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) -- Among their many other interesting properties, carbon nanotubes have been found to act as catalysts for some important chemical reactions, including some that could be used to make cleaner fuels. But many unanswered questions remain about how this process works. http://www.physorg.com/news159199255.html Nanotechnology Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:01:29 EST news159199255 The common research worm, C. elegans, is able to use heat-sensing nerve cells to not only regulate its response to hotter environments, but also to control the pace of its aging as a result of that heat, according to new research at the University of California, San Francisco. http://www.physorg.com/news159109624.html Biology Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:07:44 EST news159109624 (PhysOrg.com) -- When it comes to wooing females, males of all species -- even fruit flies -- try to gain a competitive edge. http://www.physorg.com/news158947334.html Biology Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:02:49 EST news158947334 Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have designed tiny RNA molecules that shut off the gene that causes Huntington's disease without damaging that gene's healthy counterpart, which maintains the health and vitality of neurons. Laboratory studies suggest that a single small interfering RNA could reduce production of the damaging Huntingtin protein in nearly half of people with the disease. Another 25 percent of patients might benefit from one of a set of four additional small interfering RNAs. http://www.physorg.com/news158503609.html Medicine & Health Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:47:30 EST news158503609 In the classic waterfall illusion, if you stare at the downward motion of a waterfall for some period of time, stationary objects -- like rocks -- appear to drift upward. MIT neuroscientists have found that this phenomenon, called motion aftereffect, occurs not only in our visual perception but also in our tactile perception, and that these senses actually influence one another. Put another way, how you feel the world can actually change how you see it -- and vice versa. http://www.physorg.com/news157979723.html Medicine & Health Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:17:57 EST news157979723 We all know that people sometimes change their behavior when someone is looking their way. Now, a new study reported online on April 2nd in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, shows that jackdaws -birds related to crows and ravens with eyes that appear similar to human eyes -can do the same. http://www.physorg.com/news157897513.html Biology Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:25:38 EST news157897513 February's brutal chimpanzee attack, during which a pet chimp inflicted devastating injuries on a Connecticut woman, was a stark reminder that chimps are much stronger than humans -as much as four-times stronger, some researchers believe. But what is it that makes our closest primate cousins so much stronger than we are? One possible explanation is that great apes simply have more powerful muscles. Indeed, biologists have uncovered differences in muscle architecture between chimpanzees and humans. But evolutionary biologist Alan Walker, a professor at Penn State University, thinks muscles may only be part of the story. http://www.physorg.com/news157653323.html Biology Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:38:03 EST news157653323 Researchers at the universities of Leicester and Oxford have made a discovery about plant growth which could potentially have an enormous impact on crop production as global warming increases. http://www.physorg.com/news157619072.html Biology Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:05:16 EST news157619072 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Toronto researchers have discovered that by switching off a protein "thermostat" that controls the growth and spread of lethal fungal infections, the disease may be halted. http://www.physorg.com/news157306462.html Biology Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:15:09 EST news157306462 A visual learning study by scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston indicates that viewers can learn a great deal about objects in their field of vision even without paying attention. The findings will appear in the April 14 print issue of the journal Current Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news157212999.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:17:09 EST news157212999 Scientists at the University of Liverpool and Durham University have developed a new material to further understanding of how superconductors could be used to transmit electricity to built-up areas and reduce global energy losses. http://www.physorg.com/news156695024.html Physics Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:24:34 EST news156695024 Native African people who have never even listened to the radio before can nonetheless pick up on happy, sad, and fearful emotions in Western music, according to a new report published online on March 19th in Current Biology. The result shows that the expression of those three basic emotions in music can be universally recognized, the researchers said. http://www.physorg.com/news156688980.html Medicine & Health Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:43:29 EST news156688980 By combining data from 48 studies of coral reefs from around the Caribbean, researchers have found that fish densities that have been stable for decades have given way to significant declines since 1995. The study appears online on March 19th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. http://www.physorg.com/news156688876.html Biology Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:41:44 EST news156688876 When coral colonies meet one another on the reef, they have two options: merge into a single colony or reject each other and aggressively compete for space. Now, a report in the March 19th Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, has found a gene that may help to decide that fate. http://www.physorg.com/news156687548.html Biology Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:19:43 EST news156687548 (PhysOrg.com) -- Many bacteria are able to 'swim' through liquids by means of a flagellum. When doing this, some bacteria follow attractants, some flee from harmful substances, and others align themselves using light, gravity, or magnetic fields. These processes may also play a role in infections. Following a swimming bacterium without influencing its motion is difficult. Nanotechnology researchers are also interested in determining the motion of nanoparticles, which would be useful for the development of nanomotors, for example. http://www.physorg.com/news156176926.html Chemistry Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:39:59 EST news156176926 On March 13, 1989 the entire province of Quebec, Canada suffered an electrical power blackout. Hundreds of blackouts occur in some part of North America every year. The Quebec Blackout was different, because this one was caused by a solar storm! http://www.physorg.com/news156176740.html Space & Earth Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:26:39 EST news156176740 Researchers have shown that they can tell where a person is "standing" within a virtual reality room on the basis of the pattern of activity in the brain alone. The findings, published online on March 12th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, offer compelling evidence that the hippocampus, a region of the brain critical to navigation, memory, and imagining future experiences, works in a structured and predictable way. That discovery is contrary to what many experts had previously suspected, according to the researchers. http://www.physorg.com/news156096557.