Altitude in Biological News

Babies born to native high-altitude mothers have decreased risk of low birth weight

... more blood and oxygen to their fetuses at high altitude than do women of European descent. The study ... explain why babies of Andean descent born at high altitude weigh more than European babies born at altitude. ... The question of why babies born at high altitude are smaller is not an academic one. Low ...

US Air Force grant targets medical evacuation procedures

... by reduced oxygen levelsand altitude on patients recovering from traumatic injuries. ... researchers will test whether moving to an altitude of 8,000 feet increases the body's inflammatory ... to look at the effect of flight timing and altitude on the patient's inflammatory response but also ...

USF professor gives historical look at physiology and WWII air war

... in San Diego. His presentation is entitled High altitude physiology research and training platforms used ... physiologists during World War II: Innovative altitude chambers and high flying bomber aircraft. Dr. ... problems. These sealed chambers, also called high altitude chambers, mimic the low oxygen and low pressure ...

Elevated nitric oxide in blood is key to high altitude function for Tibetans

... a comparison of NO levels in the high and low altitude dwellers are reported in the article, Higher ... worlds leading researchers in the studies of high altitude adaptation in different populations in Ethiopia, ... data on sea-level populations living at high altitude would be needed to test that hypothesis, said ...

Scientists tackle mystery mountain illness

... are studying an illness known as HAPE (high altitude pulmonary oedema), which causes fluid to build up ... limited and sufferers need to descend from high altitude and see a doctor straight away. A major ... of the illness and the urgency of reducing altitude and seeking medical treatment. It may also be ...

Venus Express reboots the search for active volcanoes on Venus

... works only in the more tenuous upper atmosphere, above the clouds at an altitude of 7090 km. In the space of a few days, the quantity of sulphur dioxide in ... in the lower atmosphere. With VIRTIS, we monitor sulphur dioxide at an altitude of 3540 km, and we have seen no change larger than 40% on a global scale ...

Ozone intrusions -- humankind's fault?

... events are associated with relatively sudden changes in the altitude of the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere (called the tropopause), which is usually found at an altitude of eight to 12 kilometres. We often blame humankind for the problems ...

SRI International announces findings from new upper atmospheric radar system for scientific research

... the first detailed investigation of the common horizontal and vertical structures of radar and optical mesospheric clouds. These are the highest altitude clouds, which form in the mesopause, the coldest part of the Earth's atmosphere. These high-altitude clouds may be an indicator for global climate ...

Genome projects launched for three extreme-environment animals

... taxonomy, and reproduction. The Tibetan antelope is native to the Tibetan plateau in China, and inhabits alpine meadow and desert regions at an altitude of 3,500-5,500 meters above sea level. The Tibetan antelope is the only extant species in the Pantholops genus. It has been evolutionarily isolated ...

GOCE's electric ion propulsion engine switched on

... and Early Orbit Phase on 20 March. Prior to commissioning the electric ion propulsion, GOCE was in free flight (not powered) and is now at an altitude of approximately 280 km, gently decaying at a rate of about 190 m/day. GOCE is the first ESA satellite employing drag-free control, in which the ...

Research plane Polar 5 on Arctic campaign

... like wind, temperature and humidity are carried out during the campaign by means of so-called drop probes sondes. The sondes are dropped from an altitude of five kilometres. "We will considerably improve regional Arctic climate models with our investigations", explains Prof. Dr. Klaus Dethloff, ...

UC Davis bench-to-bedside research: Promising treatment in clinical trials

... raised more than $51 million in Series A financing led by Frazier Healthcare Ventures, Alta Partners, Three Arch Partners, Burrill & Company and altitude Life Science Ventures. Today, the biotech company, based in Hayward, is dedicated to the discovery and development of novel drugs to treat type 2 ...

Montana State team finds Yellowstone alga that detoxifies arsenic

... investigating the changing colors in the Yellowstone algae mats, he figured that something more than photosynthesis had to be involved. He thought altitude and latitude played a role. Some of the hot springs have no trees around them, so he wondered if the intense June sun was hammering the algae. ...

