than in Biological News

More than half of Texas physicians do not always recommend HPV vaccine to girls

PHILADELPHIA - The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends the human papillomavirus vaccination for all 11- and 12-year-old girls, but results of a recent survey showed that more than half of Texas physicians do not follow these recommendations. The survey was published in Can...

Obama administration announces more than $327 million in Recovery Act funding for science research

Washington, D.C. U.S Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced today that more than $327 million in new funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will go toward scientific research, instrumentation, and laboratory infrastructure projects. Ten of DOE's national laboratories...

Bioethanol's impact on water supply 3 times higher than once thought

At a time when water supplies are scarce in many areas of the United States, scientists in Minnesota are reporting that production of bioethanol often regarded as the clean-burning energy source of the future may consume up to three times more water than previously thought. Their study appeared ...

Martin Hensen, head of e-strategies, UCB Germany: Making e-marketing more than just an add-on

London, August 3, 2009 / b3c newswire / - With the vast majority of our marketing efforts focused squarely on the sales force, e-marketing is still an add on, says Martin Hensen, head of e-strategies, UCB Germany. But successful e-CRM strategies are the basic starting point for all e-activities, h...

Organic food not nutritionally better than conventionally-produced food

There is no evidence that organically produced foods are nutritionally superior to conventionally produced foodstuffs, according to a study published today in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition . Consumers appear willing to pay higher prices for organic foods based on their perceived h...

Smaller than expected, but severe, dead zone in Gulf of Mexico

NOAA-supported scientists, led by Nancy Rabalais, Ph.D., from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), found the size of this year's Gulf of Mexico dead zone to be smaller than forecasted, measuring 3,000 square miles. However the dead zone, which is usually limited to water just abo...

Ants more rational than humans

In a study released online on July 22 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences , researchers at Arizona State University and Princeton University show that ants can accomplish a task more rationally than our multimodal, egg-headed, tool-using, bipedal, opposing-thumbe...

OJ worse for teeth than whitening says Eastman Institute researchers

With the increasing popularity of whitening one's teeth, researchers at the Eastman Institute for Oral Health, part of the University of Rochester Medical Center, set out to learn if there are negative effects on the tooth from using whitening products. Eastman Institute's YanFang Ren, DDS, PhD...

New research shows dinosaurs may have been smaller than we thought

FAIRFAX, Va., June 24, 2009 For millions of years, dinosaurs have been considered the largest creatures ever to walk on land. While they still maintain this status, a new study suggests that some dinosaurs may actually have weighed as little as half as much as previously thought. In the stud...

Cancer: The cost of being smarter than chimps?

Are the cognitively superior brains of humans, in part, responsible for our higher rates of cancer? That's a question that has nagged at John McDonald, chair of Georgia Tech's School of Biology and chief research scientist at the Ovarian Cancer Institute, for a while. Now, after an initial study, ...

More than just the tailpipe

Trains, planes, buses and automobiles do not only effect the environment via their exhaust pipes. There is a full life-cycle of processes associated with getting from a to b that we rarely acknowledge. Published today in IOP Publishing's Environmental Research Letters , Monday, June 8, 2009, ...

Scholar unconvinced new lie-detection methods better than old ones

CHAMPAIGN, lll. When a crime has been committed, the usual modus operandi for police detectives and their fictional counterparts has been to dust the scene for fingerprints. And once they have a suspect in custody, out comes the polygraph, or lie detector. But in today's forensically sophistic...

New device detects heart disease using less than one drop of blood

Testing people for heart disease might be just a finger prick away thanks to a new credit card-sized device created by a team of researchers from Harvard and Northeastern universities in Boston. In a research report published online in The FASEB Journal ( http://www.fasebj.org ), they describe h...

In the turf war against seaweed, coral reefs more resilient than expected

There's little doubt that coral reefs the world over face threats on many fronts: pollution, diseases, destructive fishing practices and warming oceans. But reefs appear to be more resistant to one potential menace seaweed than previously thought, according to new research by a team of marine sc...

A bad performance is better than no performance at all

The learning of birdsong resembles the learning of speech in humans. Crucial for the process are acoustic perception and the ability to produce sound. Social isolation leads to a disturbed vocal development both in humans and in birds. When children grow up without contact to other humans they ei...

Komodo even more deadly than thought: Research

The carnivorous reptiles ( Varanus komodoensis ) are known to bite prey and release them, leaving them to bleed to death from their wounds: the victims are reported to go into shock before the dragons kill and eat them. Some researchers believe that prey are killed by pathogenic bacteria in th...

Random picks better than complicated process in gene identification

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers at Purdue University have found a way to save time, money and a little frustration in searches for specific genes that shed light on the biological processes associated with all forms of life. Andrew DeWoody, a professor of genetics, and postdoctoral associate...

Older men more likely than women to die after pneumonia

PITTSBURGH, April 29 Differing biological response to infection between men and women may explain higher death rates among older men who are hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). The findings, published online in the Critical Care Medicine journal, may have important implication...

Purdue study finds dairy better for bones than calcium carbonate

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University study shows dairy has an advantage over calcium carbonate in promoting bone growth and strength. Connie Weaver, distinguished professor and head of the food and nutrition department, found that the bones of rats fed nonfat dry milk were longer, wider, m...

Concordia University receives more than $22 million for genomics research

Montreal, April 20, 2009 Concordia University is pleased to announce that researchers Adrian Tsang and Vincent Martin of the Centre for Structural and Functional Genomics have been awarded more than $22 million to further advance the innovative genome research being conducted at Concordia. This ...