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:09:49 EST news156096557 When a single female is nearby, female antbirds will sing over the songs of their male partners in an apparent attempt to keep their messages from getting through, according to a new report published online on March 12th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Males respond to that interruption by singing a different tune. http://www.physorg.com/news156086600.html Biology Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:24:09 EST news156086600 By peering into the brains of people with dyslexia compared to normal readers, a study published online on March 12th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, has shed new light on the roots of the learning disability, which affects four to ten percent of the population. The findings support the notion that the reading and spelling deficit -characterized by an inability to break words down into the separate sounds that comprise them -stems in part from a failure to properly integrate letters with their speech sounds. http://www.physorg.com/news156084126.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:42:47 EST news156084126 It may be possible to "read" a person's memories just by looking at brain activity, according to research carried out by Wellcome Trust scientists. In a study published today in the journal Current Biology, they show that our memories are recorded in regular patterns, a finding which challenges current scientific thinking. http://www.physorg.com/news156084067.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:41:32 EST news156084067 Researchers at the University of Miami and at the Universities of Tokyo and Tohoku, Japan, have been able to prove the existence of a "spin battery," a battery that is "charged" by applying a large magnetic field to nano-magnets in a device called a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). The new technology is a step towards the creation of computer hard drives with no moving parts, which would be much faster, less expensive and use less energy than current ones. In the future, the new battery could be developed to power cars. http://www.physorg.com/news156011642.html Physics Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:34:30 EST news156011642 The PhD project presented by Gema Martínez-Méndez from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona focuses on the Agulhas Current and the ensuing warm water transports from the tropical Indian Ocean to the southern tip of Africa. The data generated provide for the first time evidence in support of the hypothesis that the Agulhas water "leakage" into the Atlantic can affect the climate in Europe. http://www.physorg.com/news155939665.html Space & Earth Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:34:40 EST news155939665 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen have succeeded in demonstrating for the first time that the activities of large parts of the brain can be altered in the long term. http://www.physorg.com/news155835170.html Medicine & Health Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:33:25 EST news155835170 More and more information is being gathered about how human genes influence medically relevant traits, such as the propensity to develop a certain disease. The ultimate goal is to predict whether or not a given trait will develop later in life from the genome sequence alone (i.e. from the sequence of the bases that make up the DNA strands that store genetic information in every cell of the body). http://www.physorg.com/news155819821.html Biology Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:20:09 EST news155819821 Researchers have found what they say is some of the first unambiguous evidence that an animal other than humans can make spontaneous plans for future events. The report in the March 9th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, highlights a decade of observations in a zoo of a male chimpanzee calmly collecting stones and fashioning concrete discs that he would later use to hurl at zoo visitors. http://www.physorg.com/news155819694.html Biology Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:15:48 EST news155819694 Moths need just the essence of a flower's scent to identify it, according to new research from The University of Arizona in Tucson. http://www.physorg.com/news155472320.html Biology Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:45:53 EST news155472320 (PhysOrg.com) -- Already Charles Darwin investigated facial expressions of monkeys in order to find out how closely related humans and monkeys really are. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics have now shown that rhesus monkeys and humans employ the same strategies to process faces of conspecifics: both species look first at the eyes of conspecifics, whereas for non-conspecific faces they let their gaze wander over the whole face. http://www.physorg.com/news155234440.html Biology Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:41:21 EST news155234440 As diseases go, toxoplasmosis is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Its effects are usually mild, though infection is for life, and two out of five Americans are chronically infected. Those with compromised immune systems can, however, face serious complications. And the disease can also have serious effects on a human fetus if contracted by a mother. http://www.physorg.com/news153669931.html Biology Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:06:29 EST news153669931 The economy isn't just squeezing the middle class on land, it's also affecting fish. http://www.physorg.com/news153494857.html Space & Earth Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:28:06 EST news153494857 (PhysOrg.com) -- By pushing carbon nanotubes close to their breaking point, researchers at the University of Illinois have demonstrated a remarkable increase in the current-carrying capacity of the nanotubes, well beyond what was previously thought possible. http://www.physorg.com/news153398824.html Nanotechnology Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:47:44 EST news153398824