cells that signal each other to emit toxins. The signaling process is called quorum sensing because many bacteria must be present to start the process. http://www.physorg.com/news179070935.html Chemistry Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:56:14 EST news179070935 Noted for harbouring Eta Carinae -- one of the wildest and most massive stars in our galaxy -- the impressive Carina Nebula also houses a handful of massive clusters of young stars. The youngest of these stellar families is the Trumpler 14 star cluster, which is less than one million years old -- a blink of an eye in the Universe's history. This large open cluster is located some 8000 light-years away towards the constellation of Carina (the Keel). http://www.physorg.com/news179068963.html Space & Earth Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:23:15 EST news179068963 (PhysOrg.com) -- An enzyme in our blood that enables our lungs to exhale carbon dioxide could be the key to isolating carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants in order to store them safely underground. A company called Carbozyme, based in New Jersey, is developing a synthetic version of the blood enzyme that could capture carbon dioxide using one-third less energy than other methods. http://www.physorg.com/news179068055.html Chemistry Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:08:37 EST news179068055 Feeding birds in winter is a most innocent human activity, but it can nonetheless have profound effects on the evolutionary future of a species, and those changes can be seen in the very near term. That's the conclusion of a report published online on December 3rd in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, showing that what was once a single population of birds known as blackcaps has been split into two reproductively isolated groups in fewer than 30 generations, despite the fact that they continue to breed side by side in the very same forests. http://www.physorg.com/news179066690.html Biology Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:45:18 EST news179066690 Our ability to learn new information and adapt to changes in our daily environment, as well as to retain lifelong memories, appears to lie in the minute junctions where nerve cells communicate, according to a new study by NYU Langone Medicine Center researchers. The study is published online this week in the journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news179065332.html Medicine & Health Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:24:51 EST news179065332 A coating on windows or solar panels that repels grime and dirt? Expanded battery storage capacities for the next electric car? New Tel Aviv University research, just published in Nature Nanotechnology, details a breakthrough in assembling peptides at the nano-scale level that could make these futuristic visions come true in just a few years. http://www.physorg.com/news179065399.html Nanotechnology Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:24:04 EST news179065399 Researchers at the UC San Diego School of Medicine have pinpointed a mechanism that may help explain how chromosomal translocations - the supposedly random shuffling of large chunks of DNA that frequently lead to cancer - aren't so random after all. They have developed a model of such chromosomal mix-ups in prostate cancer which indicates that the male sex hormone (androgen) receptor unexpectedly plays a key role in driving specific translocations in the development of cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news179065247.html Medicine & Health Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:21:27 EST news179065247 (PhysOrg.com) -- By mimicking the way that a living body acquires immunity to disease through vaccination, researchers have designed an artificial immune system to solve optimization problems more effectively than before. The results show that the biologically motivated approach is better at exploring a greater amount of space and quickly locating the desired local and global optima than previous methods. http://www.physorg.com/news179060729.html Technology Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:05:59 EST news179060729 Scientists at Boston Biomedical Research Institute (BBRI) and the University of Pennsylvania have found that combining two chemicals, one of which is the green tea component EGCG, can prevent and destroy a variety of protein structures known as amyloids. Amyloids are the primary culprits in fatal brain disorders such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's diseases. Their study, published in the current issue of Nature Chemical Biology (December 2009), may ultimately contribute to future therapies for these diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news179060136.html Chemistry Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:57:46 EST news179060136 Coral reef fish can undergo a personality change in warmer water, according to an intriguing new study suggesting that climate change may make some species more aggressive. http://www.physorg.com/news179059979.html Biology Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:54:15 EST news179059979 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new type of natural-gas electric power plant proposed by MIT researchers could provide electricity with zero carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, at costs comparable to or less than conventional natural-gas plants, and even to coal-burning plants. But that can only come about if and when a price is set on the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases - a step the U.S. Congress and other governments are considering as a way to halt climate change. http://www.physorg.com/news179058845.html Technology Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:34:39 EST news179058845 In its first 18 years, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International`s annual aerial-robotics competition posed four