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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 20, 2014 at 5:48am

Radio signals skew birds’ internal navigation

Migrating birds might lose their way when exposed to the electromagnetic noise from radio signals and electronic devices, researchers have found.

Birds that fly north or south with the seasons rely on Earth’s magnetic field to sense where they’re going. Even birds placed in windowless rooms will try to fly in their preferred migratory direction.

But when researchers placed European robins in wooden huts on the University of Oldenburg campus in densely populated northwestern Germany, the birds were unable to orient themselves.

Suspecting that electromagnetic signals were confounding the robins’ magnetic compasses, the researchers moved them to electrically grounded, aluminum-screened huts that blocked noise between 50 kHz and 5 MHz. The birds regained their sense of direction.

The researchers repeated the experiments during migrating seasons for seven years, before publishing in the journal Nature.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 19, 2014 at 6:47am

Scientists discover how to turn light into matter

After an 80-year-long quest, British scientists have discovered how to turn light into matter. Scientists G Breit and John A Wheeler suggested in 193 4 the simplest method of turning light into matter — by smashing together only two particles of light (photons ), to create an electron and a positron. But has never been observed in a lab and past experiments to test it have required the addition of massive high-energy particles.

Physicists from Imperial College London have cracked the theory in the college's Blackett Physics Laboratory. The experiment would recreate a process that was critical in the first 100 seconds of the universe, also seen in gamma ray bursts — the biggest explosions in the universe and one of physics' greatest unsolved mysteries.

The collider experiment has two key steps. First, the scientists would use an extremely powerful high-intensity laser to speed up electrons to just below the speed of light. These electrons would be fired at a slab of gold to create a beam of photons a billion times more energetic than visible light. The next stage involves a tiny gold can called a hohlraum. Scientists would fire a high-energy laser at the inner surface of this can, to create a thermal radiation field, generating light similar to the light emitted by stars.

The photon beam from the first stage of the experiment would be directed through the centre of the can, causing the photons from the two sources to collide and form electrons and positrons.Itwouldthen be possible to detect the formation of the electrons and positronswhen they exitedthecan.

Professor Steve Rose from the department of physics, Imperial College, said, "When Breit and Wheeler proposed the theory, physicists said that they never expected it be shown in the lab. Today we prove them wrong. What was so surprising to us was the discovery of how we can create matter directly from light using the technology that we have today in the UK."

This'photon-photon collider',which wouldconvertlightdirectly into matter using technology, would be a new type of high-energy physics experiment.

http://phys.org/news/2014-05-scientists-year-quest.html

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 19, 2014 at 5:53am

Sleeping pills increase the risk of cardiovascular events in heart failure patients by 8-fold, according to research from Japan. The study was presented today at the Heart Failure Congress 2014, held 17-20 May in Athens, Greece. The Congress is the main annual meeting of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology. Dr Masahiko Setoguchi said: "Sleeping problems are a frequent side effect of heart failure and it is common for patients to be prescribed sleeping pills when they are discharged from hospital. They also have other comorbidities and may be prescribed diuretics, antiplatelets, antihypertensives, anticoagulants and anti-arrhythmics.
The researchers retrospectively examined the medical records of 111 heart failure patients admitted to Tokyo Yamate Medical Center from 2011 to 2013. Information was collected on the presence of coexisting cardiovascular and other medical conditions, medications administered during hospitalization and those prescribed at discharge, laboratory test results, electrocardiogram, echocardiogram and chest radiographic data and vital signs at admission and discharge.

Study participants were followed up for 180 days after they were discharged from hospital. The study endpoint was readmission for heart failure, or cardiovascular related death.
Multivariate analysis showed that HFpEF patients who were prescribed sleeping pills were at eight times greater risk of rehospitalisation for heart failure or cardiovascular related death than HFpEF patients who were not prescribed sleeping pills (hazard ratio [HR]=8.063, p=0.010).
Dr Setoguchi said: "Our study clearly shows that sleeping pills dramatically increase the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with HFpEF. The finding was consistent across univariate and multivariate analyses. Given that many heart failure patients have difficulty sleeping, this is an issue that needs further investigation in larger studies."
- http://www.escardio.org/Pages/index.aspx

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 19, 2014 at 5:46am

Few consumers realise that many cosmetic products, such as facial scrubs, toothpastes and shower gels, now contain many thousands of microplastic beads which have been deliberately added by the manufacturers of more than 100 consumer products over the past two decades.

Plastic microbeads, which are typically less than a millimetre wide and are too small to be filtered by sewage-treatment plants, are able to carry deadly toxins into the animals that ingest them, including those in the human food chain such as fish, mussels and crabs, scientists said.

