car in Biological News

Time spent in car drives up air pollution exposure

Los Angeles, Oct. 30, 2007 The daily commute may be taking more of a toll than people realize. A new study by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) and the California Air Resources Board found that up to half of Los Angeles residents total exposure to harmful air pollutants oc...

Hybrid vehicle rebates produce scant environmental benefits, high cost

...are believed to extend to the U.S. market, given the similarities between auto industries, in terms of vehicle buying patterns, pricing structures and car models. ...

Researchers develop 'brain-reading' methods

...associated with awareness. "It's the same principle experienced during a car accident. The car accident actually happens tens of a milliseconds before you are aware you h...

Improved air quality during Beijing Olympics could inform pollution-curbing policies

...jing. These particles are not only harmful to the lungs, but are also known to be a global warming compound, Zhang said. The researchers found that car emissions of black carbon were down 33 percent in 2008 compared with their 2007 readings. Carbon dioxide decreased 47 percent, and ultrafine carbon-ba...

What scientists know about jewel beetle shimmer

...eir pigment. They say the finding could be important for industries such as car manufacturers that look to reflective light paints for automobiles. The ...be ground into flakes and potentially used as a currency security measure. car companies could use the materials to paint automobiles that change color de...

Nonstick and laser-safe gold aids laser trapping of biomolecules

...ly absorbing fragile molecules onto a sticky glass surface, producing random spacing and sometimes destroying biological activity. Its like dropping a car onto a road from 100 feet up and hoping it will land tires down. If the molecule lands in the wrong orientation, it wont be active or, worse, it will ...

GARP makes the difference

... He deciphered the role of GARP: this new-found factor only exists in Tregs and initiates a complex network of various molecules. "If you don't want a car to drive anymore, you pull the key out and cut the petrol pipe. GARP does the same: it prevents Tregs from stepping on the gas." The scientist arti...

Rice University researchers ask if biofuels will lead to a 'drink or drive'

...onstrate their point, the authors estimated it takes about 50 gallons of water to produce enough irrigated-corn ethanol in Nebraska to fuel an average car for one mile. Given differing land use practices and other factors, that number decreases to 23 gallons for Iowa-grown corn and rises to 115 gallons f...

Simple drug treatment may prevent nicotine-induced SIDS: Study

...ressful time. However, exposure of the fetus to nicotine results in higher levels of this brake protein. "The result is like trying to drive your car with the parking brake on. You might go a little bit, but the brakes hold you back," explains Buttigieg. "In this case, the adrenal glands do not re...

Healing wounds with lasers, vehicles that drive themselves, other cutting-edge optics

...tissue repair, is now quite promising. Presentation CMMM2; Monday, June 1, 4 4:15 p.m. VEHICLES THAT DRIVE THEMSELVES The thought of a car or truck that can drive itself is at once both exciting and frightening. Autonomous vehicle navigation, as the technology is known, may make life more...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- May 20, 2009

...ht way to make "nano-raspberries" may fight foggy windows and eyeglasses The Journal of Physical Chemistry C In an advance toward preventing car windshields and eyeglasses from fogging up, researchers in China are reporting development of a new way to make raspberry-shaped nanoparticles that ca...

OHSU researchers study the idling brain

...f Medicine. "However now we know there are several regions in the brain that continue to interact while a person is supposedly at rest sort of like a car that idles at a stoplight. Our lab is studying these interactions, or spontaneous brain activity, while the brain is at rest. We think that this appro...

Bowman Global Change says public engagement critical to solving climate crisis

...experts. In addition, shorthand facts tied to environmental impact enable behavioral change and motivate the public to action. For example, connecting car mileage ratings to carbon emission rates fuels public demand for cars with better mileage, a systemic improvement with significant impact on reducing ...

Laughing hyenas, wailing levees, the sound of cheese and blaring bagpipes

...G SCREWS REVEAL SICK STRUCTURES In 2006, a concrete panel weighing several thousand pounds fell onto traffic in Boston's Big Dig tunnel, crushing a car and killing a motorist. The alleged cause -- and subject of a multi-million dollar settlement -- was faulty epoxy that allowed bolts in the ceiling to...

