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. Australian scientists have significantly advanced our understanding of dopamine release from nerve cells, findings that should speed the development of more effective drugs for treating Parkinson's Disease. http://www.physorg.com/news177765108.html Medicine & Health Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:30:03 EST news177765108 When a fetus is smaller than expected for the number of weeks of pregnancy, due to associated problems like a poorly developed heart, health concerns as severe as brain damage can result. http://www.physorg.com/news177083076.html Medicine & Health Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:47:16 EST news177083076 (PhysOrg.com) -- Computer scientists have spent decades developing techniques for answering a single question: How long does a given calculation take to perform? Constantinos Daskalakis, an assistant professor in MIT`s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, has exported those techniques to game theory, a branch of mathematics with applications in economics, traffic management -- on both the Internet and the interstate -- and biology, among other things. By showing that some common game-theoretical problems are so hard that they`d take the lifetime of the universe to solve, Daskalakis is suggesting that they can`t accurately represent what happens in the real world. http://www.physorg.com/news176978473.html Technology Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:20:01 EST news176978473 Immunity to whooping cough lasts at least 30 years on average, much longer than previously thought, according to a new study by researchers based at the University of Michigan and the University of New Mexico. Details are published October 30 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens. http://www.physorg.com/news176067229.html Medicine & Health Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:34:20 EST news176067229 Fire is often thought of something that trees should be protected from, but a new study suggests that some trees may themselves contribute to the likelihood of wildfires in order to promote their own abundance at the expense of their competitors. http://www.physorg.com/news175966257.html Biology Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:00:01 EST news175966257 NJIT's Bruce Bukiet, a mathematician who has applied mathematical modeling techniques to elucidate the dynamics of run scoring in baseball, has computed the probability of the Yankees and Phillies winning the World Series. He also has computed the most deserving of Major League Baseball's prestigious 2009 Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Cy Young awards. http://www.physorg.com/news175884891.html Other Sciences Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:10:01 EST news175884891 With the League Championship Series set to begin tomorrow, NJIT Mathematics Professor Bruce Bukiet has, once again, analyzed the probability of each team winning their post-season series. Bukiet updates his calculations daily during the Major League Baseball post-season. http://www.physorg.com/news174745716.html Other Sciences Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:29:01 EST news174745716 (PhysOrg.com) -- What does it mean when expert psychiatric witnesses in a court case reach opposing conclusions on the same sets of evidence? A new study out of the University of Cincinnati College of Law suggests via mathematical modeling that both analyses can be completely accurate. http://www.physorg.com/news174579265.html Medicine & Health Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:30:01 EST news174579265 (PhysOrg.com) -- Challenge a simple pocket calculator at arithmetic and you may be left in the dust. But even the most sophisticated computer cannot match the reasoning of a youngster who looks outside, sees a fresh snowfall, and knows how to bundle up for the frosty outdoors. http://www.physorg.com/news174067286.html Technology Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:01:55 EST news174067286 Clemson University researchers in collaboration with researchers at the University of Bremen, Germany, are working to make the physical pain and discomfort of mammograms a thing of the past, while allowing for diagnostic imaging eventually to be done in a home setting. http://www.physorg.com/news174063465.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:00:04 EST news174063465 In a city the size of New York, starting a vaccination campaign a few weeks earlier could save almost 600 lives and over $150 million, according to a study by scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news173987291.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:49:09 EST news173987291 (PhysOrg.com) -- For photographers, it's sometimes difficult to keep both the foreground and background of an image in focus. Focusing somewhere between the two can ensure that neither is blurry; but neither will be particularly sharp, either. On Friday, at the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision in Kyoto, Japan, members of the MIT Graphics Group will show that combining several low-quality exposures with different focal depths can yield a sharper photo than a single, higher-quality exposure. http://www.physorg.com/news173541725.html Technology Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:04:22 EST news173541725 Clemson University researchers have been awarded a $470,000 National Science Foundation grant to study making plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) more efficient to reduce fossil fuel use. http://www.physorg.com/news173371840.html Technology Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:55:43 EST news173371840 You're not as different from Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin after all, at least when it comes to patterns of correspondence. http://www.physorg.com/news173112935.html Other Sciences Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:56:25 EST news173112935 (PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists have theorized for decades about how neural networks might be able to accomplish the incredibly complex calculations the human brain performs all the time. But simply stabilizing such a powerful organic computer made up of 100 billion neurons and trillions of interconnections is no small matter. A new model proposes that the brain could use about half of its connections just to maintain a delicate balance of excitation and inhibition. And keep from going haywire. http://www.physorg.com/news173033272.html Other Sciences Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:48:27 EST news173033272 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists expect a new mathematical model of chronic wound healing could replace intuition with clear guidance on how to test treatment