Covering the bases: Quantum effect may hold promise for low-cost DNA sequencing, sensor applications

A ghostly property of matter, called quantum tunneling, may aid the quest for accurate, low-cost genomic sequencing, according to a new paper in Nature Nanotechnology Letters by Stuart Lindsay and his collaborators at the Biodesign Institute of Arizona State University. Tunneling implies that a ...

New lab evidence suggests preventive effect of herbal supplement in prostate cancer

PHILADELPHIA DHEA is a natural circulating hormone and the body's production of it decreases with age. Men take DHEA as an over-the-counter supplement because it has been suggested that DHEA can reverse aging or have anabolic effects since it can be metabolized in the body to androgens. Increased...

Host shift triggers cascading effect on ecosystem, research finds

DAVISA major cause for biodiversity may be biodiversity itself, says evolutionary ecologist Andrew Forbes of the University of California, Davis, whose newly published research shows that when the apple maggot shifted hosts from the hawthorn to the apple, that triggered a cascading effect on the e...

The effect of parental education on the heritability of children's reading disability

Parental education is a strong predictor of socioeconomic status and children's educational environment. Nevertheless, some children continue to experience reading failure in spite of high parental education and support for learning to read. University of Colorado at Boulder psychologists Angel...

Birth control has long-term effect on hormone exposure

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine may be one step closer to understanding why past oral contraceptive use dramatically lowers the risk of ovarian and uterine cancers later in life. While studying the effect of post-menopausal dietary soy consumption ...

Cholesterol-lowering drugs and the effect on muscle repair and regeneration

HILTON HEAD, SCStatins are powerful drugs that reduce "bad" cholesterol and thus cut the risk of a heart attack. While these medications offer tremendous benefits to millions, they can carry side effects for some. The most frequently reported consequence is fatigue, and about nine percent of patie...

Long-term study shows effect of climate change on animal diversity

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Two species of giraffe, several rhinos and five elephant relatives, along with multitudes of rodents, bush pigs, horses, antelope and apes, once inhabited what is now northern Pakistan. But when climate shifted dramatically there some 8 million years ago, precipitating a majo...

Researchers discover atomic bomb effect results in adult-onset thyroid cancer

PHILADELPHIA Radiation from the atomic bomb blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, likely rearranged chromosomes in some survivors who later developed papillary thyroid cancer as adults, according to Japanese researchers. In the September 1, 2008, issue of Cancer Research , a journ...

Gene's newly explained effect on height may change tumor disorder treatment

St. Louis, August 11, 2008 A mutation that causes a childhood tumor syndrome also impairs growth hormone secretion, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found. The discovery provides new insights into an old mystery, revealing why patients with neurofibroma...

Diabetes linked to male infertility; excess sugars in the body have direct effect on sperm quality

This release is available in Spanish . Barcelona, Spain: Diabetes in men has a direct effect on fertility, a scientist told the 24th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology today (Wednesday 9 July). Dr. Con Mallidis from Queen's University, Belfast, U...

Ocean acidification -- another undesired side effect of fossil fuel-burning

Up to now, the oceans have buffered climate change considerably by absorbing almost one third of the worldwide emitted carbon dioxide. The oceans represent a significant carbon sink, but the uptake of excess CO2 stemming from mans burning of fossil fuels comes at a high cost: ocean acidification. ...

Silicon's effect on sunflowers studied

STILLWATER, OK -- Vibrant, showy sunflowers are revered worldwide for their beauty and versatility. While many varieties of sunflower are grown specifically for their nutritional benefits, ornamental sunflowers have become standards for commercial growers and everyday gardeners. As sunflowers' pop...

Genetic variant mimics effect of heart failure medications

A genetic variation, found predominantly in African Americans, protects some people with heart failure, enabling them to live longer than expected. Thats the conclusion of a research team led by investigators at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore and the Washing...

