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. In November 2008, Caroline Moore, a 14-year-old student from upstate New York, discovered a supernova in a nearby galaxy, making her the youngest person ever to do so. Additional observations determined that the object, called SN 2008ha, is a new type of stellar explosion, 1000 times more powerful than a nova but 1000 times less powerful than a supernova. Astronomers say that it may be the weakest supernova ever seen. http://www.physorg.com/news163905854.html Space & Earth Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:24:57 EST news163905854 Although we are still far from knowing exactly where and how the pineal suppressive role is exerted, the fact that the gland exerts an inhibitory function on the reproductive axis is widely accepted. In fact, the pineal seems to exert its hormonal effect at different levels of the reproductive axis, both at the hypothalamic-pituitary level and at the gonadal level, where melatonin receptors have also been found. http://www.physorg.com/news163738698.html Medicine & Health Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:05:21 EST news163738698 (PhysOrg.com) -- Millions of people today carry around pocket-sized music players capable of holding thousands of songs, thanks to the discovery 20 years ago of a phenomenon known as the `giant magnetoresistance effect,` which made it possible to pack more data onto smaller and smaller hard drives. Now scientists are on the trail of another phenomenon, called the `colossal magnetoresistance effect` (CMR) which is up to a thousand times more powerful and could trigger another revolution in computing technology. http://www.physorg.com/news163420444.html Physics Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:35:06 EST news163420444 Many drugs commonly prescribed to older adults for a variety of common medical conditions including allergies, hypertension, asthma, and cardiovascular disease appear to negatively affect the aging brain causing immediate but possibly reversible cognitive impairment, including delirium, in older adults according to a clinical review now available online in the Journal of Clinical Interventions in Aging, a peer reviewed, open access publication. http://www.physorg.com/news163075705.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:48:55 EST news163075705 (PhysOrg.com) -- A flurry of recent research has documented that talking on a cell phone poses a dangerous distraction for drivers and others whose attention should be focused elsewhere. Now, a new study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology finds that just the ring of a cell phone may be equally distracting, especially when it comes in a classroom setting or includes a familiar song as a ringtone. http://www.physorg.com/news162825145.html Medicine & Health Fri, 29 May 2009 14:12:46 EST news162825145 Looking for efficient anti-tumor drugs is a hot research area. Chrysin (5,7-dihydroxy flavone), a natural widely-distributed flavonoid, has been reported to have many different biological activities such as anti-oxidant, anti-virus, antidiabetogenic activity and clear anxiolytic effect. However, Chrysin is limited in its clinical application because of its modest absorption in the intestine and rapid in vivo glycosylation. To improve the biological activity of chrysin, a number of its derivatives have been prepared for biological testing. 5-allyl-7-gen-difluoromethylenechrysin (ADFMChR) is one of them. http://www.physorg.com/news162214436.html Medicine & Health Fri, 22 May 2009 12:35:56 EST news162214436 (PhysOrg.com) -- Research by a North Carolina State University biologist and colleagues shows that using landscape corridors, the "superhighways" that connect isolated patches of habitat, to protect certain plants has a large "spillover" effect that increases the number of plant species outside the conservation area. http://www.physorg.com/news162049825.html Biology Wed, 20 May 2009 14:50:43 EST news162049825 Vitamin D may slow the progressive decline in the ability to breathe that can occur in people with asthma as a result of human airway smooth muscle (HASM) proliferation, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.physorg.com/news162041798.html Medicine & Health Wed, 20 May 2009 12:37:08 EST news162041798 Rice University's Andrew Barron and his group, working with labs in Italy, Germany and Greece, have identified specific molecules that could block the means by which the deadly virus spreads by taking away its ability to bind with other proteins. http://www.physorg.com/news161958048.html Chemistry Tue, 19 May 2009 13:24:04 EST news161958048 (PhysOrg.com) -- New work by condensed-matter theorists at the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory points to a material that could one day be used to make faster, more efficient computer processors. http://www.physorg.com/news161615953.html Physics Fri, 15 May 2009 14:21:02 EST news161615953 School children as young as 11 can benefit from a daily exercise programme in reducing their levels of several known risk factors for cardiovascular disease. An ongoing study, which began four years ago in the German city of Leipzig, shows already that children assigned to daily exercise lessons reduced their overall prevalence of obesity, improved their exercise capacity, increased their levels of HDL-cholesterol, and reduced their systolic blood pressure. http://www.physorg.com/news160985864.html Medicine & Health Fri, 08 May 2009 07:18:26 EST news160985864 Spanish and U.S. physicists studying nanoelectronics have found that size really does matter when it comes to predicting the behavior of electrical contacts that are just one atom wide. http://www.physorg.com/news160235209.html Physics Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:47:33 EST news160235209 A brain protein involved in fear behavior and anxiety may represent a new target for depression therapies, according to a study by researchers at the University of Iowa and the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The results appear in the April 29 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. http://www.physorg.com/news160161926.html Medicine & Health Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:26:09 EST news160161926 The U.S. economy would be better served by letting failing firms file for bankruptcy rather than by bailing them out under presumptive federal policies that deem them to be "too big to fail," according to new research from Penn State's Smeal College of Business. http://www.physorg.com/news159803303.html Other Sciences Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:49:20 EST news159803303 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at McGill University have found for the first time that novelty seeking personality types enjoy a stronger `placebo response,` or pain relief caused by the administration of a sham treatment, than people with reserved personalities. The study hypothesizes that the anticipation of pain relief, in this case triggered by the administration of a placebo, is a special case of reward anticipation. Since dopamine is a key neurotransmitter in reward processing, personality traits linked to dopamine, such as novelty seeking, were studied. http://www.physorg.com/news159724374.