strategies in tackling a major public-health problem. http://www.physorg.com/news172766940.html Other Sciences Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:49:22 EST news172766940 About 10% of all couples hoping for a baby have fertility problems. Environmentalists say pollution is to blame and psychiatrists point to our stressful lifestyles, but evolutionary biologist Dr. Oren Hasson of Tel Aviv University's Department of Zoology offers a different take. The reproductive organs of men and women are currently involved in an evolutionary arms race, he reports in a new study. And the fight isn't over yet. http://www.physorg.com/news171637280.html Biology Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:15:05 EST news171637280 Biophysicists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen are leading an effort to develop and apply models of the so-called lateral-line system found in fish and some amphibians. This sensory organ enables an animal, even in murky water, to map its surroundings and recognize other animals. In Physical Review Letters, the researchers report mathematical models that capture essential elements of the system, agree with experimental data, and could be easy to implement technically, as in robots. http://www.physorg.com/news170673218.html Physics Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:14:27 EST news170673218 (PhysOrg.com) -- How honest are males when using sexual displays to signal their eligibility to females? http://www.physorg.com/news170079585.html Biology Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:20:25 EST news170079585 (PhysOrg.com) -- We see, hear and feel, and make sense of countless diverse, quickly changing stimuli in our environment seemingly without effort. However, doing what our brains do with ease is often an impossible task for computers. Researchers at the Leipzig Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging in London have now developed a mathematical model which could significantly improve the automatic recognition and processing of spoken language. In the future, this kind of algorithms which imitate brain mechanisms could help machines to perceive the world around them. http://www.physorg.com/news169467778.html Biology Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:10:01 EST news169467778 Scientists from the Department of Biological Sciences and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech have developed a quantitative, mathematical model of DNA replication and cell division for the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus. C. crescentus, an alpha-proteobacterium that inhabits freshwater, seawater and soils, is an ideal organism for genetic and computational biology studies due to the wealth of molecular information that has been accumulated by researchers. It also plays a key role in global carbon cycling in its natural environment. http://www.physorg.com/news169448410.html Biology Fri, 14 Aug 2009 06:00:42 EST news169448410 Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin will participate in a $3 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fight influenza and other diseases by creating models that simulate the complex interplay between human behavior and the spread of disease. http://www.physorg.com/news168610274.html Medicine & Health Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:50:01 EST news168610274 As mathematics continues to become an increasingly important component in undergraduate biology programs, a more comprehensive understanding of the use of algebraic models is needed by the next generation of biologists to facilitate new advances in the life sciences, according to researchers at Sweet Briar College and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech. http://www.physorg.com/news168183447.html Other Sciences Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:10:05 EST news168183447 Two people with the same kind of cancer who receive the exact same treatment may nevertheless have different chances of their tumors coming back years later. Now a team of scientists has developed a computer model that predicts cancer recurrence in an individual based on how her tumor changes size in response to the first rounds of radiation therapy. http://www.physorg.com/news168016968.html Medicine & Health Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:23:00 EST news168016968 Plastic surgeons are turning to mathematics to take the guesswork out of efforts to ensure that live tissue segments that are selected to restore damaged body parts will have enough blood and oxygen to survive the surgical transfer. http://www.physorg.com/news166792120.html Other Sciences Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:09:19 EST news166792120 Four researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech and their colleagues at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine are advocating the use of systems biology as an innovative clinical approach to cancer. This approach could result in the development of improved diagnostic tools and treatment options, as well as potential new drug targets to help combat the many potentially fatal types of the disease. http://www.physorg.com/news166356650.html Chemistry Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:11:50 EST news166356650 What's so great about sex? From an evolutionary perspective, the answer is not as obvious as one might think. An article published in the July issue of the American Naturalist suggests that sex may have evolved in part as a defense against parasites. http://www.physorg.com/news166118400.html Biology Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:00:32 EST news166118400 Tumors are complex collections of cells whose behavior has proven difficult to understand, let alone predict. As a result, oncologists are often surprised by how a particular patient responds to a given course of therapy. http://www.physorg.com/news165776270.html Other Sciences Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:00:01 EST news165776270 (AP) -- The World Health Organization said Wednesday it is working to mathematically model the spread of swine flu in an attempt to better understand how the outbreak developed from a handful of cases to a global epidemic in less than two months. http://www.physorg.com/news165686771.html Medicine & Health Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:40:03 EST news165686771 (PhysOrg.com) -- Finding a way to observe and record the behavior of matter at the molecular level has long been a holy grail among physicists. That ability could open the door to a wide range of applications in ultrafast electron microscopy used in a large array of scientific, medical and technological fields. http://www.physorg.com/news165510685.html Physics Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:11:58 EST news165510685