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) -- A visit to your local graveyard can provide not only a history lesson, but a science lesson as well. Historians know that gravestones can reflect the lives of people whose memories are lost in time, and they have long scoured old burial sites to piece together the stories of those who rest there. http://www.physorg.com/news179520331.html Space & Earth Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:48:03 EST news179520331 If you want to know how many people are killed in car accidents in a particular U.S. state, look to its prisons. Regions with higher murder rates also tend to have a greater number of traffic fatalities, according to a new analysis of government data. http://www.physorg.com/news179083886.html Other Sciences Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:50:01 EST news179083886 (PhysOrg.com) -- The first experiment using the Linac Coherent Light Source to illuminate molecules via a "pump-probe" technique has been completed by an international team of more than 30 scientists from institutions including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, LCLS and the joint SLAC/Stanford PULSE Institute. Ryan Coffee, physicist with the LCLS Laser Group, presented initial results in a seminar at SLAC on Wednesday, November 18. http://www.physorg.com/news178822370.html Physics Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:30:03 EST news178822370 Cell fragments called platelets are essential to promote blood clotting. Virginia Tech faculty members and students have discovered novel molecular interactions at the surface of platelets that control blood clotting. http://www.physorg.com/news178267111.html Medicine & Health Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:39:45 EST news178267111 In this week's Nature, Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) scientists report a technological advance in the study of gene expression and regulation in the genome's three-dimensional folding and looping state through the development of a novel technology. http://www.physorg.com/news176564162.html Medicine & Health Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:36:30 EST news176564162 The world's fastest supercomputer, Roadrunner, at Los Alamos National Laboratory has completed its initial "shakedown" phase doing accelerated petascale computer modeling and simulations of a variety of unclassified, fundamental science projects. http://www.physorg.com/news175781501.html Electronics Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:13:49 EST news175781501 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of physicists from the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, including graduate student David Bernstein, have made a promising discovery that a well-known synchrotron technique is applicable to free-electron lasers. http://www.physorg.com/news174589801.html Physics Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:11:29 EST news174589801 Psychology Professor Marc Hauser dispels misconceptions about human and ape behavior with regard to patience, impulsiveness, and economic interactions in Harvard Museum of Natural History talk. http://www.physorg.com/news174550521.html Biology Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:30:01 EST news174550521 Many elderly adults are increasingly isolated and grapple with depression, loneliness and declines in physical health. The UAB Department of Sociology and Social Work will use a five-year, $1.9 million National Institute on Aging (NIA) grant to study the ability of computer use and social media networking to enhance the quality of life of elderly adults through online social connections and easier access to health information. http://www.physorg.com/news172434684.html Medicine & Health Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:10:01 EST news172434684 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have long known that molecules dance about as the temperature rises, but now researchers know the exact steps that water takes with a certain molecule. Results with small, electrically charged cyanide ions and water molecules reveal that water zips around ions to a greater extent than expected. The findings improve our understanding of a chemical interaction important in atmospheric sciences. http://www.physorg.com/news171641348.html Chemistry Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:10:13 EST news171641348 Scientists have long known that molecules dance about as the temperature rises, but now researchers know the exact steps that water takes with a certain molecule. Results with small, electrically charged cyanide ions and water molecules reveal that water zips around ions to a greater extent than expected. The findings improve our understanding of a chemical interaction important in environmental and atmospheric sciences. http://www.physorg.com/news171173633.html Physics Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:14:43 EST news171173633 Numerous pathogens contain an 'internal time bomb', a deadly mechanism that can be used against them. After years of work, VIB researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) were able to determine the structure and operating mechanism of the proteins involved. This clears the road for finding ways to set the clock on this internal time bomb and, hopefully, in the process developing a new class of antibiotics. The research was accepted for publication by top journal Molecular Cell, with congratulations from the editorial board. http://www.physorg.com/news168179642.html Biology Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:50:11 EST news168179642 How is it possible that you were not planning on going shopping, but that you still end up going and even return home with four new pairs of trousers? http://www.physorg.com/news165587306.html Medicine & Health Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:00:01 EST news165587306 Increasing population density, rather than boosts in human brain power, appears to have catalysed the emergence of modern human behaviour, according to a new study by UCL (University College London) scientists published in the journal Science. High population density leads to greater exchange of ideas and skills and prevents the loss of new innovations. It is this skill maintenance, combined with a greater probability of useful innovations, that led to modern human behaviour appearing at different times in different parts of the world. http://www.physorg.com/news163344562.html Other Sciences Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:29:59 EST news163344562 If having malodorous armpits (called osmidrosis) and goopy earwax isn't bad enough, a discovery by Japanese scientists may add a more serious problem for women facing these cosmetic calamities. That's because they've found that a gene responsible for breast cancer causes these physical symptoms. The report describing this finding is featured on the cover of The FASEB Journal's June 2009 print issue, and should arm physicians with another clue for detecting breast cancer risk. http://www.physorg.com/news163071095.