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) -- Increased competition for rare breeding sites causes female blue tits to invest more time in their current brood, to spend more time feeding their offspring and also to produce more male offspring in their clutches. These are the findings of a long-term study by behavioural ecologists Alain Jacot, Mihai Valcu and Bart Kempenaers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen (Germany). http://www.physorg.com/news155835512.html Biology Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:40:59 EST news155835512 (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 (PhysOrg.com) -- There is a lot of hope invested in hydrogen, but it also presents some problems. It is energy-rich, clean and, as a constituent of water, of almost unlimited availability. However, so far it has been difficult to access it. Scientists at the Max Planck In-stitute of Colloids and Interfaces have now found a simple, low-cost way to produce hydrogen. http://www.physorg.com/news155834961.html Physics Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:29:52 EST news155834961 Using ion-selective micro-electrodes electrical signals in plants moving from leaf to leaf could be measured. The speed of the signals spreading as voltage changes over cell membranes ranged from 5 to 10 cm per minute. The scientists discovered this new kind of electrical signal transmission system by applying a novel method: Filamentary electrodes were inserted through open stomata directly into the inner leaf tissue and then placed onto the cell walls (see picture). Stomata are microscopically small openings in the leaf surface which plants facilitate regulating evaporation and gas exchange. http://www.physorg.com/news155815239.html Chemistry Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:01:24 EST news155815239 Ecologists at the University of California, San Diego, offer a new explanation for an apparently abrupt switch in the kinds in of mammals found along the Malay Peninsula in southeast Asia - from mainland species to island species - in the absence of any geographical barrier. http://www.physorg.com/news155557610.html Biology Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:30:02 EST news155557610 (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 (PhysOrg.com) -- Large, perfect diamonds are precious to almost all of us but to some scientists, it is the defects that really matter. This is because defects can form nanoscopic color centers, which play a key role in the development of both quantum computing and quantum cryptography. A research team at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen has now probed these color centers inside the crystal with unprecedented resolution using an optical microscope. Using STED microscopy, the scientists identified even densely packed color centers and determined their position inside the crystal with a precision better than 0.15 nanometers, corresponding to the dimension of an atom. (Nature Photonics, 22nd February 2009). http://www.physorg.com/news155233957.html Physics Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:33:30 EST news155233957 Humans lost in the desert are well known for going around in circles, prompting scientists to ask how desert creatures find their way around without landmarks for guidance. Now research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Frontiers in Zoology shows that Desert Ants input both local smells and visual cues into their navigation systems to guide them home. http://www.physorg.com/news154935053.html Biology Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:32:14 EST news154935053 Like it or not, your mouth is home to a thriving community of microbial life. More than 600 different species of bacteria reside in this "microbiome," yet everyone hosts a unique set of bugs, and this could have important implications for health and disease. In a study published online in Genome Research, scientists have performed the first global survey of salivary microbes, finding that the oral microbiome of your neighbor is just as different from yours as someone across the globe. http://www.physorg.com/news154894769.html Biology Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:23:22 EST news154894769 We engage in numerous discussions throughout the day, about a variety of topics, from work assignments to the Super Bowl to what we are having for dinner that evening. We effortlessly move from conversation to conversation, probably not thinking twice about our brain's ability to understand everything that is being said to us. How does the brain turn seemingly random sounds and letters into sentences with clear meaning? http://www.physorg.com/news154349880.html Medicine & Health Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:58:17 EST news154349880 (PhysOrg.com) -- Which modules of the tau protein, in neurons of Alzheimer disease patients, may act in a destructive manner were investigated by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Göttingen) and the Max Planck Unit for Structural Molecular Biology (Hamburg) with the help of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. http://www.physorg.com/news154107548.html Biology Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:39:42 EST news154107548 (PhysOrg.com) -- In comparison to many other living creatures, flies tend to be small and their brains, despite their complexity, are quite manageable. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried have now ascertained that these insects can make up for their low number of nerve cells by means of sophisticated network interactions. http://www.physorg.com/news154100854.html Biology Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:48:05 EST news154100854 (PhysOrg.com) -- How many different sudokus are there? How many different ways are there to color in the countries on a map? And how do atoms behave in a solid? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen and at Cornell University (Ithaca, USA) have now developed a new method that quickly provides an answer to these questions. http://www.physorg.com/news153588084.html Other Sciences Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:22:12 EST news153588084 The Planck satellite is set to eavesdrop with hitherto unsurpassed precision on the echo of the Big Bang, thereby providing a sharp image of the infancy of the Universe. The satellite is due to be launched on board an Ariane 5 rocket on April 16th. The aim of this international mission, managed by the European Space Agency (ESA), is to map the cosmic microwave background. The Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching is the German partner in this project. Researchers have spent a decade developing important software components that have now been delivered to the collaboration. http://www.physorg.com/news153064579.html Space & Earth Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:56:53 EST news153064579 The simple recipe scientists earlier discovered for making adult stem cells behave like embryonic-like stem cells just got even simpler. A new report in the February 6th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, shows for the first time that neural stem cells taken from adult mice can take on the characteristics of embryonic stem cells with the addition of a single transcription factor. Transcription factors are genes that control the activity of other genes. http://www.physorg.com/news153059473.html Biology Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:31:44 EST news153059473 Galaxies, including our own Milky Way, consist of hundreds of billions of stars. How did such gigantic galactic systems come into being? Did a central region with stars first form then with time grow? Or did the stars form at the same time throughout the entire galaxy? An international team led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy is now much closer to being able to answer these questions. http://www.physorg.com/news153054280.html Space & Earth Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:05:07 EST news153054280 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have a new insight into the active galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128), as the jets and lobes emanating from the central black hole have been imaged at submillimetre wavelengths for the first time. The new data, from the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope in Chile, which is operated by ESO, have been combined with visible and X-ray wavelengths to produce this striking new image. http://www.physorg.com/news152344528.html Space & Earth Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:56:03 EST news152344528 (PhysOrg.com) -- Helicobacter pylori can cause stomach ulcers and cancers. Over half of the world`s inhabitants carrys this bacterium, but different variants are present on different continents. Up to now, biologists have differentiated between five populations of these bacteria. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin and at the University of Cork in Ireland have now discovered a new population of Helicobacter pylori bacteria that attests to the shared origin of the earliest inhabitants of Australia and New Guinea. (Science, January 23rd, 2009) http://www.physorg.com/news151935889.html Biology Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:25:21 EST news151935889 (PhysOrg.com) -- It has a beautiful, but also an unpleasant side: crystallization determines the shape of precious stones, but also causes the lime scale in washing machines. How this comes about, has been known for a long time - or has it? Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces are now whittling away at the established theory, which is unable to explain numerous phenomena. The researchers investigated the crystallization of calcium carbonate, known commonly as chalk, and found that stable nanoclusters form in water with a small quantity of dissolved calcium carbonate - not how it was assumed to happen in the past. The lime scale deposits that will eventually bring a washing machine to a standstill are created from these tiny chalk particles. http://www.physorg.com/news151930674.html Physics Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:58:50 EST news151930674 Tiny disk-shaped lasers as small as a speck of dust could one day beam information through optical computers. Unfortunately, a perfect disk will spray light out, not as a beam, but in all directions. New theoretical results, reported in the Optical Society (OSA) journal Optics Letters, explain how adding a small notch to the disk edge provides a single outlet for laser light to stream out. http://www.physorg.com/news151859217.html Physics Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:07:32 EST news151859217 Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Germany, determined the structure of a protein (L1ORF1p), which is encoded by a parasitic genetic element and which is responsible for its mobility. http://www.physorg.com/news151595636.html Biology Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:54:36 EST news151595636 (PhysOrg.com) -- It has a beautiful, but also an unpleasant side: crystallization determines the shape of precious stones, but also causes the lime scale in washing machines. How this comes about, has been known for a long time - or has it? http://www.physorg.com/news150998079.html Chemistry Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:54:39 EST news150998079 Animal species that sleep for longer do not suffer as much from parasite infestation and have a greater concentration of immune cells in their blood according to a study published in the open-access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news150695460.html Biology Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:51:00 EST news150695460