Research reveals secrets of alcohol's effect on brain cells

NEW YORK (Dec. 7, 2007) -- Alcohol triggers the activation of a variety of genes that can influence the health and activity of brain cells, and new research from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City sheds light on how that process occurs. The findings, published in the Nov. 21 issue o...

New study shows Concord grape juice has a heart-healthy effect not yet reported with red wine

Many studies have suggested that moderate red wine consumption is beneficial to cardiovascular health. But what if youd like to skip the alcohol? Take heart: laboratory research, just presented at the WINEHEALTH 2007 conference in Bordeaux, France, showed that Concord grape juice stimulated an ar...

Obesity starts in the head? 6 newly discovered genes for obesity have a neural effect

The international GIANT (Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Parameters) consortium works on the discovery of obesity genes. So far, the scientists have analyzed two million DNA variations in 15 genome-wide association studies with a total of more than 32,000 participants. The hereby identifie...

Environmental pollutant has sex-skewing effect

Women exposed to high levels of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls a group of banned environmental pollutants) are less likely to give birth to male children. A study published today in BioMed Central's open access journal Environmental Health found that among women from the San Francisco Bay Area...

Lucky squirrels born with 'silver spoon' effect

As the saying goes, some people are born with silver spoons in their mouths. The same goes for at least one species of the animal world, according to research done in part by the University of Alberta. A study of female red squirrels in Kluane, Yukon, revealed that advantageous silver spoon fac...

Protein enables discovery of quantum effect in photosynthesis

When it comes to studying energy transfer in photosynthesis, it's good to think "outside the bun." That's what Robert Blankenship, Ph.D., professor of biology and chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, did when he contributed a protein to a study performed by his ...

Canadian study shows bilingualism has protective effect in delaying onset of dementia by four years

Canadian scientists have found astonishing evidence that the lifelong use of two languages can help delay the onset of dementia symptoms by four years compared to people who are monolingual. There has been much interest and growing scientific literature examining how lifestyle factors such as phy...

Reading Shakespeare has dramatic effect on human brain

Research at the University of Liverpool has found that Shakespearean language excites positive brain activity, adding further drama to the bard's plays and poetry. Shakespeare uses a linguistic technique known as functional shift that involves, for example using a noun to serve as a verb. Resear...

Climate change has surprising effect on endangered naked carp

Forthcoming in the January/February 2007 issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, a groundbreaking study reveals an unanticipated way freshwater fish may respond to water diversion and climate change. Endangered naked carp migrate annually between freshwater rivers, where they spawn, and a l...

New mechanism explains glucose effect on wakefulness

One of the body's basic survival mechanisms is the neural machinery that triggers the hungry brain to the alertness needed for seeking food. That same machinery swings the other way after a hearty meal, as exemplified by the long and honored custom of the siesta. However, scientists have understood...

Leptin has powerful effect on reward center in the brain

Leptin, a hormone critical for normal food intake and metabolism, exerts a strong effect on appetite by acting in the mid-brain region as well as in the hypothalamus, according to a Yale School of Medicine study in Neuron. "Finding that metabolic hormones directly regulate the ventral tegmental ...

Drug triggers body's mechanism to reverse aging effect on memory process

A drug made to enhance memory appears to trigger a natural mechanism in the brain that fully reverses age-related memory loss, even after the drug itself has left the body, according to researchers at UC Irvine. Professors Christine Gall and Gary Lynch, along with Associate Researcher Julie Laut...

Anti-inflammatory drug's potentially deadly side effect found to be rare

Scientists have completed an extensive study of more than 3,000 patients who received a promising anti-inflammatory drug, natalizumab, that was linked to three cases of a serious brain infection in large clinical trials halted in early 2005. The new study found no new cases of progressive multifo...

Statins have neutral effect on risk of cancer

The cholesterol-lowering medications called statins do not appear to reduce the incidence of cancer or cancer deaths, according to a meta-analysis of previous studies in the January 4 issue of JAMA. Other studies have suggested that statins reduce the risk of developing cancer, the authors provid...

