Human Exposure to Possibly Neurotoxic Pesticides Should Be Reduced, E.U. Safety Agency Recommends

Two neonicotinoids, a class of insecticide linked to bee declines and to disruptions to rat neurons, "may affect the developing human nervous system," the safety agency states
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=human-exposure-to-...

http://www.newscientist.com/special/reality?cmpid=NLC|NSNS|2013-1219-GLOBAL&utm_medium=NLC&utm_source=NSNS&

What is reality - a series of articles on reality

Nicotine may damage arteries
Other chemicals in cigarettes may not be to blame
Even smokeless cigarettes may cause damage that can lead to hardening of the arteries, a new study implies.

Vascular smooth muscle cells wrap around blood vessels and help control blood flow and pressure. But inflammation and chemicals, such as those found in cigarette smoke, can turn the cells into miniature drills that chew through connective tissue, allowing muscle cells to burrow into blood vessels. Once inside, the cells and other debris clump into artery-clogging plaques.

Nicotine is one chemical that helps turn normal muscle cells into invaders...
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/nicotine-may-damage-arteries

Nicotine may damage arteries
Other chemicals in cigarettes may not be to blame
Even smokeless cigarettes may cause damage that can lead to hardening of the arteries, a new study implies.

Vascular smooth muscle cells wrap around blood vessels and help control blood flow and pressure. But inflammation and chemicals, such as those found in cigarette smoke, can turn the cells into miniature drills that chew through connective tissue, allowing muscle cells to burrow into blood vessels. Once inside, the cells and other debris clump into artery-clogging plaques.

Nicotine is one chemical that helps turn normal muscle cells into invaders...
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/nicotine-may-damage-arteries

Ancient bond holds life together, literally
Animal tissues and organs may require a specific link between sulfur and nitrogen
The rise of multicellular structures in animals may have hinged on a chemical link between sulfur and nitrogen atoms.

In animal tissues and organs, cells lock into a scaffold of collagen proteins that allows the cells to stick together and coordinate activities, such as tissue repair. Sulfur-nitrogen connections called sulfilimine bonds form essential links that keep the protein scaffold together, researchers have now discovered.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ancient-bond-holds-life-togethe...

Dog dust may benefit infant immune systems
Microbes from pet-owning houses protected mice against allergy, infection

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dog-dust-may-benefit-infant-imm...

Scientists Discover New Surprising Details About Table Salt
An international team of scientists has discovered a surprise hidden in the first chemical compound that children learn about: table salt.

Under certain high pressure conditions, table salt, scientifically known as sodium chloride, can take on some surprising forms that violate standard chemistry predictions. The findings, published in Science, may hold the key to answering lingering questions about planet formation.

The researchers used advanced algorithms to predict an array of possible stable structural outcomes that would result from compressing rock salt. Using a diamond anvil at DESY’s X-ray source PETRA III, they put the salt under high pressure of 200,000 atmospheres. They added an extra “dash” of either sodium or chlorine, creating new “forbidden” compounds like Na3Cl and NaCl3.
Such compounds require a completely different form of chemical bonding with higher energy. Because nature always favors the lowest state of energy, such compounds should not happen.
These compounds are thermodynamically stable and once made, remain so indefinitely,” says Zhang. “Classical chemistry forbids their very existence. Classical chemistry also says atoms try to fulfil the octet rule – elements gain or lose electrons to attain an electron configuration of the nearest noble gas, with complete outer electron shells that make them very stable. Well, here that rule is not satisfied.”

The results of these experiments help to explore a broader view of chemistry. “I think this work is the beginning of a revolution in chemistry,” Oganov says. “We found, at low pressures achievable in the lab, perfectly stable compounds that contradict the classical rules of chemistry. If you apply rather modest pressure, 200,000 atmospheres – for comparison purposes, the pressure at the centre of the Earth is 3.6 million atmospheres – much of what we know from chemistry textbooks falls apart.”

“Here on the surface of the earth, these conditions might be default, but they are rather special if you look at the universe as a whole,” Konôpková explains. What may be “forbidden” under ambient conditions on earth, can become possible under more extreme conditions.
This discovery could lead to new, practical applications, say the researchers.

“When you change the theoretical underpinnings of chemistry, that’s a big deal,” Goncharov says. “But what it also means is that we can make new materials with exotic properties.”

Among the compounds Oganov and his team created are two-dimensional metals, where electricity is conducted along the layers of the structure.

