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GJ 1214b: Astronomers Characterize Atmosphere Of Exoplanet Super-Earth For The First Time

GJ 1214b: Astronomers Characterize Atmosphere Of Exoplanet Super-Earth For The First Time

If you were a weather forecaster for exoplanet GJ 1214b you would have an easy job. Today's forecast: cloudy. Tomorrow: cloudy. Extended outlook: more clouds.
Determining the weather on a distant planet around another star hasn't really been possible before. 
GJ 1214b is classified as a super-Earth type planet because its mass is intermediate between those of Earth and Neptune. Super-Earths like GJ 1214b are among the most common type of planets in the Milky Way galaxy but because no such planets exist in our Solar System, the physical nature of super-Earths is largely unknown.

Deeper Updrafts: New Cloud Simulation Leads To Estimate Of 4°C Rise In Global Temperatures By 2100

Deeper Updrafts: New Cloud Simulation Leads To Estimate Of 4°C Rise In Global Temperatures By 2100

A new paper in Nature estimates that global average temperatures will rise at least 4°C by 2100 and potentially more than 8°C by 2200 if carbon dioxide emissions worldwide are not reduced -  due to a reestimate of the great unknowns of climate sensitivity, the role of cloud formation and whether this will have a positive or negative effect on global warming.
This new higher estimate was created using real world observations of water vapor in cloud formation. 

Fewer Killing Frosts Are Good For Mangrove Forests, Bad For Salt Marshes

Fewer Killing Frosts Are Good For Mangrove Forests, Bad For Salt Marshes

While the number of killing frosts in southern Florida has remained unchanged since 1984, the number a short distance away declined enough that researchers are implicating global warming, and noted that the expansion of cold-sensitive mangrove forests along Florida's Atlantic Coast has led to them edging out salt marshes.
What happens when one ecosystem replaces another? Happens all of the time, of course, and has throughout history. But it's impossible to predict the result. People who live there are not complaining, though researchers up north are concerned.

ACA Downside: Medicaid Patients Use Emergency Rooms Due To Lack Of Alternatives, And That Will Get Worse

ACA Downside: Medicaid Patients Use Emergency Rooms Due To Lack Of Alternatives, And That Will Get Worse

An analysis from the University of Colorado School of Medicine shows patients with Medicaid insurance seeking care in an emergency department may be driven by lack of alternatives instead of the severity of their illness.
With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, millions of new patients will be enrolled in Medicaid and added to an already overburdened primary care system. 

Autophagy Is Reduced In The Brains Of Schizophrenic Patients

Autophagy Is Reduced In The Brains Of Schizophrenic Patients

When it comes to the brain, there is very little science. fMRI imaging is subjective and pop psychology concepts even more so. Even when it comes to medical conditions, like schizophrenia, little is known. Its causes are unknown, there there is no objective test for it, and its diagnosis is based on an assortment of reported symptoms - and symptom-based diagnosis got replaced in most of medicine by the 1950s. The standard treatment, anti-psychotic medication, works less in less than half of those with a diagnosis and becomes increasingly ineffective over time.

Imaging Technology Could Unlock Mysteries Of Childhood Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Imaging Technology Could Unlock Mysteries Of Childhood Respiratory Syncytial Virus

By the time they turn two, most children have had respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and suffered symptoms no worse than a bad cold.
Yet for some children, especially premature babies and those with underlying health conditions, RSV can lead to pneumonia and bronchitis, hospitalization and have long-term consequences.

Hybrid Vigor: Genetic Modification Could Lead To Much Better Tomato Yields

Hybrid Vigor: Genetic Modification Could Lead To Much Better Tomato Yields

If you have been to a tomato farm, you know that commercial tomato plants have a very different look from the backyard garden variety. Rather than being tall and lanky plants, tomatoes that will be canned for sauces and juice are harvested from plants that stop growing earlier than classic tomato varieties and are more like bushes. The architecture of these compact bushy plants allows mechanical harvesters to reap the crop, but the early end of growth means that each plant produces fewer fruits than their home garden cousins.

Environmentalists Resist Plan To Delist Gray Wolf As Endangered

Environmentalists Resist Plan To Delist Gray Wolf As Endangered

The federal government's proposal to discontinue protection for the gray wolf across the United States could have the unintended consequence of endangering other species, insist academics who don't actually live in places where wolves are running wild, threatening animals and people.

Fructose Has No Special Impact On Indicator Of Cardiovascular Disease

Fructose Has No Special Impact On Indicator Of Cardiovascular Disease

In the last few years it became popular to sell health books blaming fructose for obesity and, more recently, to blame all sugars. Pancake syrup bottle today highlight that they have no high fructose corn syrup on giant labels, while the first ingredient is still corn syrup - which is still fructose, just in random rather than precise amounts.
A new study found that fructose does not have any impact on an emerging marker for the risk of cardiovascular disease known as postprandial triglycerides - beyond the general impact of eating a lot of calories, anyway, but that applies to all foods.

How Persistent Bacteria Avoid Antibiotics

How Persistent Bacteria Avoid Antibiotics

Some bacteria achieve resistance to antibiotics through mutation but other types of bacteria, known as 'persistent' bacteria, are not resistant to the antibiotics but simply continue to exist in a dormant or inactive state while exposed to antibacterial treatment.  These bacteria later 'awaken' when that treatment is over, resuming their work.It was known that there is a connection between these kind of bacteria and the naturally occurring toxin HipA in the bacteria, but scientists did not know the cellular target of this toxin and how its activity triggers dormancy of the bacteria.