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. Alzheimer's disease is caused by the build-up of a brain peptide called amyloid-beta. That's why eliminating the protein has been the focus of almost all drug research pursuing a cure for the devastating neurodegenerative condition. http://www.physorg.com/news178201602.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:20:02 EST news178201602 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have built a machine that uses the sun's energy to convert carbon dioxide waste from power plants into transportation fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. The system could provide an alternative to carbon sequestration; instead of permanently storing CO2 underground, the CO2 could be recycled and put to use. http://www.physorg.com/news178203219.html Chemistry Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:06:36 EST news178203219 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using a technique normally used for detecting weak tremor, scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology discovered that the 2004 magnitude 6 earthquake along the Parkfield section of the San Andreas fault exhibited almost 11 times more aftershocks than previously thought. The research appears online in Nature Geoscience and will appear in print in a forthcoming edition. http://www.physorg.com/news178201188.html Space & Earth Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:50:07 EST news178201188 Researchers from the University of California, San Diego recently offered the sharpest-yet picture of how core biochemical pathways in skeletal muscle cells and fat cells are altered in people who suffer from insulin resistance -- a primary defect in type 2 diabetes and obesity. Taking a systems biology approach, the bioengineers and medical researchers also determined how a common class of drugs for treating insulin resistance -- TZDs -- alter these same core pathways. This led the team to uncover previously unknown effects of TZDs and insights that could lead to improved drug therapies for insulin resistance. http://www.physorg.com/news178200964.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:16:46 EST news178200964 A new calculation of Europe's greenhouse gas balance shows that emissions of methane and nitrous oxide tip the balance and eliminate Europe's terrestrial sink of greenhouse gases. http://www.physorg.com/news178200670.html Space & Earth Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:12:17 EST news178200670 A new species of chameleon has been discovered in Tanzania by a team of scientists. http://www.physorg.com/news178199221.html Biology Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:50:01 EST news178199221 (AP) -- The world's largest atom smasher made another leap forward Monday by circulating beams of protons in opposite directions at the same time in the $10 billion machine after more than a year of repairs, organizers said. http://www.physorg.com/news178198886.html Physics Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:42:04 EST news178198886 (PhysOrg.com) -- A study carried out in 1994 by advocacy group CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) found that popcorn being sold by cinema chains in the US was high in saturated fat and calories, and a new survey has found that not much has changed in the intervening years. The study found a medium serve of popcorn sold in US cinemas can contain up to 1,200 calories, and that's without the topping. http://www.physorg.com/news178186997.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:30:01 EST news178186997 (PhysOrg.com) -- Computer chip maker Intel wants to implant a brain-sensing chip directly into the brains of its customers to allow them to operate computers and other devices without moving a muscle. http://www.physorg.com/news178186859.html Technology Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:21:45 EST news178186859 Microsoft has held talks with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp over a possible plan for the software giant to pay the media company to remove its news websites from Google, a report said Monday. http://www.physorg.com/news178183236.html Technology Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:21:30 EST news178183236 After wind, sun, currents and tides, a company is preparing to make clean electricity by harnessing another natural phenomenon, the energy-unleashing encounter of freshwater and seawater. http://www.physorg.com/news178183113.html Technology Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:19:14 EST news178183113 A team of pioneering South Korean scientists have succeeded in producing the polymers used for everyday plastics through bioengineering, rather than through the use of fossil fuel based chemicals. This groundbreaking research, which may now allow for the production of environmentally conscious plastics, is published in two papers in the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering to mark the journal's 50th anniversary. http://www.physorg.com/news178178601.html Biology Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:30:03 EST news178178601 In a provocative new study, a University of Utah scientist argues that rising carbon dioxide emissions - the major cause of global warming - cannot be stabilized unless the world's economy collapses or society builds the equivalent of one new nuclear power plant each day. http://www.physorg.com/news178178343.html Space & Earth Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:59:57 EST news178178343 For the first time, scientists have demonstrated that stem cells found in amniotic fluid meet an important test of potential to become specialized cell types, which suggests they may be useful for treating a wider array of diseases and conditions than scientists originally thought. http://www.physorg.com/news178177924.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:53:38 EST news178177924 Understanding mixing in the ocean is of fundamental importance to modeling climate change or predicting the effects of an El Niņo on our weather. Modern ocean models primarily incorporate the effects of winds and tides. However, they do not generally take into account the mixing generated by swimming animals. http://www.physorg.com/news178119743.html Physics Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:30:04 EST news178119743 The East Antarctic icesheet, once seen as largely unaffected by global warming, has lost billions of tonnes of ice since 2006 and could boost sea levels in the future, according to a new study. http://www.physorg.com/news178122015.html Space & Earth Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:50:06 EST news178122015 Physician-scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College have discovered a molecular mechanism that may prove to be a powerful target for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects lymphocytes, or white blood cells. By exploiting this mechanism, researchers have been able to powerfully suppress tumor formation in lab testing and in animal models. http://www.physorg.com/news178121359.html Medicine & Health Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:40:23 EST news178121359 (AP) -- An auction house says it is selling a rare first edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" found in a family's guest lavatory in southern England. http://www.physorg.com/news178121903.html Biology Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:30:03 EST news178121903 A commonly inherited gene deletion can increase the likelihood of immune complications following bone marrow transplantation, an international team of researchers reports in the November 22 advance online issue of Nature Genetics. When the gene, called UGT2B17, is missing from the donor's genome but present in the recipient's, transplants have a significantly greater risk of a serious side-effect known as graft-versus-host disease, in which immune cells from the donor attack tissues in the recipient. http://www.physorg.com/news178119875.html Medicine & Health Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:30:01 EST news178119875 Scientists at the Carnegie Institution have found for the first time that high pressure can be used to make a unique hydrogen-storage material. The discovery paves the way for an entirely new way to approach the hydrogen-storage problem. The researchers found that the normally unreactive, noble gas xenon combines with molecular hydrogen (H2) under pressure to form a previously unknown solid with unusual bonding chemistry. The experiments are the first time these elements have been combined to form a stable compound. The discovery debuts a new family of materials, which could boost new hydrogen technologies. http://www.physorg.com/news178119983.html Chemistry Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:47:08 EST news178119983 Scientists at the Brain Research Centre, a partnership of the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, have uncovered new information about the mechanism by which brain cells die following a stroke, as well as a possible way to mitigate that damage. The results of the study were recently published online in Nature Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news178119830.html Medicine & Health Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:44:27 EST news178119830 On the skin's surface, bacteria are abundant, diverse and constant, but inflammation is undesirable. Research at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine now shows that the normal bacteria living on the skin surface trigger a pathway that prevents excessive inflammation after injury. http://www.physorg.com/news178119645.html Medicine & Health Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:42:55 EST news178119645 Census of Marine Life scientists have inventoried an astonishing abundance, diversity and distribution of deep sea species that have never known sunlight - creatures that somehow manage a living in a frigid black world down to 5,000 meters (~3 miles) below the ocean waves. http://www.physorg.com/news178118759.html Biology Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:27:13 EST news178118759 In the mountains above the southwestern Chinese town of Dali, dozens of new wind turbines dot the landscape -- a symbol of the country's sky-high ambitions for clean, green energy. http://www.physorg.com/news178086936.html Technology Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:40:04 EST news178086936 (AP) -- A spacewalking astronaut put aside the impending birth of his daughter and blazed through his first-ever venture outside the International Space Station on Saturday. http://www.physorg.com/news178009250.html Space & Earth Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:33:55 EST news178009250 (AP) -- Computer hackers have broken into a server at a well-respected climate change research center in Britain and posted hundreds of private e-mails and documents online - stoking debate over whether some scientists have overstated the case for man-made climate change. http://www.physorg.com/news178046136.html Technology Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:16:08 EST news178046136 (AP) -- Scientists are preparing the world's largest atom smasher to explore the depths of matter after successfully restarting the $10 billion machine following more than a year of repairs. http://www.physorg.com/news178024871.html Physics Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:21:52 EST news178024871 (AP) -- Two fingers and a tooth removed from Galileo Galilei's corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century and given up for lost have been found again and will soon be put on display, an Italian museum director said Friday. http://www.physorg.com/news178009204.html Other Sciences Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:00:32 EST news178009204 (PhysOrg.com) -- Food production of modern human societies is mostly based on large-scale monoculture crops, but it now appears that advanced insect societies have the same practice. Our societies took just ten thousand years of (mainly cultural) evolution to adopt this habit and we are far from convinced that it is sustainable. http://www.physorg.com/news177954268.html Biology Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:20:01 EST news177954268 (AP) -- A lawsuit in Wisconsin is bringing a fresh challenge to the practice of paying for keywords on Google and other search engines to boost one company's link over a rival's. http://www.physorg.com/news177954916.html Technology Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:56:11 EST news177954916