News Articles

Changes in the Asian monsoon have affected emissions of methane from the Tibetan Plateau over the last 6,000 years, finds a new paper.The concentration of methane in the atmosphere has more than doubled over the past century, though it is very short lived compared to carbon dioxide and hasn't been considered much of a factor in climate change. Factors in methane levels include leaks from gas wells, increased rice cultivation and ruminant animals in the dairy and meat industry. It could also be caused partly by climate change feedbacks on natural processes, but that remains the subject of intense investigation. 

Researchers have developed a way to use windows for solar energy - without ruining your view.
The new technology is a solar concentrator, called a transparent luminescent solar concentrator, that is placed over the window and creates solar energy while still allowing people to see through it. The Michigan State University researchers say it can also be used on buildings, cell phones or any other device that has a flat, clear surface.
Attempts to create solar cells with luminescent plastic-like materials is not new but past efforts yielded poor results – the energy production was inefficient and the materials were highly colored.

Earth's magnetic field, a familiar directional indicator over long distances, is routinely probed in applications ranging from geology to archeology, and now it has provided the basis for a technique which could characterize the chemical composition of fluid mixtures in their native environments.
Researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory conducted a proof-of-concept nuclear magnetic resonance experiment in which a mixture of hydrocarbons and water was analyzed using a high-sensitivity magnetometer and a magnetic field comparable to that of the Earth.

Ruxolitinib (trade name: Jakavi) has been approved since August 2012 for the treatment of adults with myelofibrosis.
Myelofibrosis is a rare disease of the bone marrow, in which the bone marrow is replaced by connective tissue. As a consequence of this so-called fibrosis, the bone marrow is no longer able to produce enough blood cells. Sometimes the spleen or the liver takes over some of the blood production.  Then these organs enlarge and can cause abdominal discomfort and pain. The typical symptoms also include feeling of fullness, night sweats and itching. Some patients with myelofibrosis develop leukemia.
Stem cell transplantation is currently the only option to cure myelofibrosis. The drug ruxolitinib aims to relieve the symptoms of myelofibrosis.

Researchers have created highly focused pathways that can channel electricity through the atmosphere.It's not a new idea, Nikola Tesla worked on powering wireless lamps using electrostatic induction, but the new technique can potentially direct electricity up to 30 feet away, shattering previous distance records. It may also finally put us on the path to channeling lightning with laser power. 

Survey results of over 10,000 mothers have led sociologists to conclude that women who breastfed their babies are at significantly lower risk of postnatal depression than those who do not.The paper in Maternal and Child Health notes that mothers who planned to breastfeed and who actually went on to breastfeed were around 50% less likely to become depressed than mothers who had not planned to, and who did not, breastfeed. Mothers who planned to breastfeed, but who did not go on to breastfeed, were over twice as likely to become depressed as mothers who had not planned to, and who did not, breastfeed.

A new captured by the Wide Field Imager at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile shows two dramatic star formation regions in the southern Milky Way. On the left is the star cluster NGC 3603, located 20,000 light-years away in the Carina–Sagittarius spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. On the right, about half as far from Earth, is a collection of glowing gas clouds known as NGC 3576.Both were discovered by English astronomer John Herschel in 1834, during his three-year expedition to systematically survey the southern skies from near Cape Town. He described NGC 3603 as a remarkable object and thought that it might be a globular star cluster. Future studies showed that it is not an old globular, but a young open cluster, one of the richest known.

The antibiotic clarithromycin is widely used for treating common bacterial infections and has been linked to an increased risk of heart deaths by a study on BMJ.
The absolute risk is small and prescribing practice should not be changed until results have been confirmed in an independent study but the authors say their findings require urgent confirmation, given that many millions of people are prescribed the drug each year. 

If you were a 1990s protester in a developed nation, you probably hate the idea of globalization, though democratization of culture and wealth have clearly been very good things. Globalization used to be controversial but by now no one sentient really thinks cultures that condone rape and stoning of women should be preserved.Cloud computing will take that globalization to the next level, because it is a key enhancer of innovation and economic development - and it gives groups without giant budgets for hardware a way to compete, just like food science that lets crops grow in inhospitable climes saves lives.

Water has been detected on Mars
in the form of permafrost and there is strong evidence that liquid water was a major component of the martian surface in the past.Clays are an important mineral group for discovering the past on Mars, not only to the presence of water, since clays are hydrous minerals, but they also provide clues as to the source, type, and volume of fluids, along with indications of timescale and mineral alteration. If you are going to search for textural and chemical biosignatures, clay is a good place to start.

A recent study analyzed concentrations of African dust transported to South America and finds large seasonal peaks in winter and spring, which provides new insight into the overall human health and air quality impacts of African dust, including climate change-induced human health effects.
Researchers analyzed the dust concentrations in aerosol samples from two locations, French Guiana's capital city Cayenne and the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe, to understand the amount, source regions, and seasonal patterns of airborne dust that travels across the North Atlantic Ocean.

The drug perampanel (trade name Fycompa) has been approved since July of 2012 as an adjunctive ("add-on") therapy for adults and children aged 12 years and older with seizures - colloquially also known as epileptic fits.
In a new early benefit assessment, according to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether perampanel offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy.