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Medicine

Submission + - New sensory system found in the skin (examiner.com)

Submitted by mmmscience
mmmscience writes: Researches have found a new sensory system in the skin that is completely separate from the traditional nerve network that gives us the sense of touch. The new system, comprised of sensory nerves found on blood vessels and sweat glands, is not nearly as potent, but does allow people to sense temperatures and textures. The research suggests that the system may play a role in chronic pain disorders such as migraines and fibromyalgia, conditions whose causes remain a mystery.
Medicine

Submission + - Heart disease plagued the ancient Egyptians (examiner.com)

Submitted by mmmscience
mmmscience writes: CT scans of mummies have revealed that heart disease was also a common problem 3500 years ago. The scans show calcification of arterial pathways, a preserved sign of atherosclerosis, the heart disease caused by hardening arteries. Of the 16 mummies that had intact arteries, nine showed signs of significant calcification. Dr. Gregory Thomas, co-lead author on the study, stated, "The findings suggest that we may have to look beyond modern risk factors to fully understand the disease."
Science

Submission + - Accidental discovery of near-perfect blue pigment. (labspaces.net)

Submitted by ACKyushu
ACKyushu writes: An accidental discovery in a laboratory at Oregon State University has apparently solved a quest that over thousands of years has absorbed the energies of ancient Egyptians, the Han dynasty in China, Mayan cultures and more – the creation of a near-perfect blue pigment.
Biotech

Submission + - Giant Nomura's Jellyfish Sink Japanese Trawler

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The Telegraph reports that the trawler, Diasan Shinsho-maru, has capsized off the coast of China as its three-man crew dragged their net through a swarm of giant jellyfish which can grow up to six feet in diameter and travel in packs and tried to haul up a net that was too heavy. The crew was thrown into the sea when the vessel capsized, but the three men were rescued by another trawler. The local Coast Guard office reported that the weather was clear and the sea was calm at the time of the accident. Relatively little is known about Nomura's jellyfish, such as why some years see thousands of the creatures floating across the Sea of Japan on the Tsushima Current, but last year there were virtually no sightings. In 2007, there were 15,500 reports of damage to fishing equipment caused by the creatures. Experts believe that one contributing factor to the jellyfish becoming more frequent visitors to Japanese waters may be a decline in the number of predators, which include sea turtles and certain species of fish. "Jellies have likely swum and swarmed in our seas for over 600 million years," says "jellyologist" Monty Graham of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama. "When conditions are right, jelly swarms can form quickly. They appear to do this for sexual reproduction.""
Space

Submission + - Reverse Orbit Planet Found 1,000 Light Years Away (examiner.com)

Submitted by JoshuaInNippon
JoshuaInNippon writes: Our sun and the planets that revolve around it all move in the same direction. Since 1995, over 400 planets outside our solar system have been found, and many of them are strikingly different than that of us. To explain these differences, a variety of planetary evolution models have been proposed, including the theoretical possibility that some planets orbit in the opposite direction to that of their star rotation. On November 4th, researchers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) announced they have found such a retrograde orbit planet for the first time, around HAT-P-7, a star about 1,000 light years away.
Science

Submission + - Scientists use brain scans to read minds (itpro.co.uk)

Submitted by nk497
nk497 writes: University of California researchers have figured out how to read people's minds by looking at brain scans. Scientists could predict which of eight tasks a test subject was thinking about by looking at the scans correctly about 80 per cent of the time. But it's not Minority Report quite yet, Russell Poldrack, a professor of psychology at UCLA, said. "Our study suggests that the kinds of things that some people have talked about in terms of mind reading are probably still pretty far off," he said. "If we are only 80 per cent accurate with eight very different thoughts and we want to figure out what you're thinking out of millions of possible thoughts, we're still very far away from achieving that."
Space

Submission + - Exoplanet has showers of pebbles (examiner.com)

Submitted by
mmmscience
mmmscience writes: "The newly-discovered exoplanet COROT-7b has an unusual form of precipitation: rocks. Because it orbits so close to its sun, the temperature on its sun-facing side is around 4220 degrees Fahrenheit. That's hot enough for rocks to vaporize--not unlike water evaporating on Earth. And, like Earth, when the vapor cools in the upper atmosphere, it forms clouds and begins to rain. But instead of water, COROT-7b gets a shower of pebbles."
Medicine

