Innovative solar-powered toilet developed by CU-Boulder ready for India unveiling
University of Colorado Boulder developed a toilet fueled by the sun that is being developed to help some of the 2.5 billion people around the world lacking safe and sustainable sanitation will be unveiled in India this month.

The self-contained, waterless toilet, designed and built using a $777,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has the capability of heating human waste to a high enough temperature to sterilize human waste and create biochar, a highly porous charcoal, said project principal investigator Karl Linden, professor of environmental engineering. The biochar has a one-two punch in that it can be used to both increase crop yields and sequester carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2014/03/12/innovative-solar-p...

How Mountains And Rivers Make Life Possible
Favorable conditions for life on Earth are enabled in part by the natural shuttling of carbon dioxide from the planet’s atmosphere to its rocky interior and back again. Now Stanford scientists have devised a pair of math equations that better describe how topography, rock compositions and the movement of water through a landscape affects this vital recycling process.

Scientists have long suspected that the so-called the geologic carbon cycle is responsible for Earth’s clement and life-friendly conditions because it helps regulate atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that acts to trap the sun’s heat. This cycle is also thought to have played an important role in slowly thawing the planet during those rare times in the past when temperatures dipped so low that the globe was plunged into a “snowball-Earth” scenario and glaciers blanketed the equator.

“Our equations suggest that different landscapes have different potentials for regulating the transfer of carbon dioxide,” said Kate Maher, an assistant professor of geological and environmental sciences who developed the equations along with her colleague, Environmental Earth System Science Professor Page Chamberlain. The research, which was supported by the National Research Foundation, is described in the March 14 issue of the journal Science.
- Science news agencies

The protein titin has been found to be the key to reversible muscle elasticity according to a report by Columbia University biological sciences professor Julio Fernandez and his team in the March 13, 2014, edition of the journal Cell.
Mechanical force exposes cryptic cysteines in titin to allow S-glutathionylation
S-glutathionylation of cryptic cysteines inhibits protein folding
S-glutathionylation of titin reversibly modulates the elasticity of cardiomyocytes
Modification of cryptic cysteines links redox environment to tissue mechanics
The researchers discovered that titin is not a passive muscle structure but plays an active chemical role when the muscles are stretched. Stretching the muscles exposed parts of the titin molecule that are susceptible to oxidation. Oxidation of the reactive parts of the titin molecule confers lasting and reversible muscle elasticity through the process of glutathionylation.
he discovery promises new methods to treat heart disease and muscle disease.

The researchers recommend the yoga position downward-facing dog as a means to extend titin to the greatest extent and therefore produce lasting muscle elasticity.
http://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674%2814%2900150-0

Gastric bypass surgery may diminish knee pain in obese patients

Source: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

Gastric bypass surgery may diminish knee pain in obese patients with little or no osteoarthritis, according to new research. The study authors recommend that surgeons consider bariatric consultation for obese patients who have knee symptoms but lack advanced osteoarthritis or other conditions amendable to orthopaedic management.

Individual Variation in Contagious Yawning Susceptibility Is Highly Stable and Largely Unexplained by Empathy or Other Known Factors
The contagious aspect of yawning is a well-known phenomenon that exhibits variation in the human population. Despite the observed variation, few studies have addressed its intra-individual reliability or the factors modulating differences in the susceptibility of healthy volunteers. Due to its obvious biological basis and impairment in diseases like autism and schizophrenia, a better understanding of this trait could lead to novel insights into these conditions and the general biological functioning of humans. We administered 328 participants a 3-minute yawning video stimulus, a cognitive battery, and a comprehensive questionnaire that included measures of empathy, emotional contagion, circadian energy rhythms, and sleepiness. Individual contagious yawning measurements were found to be highly stable across testing sessions, both in a lab setting and if administered remotely online, confirming that certain healthy individuals are less susceptible to contagious yawns than are others. Additionally, most individuals who failed to contagiously yawn in our study were not simply suppressing their reaction, as they reported not even feeling like yawning in response to the stimulus. In contrast to previous studies indicating that empathy, time of day, or intelligence may influence contagious yawning susceptibility, we found no influence of these variables once accounting for the age of the participant. Participants were less likely to show contagious yawning as their age increased, even when restricting to ages of less than 40 years. However, age was only able to explain 8% of the variability in the contagious yawn response. The vast majority of the variability in this extremely stable trait remained unexplained, suggesting that studies of its inheritance are warranted.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone....

Human brains react unconsciously to our body movements
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According to researchers from University College London and Cambridge University found evidence of a specialized mechanism in the human brain that takes in visual information about our body and triggers an instant, unconscious response.

The new study has shown that our brains have separate 'hard-wired' systems to visually track our own bodies, even if we are not paying attention to them. The network triggers reactions even before the conscious brain has time to process them.

Billionaires With Big Ideas Are Privatizing American Science
American science is increasingly becoming a private enterprise. In Washington , budget cuts have left the nation's research complex reeling. Labs are closing. Scientists are being laid off. Yet from Silicon Valley to Wall Street, science philanthropy is hot, as many of the richest Americans seek to reinvent themselves as patrons of social progress through science research.

The super-rich have mounted a private war on disease, with new protocols that break down walls between academia and industry to turn basic discoveries into effective treatments. They have rekindled traditions of scientific exploration by financing hunts for dinosaur bones and giant sea creatures. They are even beginning to challenge Washington in the costly game of big science, with innovative ships, undersea craft and giant telescopes — as well as the first private mission to deep space.

The new philanthropists represent the breadth of American business, people like Michael R Bloomberg, the former New York mayor (and founder of the media company that bears his name), James Simons (hedge funds) and David H Koch (oil and chemicals), among hundreds of wealthy donors. Especially prominent , though, are some of the boldest-face names of the tech world, among them Bill Gates (Microsoft), Eric E Schmidt (Google) and Lawrence J Ellison (Oracle).

This is philanthropy in the age of the new economy — financed with its outsize riches, practised according to its individualistic, entrepreneurial creed. Yet that personal setting of priorities is precisely what troubles some in the science establishment.

Many of the patrons, they say, are ignoring basic research — the kind that investigates the riddles of nature and has produced centuries of breakthroughs — for a jumble of popular, feelgood fields like environmental studies and space exploration.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/science/billionaires-with-big-ide...

Cosmic Inflation Theory Confirmed?

Gravitational Waves from Big Bang Detected

A curved signature in the cosmic microwave background light provides proof of inflation and spacetime ripples

Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Almost 14 billion years ago, the universe we inhabit burst into existence in an extraordinary event that initiated the Big Bang. In the first fleeting fraction of a second, the universe expanded exponentially, stretching far beyond the view of our best telescopes. All this, of course, was just theory. Researchers now announce the first direct evidence for this cosmic inflation. Their data also represent the first images of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time. These waves have been described as the "first tremors of the Big Bang." Finally, the data confirm a deep connection between quantum mechanics and general relativity.

Their data also represents the first images of gravitational waves or ripples in space-time.
"This work offers new insights into some of our most basic questions: Why do we exist? How did the universe begin? These results are not only a smoking gun for inflation, they also tell us when inflation took place and how powerful the process was".

Bionic Plants Offer Superpowered Photosynthesis
Rebuilding plants into bionic superpowered energy photosynthesizers ( using nanotechnology)

A team of MIT researchers writing in the journal Nature Materials say they have discovered the first steps in a new field of science known as “plant nanobionics.”

The researchers found that they were able to boost a plant's ability to capture light energy by 30 percent by embedding carbon nanotubes in the chloroplast. They were also able to use another type of carbon nanotube to modify the plants to detect nitric oxide.

http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmat3890.html

Flowering Plants Need Sugar Transporter SWEET9 For Nectar Production
Nectar secretion requires sucrose phosphate synthases and the sugar transporter SWEET9

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13082...

Honey is being used since ages in India to treat burns and various wounds that might harbour microbes that cause infection. Now researchers have found that
HONEY could be the key in the battle against antibiotic resistance. As well as being a tasty treat, honey could be used to help fight infections, they said.
Scientists at Salve Regina University in the US said that honey has a combination of weapons to beat infection including hydrogen peroxide, acidity, high sugar concentration and polyphenols – all of which actively kill bacterial cells.

The Inflation Debate Is the theory at the heart of modern cosmology deeply flawed?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-inflation-summer/

Why I Still Doubt Inflation, in Spite of Gravitational Wave Findings

here is what I’d like to see: First, corroboration of the BICEP2 findings by other groups and observatories. Second, experiments from high-energy physics that provide some sort of corroborating evidence of the driving mechanism of inflation. Third, an explanation of why the Alice’s Restaurant Problem isn’t still a problem. Fourth, an explanation of why only inflation, and not other more conventional physical phenomena, can account for the gravity-wave findings.

When these conditions are met, I’ll be happy to admit I was wrong about inflation. But multiverses? Never!

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2014/03/17/why-i-st...

When would people lie? Interesting Question. Phsycologists are trying to learn about it.

Psychologists Shaul Shalvi, Ori Eldar and Yoella Bereby-Meyer tested the hypothesis that people are more likely to lie when they can justify the deception to themselves in a 2013 paper entitled “Honesty Requires Time (and Lack of Justifications),” published in Psychological Science. Subjects rolled a die three times in a setup that blocked the experimenter's view of the outcome and were instructed to report the number that came up in the first roll. (The higher the number, the more money they were paid.) Seeing the outcomes of the second and third rolls gave the participants an opportunity to justify reporting the highest number of the three; because that number had actually come up, it was a justified lie.

Some subjects had to report their answer within 20 seconds, whereas others had an unlimited amount of time. Although both groups lied, those who were given less time were more likely to do so. In a second experiment subjects rolled the die once and reported the outcome. Those who were pressed for time lied; those who had time to think told the truth. The two experiments suggest that people are more likely to lie when time is short, but when time is not a factor they lie only when they have justification to do so.

“By lying, we deny our friends access to reality—and their resulting ignorance often harms them in ways we did not anticipate. Our friends may act on our falsehoods, or fail to solve problems that could have been solved only on the basis of good information.”

A practical solution is to think of a way to tell the truth with tact.

nearly all of us shade the truth just enough to make ourselves or others feel better. By how much do we lie? About 10 percent, says behavioral economist Dan Ariely in his 2012 book The Honest Truth about Dishonesty (Harper).

Lying, Ariely says, is not the result of a cost-benefit analysis. Instead it is a form of self-deception in which small lies allow us to dial up our self-image and still retain the perception of being an honest person. Big lies do not.

More can be found at:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-science-tells-us-abo...

Knowing whether food has spoiled without even opening the container!
Research paper presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society shows how.
A color-coded smart tag could tell consumers whether a carton of milk has turned sour or a can of green beans has spoiled without opening the containers, according to researchers. The tag, which would appear on the packaging, also could be used to determine if medications and other perishable products were still active or fresh, they said.

This report on the color-changing food deterioration tags was presented recently as part of the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society.
Watch the video to know how:

More information could be found on their website:
http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2014/march...

What makes dark chocolate healthy?

The precise reason for the health benefits of dark chocolate: mystery solved

After decades of scientific inquiry, John Finley from Louisiana State University and colleagues have found what makes dark chocolate good for you according to their presentation on March 18, 2014, at the National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Dallas, Texas. The researchers fund that Bifidobacterium and lactic acid bacteria in the lower digestive tract love dark chocolate. The bacteria metabolize chemical components in dark chocolate into anti-inflammatory agents that reduce cardiovascular inflammation and the risk of stroke and heart disease. The researchers proved their concept using cocoa powder and human fecal bacteria in a glass digestive tract that simulated the human lower gut. Cocoa powder contains antioxidants and fiber that are not acted on by digestive enzymes or digestive secretions in the upper digestive tract and are not absorbed in the upper digestive tract. Lower digestive tract bacteria convert the antioxidants and fiber into smaller molecules that can be absorbed and used as anti-inflammatory agents and digestive regulators in the lower digestive tract. The researchers add that eating a prebiotic like garlic can assist the bacteria that metabolize dark chocolate by increasing the rate and of conversion of anti-inflammatory agents in dark chocolate to compounds the human body can absorb.

http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2014/march...

Did you know? What are some things that programmers know, but most people don't?

The most difficult part of writing a program is not actually writing the program but rather determining what the client wants the program to do.
It is relatively easy to write the rules for what a program should do in cases where everything is working correctly; it is much more difficult to write the rules for what a program should do when things go wrong (see below).
A lot more can (and does) go wrong than you think: databases can become corrupt or lose their connection to your program; the connection between various computers may become unavailable due to networking issues; and the list goes on. This is largely due to the distributed nature of computer systems these days, in which multiple interconnected computers process what seems to you to be a single request.
A large part of what a program does is hide from you the gory details of when things go wrong (see above).
Good programming requires the ability to foresee what might go wrong and to account for it. Most non-programmers either don't believe what could go wrong or don't want to worry about it, and thus can get uncomfortable even thinking about the idea of things going wrong.
What may appear to be a very simple program (e.g. Google's site) may involve a huge, invisible supporting infrastructure that cost lots of time and money to build and maintain.
When you meet us at parties and learn what we do, we really don't want to hear the story about how you couldn't get a certain program to install/uninstall/run or how you might have a virus on your Windows PC. It would be like saying to a dentist you just met, "Oh, you're a dentist? I have this pain in my leg, what do you think is causing it?"
Just as you're usually not impressed when we brag about how much we know about computers, we're not impressed when you brag about how little you know about them.

New hypothesis explains earth's continued habitability
Researchers from USC and Nanjing University in China have documented evidence suggesting that part of the reason that Earth has become neither sweltering like Venus nor frigid like Mars lies with a built-in atmospheric carbon dioxide regulator -- the geologic cycles that churn up the planet's rocky surface. Scientists have long known that "fresh" rock pushed to the surface via mountain formation effectively acts as a kind of sponge, soaking up the greenhouse gas CO2. Left unchecked, however, that process would simply deplete atmospheric CO2 levels to a point that would plunge Earth into an eternal winter within a few million years during the formation of large mountain ranges like the Himalayas -- which has clearly not happened.

And while volcanoes have long been pointed to as a source of carbon dioxide, alone they cannot balance out the excess uptake of carbon dioxide by large mountain ranges. Instead, it turns out that "fresh" rock exposed by uplift also emits carbon through a chemical weathering process, which replenishes the atmospheric carbon dioxide at a comparable rate.

"Our presence on Earth is dependent upon this carbon cycle. This is why life is able to survive," said Mark Torres, lead author of a study disclosing the findings that appears in Nature on March 20. Torres, a doctoral fellow at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and a fellow at the Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI), collaborated with Joshua West, professor of Earth Sciences at USC Dornsife, and Gaojun Li of Nanjing University in China.
Source: University of Southern California

Evolution Of Conch Size Driven By Humans
The first humans to pluck a Caribbean fighting conch from the shallow lagoons of Panama’s Bocas del Toro were in for a good meal. Smithsonian scientists found that 7,000 years ago, this common marine shellfish contained 66 percent more meat than its descendants do today. Because of persistent harvesting of the largest conchs, it became advantageous for the animal to mature at a smaller size, resulting in evolutionary change.

Human-driven evolution of wild animals, sometimes referred to as “unnatural selection,” has only previously been documented under scenarios of high-intensity harvesting, like industrialized fishing. “These are the first evidence that low-intensity harvesting has been sufficient to drive evolution,” said lead author Aaron O’Dea of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. “The reason may be because the conch has been subjected to harvesting for a long period of time.” Published March 19 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the findings are based on a comparison of mature shell sizes prior to human settlement, from shells excavated from human trash heaps representing various points in the last few thousand years and from modern sites.

Source: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1782/20140159.ab...

Natural forests in the Amazon remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they emit - Nasa-led study
This means that the 5.5 million square kilometer forest is a crucial factor in reducing global warming. The new study, published in Nature Communications on March 18, is the first to measure tree deaths caused by natural processes throughout the Amazon forest.

Scientists: Don't pee in pools
Not only is peeing in the swimming pool antisocial, it could also harm your health, according to a study.
Scientists from China Agricultural University and Purdue University have found that uric acid in urine interacts with the disinfectants in swimming pools to produce harmful chemicals.

The study, published in Environmental Science and Technology, showed that uric acid becomes chlorinated and acts as a precursor to the formation of the toxic gases cyanogen chloride (CNCl) and trichloramine (NCl3).

At high concentrations, CNCl is known to cause immediate injury to the eyes and respiratory system upon contact, and longer term problems in the central nervous system and heart. NCl3 has been linked to chronic health problems in adults and asthma in children.

In the article, the authors noted that since urination is under the voluntary control of swimmers, improved hygiene habits are essential to keep swimming pool water safe.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es405402r

A meta-analysis of papers published on diabetes shows that diabetic women are more susceptible to stroke than diabetic men, possibly because of obesity.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2814...

The use of wastewater to irrigate crops is exposing children in Asia to a high risk of rotavirus infection and other deadly disease, scientists say.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/risa.12178/abstract;jses...

Ghee, butter and cheese not tied to heart disease? Experts: No Proof That Saturated Fat Is Unhealthy ( Take this with a pinch of salt! - K) Yes, your genes will definitely determine whether you are susceptible or not. You cannot put all the people in one bracket to come to a conclusion! Flawed study! The results are unclear!

A dollop of ghee or butter in your diet does not cause as much harm to your heart as it was believed till now. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the British Heart Foundation have found there is actually no evidence that confirms changing the type of fat you eat from “bad” saturated to “healthier” polyunsaturated cuts heart risk.
The researchers analysed data from 72 unique studies with over 600,000 participants from 18 nations and found total saturated fatty acid, whether measured in the diet or in the bloodstream as a biomarker, was not associated with coronary disease risk in the observational studies. Similarly, when analysing the studies that involved assessments of the consumption of total monounsaturated fatty acids, long-chain omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, there were no significant associations between consumption and cardiovascular risk.
Saturated fat is the kind of fat found in butter, biscuits, red meat, sausages and bacon and cheese and cream. There has been a big drive to get more people eating unsaturated fats, such as olive and sunflower oils, and other non-animal fats instead. But the latest study raises questions about the current guidelines that generally restrict the consumption of saturated fats and encourage consumption of polyunsaturated fats to prevent heart disease.
“These are interesting results that potentially stimulate new lines of scientific inquiry and encourage careful reappraisal of our current nutritional guidelines,” said Dr Rajiv Chowdhury, lead author of the research at the University of Cambridge. “Cardiovascular disease, in which the principal manifestation is coronary heart disease, remains the single leading cause of death and disability worldwide. In 2008, more than 17 million people died from a cardiovascular cause globally. With so many affected by this illness, it is critical to have appropriate prevention guidelines which are informed by the best available scientific evidence.”
The research collaboration led by the University of Cambridge analysed existing cohort studies and randomised trials on coronary risk and fatty acid intake. They showed that current evidence does not support guidelines which restrict the consumption of saturated fats in order to prevent heart disease. The researchers also found insufficient support for guidelines which advocate the high consumption of polyunsaturated fats (such as omega 3 and omega 6) to reduce the risk of coronary disease.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Earth's inner radiation belt displays a persistent zebra striped pattern generated by our planet's rotation, Nasa's twin Van Allen Probes spacecraft have found.

The high-energy electrons in the inner radiation belt display a persistent pattern that resembles slanted zebra stripes, researchers said.

Surprisingly, this structure is produced by the slow rotation of Earth, previously considered incapable of affecting the motion of radiation belt particles, which have velocities approaching the speed of light.
Because of the tilt in Earth's magnetic field axis, the planet's rotation generates an oscillating, weak electric field that permeates through the entire inner radiation belt.
he global oscillations slowly stretch and fold the fluid, much like taffy is stretched and folded in a candy store machine.

The stretching and folding process results in the striped pattern observed across the entire inner belt, extending from above Earth's atmosphere, about 800km above the planet's surface up to roughly 13,000km.

The findings are published in the journal Nature.

Optical Origins of Opposing Facial Expression Actions
Darwin theorized that emotional expressions originated as opposing functional adaptations for the expresser, not as distinct categories of social signals. Given that two thirds of the eye’s refractive power comes from the cornea, we examined whether opposing expressive behaviors that widen the eyes (e.g., fear) or narrow the eyes (e.g., disgust) may have served as an optical trade-off, enhancing either sensitivity or acuity, thereby promoting stimulus localization (“where”) or stimulus discrimination (“what”), respectively. An optical model based on eye apertures of posed fear and disgust expressions supported this functional trade-off. We then tested the model using standardized optometric measures of sensitivity and acuity. We demonstrated that eye widening enhanced stimulus detection, whereas eye narrowing enhanced discrimination, each at the expense of the other. Opposing expressive actions around the eye may thus reflect origins in an optical principle, shaping visual encoding at its earliest stage—how light is cast onto the retina.
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/01/24/0956797613514451.ab...

NASA discovers Mars gully channel formed just three years ago

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has just revealed to the world an enormous new gully channel cutting across the Martian landscape. But this isn’t like the other ancient channels found on Mars, where liquid water once flowed. It’s a gully that wasn’t there 3 years ago.

Using the powerful High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, the orbiter snapped the area in both 2010 and in 2013. Before-and-after pictures record the appearance of an entirely new gully located on a crater-wall slope in Mars’ southern highlands, NASA said in a news release. Scientists think it likely was formed by carbon-dioxide frost.

According to NASA, gully or ravine landforms are common on the Red Planet, especially in its southern highlands.

The images show that material flowing down from an alcove at the head of a gully broke out of an older route and eroded a new channel, NASA explains. The dates on the images are more than a full Martian year apart, so the observations didn’t pin down the Martian season of the activity at the site.

Before-and-after HiRISE photos of similar activity at other sites show that this type of activity generally occurs in the winter, in temperatures so cold that carbon dioxide, rather than water, is the likely to play a key role, the space agency said.

http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/nasas-mars-orbiter-finds-gully-...

DNA left at a crime scene could in future be used to build up a picture of an offender’s face, scientists believe.
Researches are now saying the day is not very far away when they will be able to create a "photo" of the perpetrator from the DNA that he leaves behind. Researchers are already able to tell what a crime suspect might look like from looking at his DNA, including his racial ancestry and the colour of his hair.
That started in 2012, when Manfred Kayser from the Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, Holland, began looking for genes that affected the relative positions of nine facial "landmarks", including the tip of the nose and the middle of each eyeball. He found five genetic variants which had discernable effects on facial shape.

Furthering Kayser's work, population geneticist Mark Shriver of Pennsylvania State University and imaging specialist Peter Claes of the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium used a stereoscopic camera to take 3D pictures of almost 600 volunteers with mixed European and West African ancestry. The scientists reasoned that because people from Europe and Africa tend to have differently shaped faces, studying people with mixed ancestry pushed up their chances of finding genetic variants that affected facial structure.

Shriver and Claes found 24 variants in 20 genes that seemed to predict what a face would look like.

The researches however say their reconstructions are not yet ready for routine use by crime labs. But that said, Shriver is already working with police to see if he can help find the man believed to be responsible for two cases of serial rape in Pennsylvania.
- Agencies

Stick filters out ‘99 per cent’ of bacteria from water

Scientists are developing a system to filter out bacteria using plant sticks

A small stick cleans water at a rate sufficient for one person’s drinking needs

Others say the system still needs to pass WHO standards for drinking water
Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States are working with their counterparts in developing countries to produce an “economical and efficient” means of filtering out bacteria from water using plant xylem that normally transports water and nutrients from the soil.

The novel technology could provide a solution to the burden of water-borne diseases in East Asia and the Pacific where about 180 million people lack access to safe water supply, according to the UNICEF (UN Children’s Fund).
Water Filtration Using Plant Xylem
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone....

Children born to older fathers are not just at an increased risk of autism and some other diseases but are also more likely to be ugly, scientists say. Previous studies have shown that extra-genetic mutations that build up in older men's genes can raise their children's risk of autism, schizophrenia and other diseases. Now researchers say the impact is so strong that it also affects the appearance of those who have older fathers.

"We found a significant negative effect between paternal age and people's facial attractiveness," said Martin Fieder, an anthropologist at Vienna University and one of the research team leaders. "The age of the father at conception is not only a determinant of the risk for certain diseases but also predicts facial attractiveness," Fieder said.

In the study, a group of six men and six women was shown photographs of 4,018 men and 4,416 women, mostly aged 18-20, and asked to rate their attractiveness. The researchers found that subjects with older fathers tended to be consistently rated less attractive than those with younger fathers.
Older dads more likely to have uglier children
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Older-dads-more-lik...

Scientists Working On Facial Reconstruction Method Using Genetic Material
Modeling 3D Facial Shape from DNA
Human facial diversity is substantial, complex, and largely scientifically unexplained. We used spatially dense quasi-landmarks to measure face shape in population samples with mixed West African and European ancestry from three locations (United States, Brazil, and Cape Verde). Using bootstrapped response-based imputation modeling (BRIM), we uncover the relationships between facial variation and the effects of sex, genomic ancestry, and a subset of craniofacial candidate genes. The facial effects of these variables are summarized as response-based imputed predictor (RIP) variables, which are validated using self-reported sex, genomic ancestry, and observer-based facial ratings (femininity and proportional ancestry) and judgments (sex and population group). By jointly modeling sex, genomic ancestry, and genotype, the independent effects of particular alleles on facial features can be uncovered. Results on a set of 20 genes showing significant effects on facial features provide support for this approach as a novel means to identify genes affecting normal-range facial features and for approximating the appearance of a face from genetic markers.
http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal....

MIT Engineers Use Bacterial Biofilms To Create Lifelike Materials
drawing inspiration from the way in which minerals, living cells and other substances combine to form bone, a team of MIT engineers have created a type of “living material” out of bacterial cells, according to research appearing in Sunday’s edition of the journal Nature Materials.

Lead author Allen Chen, an MIT-Harvard MD-PhD student, and his colleagues coaxed those cells to produce biofilms capable of incorporating nonliving materials such as gold nanoparticles and quantum dots. They combined the ability of living cells to respond to their environments and produce complex biological molecules with the benefits of nonliving materials, such as adding functions like electrical conductivity or light emissions.

- Nature

The Unconscious Mind Can Detect a Liar — Even When the Conscious Mind Fails
When it comes to detecting deceit, your unconscious mind may be more accurate than conscious thought in pegging truth-tellers and liars, according to a new research.

The findings suggest that conscious awareness may hinder our ability to detect whether someone is lying, perhaps because we tend to seek out behaviours that are supposedly stereotypical of liars, like averted eyes or fidgeting.

However, those behaviours may not be all that indicative of an untrustworthy person, researchers said.
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/the-unc...

The loss of biodiversity is closely linked to outbreaks of diseases in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a study which points at biodiversity’s potential role as A buffer against disease outbreaks.

Despite increasing health control measures, parasitic and infectious diseases have been emerging and recurring in South-East Asia — which the study calls “a recognized hotspot for biodiversity” and “which is suffering from rapid and extensive erosion of that diversity.”

The two trends may be linked, finds the study published in PLOS One, saying that “that although biodiversity is a source of pathogens, well-preserved biodiversity could act an insurance against outbreaks.”

Infectious Diseases and Their Outbreaks in Asia-Pacific: Biodiversity and Its Regulation Loss Matter
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone....

Nanowire ‘Fingerprints’ To Fight Counterfeiting
Nanowire fingerprints are cheap to produce and extremely difficult to replicate, making them useful in anti-counterfeiting measures, scientists say.
Researchers from South Korea have utilized the unique patterns made from tiny, randomly scattered silver nanowires to authenticate goods and tackle the growing problem of counterfeiting.

The nanoscale ‘fingerprints’ are made by randomly dumping 20 to 30 individual nanowires, each with an average length of 10 to 50 µm, onto a thin plastic film, and could be used to tag a variety of goods from electronics and drugs to credit cards and bank notes.

According to the researchers, the fingerprints are almost impossible to replicate because of the natural randomness of their creation and the difficulty associated with manipulating such small materials.
Anti-counterfeit nanoscale fingerprints based on randomly distributed nanowires
http://iopscience.iop.org/0957-4484/25/15/155303/

Scientists have developed nanoparticle-based colors that could be used to make paint and electronic displays that never fade.
Nanoparticles Give Color Without Pigments
Most of the colors we see around us arise from paints and dyes that absorb certain wavelengths of light and reflect the remainder. In contrast, structural color is created when an object’s very nanostructure amplifies a specific wavelength.

Although examples of structural color have been found in nature, producing structural color in the lab is difficult as it requires a material’s molecules to be in a very specific crystalline pattern.

Taking a different approach inspired by the feathers of the cotinga bird, researchers have devised a system to obtain structural color using microcapsules filled with a disordered solution of nanoparticles suspended in water. When the microcapsule is partly dried out, it shrinks, bringing the particles closer and closer together. Eventually the average distance between all the particles will give rise to a specific reflected color from the capsule.
Full-Spectrum Photonic Pigments with Non-iridescent Structural Colors through Colloidal Assembly
Structurally colored materials could potentially replace dyes and pigments in many applications, but it is challenging to fabricate structural colors that mimic the appearance of absorbing pigments. We demonstrate the microfluidic fabrication of “photonic pigments” consisting of microcapsules containing dense amorphous packings of core–shell colloidal particles. These microcapsules show non-iridescent structural colors that are independent of viewing angle, a critical requirement for applications such as displays or coatings. We show that the design of the microcapsules facilitates the suppression of incoherent and multiple scattering, enabling the fabrication of photonic pigments with colors spanning the visible spectrum. Our findings should provide new insights into the design and synthesis of materials with structural colors.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201309306/abstract;...

