News Articles

It took less than a decade for native rats to become extinct on the Indian Ocean's previously uninhabited Christmas Island once Eurasian black rats jumped ship onto the island at the turn of the 20th century. But this story is more than the typical tale of direct competition: according to new genetic research published in PLoS One, black rats carried a pathogen that exterminated two endemic species, Rattus macleari and R. nativitatis. This study is the first to demonstrate extinction in a mammal because of disease, supporting the hypothesis proposed a decade ago that "hyperdisease conditions"—unusually rapid mortality from which a species never recovers—can lead to extinction. 

Any time science  terms become colloquial, it leads to problems.    How often does someone make a speculation and call it a 'theory'?   Cars supposedly 'evolve' if their advertising is true.    And 'junk DNA' means 'useless' if you ask many outside biology.   But 'junk' DNA does not mean 'no value' and a new paper published in Genome Research on Nov. 4 reaffirm that.  Scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) report that what was previously believed to be "junk" DNA is one of the important ingredients distinguishing humans from other species.

It seems that our brain can correct speech errors in the same way that it controls other forms of behavior, say Niels Schiller and Lesya Ganushchak, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) researchers in Leiden who made this discovery while studying how the brain reacts to verbal errors. This research can contribute to improvements in the treatment of people who have problems with speaking or in understanding language. 

The Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados en Nanociencia (IMDEA Nanoscience) and the University of Hamburg have collaborated on the development of composite materials based on semiconductor nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes as functional materials for efficient light emitting diodes and photovoltaic devices. Semiconductor nanocrystals, also called quantum dots, exhibit outstanding optical properties compared to organic dyes commonly used in research today.

In the near future it will be possible to customize the food we eat  based on the genetic profile of the individual. Dutch researcher Amber Ronteltap suggests that the consumer market is not yet ready for this so-called nutrigenomics. Ronteltap concludes that many obstacles must be overcome before products based on nutrigenomics become a reality. Nutrigenomics is a discipline that investigates the correlation between nutrients and the human genome. This area of science can contribute to public health and disease prevention by providing individuals with advice on specific adaptations in their nutrient regime. This form of personalised nutrition joins the bandwagon of broader marketing trends to develop products more tailored to the individual. 

Hydrogen is an ideal solution for cars of the future.   The problem remains storage.   People have a range they want to go (300 miles) before an automobile enhancement can become commercially acceptable.  With hydrogen, that means carrying a tank the size of the car itself or compressing the hydrogen, which has unacceptable safety risks.Dutch-sponsored researcher Robin Gremaud has shown that an alloy of the metals magnesium, titanium and nickel is excellent at absorbing hydrogen.   A hydrogen 'tank' using this alloy would have a relative weight that is sixty percent less than a battery pack. In order to find the best alloy Gremaud developed a method which enabled simultaneous testing of thousands of samples of different metals for their capacity to absorb hydrogen.

A robot rover designed by a Bremen university team has won an ESA contest to retrieve soil samples from a lunar-style terrestrial crater. Eight student teams fielded rovers during the event, their progress monitored by an advanced 3-D viewer already flight-tested in space and planned for eventual deployment on the Moon. Craters surrounding the Moon's poles are a top 21st Century science target. Lunar researchers believe these craters may be 'cold traps', preserving ancient water ice deposits. Such ice would not only be an invaluable time capsule, it would also support manned lunar settlements. But the only way to verify the ice is there is to go fetch it, which is where rovers come in. 

Researchers at the University of Virginia Health System report that a daily single oral dose of an investigational drug, MK-677, increased muscle mass in the arms and legs of healthy older adults without serious side effects, suggesting that it may prove safe and effective in reducing age-related frailty.Published in the November 4, 2008 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, the study showed that levels of growth hormone (GH) and of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF- I) in seniors who took MK-677 increased to those found in healthy young adults. The drug restored 20 percent of muscle mass loss associated with normal aging.

A Harvard-based study led by Drs. Gottfried Schlaug and Ellen Winner and published in PLoS ONE  has found that children who study a musical instrument for at least three years outperform children with no instrumental training on tests measuring verbal ability and visual pattern completion, skills not normally associated with music, along with tests of auditory discrimination and finger dexterity, which are traditionally skills honed by the study of a musical instrument. 

A team led by a Montana State University professor has found a fungus that produces a new type of diesel fuel, which they say holds great promise.  Calling the fungus' output "myco-diesel," Gary Strobel and his collaborators describe their initial observations in the November issue of Microbiology.The discovery may offer an alternative to fossil fuels, said Strobel, MSU professor of plant sciences and plant pathology. The find is even bigger, he said, than his 1993 discovery of fungus that contained the anticancer drug taxol.

According to the international space agencies, 'space weather' like radiation from the sun and cosmic rays in a solar storm, is the single greatest obstacle to deep space travel.  New research out today in Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion shows how knowledge gained from the pursuit of nuclear fusion research may reduce the threat to acceptable levels, making man's first mission to Mars a much greater possibility.The solar energetic particles, although just part of the 'cosmic rays' spectrum, are of greatest concern because they are the most likely to cause deadly radiation damage to the astronauts.

Take a close look at that cheap piece of scrap iron before you toss it in the trash.  Wei-xian Zhang has a good use for it. Someday soon, much of the world might also.  Zhang, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, recently concluded a five-year research project in which he and his colleagues at Tongji University in Shanghai used two million pounds of iron to detoxify pollutants in industrial wastewater.