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:53:52 EST news159724374 (PhysOrg.com) -- Engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have fabricated and tested a unique biosensor that measures concentrations of potassium and hydrogen ions in the human heart with high specificity. The research could lead to a superior method of monitoring indicators of acute myocardial ischemia, or AMI, one of the leading causes of cardiovascular failure. http://www.physorg.com/news159719279.html Physics Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:28:48 EST news159719279 An expansion of wetlands and not a large-scale melting of frozen methane deposits is the likely cause of a spike in atmospheric methane gas that took place some 11,600 years ago, according to an international research team led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. http://www.physorg.com/news159715281.html Space & Earth Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:21:49 EST news159715281 Fire's potent and pervasive effects on ecosystems and on many Earth processes, including climate change, have been underestimated, according to a new report. http://www.physorg.com/news159715079.html Space & Earth Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:18:30 EST news159715079 Previous studies on shikonin, a chemical derived from the Chinese medicinal herb had anti-tumor effects although it was found to be toxic. However, an acetyl derivative, acetylshikonin had less toxicity and prevented the growth of sarcomas. However, knowledge of the effect of acetylshikonin on gastric cancer in vitro and especially in vivo is unknown. http://www.physorg.com/news159444510.html Medicine & Health Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:08:53 EST news159444510 The addition of a chemotherapeutic drug for leukemia to a standard regimen of two other chemotherapy drugs appears to enhance the response of certain ovarian cancers to treatment, according to a pre-clinical study led by researchers in the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center. http://www.physorg.com/news159366863.html Medicine & Health Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:32:45 EST news159366863 Cancer patients who wore acupressure wristbands had much less nausea while receiving radiation treatment, making the bands a safe, low-cost addition to anti-nausea medication, according to a study published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management by University of Rochester Medical Center researchers. http://www.physorg.com/news158415578.html Medicine & Health Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:20:14 EST news158415578 It is not surprising that as our economy continues its freefall, we are feeling increasingly more stressed and worried. Many of us are feeling extreme unease about the security of our jobs and being able to make our next mortgage payment. However, according to a new report in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, stress could make our financial troubles even worse. http://www.physorg.com/news157814244.html Medicine & Health Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:17:53 EST news157814244 Chemists in Taiwan are reporting that an ingredient in licorice - widely used in various foods and herbal medicines - appears to block the absorption of cyclosporine, a drug used by transplant patients to prevent organ rejection. This drug interaction could potentially result in transplant rejection, causing illness and even death among patients worldwide who take cyclosporine and licorice together, the researchers caution. http://www.physorg.com/news157132439.html Chemistry Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:54:23 EST news157132439 Three members of the faculty at Stevens Institute of Technology recently collaborated on a paper focusing on free-space optical communication, which appears in the latest issue of Optics Express. http://www.physorg.com/news156522480.html Physics Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:28:32 EST news156522480 (PhysOrg.com) -- The territory where the Higgs boson may be found continues to shrink. The latest analysis of data from the CDF and DZero collider experiments at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab now excludes a significant fraction of the allowed Higgs mass range established by earlier measurements. Those experiments predict that the Higgs particle should have a mass between 114 and 185 GeV/c2. Now the CDF and DZero results carve out a section in the middle of this range and establish that it cannot have a mass in between 160 and 170 GeV/c2. http://www.physorg.com/news156160849.html Physics Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:01:43 EST news156160849 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists of the DZero collaboration at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory have achieved the world's most precise measurement of the mass of the W boson by a single experiment. Combined with other measurements, the reduced uncertainty of the W boson mass will lead to stricter bounds on the mass of the elusive Higgs boson. http://www.physorg.com/news156002472.html Physics Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:02:14 EST news156002472 Osteoplasty -a highly effective minimally invasive procedure to treat the painful effects of metastatic bone disease by injecting bone cement to support weakened bones -provides immediate and substantial pain relief, often presenting individuals who are suffering terribly with the miraculous so-called "Lazarus effect," according to researchers at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 34th Annual Scientific Meeting. Interventional radiologists often couple osteoplasty with heat or cold treatments to kill tumor nerves, if needed. http://www.physorg.com/news155810828.html Medicine & Health Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:47:47 EST news155810828 Although the relationship between alcohol and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is well established, studies investigating the association between alcohol intake and reflux esophagitis (RE), Barrett's esophagus (BE) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) have reported inconsistent findings. Furthermore, little is known regarding the effect of alcohol on BE, especially related to alcohol types. http://www.physorg.com/news155142709.html Medicine & Health Sun, 01 Mar 2009 15:12:44 EST news155142709 Metastatic esophageal squamous cell cancer has very poor prognosis. Conventional surgery is considered the most effective treatment, but many cases are inoperable at the time of diagnosis. http://www.physorg.com/news154620008.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:01:07 EST news154620008 When the sun rides low on the horizon and winter chills wrap us all in down and fleece, global trade brings blueberries from South America, oranges from Israel. But trade in exotic goods also comes with significant local economic costs, explains Charles Perrings, professor of environmental economics at Arizona State University. http://www.physorg.com/news153832653.html Space & Earth Sat, 14 Feb 2009 11:19:16 EST news153832653