While many people have assiduously tried to recycle their plastic waste, cosmetics companies have at the same time been quietly adding hundreds of cubic metres of plastics such as polyethylene to products that are deliberately designed to be washed into waste-water systems – one estimate suggests that, in the US alone, up to 1,200 cubic metres of microplastic beads are washed down the drains each year.

Scientists and environmentalists have started lobbying the industry to stop using plastic microbeads in exfoliant skin creams and washes, but with limited success – a relatively small number of firms have publicly agreed to phase them out, and even then have given themselves several years to do so.
These can persist in the environment for more than 100 years, and have been found to contaminate a wide variety of freshwater and marine wildlife.
Originally, the cosmetics industry used natural ingredients such as ground-up apricot kernels, crushed walnut shells and dried coconut as skin exfoliants – gentle abrasives that can remove dirt and dead layers of cells.

However, at some point in the late 1990s some companies quietly switched to plastic microbeads and the practice quickly spread to other firms and now includes most skin scrubs, polishes and soaps, even when they are not sold as skin exfoliants,

Microbeads, which are often labelled simply as "PE", "PP" or "PMMA" in the product ingredients, are now found in more than 100 toiletries and cosmetics. They are made by companies ranging from the big chemicals giants such as Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble and Unilever, and supermarket chains such as Sainsbury's, Tesco and Marks and Spencer, to high-end cosmetics firms such as Clarins and L'Oréal.

Richard Thompson, professor of marine biology at Plymouth University, said that plastic microbeads washed into waste water are a needless source of contamination given that there are viable alternatives which have already been used to do much the same job in terms of skin exfoliation.
Microplastic beads may also lead to the transfer of chemical contaminants into the animals that ingest the plastic. This is in addition to the physical damage done by the plastic itself. sometimes it's difficult to predict their effect until it begins to happen.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/exclusive-tiny-plastic-ti...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 16, 2014 at 8:27am

Water extraction for human use boosts California quakes

Extracting water for human activities is increasing the number of small earthquakes being triggered in California.

A new study suggests that the heavy use of ground water for pumping and irrigation is causing mountains to lift and valleys to subside.

The scientists say this depletion of the water is increasing seismic activity along the San Andreas fault.

They worry that over time this will hasten the occurrence of large quakes.

The report has been published in the journal Nature.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 16, 2014 at 8:09am

Scientists have discovered that children who are given antibiotics before their first birthday have an increased risk of developing asthma.

UK researchers examined data from the Manchester Asthma and Allergy Study (MAAS) which has followed over 1000 children from birth to 11 years.

Antibiotics are routinely given to children to treat respiratory infections, ear infections, and bronchitis.

The study's findings are believed to be the first to show that children with wheezing who were treated with an antibiotic in the first year of life were more than twice as likely as untreated children to experience severe wheeze or asthma exacerbations and be hospitalized for asthma.

Of particular interest was that these children also showed significantly lower induction of cytokines which are the bodies' key defence against virus infections such as the common cold. The researchers also identified two genes in the 17q21 region that were associated with an increased risk of early life antibiotic prescription.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 16, 2014 at 8:05am

Tiny earthquakes may follow groundwater loss
Tiny earthquakes may follow groundwater loss because of over use
As humans drain aquifers in the state’s Central Valley, the land — free of water weight — flexes upward, lifting the surrounding mountain ranges and possibly triggering tiny earthquakes, researchers suggest May 14 in Nature.

It’s the first time scientists have linked the region’s extensive groundwater pumping to mountain uplift and seismic activity, says geophysicist Kristy Tiampo of the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada.
and people say men are not responsible for all this mess:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/tiny-earthquakes-may-follow-gro...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 16, 2014 at 7:18am

Environmental conditions may impact bird migration
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2014/05/14/environmental.condition...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 16, 2014 at 7:16am

Assemblage Time Series Reveal Biodiversity Change but Not Systematic Loss
The extent to which biodiversity change in local assemblages contributes to global biodiversity loss is poorly understood. We analyzed 100 time series from biomes across Earth to ask how diversity within assemblages is changing through time. We quantified patterns of temporal α diversity, measured as change in local diversity, and temporal β diversity, measured as change in community composition. Contrary to our expectations, we did not detect systematic loss of α diversity. However, community composition changed systematically through time, in excess of predictions from null models. Heterogeneous rates of environmental change, species range shifts associated with climate change, and biotic homogenization may explain the different patterns of temporal α and β diversity. Monitoring and understanding change in species composition should be a conservation priority.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/344/6181/296.abstract

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on May 15, 2014 at 5:44am

What Makes Congress’s Latest Effort to Curb Science Funding So Dangerous?
A bill making its way through the House Science, Space and Technology Committee would set the country’s science agenda by favoring certain disciplines
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-makes-congress-s-lat...

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