Increasing levels of rare element found worldwide

...t's interesting, maybe ironic, that we stopped adding lead to gasoline in the 70s so that catalytic converters could be introduced to remove smog from car exhaust," says Dartmouth Associate Professor of Earth Sciences Mukul Sharma. "Now we learn that using platinum in the converters is responsible for an...

Differences among exercisers and nonexercisers during pregnancy

...heir day. According to Dr. May, "if a pregnant mother does some type of physical activity while watching TV or talking on the phone, or parks her car at the farthest point from the store each time, she will increase her daily physical activity and ultimately improve her health and the health of her ...

Differences among exercisers and nonexercisers during pregnancy

...heir day. According to Dr. May, "if a pregnant mother does some type of physical activity while watching TV or talking on the phone, or parks her car at the farthest point from the store each time, she will increase her daily physical activity and ultimately improve her health and the health of her ...

Gutsy germs succumb to baby broccoli

...i is a gastrointestinal tract germ that manages to thrive in the lining of the stomach despite the strength of natural acids there that rival that of car batteries. Afflicting several billion people roughly half of the world's population this corkscrew-shaped bacterium has long been associated with ...

MDC researchers prevent virus induced myocarditis

... and Prof. Gotthardt discovered only recently that car is necessary for a regular heart beat. In thei...monstrate that genetically engineered mice without car were protected from cardiac infection caused by th...yocarditis. One therapeutic option could be to use car as a drug target and to block this receptor with a...

Intruder alert: Tel Aviv University's 'Smart Dew' will find you!

...sensors - each equipped with a controller and RF transmitter/receiver - can also be wirelessly networked to detect the difference between man, animal, car and truck. "We've created a generic system that has no scale limitations," says Prof. Shapira. This makes it especially useful for large farms or e...

Inhaling a heart attack: How air pollution can cause heart disease

...n animal experiments, Dr. Bhatnagar has found that aldehydes -- a toxic class of chemicals found in most forms of smoke, including cigarette smoke and car exhaust -- increase blood cholesterol levels and activate enzymes that cause plaque in the blood vessels to rupture. When plaque ruptures, it can caus...

Ten genes identified in connection with sudden cardiac death

... ANN ARBOR, Mich.---You're sitting at your desk and suddenly your heart is beating in overdrive or worse, lurching along like a car on fumes. It is a shocking, uncomfortable and frightening sensation. Irregular heart rhythms are a common cause of sudden cardiac death or SCD, a ...

DEIMOS joins MARS and its satellite of instruments on seafloor

...es, thanks to the power supplied via MARS. Horne said it took more than six car batteries to provide power for one week to an echo sounder he mounted on a ...on the seafloor, one can't very well deploy an echo sounder package and 312 car batteries. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute operates MARS as...

Revealing new applications for carbon nanomaterials in hydrogen storage

...ergy future. Research into safe and efficient means of hydrogen production, storage, and use is essential to make the "hydrogen economy" a reality. car manufactures are showing interest in using solid state hydrogen storage materials, e.g. NaAlH4, as new energy storage media. The functional properties...

After a few drinks, older adults more impaired than they think

...omplete a test than their counterparts who did not have a drink. "That doesn't sound like much, but five seconds is a big difference if you're in a car and need to apply the brakes," said lead author Sara Jo Nixon, Ph.D., a psychiatry professor at UF's McKnight Brain Institute. "It can mean the differ...

New and unexpected mechanism identified how the brain responds to stress

...mmand centre for stress responses, interpret 'off' chemical signals as 'on' chemical signals when stress is perceived. "It's as if the brakes in your car are now acting to speed up the vehicle, rather than slow it down." says Bains. This unexpected finding is being published in the March 1st online ed...