Space researchers developing tool to help disoriented pilots

... rotate in all directions." The project involves specially designed software that monitors the flight of the vehicle speed, heading, pitch and altitude and the actions of the pilot. The system will use audio and visual cues to alert pilots of problems before things get out of hand. The group is also ...

The inaudible symphony analyzed

... refine the analyses, we need to know more about the interaction between the earth's atmosphere and infrasound. The temperatures and wind speeds at an altitude of fifty to a hundred kilometres can cause distortion. This analysis process can also be turned around. Evers wants to use information gleaned from ...

Scientists map soils on an extinct American volcano

... Field. Capulin volcano, formed approximately 62,000 years ago, is the youngest volcano in the field. The cone rises 396 m from the plain, reaching an altitude of 2,495 m above sea level. The base of the volcano is 6.4 km in circumference, and the crater is 126 m deep and 442 m across. Four different flows ...

Migratory moths may hitch their rides, but they're anything but drifters

... travel to nights with favorable, northward winds, just as they do with the southward winds as winter approaches. They carefully select their altitude to travel in the fastest winds and align themselves such that their own flight speed adds to the wind speed. The moths also reverse their ...

Moderate quantities of dirt make more rain

... cools the Earth's surface, just like the sun umbrella effect. "The effects of the aerosols on the energy on the ground and on droplet formation at altitude have been considered separately up to now. Consequently, the results were so contradictory that the subject was often sidelined," says Meinrat ...

Studying volcanoes with balloons

... goggles and breathing masks at the infernal mouth of the volcanohe analyzes the plumes using controlled meteorological (CMET) balloons, which have altitude control and drift with winds. "The balloons are piloted remotely by satellite link," Durant explained, "with flight visualization using Google ...

Microbes, by latitudes and altitudes, shed new light on life's diversity

... that temperature, not productivity, primarily drives the richness of bacterial diversity in the oceans, and that life, both plant and microbial, by altitude in the Rocky Mountains may be close, but not exactly, to what biologists have theorized for years. Swedish naturalist and botanist Carl Linnaeus, ...

Birds migrate together at night in dispersed flocks, new study indicates

... target, it tracks the target, and wherever the bird flies, the radar points at it." The radar kept track of a target's distance (from the radar), altitude and direction of travel over time. It also provided data used to calculate the frequency of a target's wing beats. Since the radar could also track ...

Scientists compiled 20th century temperature data in Spain as evidence of climatic change

... reading interpretations of a human being or the frequent location changes of the observatories (changes from a urban environment to an airport, altitude changes, etc.) are problems with which the scientific team has had to deal with. Moving a thermometer without recording this fact gives rise to a ...

Tipping elements in the Earth's climate system

... tipping elements, smallest uncertainty: Greenland Ice Sheet - Warming over the ice sheet accelerates ice loss from outlet glaciers and lowers ice altitude at the periphery, which further increases surface temperature and ablation. The exact tipping point for disintegration of the ice sheet is unknown, ...

Using fMRI to study brain development

... the fMRI signal to regress to that seen in younger animals. CA is an important target for drugs used to treat diverse conditions, including glaucoma, altitude sickness and epilepsy, so it will be interesting to determine whether such drugs alter the relationship between activity and blood flow in the adult ...

Telemedicine: Health alert via satellite

... been destroyed. The rescue operations have only one means at their disposal that has not been affected by the quake - a satellite which, from its altitude of 36 000 kilometres, can immediately link the locations involved in the catastrophe with the appropriate authorities. Thankfully, this was only a ...

Mars Express -- 5000 orbits and counting

... on Mars. The Energetic Atoms Analyser (ASPERA) has confirmed that the solar wind is slowly stripping atoms from the atmosphere down to an altitude of 270 km, although the rate of loss is surprisingly slow. The MaRS radio science experiment has studied surface roughness by pointing the crafts ...

