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-...

A new project could help revolutionize the way doctors screen new drugs through a surrogate body system.

Scientists are developing a project called Advanced Tissue-engineered Human Ectypal Network Analyzer (ATHENA), which aims to essentially be a testing station for new drugs on the human body. ATHENA will be a $19 million project that includes a liver, heart, lung and kidney all connected together and able to fit neatly on a desk.

“By developing this ‘homo minutus,’ we are stepping beyond the need for animal or Petri dish testing: There are huge benefits in developing drug and toxicity analysis systems that can mimic the response of actual human organs,” Rashi Iyer, a senior scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, said in a statement

Using A Surrogate To Test Drugs’ Effects On The Human Body
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113104796/surrogate-body-to-t...

Leptin is a pleiotropic protein best known for regulation of appetite and fat storage in mammals. While many leptin orthologs have been identified among vertebrates, an authentic leptin in birds has remained elusive and controversial. Here we identify leptin sequence from the Peregrine falcon, Falco peregrinus (pfleptin), and identify sequences from two other birds (mallard and zebra finch), and ‘missing’ vertebrates (elephant shark, alligator, Indian python, Chinese soft-shelled turtle, and coelacanth). The pattern of genes surrounding leptin (snd1, rbm28) is syntenic between the falcon and mammalian genomes. Phylogenetic analysis of all known leptin protein sequences improves our understanding of leptin’s evolution. Structural modeling of leptin orthologs highlights a highly conserved hydrophobic core in the four-helix cytokine packing domain. A docked model of leptin with the leptin receptor for Peregrine falcon reveals several conserved amino acids important for the interaction and possible coevolution of leptin with its receptor. We also show for the first time, an authentic avian leptin sequence that activates the JAK-STAT signaling pathway. These newly identified sequences, structures, and tools for avian leptin and its receptor will allow elucidation of the function of these proteins in feral and domestic birds.

Discovery of the Elusive Leptin in Birds: Identification of Several ‘Missing Links’ in the Evolution of Leptin and Its Receptor
How does the Arctic tern (a sea bird) fly more than 80,000 miles in its roundtrip North Pole-to-South Pole migration? How does the Emperor penguin incubate eggs for months during the Antarctic winter without eating? How does the Rufous hummingbird, which weighs less than a nickel, migrate from British Columbia to Mexico? These physiological gymnastics would usually be influenced by leptin, the hormone that regulates body fat storage, metabolism and appetite. However, leptin has gone missing in birds – until now.

University of Akron researchers have discovered leptin in birds, In their “Discovery of the Elusive Leptin in Birds: Identification of Several ‘Missing Links’ in the Evolution of Leptin and its Receptor,” published March 24, 2014, in the journal PLOS ONE, UA researchers reveal their findings of leptin in the peregrine falcon, mallard duck and zebra finch.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone....

Total Synthesis of a Functional Designer Eukaryotic Chromosome
Gene Gurus Create Synthetic Yeast Chromosome From Scratch
Geneticists say they've built a working yeast chromosome from the bottom up for the first time — a feat that could open the way for custom-made biofactories that churn out fuels and pharmaceuticals
Rapid advances in DNA synthesis techniques have made it possible to engineer viruses, biochemical pathways and assemble bacterial genomes. Here, we report the synthesis of a functional 272,871–base pair designer eukaryotic chromosome, synIII, which is based on the 316,617–base pair native Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome III. Changes to synIII include TAG/TAA stop-codon replacements, deletion of subtelomeric regions, introns, transfer RNAs, transposons, and silent mating loci as well as insertion of loxPsym sites to enable genome scrambling. SynIII is functional in S. cerevisiae. Scrambling of the chromosome in a heterozygous diploid reveals a large increase in a-mater derivatives resulting from loss of the MATα allele on synIII. The complete design and synthesis of synIII establishes S. cerevisiae as the basis for designer eukaryotic genome biology.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/03/26/science.1249252....

Next generation super powerful fuel from bacteria
The next generation of super powerful fuel, capable of arming missiles and space rockets may come from an engineered bacterium.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have engineered a bacterium to synthesize pinene - a hydrocarbon produced by trees that could potentially replace high-energy fuels such as JP-10 in missiles and other aerospace applications.