Feather color is more than skin deep

Carotenoids have important physiological functions, including antioxidant, immunomodulating, and photoprotectant properties. Carotenoid pigments are also used by many bird species as colorants, and are responsible for most of their red, orange and yellow coloration. In particular, carotenoid-red c...

New wheat disease could spread faster than expected

CORVALLIS, Ore. Both plant and human diseases that can travel with the wind have the potential to spread far more rapidly than has been understood, according to a new study, in findings that pose serious concerns not only for some human diseases but also a new fungus that threatens global wheat p...

Rensselaer receives more than $2 million from New York State to fund stem cell research

Troy, N.Y. Two groups of Rensselaer researchers each have received a $1.08 million grant from New York through the state's stem cell research initiative. Both grants will fund research on the growth and development of stem cells and will provide some of the first insights available into the role ...

Information warfare in the 21st century: Ideas are sometimes stronger than bombs

Terrorist organizations sometimes have an advantage in the media. A new study by Dr. Yaniv Levyatan of the University of Haifa, published in the journal of Israel's National Security College, describes how our side can regain the advantage in this arena too. "Information warfare" plays a cr...

Cleaning up oil spills can kill more fish than spills themselves, say Queen's biologists

Kingston, ON A new Queen's University study shows that detergents used to clean up spills of diesel oil actually increase its toxicity to fish, making it more harmful. "The detergents may be the best way to treat spills in the long term because the dispersed oil is diluted and degraded," says...

Cleft lip and palate: Genes more important than thought?

Comparing 500,000 snippets of human DNA put scientists from the University of Bonn on the right track. A genetic variant on chromosome 8 occurs with significantly higher frequency in people with cleft lip and palate than in the control group. The results are to be published in the forthcoming iss...

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

GAINESVILLE, Fla. Older, active people who have a drink or two might be more impaired afterward than they think, according to a report today from a University of Florida research group in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs . Although people 50 or older in the study metabolized alcoho...

Building strong bones: Running may provide more benefits than resistance training, MU study finds

COLUMBIA, Mo. Osteoporosis affects more than 200 million people worldwide and is a serious public health concern, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation. Resistance training often is recommended to increase and prevent loss of bone mineral density (BMD), although previous studies that...

Lower increases in global temps could lead to greater impacts than previously thought, study finds

Princeton, NJ February 23, 2009 - A new study by scientists updating some of the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2001 Third Assessment Report finds that even a lower level of increase in average global temperatures due to greenhouse gas emissions could cause signi...

Genetic differences between yeasts greater than those between humans and chimpanzees

The mapping of the entire yeast genome in 1996 marked the beginning of a revolution in biological and medical research. The human genome was mapped in 2001, and by now the number of characterised species is approaching 1000, most of which are bacteria. The next advance is only a few years away ma...

More than a million cancer survivors declining care due to cost concerns

CAREFREE, A.Z. - More than a million cancer survivors living in the United States are foregoing what they believe is necessary medical care due to the cost, and Hispanics and African-Americans are twice as likely to go without services, according to data presented at the American Association for C...

Small male chimps use politics, rather than aggression, to lead the pack, U of Minnesota study says

With most mammals, the biggest and most aggressive male claims the alpha male role and gets his choice of food and females. But a new study from the University of Minnesota suggests that at least among chimpanzees, smaller, more mild-mannered males can also use political behavior to secure the top...

Dog owners more likely to share germs with pets by not washing hands than by sleeping with dog

MANHATTAN, KAN. -- Dog owners who sleep with their pet or permit licks on the face are in good company. Surveys show that more than half of owners bond with their pets in these ways. Research done by a veterinarian at Kansas State University found that these dog owners are no more likely to sha...

Nicotine activates more than just the brain's pleasure pathways

Durham, N.C. Duke University Medical System researchers have discovered there are differing taste pathways for nicotine, which could provide a new approach for future smoking-cessation products. "We learned some of nicotine's secrets," said Albino Oliveira-Maia, M.D., Ph.D., a postdoctoral fe...

Evolutionary process more detailed than previously believed, study shows

New evidence from a study of yeast cells has resulted in the most detailed picture of an organism's evolutionary process to date, says a Texas A&M University chemical engineering professor whose findings provide the first direct evidence of aspects, which up until now have remained mostly theory. ...

Arctic heats up more than other places

Temperature change in the Arctic is happening at a greater rate than other places in the Northern Hemisphere, and this is expected to continue in the future. As a result, glacier and ice-sheet melting, sea-ice retreat, coastal erosion and sea level rise can be expected to continue. A new com...

Nations that sow food crops for biofuels may reap less than previously thought

MADISON -- Global yields of most biofuels crops, including corn, rapeseed and wheat, have been overestimated by 100 to 150 percent or more, suggesting many countries need to reset their expectations of agricultural biofuels to a more realistic level. That's according to a study led by Matt John...

Rudolf's kin more than just Santa's ride

Better known as reindeer during the holiday season, caribou are also central to the health and vitality of the Far North. Revered by many cultures, the caribou could soon become endangered by threats such as oil exploration and climate change, according to a new book by authors from the Wildlife ...

Study first to pinpoint why analgesic drugs may be less potent in females than in males

ATLANTA -- Investigators at Georgia State University's Neuroscience Institute and Center for Behavioral Neuroscience are the first to identify the most likely reason analgesic drug treatment is usually less potent in females than males. This discovery is a major step toward finding more effective ...

Shade coffee benefits more than birds

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Here's one more reason to say "shade grown, please" when you order your morning cup of coffee. Shade coffee farms, which grow coffee under a canopy of multiple tree species, not only harbor native birds, bats and other beneficial creatures, but also maintain genetic diversity of...