Cleaning the atmosphere of carbon: African forests out of balance

...eters, or 2.2 acres) of apparently mature, undisturbed African forest was increasing in tree carbon stocks by an amount equal to the weight of a small car each year. Previous studies have shown that Amazonian forests also take up carbon, although at somewhat lower rates. "If you assume that these f...

Behind closed eyes

...y. Another suggestion is that the minimal level of activity enables a quick start when a stimulus eventually presents itself, something like a getaway car with the engine running. Nir: 'In the old approach, the senses are 'turned on' by the switch of an outside stimulus. This is giving way to a new parad...

Early humans had 'jaws of steel'

...logy of Australopithecus africanus." Using state-of-the-art computer modeling and simulation technology the same kind engineers use to simulate how a car reacts to forces in a front-end collision evolutionary scientists built a virtual model of the A. africanus skull and were able to see just how the j...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- Jan. 28, 2009

...7. In the magazine's cover story, C&EN Associate Editor Bethany Halford points out that for many years NASCAR (the National Association for Stock car Auto Racing) left safety innovations in the hands of mechanics and engineers tinkering in the garage. These innovations haven't kept pace with NASCAR'...

The more promiscuous the female, the speedier the sperm

...alia. "The first step in producing more competitive sperm was by influencing how much energy the sperm can produce. Just like a mechanic could make a car drive faster by installing a better engine, evolution appears to act first on the engine that drives sperm movement." ...

City of Newark first in nation using cars to power grid

...ty of Newark, Delaware became the first electric utility in the US to use a car to store and provide power for the local electric grid. The vehicle, wh...icity." Those savings add up to thousands per year. Kempton plugs his car in at his Newark home, and while it sits, he says, it stores enough energy ...

Tellme Enters Automotive Market

...ones and navigation devices are often not appropriate in the vehicle. Among car buyers, 80 percent say the availability of connected voice services would be a key deciding factor in which car to purchase, according to Tellme research. "Voice is the natural int...

New polymer coatings prevent corrosion, even when scratched

... CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Imagine tiny cracks in your patio table healing by themselves, or the first small scratch on your new car disappearing by itself. This and more may be possible with self-healing coatings being developed at the University of Illinois. The new coatings are ...

Princeton-led team finds secret ingredient for the health of tropical rainforests

...enase, which converts atmospheric nitrogen into soil fertilizer, feeds on molybdenum, the researchers found. "Nitrogenase without molybdenum is like a car engine without spark plugs," said Alexander Barron, the lead author on the paper, who was a graduate student in Hedin's laboratory and earned his Ph.D...

Rooted plants move mysteriously down greenways, scientists say

...pod is big and heavy, with seemingly little prayer of escaping the shade of its parent plant. And yet, like a grounded teenager who knows where the car keys are hidden, it manages if it has a reasonable chance of escape. University of Florida researchers working at the world's largest experimental...

UBC researcher reveals humpback whales' dining habits -- and costs

...l or copepods. While foraging, the whales literally drop their jaws during a high-speed dive called a lunge creating enormous drag akin to a race car driver opening a parachute. The drag forces the blubber to expand around a large volume of prey-laden water, which is then filtered out through a comb...

Transporting broiler chickens could spread antibiotic-resistant organisms

...n L. Evans collected air and surface samples from cars driving two to three car lengths behind the poultry trucks for a distance of 17 miles. The cars were...haled. The same bacteria were also found deposited on a soda can inside the car and on the outside door handle, where they could potentially be touched. ...

The physics of star-forming clouds and the urban environment

... October 24, 2008 -- From the collapse of star-forming clouds to the flow of the molten Earth's core, from the combustion of gasoline in your car engine to the coursing blood in your veins, from the aerodynamics of flight to the concentration of microscopic animals in the ocean, many of nature's...

Track your fitness, environmental impact with new cell phone applications

...orates exercise, or allows the user to multi-task. A green bar and number also display how many pounds of carbon dioxide each trip saves compared to a car ride. UbiFit and UbiGreen could be released to the public within the next year or two, Landay said, especially as phones with built-in acceleromete...