Submission + - Brain pathway allows injured to see without sight (examiner.com)

Submitted by mmmscience
mmmscience writes: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-1242-Science-News-Examiner~y2009m9d3-Pathway-in-the-brain-allows-injured-to-see-without-sight An experiment by Canadian researchers has shown the blind may still be able to 'see'. A patient who was blinded on one side due to a stroke was told to reach for an object in the midst of obstacles. Of course, this task was not a problem on the sighted side. Quite unexpectedly, there was also no problem navigating the obstacles on the blinded side, even though the subject did not report seeing them. The researchers believe this is proof of a primitive pathway in the brain outside of the visual region that can process input from the eyes. As only one subject was tested, the experiment must be considered rationally until it is repeated with more patients. However, if such a pathway exists, it made lead to a new form of rehabilitation for those who have been blinded by an injury.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Up to 90 percent of US money has traces of cocaine (examiner.com)

Submitted by mmmscience
mmmscience writes: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-1242-Science-News-Examiner~y2009m8d17-Up-to-90-percent-of-US-paper-money-has-traces-of-cocaine Scientists have found that up to 90% of US paper money has some cocaine contamination, up from the 67% mark measured two years ago. Looking at bills from 17 cities, it's no surprise that the city with the highest level was Washington DC, where up to 95% of bills gathered there tested positive. From a global standpoint, both Canada and Brazil tested rather high (85% and 80%, respectively), But China and Japan were well behind the curve at 20% and 12%. The researchers hope that studies such as these will be of help to law enforcement agencies that are attempting to understand the growth and flow of drug use in communities.

Comment Re:Pre-Crime Screening... (Score 1) 4

by mmmscience (#28948717) Attached to: Psychopaths have brain structure abnormality

So when are they going to start scanning young children for this and sending the psychopathic children to "Special Schools"?

I think an interesting follow-up question would be one of age. A university does a long-term study that tracks a group of people to see at what age such brain abnormalities spark would be a truly interesting experiment. Are some born with psychopathic tendencies or does the problem develop over time?
Medicine

Major New Function Discovered For the Spleen 257

Posted by kdawson from the more-than-just-a-metaphor dept.
circletimessquare writes "The spleen doesn't get much respect — as one researcher put it, 'the spleen lacks the gravitas of neighboring organs.' Those undergoing a splenectomy seem to be able to carry on without any consequences. However, some studies have suggested an enhanced risk of early death for those who have undergone splenectomies. Now researchers have discovered why: the spleen apparently serves as a vast reservoir for monocytes, the largest of the white blood cells, the wrecking crew of the immune system. After major trauma, such as a heart attack, the monocytes are disgorged into the blood stream and immediately get to work repairing the damage. '"The parallel in military terms is a standing army," said Matthias Nahrendorf, an author of the report. "You don't want to have to recruit an entire fighting force from the ground up every time you need it."'"
Medicine

Submission + - Psychopaths have brain structure abnormality (examiner.com) 4

Submitted by mmmscience
mmmscience writes: http://www.examiner.com/x-1242-Science-News-Examiner~y2009m8d4-Psychopaths-have-brain-structure-abnormality A group of scientists have identified a structure in the brain of psychopaths that is abnormal when compared to controls. The change is found in the uncinate fasciculus, a bridge of white matter that connects the amygdale (emotion/aggression brain region) and the orbitofrontal cortex (decision making region). Interestingly, the greater the abnormality in the region, the more severe the levels of sociopathy in a subject. A researcher on the team suggests the finding could have considerable implications in the world of criminal justice, where such scans could presumably be presented as evidence in a trial.
Enlightenment

Submission + - Mammalian genomes are shrinking (examiner.com)

Submitted by mmmscience
mmmscience writes: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-1242-Science-News-Examiner~y2009m7d28-Mammalian-genome-is-shrinking Unlike their leafy and hairless counterparts, mammals have contracting genomes. It is due to a lack of new transposable elements, those lovable jumping genes that viruses dump into the genomic code. While a human's DNA is still made up of 45% of transposable elements, they are mostly very old. Natural selection has seen mammals incorporate fewer new transposable elements than plants and nonmammals.

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