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 wide-ranging study of big cat skulls, led by Oxford University scientists, has shown that tigers have bigger brains, relative to their body size, than lions, leopards or jaguars. http://www.physorg.com/news171216122.html Biology Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:02:37 EST news171216122 Body mass index (BMI) readings may not be the best gauge of obesity in older adults, according to new research from UCLA endocrinologists and geriatricians. Instead, they say, the ratio of waist size to hip size may be a better indicator when it comes to those over 70. http://www.physorg.com/news171035938.html Medicine & Health Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:59:40 EST news171035938 (PhysOrg.com) -- Thin friends who eat a lot could put your waistline in danger. That`s the warning from researchers studying how other people`s weight and food choices influence how much we eat. http://www.physorg.com/news170356793.html Medicine & Health Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:20:20 EST news170356793 (PhysOrg.com) -- Yale University researchers have discovered how a protein within most cell membranes helps maintain normal cell size, a breakthrough in basic biology that has implications for a variety of diseases such as sickle cell anemia and disorders of the nervous system. http://www.physorg.com/news168788102.html Biology Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:36:25 EST news168788102 It seems like common sense that an information leaflet for vision loss would have large print and appropriate contrast, but that's not the case a new study done at the University of Alberta has found. http://www.physorg.com/news168770029.html Medicine & Health Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:34:28 EST news168770029 Genetic evidence is revealing that human populations began to expand in size in Africa during the Late Stone Age approximately 40,000 years ago. A research team led by Michael F. Hammer (Arizona Research Laboratory's Division of Biotechnology at the University of Arizona) found that sub-Saharan populations increased in size well before the development of agriculture. http://www.physorg.com/news168072172.html Biology Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:43:30 EST news168072172 (PhysOrg.com) -- Taller men are able to earn more money than their shorter counterparts simply because taller people are perceived to be more intelligent and powerful, this according to a study published in The Economic Record by Wiley-Blackwell. http://www.physorg.com/news166721834.html Other Sciences Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:37:32 EST news166721834 Southern Elephant seals responded rapidly to climate and habitat change and established a new breeding site thousands of kilometres from existing breeding grounds, according to new research. http://www.physorg.com/news166425287.html Biology Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:30:01 EST news166425287 Male seahorses have a clear agenda when it comes to selecting a mating partner: to increase their reproductive success. By being choosy and preferring large females, they are likely to have more and bigger eggs, as well as bigger offspring, according to Beat Mattle and Tony Wilson from the Zoological Museum at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. Their findings have just been published online in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. http://www.physorg.com/news166187324.html Biology Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:30:01 EST news166187324 (PhysOrg.com) -- Milder winters are causing Scotland's wild breed of Soay sheep to get smaller, despite the evolutionary benefits of possessing a large body, according to new research due to be published in this week's Science Express (2 July). http://www.physorg.com/news165762932.html Biology Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:15:56 EST news165762932 When it comes to characteristics associated with muscle dysmorphia, there is no difference between bodybuilders who use steroids and those who do not, a University of Arkansas researcher found. http://www.physorg.com/news165508297.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:20:01 EST news165508297 (PhysOrg.com) -- For millions of years, dinosaurs have been considered the largest creatures ever to walk on land. While they still maintain this status, a new study suggests that some dinosaurs may actually have weighed as little as half as much as previously thought. http://www.physorg.com/news165147675.html Other Sciences Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:21:56 EST news165147675 For the past 2 million years, the size of the human brain has tripled, growing much faster than other mammals. Examining the reasons for human brain expansion, University of Missouri researchers studied three common hypotheses for brain growth: climate change, ecological demands and social competition. The team found that social competition is the major cause of increased cranial capacity. http://www.physorg.com/news164901829.html Biology Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:04:42 EST news164901829 Two Mayo Clinic patients whose prostate cancer had been considered inoperable are now cancer free thanks in part to an experimental drug therapy that was used in combination with standardized hormone treatment and radiation therapy. The men were participating in a clinical trial of an immunotherapeutic agent called MDX-010 or ipilimumab. In these two cases, physicians say the approach initiated the death of a majority of cancer cells and caused the tumors to shrink dramatically, allowing surgery. In both cases, the aggressive tumors had grown well beyond the prostate into the abdominal areas. http://www.physorg.com/news164641955.html Medicine & Health Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:52:51 EST news164641955 Are the cognitively superior brains of humans, in part, responsible for our higher rates of cancer? That's a question that has nagged at John McDonald, chair of Georgia Tech's School of Biology and chief research scientist at the Ovarian Cancer Institute, for a while. Now, after an initial study, it seems that McDonald is on to something. The new study is available online in the journal Medical Hypothesis