A study of patients with chronic headaches suggests that pain is linked with the brain’s ability to change with use.
New insights into how the human brain responds to chronic pain could eventually lead to improved treatments for patients, according to University of Adelaide researchers.

Neuroplasticity is the term used to describe the brain’s ability to change structurally and functionally with experience and use.
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/

The Brain’s Inability To Change Linked To Chronic Pain

Scientists have found that commonly used anti-inflammation drugs could also be used as antibiotics
Some commonly used drugs that combat aches and pains, fever and inflammation are also thought to have the ability to kill bacteria, research published in Chemistry & Biology shows.

These drugs, better known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), act on bacteria in a way that is fundamentally different from current antibiotics. The discovery could open up new strategies for fighting drug-resistant infections and “superbugs.”
http://www.cell.com/chemistry-biology/retrieve/pii/S1074552114000672
Evidence suggests that some nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) possess antibacterial properties with an unknown mechanism. We describe the in vitro antibacterial properties of the NSAIDs carprofen, bromfenac, and vedaprofen, and show that these NSAIDs inhibit the Escherichia coli DNA polymerase III β subunit, an essential interaction hub that acts as a mobile tether on DNA for many essential partner proteins in DNA replication and repair. Crystal structures show that the three NSAIDs bind to the sliding clamp at a common binding site required for partner binding. Inhibition of interaction of the clamp loader and/or the replicative polymerase α subunit with the sliding clamp is demonstrated using an in vitro DNA replication assay. NSAIDs thus present promising lead scaffolds for novel antibacterial agents targeting the sliding clamp.

E-cigarettes don’t help smokers quit, study finds
People who tried electronic devices no more likely to give up smokes a year later
Electronic cigarettes may not shut off the urge to smoke cigarettes. A survey of 949 smokers found no difference in quit rates a year after some had taken up e-cigarettes while others hadn’t, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco report March 24 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

E-cigarettes deliver nicotine in vapor form without the cancer-causing combusted materials of a lit cigarette. Manufacturers suggest that using them is a first step toward quitting smoking. Of 949 smokers who answered online questionnaires, 88 reported trying e-cigarettes at the study’s outset. One year later, about 13.5 percent of all participants had quit smoking during the year. Roughly equal percentages of e-cigarette users and smokers who didn’t use them had successfully quit regular cigarettes; differences in quit rates between the two groups fell within the study’s margin of error.

Separately, studies published in 2013 in the Lancet and the American Journal of Preventive Medicine similarly found no more quitting among smokers who took up e-cigarettes. The UCSF authors suggest that regulators prohibit ads claiming that e-cigarettes help people quit smoking unless scientific evidence emerges to prove it.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/e-cigarettes-don%E2%80%99t-help...

http://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797%2812%2900822-7/abstract

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2813...

E-cigarettes, with or without nicotine, were modestly effective at helping smokers to quit, with similar achievement of abstinence as with nicotine patches, and few adverse events. Uncertainty exists about the place of e-cigarettes in tobacco control, and more research is urgently needed to clearly establish their overall benefits and harms at both individual and population levels.

How does the brain process rhythm?
A region of the brain called the putamen has a central role in our ability to keep a beat in our head.
http://elife.elifesciences.org/content/3/e02658

Apoptosis: Keeping inflammation at bay
Cells dying by apoptosis can trigger an anti-inflammatory gene response in other cells by releasing a compound called adenosine monophosphate.
AMP molecules released by apoptotic cells can trigger an anti-inflammatory response in phagocytes.
http://elife.elifesciences.org/content/3/e02583

Human Nose Can Detect 1 Trillion Odors
What the the nose knows might as well be limitless, researchers suggest.
http://www.nature.com/news/human-nose-can-detect-1-trillion-odours-...

Biodegradable battery could melt inside the body

Medical implants would monitor vital signs or dispense therapies before vanishing.
http://www.nature.com/news/biodegradable-battery-could-melt-inside-...