News Articles

Researchers at the University of Leeds have found that a compound known as pyrophosphite may have been an important energy source for primitive lifeforms.The findings, published in the journal Chemical Communications, are the first to suggest that pyrophosphite may have been relevant in the shift from basic chemistry to complex biology when life on earth began. Since completing this research, the authors have found even further evidence for the importance of this molecule and plan to further investigate its role in abiogenesis - how life on Earth emerged from inanimate matter billions of years ago.

Scientists from the University of Alabama, Huntsille have developed a new way to use satellite instruments to measure surface temperatures over most of the world's land area. The new technique developed by Dr. Roy Spencer and Dr. Danny Braswell, both research scientists in the Earth System Science Center at The University of Alabama in Huntsville, uses microwave sensors on NOAA and NASA satellites to collect surface temperature data over virtually all of Earth's land area.They say they hope the new system will provide a stable method for monitoring climate change without some of the problems associated with the existing network of surface thermometers.

A team of archaeologists has captured a snapshot of rural life in the village of Sanyangzhuang in western China during the Han Dynasty, over 2,000 years ago.Researchers found that the town, though located in a remote section of the Han Dynasty kingdom, appears quite well off. Exploration has revealed tiled roofs, compounds with brick foundations, eight-meter deep wells lined with bricks, toilets, cart and human foot tracks, roads and trees.There is an abundance of metal tools, including plow shares, as well as grinding stones and coins. Also found have been fossilized impressions of mulberry leaves, which researchers see as a sign of silk cultivation.

Scientists from the University of California, Berekley have captured images of a comet diving into the sun.Using instruments aboard NASA's twin STEREO spacecraft, the researchers were able to track the comet as it approached the sun and estimate an approximate time and place of impact. STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) was launched in 2006 and consists of identical spacecraft orbiting the sun, one ahead of Earth and one behind Earth, providing a stereo view of the sun.After tracking the comet, the team studied data from the ground-based Mauna Loa Solar Observatory in Hawaii, and found images in the predicted spot of what appears to be a comet approaching the edge of the sun from behind the solar disk.

If you want boost your romantic relationship, and achieve and maintain satisfaction with your partner, show some gratitude.Positive thinking has been shown to have a longstanding constructive effect on our emotional life. Extending these positive emotions and gratitude to our romantic partners can increase the benefit of positive thinking tenfold, say the authors of a new study in Personal Relationships. 

The 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks effected Americans in many ways, even those not directly involved. Now researchers claim that the stress caused by psychological shock from the attacks may have led to an increased number of male children being miscarried in the US. The authors of a new paper in BMC Public Health found that the fetal death rate for boys spiked in September 2001, and that significantly fewer boys than expected were born in December of that year.

Moderate alcohol consumption may prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease, especially if you avoid tobacco, according to a new study in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. The effect was strongest in women, the study's authors say.

A new study published in Genome Research has identified intrinsic properties of DNA that influence mutation rate, shedding light on an area of biology that still needs to be investigated - the mechanisms involved in genome maintenance .Some DNA mutations are subject to natural selection, either conferring a biological advantage that is selected for, or a negative effect that is selected against. Mutations not under selection are said to be neutral, and the rate at which neutral mutations accumulate is reflective of the true DNA mutation rate. Researchers can estimate this mutation rate by comparing neutrally evolving sequences in species that share a common ancestor.

Male antelopes, observed in southwest Kenya, send a false signal that a predator is nearby only when females in heat are in their territories. When the females react to the signal, they remain in the territory long enough for some males to fit in a quick mating opportunity.The signal in this case, an alarm snort, is not a warning to other antelopes to beware, but instead tells a predator that it has been seen and lost its element of surprise, the researchers found.

A major earthquake, comparable to the one that hit Chile earlier this year, could strike the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States, Oregon State geologists say.There is more than a one-in-three chance that it will happen within the next 50 years.The team's new analysis has provided fresh insights into the Northwest's turbulent seismic history – where magnitude 8.2 (or higher) earthquakes have occurred 41 times during the past 10,000 years. Those earthquakes were thought to generally occur every 500 years, but as scientists delve more deeply into the offshore sediments and other evidence, they have discovered a great deal more complexity to the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), The Nile Delta Basic holds an estimated 223 trillion cubic feet (tcf) (mean estimate) of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas.This is the first USGS assessment of this basin to identify potentially extractable resources. The USGS also recently completed an assessment of the adjacent Levant Basin Province, with a mean estimated natural gas endowment of 122 tcf.

Bone marrow cells play a critical role in fighting respiratory viruses, making the bone marrow a potential therapeutic target, especially in people with compromised immune systems, say researchers writing in Cell Host&Microbe. They have found that during infections of the respiratory tract, cells produced by the bone marrow are instructed by proteins to migrate to the lungs to help fight infection. The data are published in the current issue of.