PLoS Medicine publishes first trial of effect of male circumcision on HIV infection

The peer-reviewed results of the first trial of the effect of male circumcision on HIV infection, which some experts call "a landmark trial," will be published in PLoS Medicine on October 25. The trial found that circumcision reduced the rate of new infections among heterosexual men in South Afri...

Virus-host interactions at sea effect global photosynthesis

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced that it has for the first time released the chip design, probe sequence and annotation information for all of its microarrays. The release of this information is expected to improve cross-laboratory experimental research and cross-platform data co...

Liposome finding implies electrical effect on cell development

Experiments with liposomes ?cell-like "water balloons" composed of artificially created phospholipid bilayers similar to natural cell membranes ?have revealed unexpected behavior in the presence of electrical fields that may provide a paradigm-shifting change in science's understanding of biomembra...

The hepatitis healing power of blueberry leaves

... A chemical found in blueberry leaves has shown a strong effect in blocking the replication of the Hepatitis C virus, opening up a new avenue for treating chronic HCV infections, which affect 200 million people wor...

AGU journal highlights -- Aug. 6, 2009

...thors find that in all models, LCC has a statistically significant regional effect on latent heat flux and near-surface temperature. Furthermore, they find th...ported through the TTL, Gettelman et al. develop a model that simulates the effect of chemical reactions important to several short-lived compounds that pass ...

Carnegie Mellon's Jean VanBriesen leads research team on Monongahela River

...100,000 grant from the Pittsburgh-based Colcom Foundation to study water quality in the Monongahela River. The focus will be on the presence and effect of bromide associated with Marcellus Shale gas produced water, and sulfate from acid mine drainage, according to VanBriesen, a professor of civil and ...

Women often opt to surgically remove their breasts, ovaries to reduce cancer risk

... doctors sympathetic and is there an ongoing dialogue? "Careful risk counseling does appear to influence women's decision for surgery although the effect is not immediate," the researchers wrote. ...

Lead-based consumer paint remains a global public health threat

... the tail of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's enforcement of heightened restrictions on lead in American consumer paints, which will take effect Aug. 9, 2009, and will lower the allowable lead limit from 600 parts per million (ppm) to 90 ppm. "This revised standard for lead in consumer paint...

Stem cell 'daughters' lead to breast cancer

...ferate they misbehave from the outset. "We also know that the BRCA1 gene is required for normal DNA repair. There may therefore be a triple whammy effect faulty growth control, faulty DNA repair and expanded luminal progenitor cell numbers ultimately resulting in breast cancer in some BRCA1 mutation ca...

Aware, Inc. Reports Second Quarter 2009 Financial Results

...on-GAAP net income, where applicable, excludes the effect of stock-based compensation expense. The company u...loss for the second quarter of 2009, excluding the effect of stock-based compensation, was $1.2 million, or ...the company had a non-GAAP net loss, excluding the effect of stock-based compensation, of $2.9 million, or $...

August 2009 Geology and GSA Today media highlights

...largest group of eruptions to occur on Earth since the Paleogene, over 50 million years ago, and Kender et al. now suggest that they had a significant effect on the climate at this time. The acidification events, which dissolved carbonate organisms on the seafloor, probably resulted from the accumulation of...

Family planning a major environmental impact

...ce of reproductive choice, Murtaugh said. When an individual produces a child and that child potentially produces more descendants in the future the effect on the environment can be many times the impact produced by a person during their lifetime. Under current conditions in the U.S., for instance, eac...

Opening a new window on daylight

...pproach to windows that could let in more light and cut indoor lighting needs by up to 99% in buildings in Tropical regions without losing the cooling effect of shades. Details are reported in the International Journal of Engineering Systems Modelling and Simulation this month. Lerdlekha Tanachaikhan a...