and will appear in the forthcoming issue of the journal. http://www.physorg.com/news163844146.html Medicine & Health Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:16:18 EST news163844146 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 New research from two evolutionary biologists questions the recent finding that sociality has played a key role in the evolution of larger brain size among several orders of mammals (Social Brain Hypothesis). Their sweeping analysis of many living and fossil carnivore species that places relative places brain size increase in an evolutionary context and finds that increased brain size is not routinely associated with sociality. http://www.physorg.com/news162490940.html Biology Mon, 25 May 2009 17:23:00 EST news162490940 New research findings could lead to faster, smaller and more versatile computer chips. A team of scientists and engineers from Stanford, the University of Florida and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is the first to create one of two basic types of semiconductors using an exotic, new, one-atom-thick material called graphene. http://www.physorg.com/news160925180.html Nanotechnology Thu, 07 May 2009 14:26:54 EST news160925180 A detailed analysis of the feet of Homo floresiensis -the miniature hominins who lived on a remote island in eastern Indonesia until 18,000 years ago -- may help settle a question hotly debated among paleontologists: how similar was this population to modern humans? A new research paper, featured on the cover of the current issue of Nature, may answer this question. While the so-called "hobbits" walked on two legs, several features of their feet were so primitive that their gait was not efficient. http://www.physorg.com/news160834618.html Other Sciences Wed, 06 May 2009 13:17:29 EST news160834618 Many of Washington State's sea otters are exposed to the same pathogens responsible for causing disease in marine mammal populations in other parts of the country, according to a study published by researchers from NOAA's Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and their partners. http://www.physorg.com/news160833458.html Biology Wed, 06 May 2009 13:04:06 EST news160833458 As people become more educated, studies have demonstrated that they tend to choose foods that are lower in calories but higher in nutrients. They also pay more. In a study published in the May 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, researchers from the University of Washington compared the eating habits and food costs of a sample of 164 adults in the Seattle, Washington area. http://www.physorg.com/news160376511.html Medicine & Health Fri, 01 May 2009 06:02:14 EST news160376511 Walnut consumption may provide the body with essential omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and phytosterols that reduce the risk of breast cancer, according to a study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research 100th Annual Meeting 2009. http://www.physorg.com/news159546697.html Medicine & Health Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:34:26 EST news159546697 Large size and a fast bite spelled doom for bony fishes during the last mass extinction 65 million years ago, according to a new study to be published March 31, 2009, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.physorg.com/news157294064.html Biology Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:48:46 EST news157294064 Researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health examined the association of neighborhood food environments and "walkability" with body mass index (BMI) and obesity in New York City and found that a higher density of BMI-healthy food outlets is associated with a lower BMI and lower prevalence of obesity. BMI-unhealthy food stores and restaurants -- although far more abundant than healthy ones -- were not significantly associated with higher BMI or prevalence of obesity. The findings are published in the March 2009 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. http://www.physorg.com/news156693412.html Medicine & Health Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:58:10 EST news156693412 (PhysOrg.com) -- Somewhere out there in the ocean, SpongeBob SquarePants has a teeny-tiny cousin and a humongous uncle. http://www.physorg.com/news156540818.html Biology Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:34:15 EST news156540818 Trousers have to be tried on - the variation between size labeling and actual clothing size is huge. This is shown by the report "Large? Clothing sizes and size labeling", which looks at the relationship between clothing sizes and the actual clothing measurements as well as consumers' views on and experiences of this. http://www.physorg.com/news156512563.html Other Sciences Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:43:12 EST news156512563 A new University of Florida study could help resolve a long-standing debate in shark paleontology: From which line of species did the modern great white shark evolve? http://www.physorg.com/news156097789.html Other Sciences Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:33:24 EST news156097789 Whitehead Institute researchers have pinpointed a cellular pathway that determines whether cancerous tumors respond to dietary restriction during their development. http://www.physorg.com/news156000728.html Medicine & Health Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:32:51 EST news156000728 Physicists at the Laboratory of Physics and Mechanics of Heterogeneous Media (CNRS / Université Paris Diderot / ESPCI ParisTech / Université Pierre et Marie Curie) have shown, in collaboration with scientists from the US and Algeria, that the size of giant dunes is controlled by the depth of the atmospheric convective boundary layer. More specifically, the physicists have shown that such dunes grow through the accumulation of small superimposed dunes, and that their growth is limited by interaction with a part of the atmosphere called the inversion layer, which confines wind flow around the dunes. These findings are published in the 26 February 2009 issue of the journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news155400032.html Physics Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:41:10 EST news155400032 (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