Marines land at UO, leave with plans to wear Oregon-made training suits

... (55 degrees and 40-65 percent relative humidity). The UO's state-of-the-art environmental chamber is a 12-foot-square room capable of simulating altitude up to 18,000 feet, holding temperature constant at a set point between 14 degrees and 122 degrees Fahrenheit, and controlling humidity anywhere from ...

Amid spiralling government interest, world's top 350 DNA barcode scientists meet in Taipei

... bird-aircraft collisions. According to Carla Dove of the Smithsonian Institution: "Knowing which birds are most often struck, and the timing, altitude and routes of their migrations, could avert some of the thousands of annual collisions between birds and aircraft, military and civilian." All ...

Life on Mars 'pregnancy test' successfully launched

... platform. The LMC components will experience both weightlessness and the harsh space radiation environment while orbiting the Earth 180 times at an altitude of up to 190 miles (308 km) during the 11.8 day mission. The BIOPAN-6 platform is mounted on the outside of an un-manned Russian FOTON spacecraft. ...

Smithsonian scientists help lead effort to 'barcode' world's species

... Aviation Authority and the U.S. Air Force. Aircraft collisions with birds are hazardous; knowing which birds are most often struck and the timing, altitude and routes of their migrations could avert some of the thousands of annual collisions between birds and military and civilian aircraft. Scientists ...

Amid spiralling government interest, world's top 350 DNA barcode scientists meet in Taipei

... bird-aircraft collisions. According to Carla Dove of the Smithsonian Institution: "Knowing which birds are most often struck, and the timing, altitude and routes of their migrations, could avert some of the thousands of annual collisions between birds and aircraft, military and civilian." All ...

Viagra improves high altitude exercise performance up to 45% for some

... sea level. Ten cyclists who took sildenafil at altitude collectively lowered the time it took to cover ... the arteries when the cyclists were at simulated altitude of 12,700 feet. But the researchers ... people achieve major gains with sildenafil at altitude while others improve much less or not at all. The ...

Atmospheric ozone recovering in mid-latitudes, report shows

... in the 11- to 15-mile (18- to 25-kilometer) altitude region to the Montreal Protocol, enacted in 1987, ... than atmospheric chemistry. The changes in this altitude range - below the region where ozone-depleting ... in the upper stratosphere at about 22 to 28 miles altitude (35 to 45kilometers). Newchurch at the University ...

Is there a pilot in the insect?

... value. If the insect changes speed, this reflex will make it change altitude so that ratio remains constant. Adjusting the speed/altitude ratio means ... reduced. Thus its optic flow regulator will constantly force it to reduce altitude so that the optic flow always remains at the reference value. The insect ...

Tundra disappearing at rapid rate

... decided to get up and run, not just walk." Danby and Dr. David Hik, also from the Faculty of Science, reconstructed changes in the density and altitude of treeline forests in southwestern Yukon over the past 300 years. Using tree rings, they were able to date the year of establishment and death of ...

Scientists discover new species of distinctive cloud-forest rodent

... of Mammals at The Field Museum. "These in turn support some of the richest faunas on the planet." The new rodent was discovered at an altitude of 6,200 feet. Little is known about its lifestyle because subsequent efforts to locate and observe the animal were fruitless. I. barbarabrownae ...

Sociality of sweat bees evolved simultaneously during climate change

... years ago," Danforth said. "In modern halictid bees, social behavior varies among species and even within species as a function of latitude and altitude such that species and populations at low latitudes and in warmer regions are often fully social, whereas they are solitary at higher latitudes and ...

Bats use touch receptors on wings to fly, catch prey, study finds

... says bats have a "feel" for it, too. John Zook's studies of bat flight suggest that touch-sensitive receptors on bats' wings help them maintain altitude and catch insects in midair. His preliminary findings, presented at the recent Society for Neuroscience meeting, revive part of a long-forgotten ...

Sensor web simulation investigates technique to improve prediction of pollution across the globe

... work, play and breathe! It's the region of the atmosphere where our weather occurs and it extends from the Earth's surface to roughly the cruising altitude of a passenger jet - about 40,000 feet. In some cases air pollutants have natural causes such as lightning induced wildfires that can emit large ...