News Articles

The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil spill dumped more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico yet government assessments have been unable to account for all of it.
Microbes likely processed most of the oil within months of the spill, but not all of it. A new hypothesis suggests the oil acted as a catalyst for plankton and other surface materials to clump together and fall to the sea floor in a massive sedimentation event - what they have termed a "dirty blizzard."

On Jupiter, cloudless patches are so rare that the larger visible ones get the special name 'hot spots.'
How do these clearings form and why they are they only found near the planet's equator?
It's a mystery, by Jove, but using images from the Cassini spacecraft, scientists have found new evidence that hot spots in Jupiter's atmosphere are created by a Rossby wave, a pattern also seen in Earth's atmosphere and oceans. The team found the wave responsible for the hot spots glides up and down through layers of the atmosphere like a carousel horse on a merry-go-round.

How does the human brain 'decodes' letters on a page to read a word?
Psychologists are trying to help neuroscientists unravel the subtle thinking mechanisms involved in reading, which could provide solutions for helping people who find it difficult to read, like dyslexics.
In order to read successfully, readers need not only to identify the letters in words, but also to accurately code the positions of those letters, so that they can distinguish words like CAT and ACT. At the same time, however, it's clear that raeders can dael wtih wodrs in wihch not all teh leettrs aer in thier corerct psotiions.

A team of international scientist has made the most detailed examination yet of the atmosphere of a Jupiter-size like planet beyond our solar system. 

Poverty and under-education dampen contraception use in Nepal but another factor may be more intractable: Deeply held cultural preferences for sons over daughters.
The cross-sectional study was based on data from the 2011 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, which found that only one in five married adolescent and young women used modern contraception. Rates were lowest among women who resided in rural areas, lacked education or social status, were married as minors or had no sons.

Coffee may help lower your risk of having a stroke, especially if it is a regular part of your diet, according to research published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Green tea also, though it's unclear how green tea affects stroke risks. A compound group known as catechins may provide some protection. Catechins have an antioxidant anti-inflammatory effect, increasing plasma antioxidant capacity and anti-thrombogenic effects.  Some chemicals in coffee include chlorogenic acid, thus cutting stroke risks by lowering the chances of developing type 2 diabetes.

Terahertz (THz) radiation, in the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared light, is rapidly finding important uses in medical diagnostics, security, and scientific research. 
But researchers are pursuing answers regarding potential human health risks. 

CITES today overruled objections from countries like Japan, China and India and listed five species of highly traded sharks under the CITES Appendices, along with both manta rays and one species of sawfish. 
Japan, India and Gambia challenged the Committee's desire to list the oceanic whitetip shark, while Grenada and China objected to listing three hammerhead species. 
Proponents of the various listing proposals include the USA, the EU, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ecuador, Egypt, Honduras and Mexico. The shark and ray proposals received more than the two-thirds majority of votes necessary for adoption while the sawfish listing succeeded by consensus. 

Do people form into tribe-like communities on social network sites such as Twitter?

BANGKOK -- March 14, 2013 -- The following statement was issued today by WCS President and CEO Cristian Samper:

 Schizophrenia is thought to have a substantial genetic background which is also, to some extent, population-specific. Genome-wide searches have revealed many numerous genomic variants with weak effects, but the remaining 'missing heritability' is unknown. Scientists hypothesize that it may be partly explained by rare variants with large effect.  
Since the 1960s, biologists have been hunting for substances made by the body that might accumulate in abnormally high levels to produce the symptoms associated with schizophrenia. In particular, there was a search for chemicals that might be related to the hallucinogens phencyclidine (PCP) or lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which could explain the emergence of psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia.

The administration of therapeutic antibodies via injection is becoming an increasingly popular treatment method for a growing number diseases and indications having broad implications for patient health and well-being. 
The inherent instability of protein drugs has led to a number of challenges as the developers of injectable antibodies attempt to deal with packaging, handling, reconstitution and drug administration issues. These challenges are being compounded by the trend to patient self-medication, as population demographics and efforts by managed care providers to control healthcare costs drive the growth in drug self-administration, particularly for chronic conditions. This trend is introducing a new class of naive users to parenteral drug delivery.