One of astronomy's big questions is why galaxies forming as recently as 1 billion years after the Big Bang contain so much dust. The leading hypothesis is that supernovae, stars that explode at the end of their lives, contain large amounts of metal-enriched material that, in turn, harbors key ingredients of dust, like silicon, iron and carbon.
Irvine, Calif., April 1, 2009 — UC Irvine pharmacological researchers have discovered that blocking a hormone related to hunger regulation can limit cocaine cravings. Their findings could herald a new approach to overcoming addiction.
Led by Shinjae Chung and Olivier Civelli, the study identified how the melanin-concentrating hormone works with dopamine in the brain's "pleasure center" to create an addictive response to cocaine use. The researchers further found that blocking MCH in these brain cells limited cocaine cravings.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Women's health is increasingly undervalued in conflicts over reproductive rights, including clashes based on moral objections under so-called conscience clauses, a new study by a University of Illinois legal expert found.
Beth Burkstrand-Reid says a review of recent reproductive rights cases shows that judges may shortchange women's health when it is pitted against other legal interests, such as religious freedom, potentially leading to rulings that could put health at risk.
"Judges may understandably be reluctant to decide who wins in a battle between religious freedom, doctor's rights and women's health," she said. "As a result, they may downplay women's health as an interest, and thus fail to fully consider it in their decisions."
COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y. (Wednesday, April 1, 2009) – Along with new cutting-edge methods, Cold Spring Harbor Protocols is home to an in-depth library of basic laboratory methods. The April issue (www.cshprotocols.org/TOCs/toc4_09.dtl) features two of these standard techniques.
AMES, Iowa -- As a major food source for much of the world, rice is one of the most important plants on earth.
Keeping it safe from disease has become, in part, the task of a group of three researchers from Iowa State University and one from Kansas State University.
The researchers are looking at two bacterial diseases of rice. The most costly is bacterial blight of rice, which is caused by a bacterium called Xanthomonas oryzae pathovar oryzae, and can diminish yield by up to 50 percent.
"This is the most important bacterial disease in rice, and in some areas, it is the most important rice disease of any kind," said Adam Bogdanove, an associate professor of plant pathology who is part of the ISU research team.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — New research from UC Davis Cancer Center shows that a protein called Muc4 may be the essential ingredient that allows breast cancer to spread to other organs and resist therapeutic treatment. The study, which appears in the April 1 issue of Cancer Research, is one of the first to characterize the role of Muc4 in the disease.
Kermit Carraway, senior author of the study, knew that Muc4 was not always expressed in primary breast cancer tumors, yet it could be present in lymph node metastases. He suspected that it may have a specialized function in the process of metastasis.
COLUMBIA, Mo. ¬— For years, researchers and physicians have known that infants' immune systems do not respond well to certain vaccines, thus the need for additional boosters as children develop. Now, in a new study from the University of Missouri, one researcher has found an explanation for that poor response. In the study, the MU scientist found evidence that the immune systems of newborns might require some time after birth to mature to a point where the benefits of vaccines can be fully realized.
In female cancer patients of reproductive age, radiation treatment directly to the ovaries should be avoided because there is a direct relationship between certain types of radiation therapy and fertility problems, according to a review in the April 1 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
Radiation therapy to the pelvic region can cause ovarian failure or result in damage that makes the uterus unable to accommodate the growth of a fetus. These effects are not a great concern to cancer patients past their reproductive years, but due to the growing number of pediatric and young-adult cancer survivors, these effects are increasingly relevant.
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Seeds of some tree species in the Panamanian tropical forest can survive for more than 30 years before germinating.
That is 10 times longer than most field botanists had believed.
Using the Lab's Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry to measure the amount of carbon 14 in seeds of the trees Croton billbergianus (Euphorbiaceae), Trema micrantha (Celtidaceae) and Zanthoxylum ekmannii (Rutaceae), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist Tom Brown and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign colleague James Dalling found that seeds survived in the soil for 38, 31 and 18 years, respectively.
Many longtime sailors have been mesmerized by the dazzling displays of green light often seen below the ocean surface in tropical seas. Now researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have uncovered key clues about the bioluminescent worms that produce the green glow and the biological mechanisms behind their light production.
It is not surprising that as our economy continues its freefall, we are feeling increasingly more stressed and worried. Many of us are feeling extreme unease about the security of our jobs and being able to make our next mortgage payment. However, according to a new report in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, stress could make our financial troubles even worse.
April 1, 2009 — (BRONX, NY) — Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have proposed a sweeping new theory of autism that suggests that the brains of people with autism are structurally normal but dysregulated, meaning symptoms of the disorder might be reversible.
The central tenet of the theory, published in the March issue of Brain Research Reviews, is that autism is a developmental disorder caused by impaired regulation of the locus coeruleus, a bundle of neurons in the brain stem that processes sensory signals from all areas of the body.
