News Articles

Traditional peer review is not enough to ensure data quality amid the recent boom in scientific research findings and open access places to publish them, according to results of a 10-year collaboration between the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and five technical journals.

An archaeological dig on Jerusalem's Mount Zion has revealed the well-preserved lower levels of what the archaeological team believes is an Early Roman period mansion from the first century AD, possibly belonging to a member of the Jewish priestly caste, which may yield significant domestic details about the rulers of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus.
Particularly important in the discoveries were a buried vaulted chamber that has proven to be an unusual finished bathroom (with bathtub) adjacent to a large below-ground ritual cleansing pool (mikveh) -- only the fourth bathroom to be found in Israel from the Second Temple period, with two of the others found in palaces of Herod the Great at Jericho and Masada.

Researchers are reporting the first experimental determination of the weak charge of the proton, one of the four fundamental forces in our universe, along with gravity, electromagnetism and the strong force.
Although the weak force acts only on the sub-atomic level, we can see its effects in our everyday world. The weak force plays a key role in the nuclear reaction processes that take place in stars and is responsible for much of the natural radiation present in our universe. 

A team reports that they have shown scientifically what many women report anecdotally: that the breast cancer drug tamoxifen is toxic to cells of the brain and central nervous system, producing mental fogginess similar to "chemo brain."
Although tamoxifen is relatively benign compared to most cancer treatments, it nonetheless produces troubling side effects in a subset of the large number of people who take it. The good news is they also report they've discovered an existing drug compound that appears to counteract or rescue brain cells from the adverse effects of the breast cancer drug.

Philosophers and scientists have long puzzled over where human imagination comes from - in other words, what makes humans able to create art, invent tools, think scientifically and perform other incredibly diverse behaviors?

Atmospheric levels of carbon monoxide (CO) in the 1950s were actually slightly higher than what we have today, according to  a first-ever study of air trapped in the deep snowpack of Greenland - results that contradict current computer model predictions that there are much higher CO concentrations over Greenland today than in 1950.
In a new paper, Vasilii Petrenko, an assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, concluded that CO levels rose slightly from 1950 until the 1970s, then declined strongly to present-day values. This finding contradicts computer models that had calculated a 40 percent overall increase in CO levels over the same period.

The brain's structure may predict whether a person will suffer chronic lower back pain, according to researchers who used brain scans and say the results support the growing idea that the brain plays a critical role in chronic pain, a concept that may lead to changes in the way doctors treat patients.

A new citizen science project allows you to explore the open ocean from the comfort of your home. You can 'dive' hundreds of feet deep, and observe the unperturbed ocean and the myriad animals that inhabit the earth's last frontier.
The goal of the project is to enlist volunteers to classify millions of underwater images to study plankton diversity, distribution and behavior in the open ocean - even cheaper labor than post-docs. 

Young women with breast cancer often overestimate the odds that cancer will occur in their other, healthy breast, and decide to have the healthy breast surgically removed - a procedure known as a contralateral prophylactic mastectomy, the removal of a nonaffected breast in a woman with unilateral breast cancer -- despite knowing it will be unlikely to improve their chance of survival.
The survey results show a certain disconnect between what many patients know on an abstract, intellectual level -- that CPM has little impact on survival rates for most women -- and the choices they make after receiving the anxiety-inducing diagnosis of breast cancer, the authors say; better safe than sorry.

A small pilot study has found that changes in diet, exercise and stress management may result in longer telomeres, the parts of chromosomes that affect aging - the first controlled trial to show that any intervention might lengthen telomeres over time.
Telomeres are the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes that affect how quickly cells age. They are combinations of DNA and protein that protect the ends of chromosomes and help them remain stable. As they become shorter, and as their structural integrity weakens, the cells age and die quicker.
In recent years, shorter telomeres have become associated with a broad range of aging-related diseases, including many forms of cancer, stroke, vascular dementia, cardiovascular disease, obesity, osteoporosis and diabetes.

A new paper has found that vaccinating cattle against the E. coli O157 bacterium could cut the number of human cases of the disease by 85%.
The bacteria, which cause severe gastrointestinal illness and death in humans, are spread by consuming contaminated food and water, or by contact with livestock feces in the environment. Cattle are the main reservoir for the bacterium. The vaccines that are available for cattle are rarely used.
The study used veterinary, human and molecular data to examine the risks of E. coli O157 transmission from cattle to humans, and to estimate the impact of vaccinating cattle.

Researchers at Université Pierre et Marie Curie in France have unveiled a new technique that allows microscope users to manipulate samples using a technology known as haptic optical tweezers.
The new technique allows users to explore the microworld by sensing and exerting piconewton-scale forces with trapped microspheres with the haptic optical tweezers, allowing improved dexterity of micromanipulation and micro-assembly.