successive challenges, which robotics researchers had to meet using entirely autonomous aerial vehicles - no remote control allowed. The first challenge, which stood for three years, was to move a metal disc from one end of an arena to another. The fourth challenge was to travel three kilometers and find a way into a specific building: it stood for eight years. But this summer, for the first time in the competition's history, a challenge fell in its first year, to a team of students representing MIT's Robust Robotics Group. http://www.physorg.com/news179058502.html Technology Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:31:55 EST news179058502 (PhysOrg.com) -- Heat transport in the earth's mantle and in the atmosphere is probably not as effective as previously thought. http://www.physorg.com/news179053848.html Physics Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:40:01 EST news179053848 (PhysOrg.com) -- How can some sportsmen and women, in the heat of the moment, play on through pain that would floor anyone else? Bert Trautmann, the Manchester City goalkeeper, famously played on through to the end of the 1956 FA Cup final - holding on for a 3-1 win - despite suffering a broken neck from a collision in the second half. http://www.physorg.com/news179053650.html Medicine & Health Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:08:11 EST news179053650 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists has made a major step in understanding how molecules locate the genetic information in DNA that is necessary to carry out important biological processes. http://www.physorg.com/news179053506.html Biology Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:07:52 EST news179053506 When Sheila Effan found a Kindle electronic reader among her gifts last Christmas, one of her first thoughts was whether she would miss the smell and feel of real paper. She got her answer five months later. http://www.physorg.com/news179053093.html Electronics Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:01:33 EST news179053093 Peripheral artery disease (PAD) affects 5 million individuals in the U.S. and is the leading cause of limb amputations. Doctors have long considered exercise to be the single best therapy for PAD, and now a new study helps explain why. Led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and published in this week's Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the findings demonstrate that a protein called PGC-1alpha plays a key role in the process. http://www.physorg.com/news179051759.html Medicine & Health Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:36:28 EST news179051759 A pair of studies by Duke University neuroscientists shows powerful new evidence of a deep biological link between human music and speech. http://www.physorg.com/news179045347.html Medicine & Health Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:25:11 EST news179045347 (AP) -- Comcast Corp. announced Thursday it plans to buy a majority stake in NBC Universal for $13.75 billion, giving the nation's largest cable TV operator control of the Peacock network, an array of cable channels and a major movie studio. http://www.physorg.com/news179040808.html Technology Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:00:02 EST news179040808 A third of the most popular children's toys in the United States this year contain harmful chemicals including lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury, a US consumer group said Wednesday. http://www.physorg.com/news179004304.html Medicine & Health Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:30:01 EST news179004304 A study of the use of US newspaper stories on the Web has found that more than 75,000 websites reused content from newspapers without authorization during a 30-day period. http://www.physorg.com/news179004071.html Technology Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:40:01 EST news179004071 It turns out that wearing a cap is good for you, at least if you are a mammal cell. http://www.physorg.com/news179003738.html Biology Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:50:02 EST news179003738 (PhysOrg.com) -- An extraordinarily bright, extraordinarily long-lasting supernova named SN 2007bi, snagged in a search by a robotic telescope, turns out to be the first example of the kind of stars that first populated the Universe. The superbright supernova occurred in a nearby dwarf galaxy, a kind of galaxy that's common but has been little studied until now, and the unusual supernova could be the first of many such events soon to be discovered. http://www.physorg.com/news179002328.html Space & Earth Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:30:02 EST news179002328 Adult stem cells may help repair heart tissue damaged by heart attack according to the findings of a new study to be published in the December 8 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Results from the Phase I study show stem cells from donor bone marrow appear to help heart attack patients recover better by growing new blood vessels to bring more oxygen to the heart. http://www.physorg.com/news179001296.html Medicine & Health Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:20:17 EST news179001296 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have used lasers to create the first practical macroscopic yarns from boron nitride fibers, opening the door for an array of applications, from radiation-shielded spacecraft to stronger body armor, according to a just-published study. http://www.physorg.com/news179001844.html Nanotechnology Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:20:06 EST news179001844 (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. is releasing an updated version of its mapping service with street-level views and new "apps" that tack on tweets, traffic and other location-specific data. http://www.physorg.com/news179002196.html Technology Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:20:03 EST news179002196