By inserting enzymes from trees into the bacterium, Georgia Tech scientist Stephen Sarria boosted pinene production six-fold over earlier bioengineering efforts. To be competitive, the researchers will have to boost their production of pinene 26-fold.

Though a more dramatic improvement will be needed before pinene can compete with petroleum-based JP-10, the scientists believe they have identified the major obstacles that must be overcome to reach that goal.

They say it may be possible to produce pinene at a cost lower than that of petroleum-based sources.

If that can be done - and if the resulting bio-fuel operates well in these applications - that could open the door for lighter and more powerful engines fueled by increased supplies of high-energy fuels.

-Agencies

Geoengineering side effects could be potentially disastrous, research shows
Comparison of five proposed methods shows they are ineffective, alter weather systems or could not be safely stopped

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140225/ncomms4304/full/ncomms4304...
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/25/geoengineering-s...

V-ATPase Proton Pumping Activity Is Required for Adult Zebrafish Appendage Regeneration
Reason why some animals can regenerate tissues after severe organ loss or amputation while others, such as humans, cannot renew some structures has always intrigued scientists. In a study now published in PLOS ONE, a research group from Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC, Portugal) led by Joaquín Rodríguez León provided new clues to solve this central question by investigating regeneration in an adult vertebrate model: the zebrafish. It was known that zebrafish is able to regenerate organs, and that electrical currents may play a role in this process, but the exact mechanisms are still unclear. Using both biophysical and molecular approaches, the researchers have shown, for the first time, that zebrafish regenerates its caudal fin by a process that involves a specific channel in the cell membrane, called V-ATPase, that pumps hydrogen ions (H+) out of the cells generating an electrical current. Understanding these mechanisms underlying adult tissue regeneration may be instrumental for the development of new tissue.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone....

Scientists struggle to complete climate impacts report
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26802192

First gene-editing disease cure success announced
Using a new gene-editing system based on bacterial proteins, MIT researchers have cured mice of a rare liver disorder caused by a single genetic mutation.

The findings, described in the March 30 issue of Nature Biotechnology, offer the first evidence that this gene-editing technique, known as CRISPR, can reverse disease symptoms in living animals. CRISPR, which offers an easy way to snip out mutated DNA and replace it with the correct sequence, holds potential for treating many genetic disorders, according to the research team.

http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/erasing-genetic-mutation

Feel happy to read these type of articles
Airlines find a smart way to cut carbon footprint
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Airlines...
This is to save money( economics) but at the same time they are helping the ecology!
Perhaps if you show people things that can be helpful both ways, they would listen!

Nano-paper filter removes viruses
Researchers at the Division of Nanotechnology and Functional Materials, Uppsala University have developed a paper filter, which can remove virus particles with the efficiency matching that of the best industrial virus filters. The paper filter consists of 100 percent high purity cellulose nanofibers, directly derived from nature. The research was carried out in collaboration with virologists from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences/Swedish National Veterinary Institute and is published in the Advanced Healthcare Materials journal.

Virus particles are very peculiar objects- tiny (about thousand times thinner than a human hair) yet mighty. Viruses can only replicate in living cells but once the cells become infected the viruses can turn out to be extremely pathogenic. Viruses can actively cause diseases on their own or even transform healthy cells to malignant tumors.
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2014/03/31/nano.paper.filter.remov...

Debashis Chanda at the University of Central Floridamay have just cracked a barrier. The cover story in the March edition of the journal Advanced Optical Materials, explains how Chanda and fellow optical and nanotech experts were able to develop a larger swath of multilayer 3-D metamaterial operating in the visible spectral range. They accomplished this feat by using nanotransfer printing, which can potentially be engineered to modify surrounding refractive index needed for controlling propagation of light.
A breakthrough in creating invisibility cloaks, stealth technology
The nanotransfer printing technique creates metal/dielectric composite films, which are stacked together in a 3-D architecture with nanoscale patterns for operation in the visible spectral range. Control of electromagnetic resonances over the 3-D space by structural manipulation allows precise control over propagation of light. Following this technique, larger pieces of this special material can be created, which were previously limited to micron-scale size.

By improving the technique, the team hopes to be able to create larger pieces of the material with engineered optical properties, which would make it practical to produce for real-life device applications. For example, the team could develop large-area metamaterial absorbers, which would enable fighter jets to remain invisible from detection systems.
Source: University of Central Florida

Deforestation of sandy soils a greater climate threat
Deforestation may have far greater consequences for climate change in some soils than in others, according to new research led by Yale University scientists -- a finding that could provide critical insights into which ecosystems must be managed with extra care because they are vulnerable to biodiversity loss and which ecosystems are more resilient to widespread tree removal. In a comprehensive analysis of soil collected from 11 distinct U.S. regions, from Hawaii to northern Alaska, researchers found that the extent to which deforestation disturbs underground microbial communities that regulate the loss of carbon into the atmosphere depends almost exclusively on the texture of the soil. The results were published in the journal Global Change Biology.
http://environment.yale.edu/

Methane-spewing microbe blamed in Earth's worst mass extinction
A tiny methane-producing microbe may have been responsible for the largest mass extinction in Earth's history.

Fossil remains show sometime around 252 million years ago, about 90% of all species on Earth were suddenly wiped out — by far the largest of this planet's five known mass extinctions. But pinpointing the culprit has been difficult till now.

A team of MIT researchers has found enough evidence to reveal what caused it. They say we will need a microscope to see the killers.

The perpetrators, according to the new study, were not asteroids, volcanoes or raging coal fires — all of which have been implicated previously. Rather, they were a form of microbes — specifically, methane-producing archaea called Methanosarcina — that suddenly bloomed explosively in the oceans, spewing prodigious amounts of methane into the atmosphere and dramatically changing the climate and chemistry of the oceans.

The reason for the sudden, explosive growth of the microbes may have been their novel ability to use a rich source of organic carbon, aided by a sudden influx of a nutrient required for their growth: the element nickel, emitted by massive volcanism at just that time.

MIT professor of geophysics Daniel Rothman, postdoc Gregory Fournier and five other researchers at MIT and in China built upon three independent sets of evidence.

First, geochemical evidence shows an exponential increase of carbon dioxide in the oceans at the time of the so-called end-Permian extinction. Second, genetic evidence shows a change in Methanosarcina at that time, allowing it to become a major producer of methane from an accumulation of carbon dioxide in the water. Finally, sediments show a sudden increase in the amount of nickel deposited at exactly this time.

The carbon deposits show something caused a significant uptick in the amount of carbon-containing gases — carbon dioxide or methane — produced at the time of the mass extinction.

"A rapid initial injection of carbon dioxide from a volcano would be followed by a gradual decrease," Fournier says. "Instead, we see the opposite: a rapid, continuing increase. That suggests a microbial expansion. The growth of microbial populations is among the few phenomena capable of increasing carbon production exponentially or even faster."

Scientists then carried out genomic analysis of what caused this.

It turns out that Methanosarcina had acquired a particularly fast means of making methane, through gene transfer from another microbe — and the team's detailed mapping of the organism's history now shows this transfer happened at about the time of the end-Permian extinction.

The resulting outburst of methane produced effects similar to those predicted by current models of global climate change: a sudden, extreme rise in temperatures, combined with acidification of the oceans. In the case of the end-Permian extinction, virtually all shell-forming marine organisms were wiped out — consistent with the observation that such shells cannot form in acidic waters.
- Reuters

Understanding the different categories of facial expressions of emotion regularly used by us is essential to gain insights into human cognition and affect as well as for the design of computational models and perceptual interfaces. Past research on facial expressions of emotion has focused on the study of six basic categories—happiness, surprise, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust. However, many more facial expressions of emotion exist and are used regularly by humans. This paper describes an important group of expressions, which we call compound emotion categories. Compound emotions are those that can be constructed by combining basic component categories to create new ones. For instance, happily surprised and angrily surprised are two distinct compound emotion categories. The present work defines 21 distinct emotion categories. Sample images of their facial expressions were collected from 230 human subjects. A Facial Action Coding System analysis shows the production of these 21 categories is different but consistent with the subordinate categories they represent (e.g., a happily surprised expression combines muscle movements observed in happiness and surprised). We show that these differences are sufficient to distinguish between the 21 defined categories. We then use a computational model of face perception to demonstrate that most of these categories are also visually discriminable from one another.
Compound facial expressions of emotion
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/03/25/1322355111

Multifunctional wearable devices for diagnosis and therapy of movement disorders
Wearable systems that monitor muscle activity, store data and deliver feedback therapy are the next frontier in personalized medicine and healthcare. However, technical challenges, such as the fabrication of high-performance, energy-efficient sensors and memory modules that are in intimate mechanical contact with soft tissues, in conjunction with controlled delivery of therapeutic agents, limit the wide-scale adoption of such systems. Here, we describe materials, mechanics and designs for multifunctional, wearable-on-the-skin systems that address these challenges via monolithic integration of nanomembranes fabricated with a top-down approach, nanoparticles assembled by bottom-up methods, and stretchable electronics on a tissue-like polymeric substrate. Representative examples of such systems include physiological sensors, non-volatile memory and drug-release actuators. Quantitative analyses of the electronics, mechanics, heat-transfer and drug-diffusion characteristics validate the operation of individual components, thereby enabling system-level multifunctionalities.
http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nnano.2014.3...

10 persistent cancer myths debunked

Myth 1: Cancer is a man-made, modern disease
Myth 2: Superfoods prevent cancer
Myth 3: ‘Acidic’ diets cause cancer
Myth 4: Cancer has a sweet tooth
Myth 5: Cancer is a fungus – and sodium bicarbonate is the cure
Myth 6: There’s a miracle cancer cure…
Myth 7: …And Big Pharma are suppressing it
Myth 8: Cancer treatment kills more than it cures
Myth 9: We’ve made no progress in fighting cancer
Myth 10: Sharks don’t get cancer
http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2014/03/24/dont-believe-the...

Sleep is important. It cleans our brain cells and helps consolidate our memories. Lack of sleep is blunts our ability to focus, makes us dangerous drivers and can make us eat too much.

In a paper published March 19 in the Journal of Neuroscience, Zhang and her group showed that three hours of lost sleep in the mouse playground produced an increase in Sirtuin3, or SIRT3, a protein in a cell’s mitochondria. SIRT3 has a lot of functions, and one of them is reducing chemicals called reactive oxygen species. These molecules are capable of binding to and disrupting all sorts of cellular processes. ROS are a natural by-product of a cell’s daily life, but too many accumulating in the cell can get dangerous as the molecules bind to normal proteins, causing damage and eventually cell death.
We didn’t think the brain got injured from sleep loss,” Veasey says. “Now we know it does.” She explains that the next step will be to see if there is similar damage in humans who have done large amounts of shift work, perhaps by examining post-mortem brains. Veasey also plans to see if increasing SIRT3 can protect against the effects of all-nighters.
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/34/12/4418.abstract
Modern society enables a shortening of sleep times, yet long-term consequences of extended wakefulness on the brain are largely unknown. Essential for optimal alertness, locus ceruleus neurons (LCns) are metabolically active neurons that fire at increased rates across sustained wakefulness. We hypothesized that wakefulness is a metabolic stressor to LCns and that, with extended wakefulness, adaptive mitochondrial metabolic responses fail and injury ensues. The nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-dependent deacetylase sirtuin type 3 (SirT3) coordinates mitochondrial energy production and redox homeostasis. We find that brief wakefulness upregulates SirT3 and antioxidants in LCns, protecting metabolic homeostasis. Strikingly, mice lacking SirT3 lose the adaptive antioxidant response and incur oxidative injury in LCns across brief wakefulness. When wakefulness is extended for longer durations in wild-type mice, SirT3 protein declines in LCns, while oxidative stress and acetylation of mitochondrial proteins, including electron transport chain complex I proteins, increase. In parallel with metabolic dyshomeostasis, apoptosis is activated and LCns are lost. This work identifies mitochondrial stress in LCns upon wakefulness, highlights an essential role for SirT3 activation in maintaining metabolic homeostasis in LCns across wakefulness, and demonstrates that extended wakefulness results in reduced SirT3 activity and, ultimately, degeneration of LCns.

Coronary Artery Disease Prevalence Is Higher among Celiac Disease Patients
People with celiac disease appear to have an increased risk of heart disease. Physicians Rama Gajulapalli and Deepak Pattanshetty of the Cleveland Clinic analyzed a database of more than 22 million people and, using medical coding, identified 24,530 with celiac disease. Probing the records further, they found that 9.5 percent of the celiac patients had coronary artery disease, compared with 5.6 percent of those without celiac. In people age 65 or older, 28.6 percent of celiac patients but only 13.2 percent of the others had coronary artery disease.
http://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/3392/presentation/36953

True age of moon is finally revealed
A new study has revealed the moon is 4.47 billion-years-old, after a team of planetary scientists discovered it was formed 95 million years after the birth of the solar system.
This makes the Earth's moon up to 60 million years younger than some previous estimates, a study published on Wednesday found.

Researchers used a new way to calculate the birthday of the planet's only natural satellite.

Astronomer John Chambers, with the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC, said the mega-asteroid that smashed into Earth, launching debris that later became the moon, occurred about 95 million years after the birth of the solar system.

"We think that the thing that hit Earth and ended up forming the moon, the lion's share of it stayed on Earth," he explained.

"A small fraction of its mass and some material from Earth was pushed off into space to form the moon. That was probably the last big event," he added.

The study, published in the journal Nature, is based on 259 computer simulations of how the solar system evolved.

The programs simulate the crashes and mergers of the small bodies until they meld into the rocky planets that exist today.

Earth's last big chuck came from a Mars-sized body that hit about 95 million years after the solar system's formation when measured by that geologic clock, the study showed.

At 99.9 per cent accurate, the study disputes some previous estimates that the moon-forming impact occurred as early as 30 million to 40 million years after the solar system's formation.
- The independent

For years, researchers have been interested in developing quantum computers—the theoretical next generation of technology that will outperform conventional computers. Instead of holding data in bits, the digital units used by computers today, quantum computers store information in units called “qubits.” One approach for computing with qubits relies on the creation of two single photons that interfere with one another in a device called a waveguide. Results from a recent applied science study at Caltech support the idea that waveguides coupled with another quantum particle—the surface plasmon—could also become an important piece of the quantum computing puzzle.

The work was published in the print version of the journal Nature Photonics the week of March 31.

http://www.nature.com/nphoton/index.html

A study published this week in PLOS ONE authored by Dr. Henry Sun and his postdoctoral student Dr. Gaosen Zhang of Nevada based research institute DRI provides new evidence that Earth bacteria can do something that is quite unusual. Despite the fact that these bacteria are made of left-handed (L) amino acids, they are able to grow on right-handed (D) amino acids. This DRI study, funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute and the NASA Exobiology Program, takes a closer look at what these implications mean for studying organisms on Earth and beyond.

“This finding is important because D-amino acids are slowly produced in soils through geochemical transformation of L amino acids. If they were allowed to accumulate, they would poison the environment for plants and animals. Our research shows that it is the bacteria that prevent D-amino acids from accumulating to toxic levels,” explains Dr. Sun.
http://www.dri.edu/news/4633-bacteria-get-new-badge-as-planet-s-det...

The mammalian heart has generally been considered to lack the ability to repair itself after injury, but a 2011 study in newborn mice challenged this view, providing evidence for complete regeneration after resection of 10% of the apex, the lowest part of the heart. In a study published by Cell Press in Stem Cell Reports on April 3, 2014, researchers attempted to replicate these recent findings but failed to uncover any evidence of complete heart regeneration in newborn mice that underwent apex resection.

“Our results question the usefulness of the apex resection model for identifying molecular mechanisms underlying heart regeneration after damage and underscore the need for the scientific community to firmly establish whether or not the mammalian heart is capable of regeneration,” says lead study author Ditte Andersen of Odense University Hospital and the University of Southern Denmark.

- Cell Press

Depression increases heart failure risk by 40 percent
Moderate to severe depression increases the risk of heart failure by 40%, a study of nearly 63,000 Norwegians has shown. The findings were presented for the first time today at EuroHeartCare 2014.
"We found a dose response relationship between depressive symptoms and the risk of developing heart failure. That means that the more depressed you feel, the more you are at risk."
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2014/04/05/depression.increases.he...

Science does educational theatre with a bang
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26884833

Eco-friendly cement by recycling old ones
Discarded toilets, along with other ceramic waste such as basins, stoneware and bricks, can be recycled into an eco-friendly form of cement, scientists say.

The method involves grinding the ceramic waste and mixing it with an activator solution and water. The mixture is then poured into a mould and subjected to a high-temperature hardening process. Researchers conducted tests with items made from red-clay brick waste and found the cement was actually stronger than types that are currently in common use, 'Gizmag' reported. They are still evaluating the strength of cement made with other forms of ceramic waste.

Currently, researchers are using sodium hydroxide or sodium silicate as activators. The researchers, from Spain's Universitat Politecnica de Valencia and Universitat Jaume I de Castellon, Imperial College of London, and the Universidade Estadual Paulista of Sao Paulo in Brazil Spain, the UK and Brazil, are looking into using rice husk ash as an activator. If it could be used, the result would be a cement made entirely from waste materials. The eco-friendly cement could be used as an alternative to Portland cement, which is the world's most widely used form of cement, they said. Production of Portland cement releases large amounts of carbon dioxide, and the material is considered a major contributor to global warming.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Eco-friendly-cement...

A University of Colorado Cancer Center study recently published in the journal Cell Reports and presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Conference 2014 shows that the cellular process of autophagy in which cells "eat" parts of themselves in times of stress may allow cancer cells to recover and divide rather than die when faced with chemotherapies. Autophagy, from the Greek "to eat oneself," is a process of cellular recycling in which cell organelles called autophagosomes encapsulate extra or dangerous material and transport it to the cell's lysosomes for disposable. Like tearing apart a Lego kit, autophagy breaks down unneeded cellular components into building blocks of energy or proteins for use in surviving times of low energy or staying safe from poisons and pathogens (among other uses).

Zombie cancer cells eat themselves to live
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2014/04/06/zombie.cancer.cells.eat...

Segue 1: An Unevolved Fossil Galaxy from the Early Universe
Fossil Galaxy May Be One of First Ever Formed
The stars in the nearby Segue 1 dwarf galaxy have fewer metals than any other galaxy known, suggesting the object is a relic from the baby universe
http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.6116

How Can Cities Protect Themselves against Gas Explosions?
Leaks are surprisingly common in aging urban underground pipe networks
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-can-cities-protect-th...

Seeing Stars: Matthew Effects and Status Bias in Major League Baseball Umpiring
Now research reveals that even top-notch umps are subject to decision-making bias, often in a game’s most important moments.
A team of Northwestern and Columbia university researchers analyzed more than 700,000 pitches thrown during the 2008 and 2009 seasons. They found that umpires called about 14 percent of nonswinging pitches wrong. And umps were least accurate when the game was on the line in the ninth inning and when calling a strike would end an at-bat. They also tended to favor All-Star pitchers, especially those with a reputation for good control.

Of course, there’s no way to know how challenging a handful of the hundreds of pitches thrown in any given game would affect the outcome. And you might create a different umpire bias—against managers who demand too many replays.
http://www.jerry-kim.net/2014/03/24/seeing-stars-matthew-effects-an...

Social stress takes a toll on chromosomes, affects aging
Humans experiencing high levels of social stress and deprivation have shorter telomeres.

Telomeres are the protective caps at the end of chromosomes which are the best indicators of biological age (cell age) as against chronological age.

Scientists say the length of telomeres is crucial in deciding biological age - long ones indicate healthy ageing, short ones indicate some form of irreparable damage.

Several studies suggest that telomere shortening is accelerated by stress but until now no studies examined the effects of social isolation on telomere shortening.

To test whether social isolation accelerates telomere shortening, Denise Aydinonat, a doctorate student at the Vetmeduni Vienna conducted a study using DNA samples that she collected from African grey parrots during routine check-ups.

African greys are highly social birds, but they are often reared and kept in isolation from other parrots. She and her collaborators compared the telomere lengths of single birds versus pair-housed individuals with a broad range of ages (from 1 to 45 years).

The telomere lengths of older birds were shorter compared to younger birds, regardless of their housing.

But the important finding of the study was that single-housed birds had shorter telomeres than pair-housed individuals of the same age group.

Dustin Penn from the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology at the Vetmeduni Vienna said, "This study is the first to examine the effects of social isolation on telomere length in any species."

Penn and his team previously conducted experiments on mice which were the first to show that exposure to crowding stress causes telomere shortening. He points out that this new finding suggests that both extremes of social conditions affect telomere attrition.

There is extensive scientific evidence showing the strong correlation between the percentage of short telomeres and the risk of developing diseases associated with ageing, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and Alzheimer's.

In turn, lifestyle habits (nutrition, obesity and exercise) are increasingly being shown to impact telomere length.

Telomeres shorten with each cell division, and once a critical length is reached, cells are unable to divide further. Although cellular senescence is a useful mechanism to eliminate worn-out cells, it appears to contribute to aging and mortality.

Loneliness Impacts DNA Repair
Social stress takes a toll on chromosomes, affects aging
Humans experiencing high levels of social stress and deprivation have shorter telomeres.

Telomeres are the protective caps at the end of chromosomes which are the best indicators of biological age (cell age) as against chronological age.

Scientists say the length of telomeres is crucial in deciding biological age - long ones indicate healthy ageing, short ones indicate some form of irreparable damage.

Several studies suggest that telomere shortening is accelerated by stress but until now no studies examined the effects of social isolation on telomere shortening.

To test whether social isolation accelerates telomere shortening, Denise Aydinonat, a doctorate student at the Vetmeduni Vienna conducted a study using DNA samples that she collected from African grey parrots during routine check-ups.

African greys are highly social birds, but they are often reared and kept in isolation from other parrots. She and her collaborators compared the telomere lengths of single birds versus pair-housed individuals with a broad range of ages (from 1 to 45 years).

The telomere lengths of older birds were shorter compared to younger birds, regardless of their housing.

But the important finding of the study was that single-housed birds had shorter telomeres than pair-housed individuals of the same age group.

Dustin Penn from the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology at the Vetmeduni Vienna said, "This study is the first to examine the effects of social isolation on telomere length in any species."

Penn and his team previously conducted experiments on mice which were the first to show that exposure to crowding stress causes telomere shortening. He points out that this new finding suggests that both extremes of social conditions affect telomere attrition.

There is extensive scientific evidence showing the strong correlation between the percentage of short telomeres and the risk of developing diseases associated with ageing, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and Alzheimer's.

In turn, lifestyle habits (nutrition, obesity and exercise) are increasingly being shown to impact telomere length.

Telomeres shorten with each cell division, and once a critical length is reached, cells are unable to divide further. Although cellular senescence is a useful mechanism to eliminate worn-out cells, it appears to contribute to aging and mortality.
http://www.vetmeduni.ac.at/

Science Writing: An Examination into Sourcing Habits
A research study that looks at where science writers get their information from, and why they choose these sources over others.
http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=121217&type=mem...
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/25GF795

Absence (of Weight) Makes the Heart Grow Rounder
After prolonged periods in microgravity, astronauts' hearts became more spherical, according to scans done on the International Space Station.
When astronauts float weightless in space, their muscles don't need to work as hard as on Earth. Muscles therefore atrophy during a long mission, which can cause trouble when space travelers return home. But what happens to that most vital of muscles, the heart?

To find out, 12 astronauts learned how to do ultrasound scans of their hearts. Then they recorded the organ's shape before, during and after a stint on the International Space Station. The scans showed that while in microgravity the astronauts' hearts deformed into more spherical shapes. Back on Earth, they stretched back into their usual elongated forms. The work was presented at the annual scientific session of the American College of Cardiology. [Chris May et al, Affect of Microgravity on Cardiac Shape: Comparison of Pre- and In-Flight Data to Mathematical Modeling]

Knowing how weightlessness changes the heart could help mission planners prevent long-term damage to astronauts’ cardiovascular systems due to long space voyages. Astronauts on the space station already perform specific exercises to keep their weight-bearing muscles toned. Similarly well-designed workouts might keep hearts both in shape—and in the right shape.
http://www.scientificamerican.com

After more than six decades, estimates of global species richness have failed to converge, remain highly uncertain, and in many cases, are logically inconsistent. Convergence in these estimates could be accelerated by adaptive learning methods where the estimation of uncertainty is prioritised and used to guide future research.
http://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/abstract/S0169-5347%28...

Link between pesticides and Parkinson disease:
Aldehyde dehydrogenase variation enhances effect of pesticides associated with Parkinson disease

http://www.neurology.org/content/82/5/419.abstract
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/parkinsons-disease-and-pe...