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:32:01 EST news163071095 (PhysOrg.com) -- `Axionlike particles are interesting because they come up regularly when scientists study string theory. By looking at their properties, you hope to learn about string theory, or some other unified theory of physics. From a cosmological point of view, axionlike particles are of interest because they could be connected to dark energy,` Clare Burrage tells PhysOrg.com. The main hiccup in this study of axionlike particles, however, is the fact that their existence - much like their cousins, axions - has yet to be proven. http://www.physorg.com/news162719375.html Physics Thu, 28 May 2009 08:50:18 EST news162719375 (PhysOrg.com) -- The discovery of a gruesome feeding frenzy that played out 73 million years ago in northwestern Alberta may also lead to the discovery of new dinosaur species in northwestern Alberta. http://www.physorg.com/news161355788.html Other Sciences Tue, 12 May 2009 14:04:26 EST news161355788 (PhysOrg.com) -- A process called ‘dark gulping` may solve the mystery of the how supermassive black holes were able to form when the Universe was less than a billion years old. http://www.physorg.com/news159695546.html Space & Earth Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:53:16 EST news159695546 A study of gene expression in chickens, frogs, pufferfish, mice and people has revealed surprising similarities in several key tissues. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access Journal of Biology have shown that expression in tissues with a limited number of specialized cell types is strongly conserved, even between the mammalian and non-mammalian vertebrates. http://www.physorg.com/news159081834.html Biology Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:31:33 EST news159081834 (PhysOrg.com) -- Sticky is good. A University of California, San Diego bioengineer is the first author on an article in the journal Science that provides insights on the `stickiness of life.` The big idea is that cells, tissues and organisms hailing from all limbs of the tree of life respond to stimuli using basic biological `modules.` For example, the researchers outlined similar strategies across biology for fulfilling the tasks of `sticking together` (cell-cell interactions), `sticking to their surroundings` (cell-extracellular matrix [ECM] interactions), and responding to forces. http://www.physorg.com/news158594322.html Biology Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:59:11 EST news158594322 Researchers at the Babraham Institute and the University of Catanzaro "Magna Graecia", Italy, co-ordinating an international network of scientists and clinicians from Europe, the USA and Japan, have identified new mechanisms through which the immune system recognises and responds to tumours like melanomas. This discovery may offer therapeutic approaches for tackling metastatic melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer responsible for around 2,000 deaths in the UK each year. http://www.physorg.com/news158570124.html Medicine & Health Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:15:58 EST news158570124 (PhysOrg.com) -- One of the perplexing questions raised by evolutionary theory is how cooperative behavior, which benefits other members of a species at a cost to the individual, came to exist. http://www.physorg.com/news158245420.html Biology Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:04:11 EST news158245420 (PhysOrg.com) -- No one knows exactly what a `fifth force` might be, but studies have shown that, if a long-range fifth force does exist, it could have surprising effects on the universe`s structure formation. A fifth force could reduce discrepancies between theory and observation in several areas of cosmology. http://www.physorg.com/news157292373.html Physics Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:20:41 EST news157292373 An international team of physicists from the United States and China this week offered a new theory to both explain and predict the complex quantum behavior of a new class of high-temperature superconductors. http://www.physorg.com/news156094850.html Physics Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:41:34 EST news156094850 Alzheimer's disease causes misfolding and aggregation of a protein fragment known as amyloid beta and its deposition as plaques in the brain. This process triggers a cascade of event that leads to neurodegeneration. A new study has found that the deadly transformation of amyloid beta into neurotoxic aggregates can be prevented through its interaction with a variant form of the amyloid beta itself. This opens up new prospects for therapies for the disease. http://www.physorg.com/news156088909.html Medicine & Health Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:02:34 EST news156088909 (PhysOrg.com) -- It`s about as long as the width of a human hair and only half that length across. So it`s tiny - measured in millionths of a meter - and extremely tricky to manipulate. But the meiotic spindle plays so irresistibly important a role in separating our chromosomes during cell division that scientists are compelled to try to study it. http://www.physorg.com/news156015200.html Chemistry Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:35:13 EST news156015200 (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 Revered in India as "holy powder," the marigold-colored spice known as turmeric has been used for centuries to treat wounds, infections and other health problems. In recent years, research into the healing powers of turmeric's main ingredient, curcumin, has burgeoned, as its astonishing array of antioxidant, anti-cancer, antibiotic, antiviral and other properties has been revealed. http://www.physorg.com/news155588406.html Chemistry Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:00:41 EST news155588406 (PhysOrg.com) -- When squeezed, electrons increase their ability to move around. In compounds such as semiconductors and electrical insulators, such squeezing can dramatically change the electrical- and magnetic- properties. http://www.physorg.com/news154789238.html Physics Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:01:25 EST news154789238 New research reveals a sophisticated brain mechanism that is critical for filtering out irrelevant signals during demanding cognitive tasks. The study, published by Cell Press in the February 26 issue of the journal Neuron, also provides some insight into how disruption of key inhibitory pathways may contribute to schizophrenia. http://www.physorg.com/news154787315.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:29:21 EST news154787315