“One of these materials – Na3Cl – has a fascinating structure,” Oganov says. “It is comprised of layers of NaCl and layers of pure sodium. The NaCl layers act as insulators; the pure sodium layers conduct electricity. Systems with two-dimensional electrical conductivity have attracted a lot interest.”

The research team hopes that the table salt experiments will only be the beginning of the discovery of completely new compounds. “If this simple system is capable of turning into such a diverse array of compounds under high-pressure conditions, then others likely are, too,” Goncharov explains. “This could help answer outstanding questions about early planetary cores, as well as to create new materials with practical uses.”

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113033114/salt-chemistry-surp...

Gaia 'billion-star surveyor' lifts off

The Gaia mission will make a very precise 3D map of our Milky Way galaxy
It is Europe's successor to the Hipparcos satellite which mapped some 100,000 stars
The one billion to be catalogued by Gaia is still only 1% of the Milky Way's total
But the quality of the new survey promises a raft of discoveries beyond just the stars themselves
Gaia will find new asteroids, failed stars, and allow tests of physical constants and theories
Its map of the sky will be a reference frame to guide the investigations of future telescopes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25426424#!

‘Science’ also tops for 2013
While Oxford University Press, the British publisher of the Oxford dictionaries, declared those little smartphone self-portraits its winner last month, the folks at Merriam-Webster announced “science” on Tuesday.
“The more we thought about it, the righter it seemed in that it does lurk behind a lot of big stories that we as a society are grappling with, whether it’s climate change or environmental regulation or what’s in our textbooks,” said John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster Inc., based in Springfield, Mass.

Science, he said, is connected to broad cultural oppositions — science versus faith, for instance — along with the power of observation and intuition, reason and ideology, evidence and tradition. Of particular note, to Merriam-Webster, anyway, is fallout from the October release of Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.”

Gladwell, a popularizer of scientific thought and research in best-sellers and The New Yorker magazine, takes on the challenges of obstacles and the nature of disabilities and setbacks in the book. But he leaves science itself — according to some critics — as a rhetorical device for his main mission of storytelling.
With the explosion of information and technology, are we all scientists?

“You have scientists writing long pieces, purportedly reviews of his new book, basically criticizing him, and then his response is: ‘Hey, buddy. I’m not a scientist. I’m a writer who’s trying to promote the work of scientists. To contextualize it. To make it accessible.’ You know, ‘Don’t blame me for not being a scientist’ is basically his response,” Sokolowski said.

Jason Silva is neither scientist nor academic. He’s a “techno optimist,” filmmaker, “performance philosopher” and host of the popular “Brain Games” show on the National Geographic Channel.

“Ooh, that’s awesome,” he said upon learning of science’s dictionary shout-out. “People are increasingly scientifically minded, and that makes me very happy.”
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/entertainment/in-your-face-self...

Reward scientists working for human rights

Many efforts to support human rights require voluntary contributions by experts

Scientists have volunteered to assess reports of chemical attacks in Syria

Scientists should be rewarded for such public work as well as for publishing research

http://www.scidev.net/global/human-rights/opinion/reward-scientists...

A Call for Urgent Talks on Mutant Flu-Strain Research

The benefits and risks of "gain-of-function" research into highly pathogenic microbes with pandemic potential must be evaluated, scientists say
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-call-for-urgent-...

Parasitic DNA Multiplies In Aging Tissues
The genomes of organisms from humans to corn are replete with “parasitic” strands of DNA that, when not suppressed, copy themselves and spread throughout the genome, potentially affecting health. Earlier this year Brown University researchers found that these “retrotransposable elements” were increasingly able to break free of the genome’s control in cultures of human cells. Now in a new paper in the journal Aging, they show that RTEs are increasingly able to break free and copy themselves in the tissues of mice as the animals aged. In further experiments the biologists showed that this activity was readily apparent in cancerous tumors, but that it also could be reduced by restricting calories.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113034106/parasitic-dna-multi...

Confirmed: Girls Mature Faster
British scientists say female human brains do, in fact, mature faster than male brains do -- and they know why.

In a study published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, researchers announced the reorganization of brain connections, as an individual transitions from childhood to adulthood, begins earlier in girls and is a likely reason girls mature faster than boys during their teen years.

The study was part of the Human Green Brain project funded by the British Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, which provides government funding for research. The project examines human brain development.

http://www.latinpost.com/articles/5087/20131222/its-been-confirmed-...

Creatures Living Together Don’t Have To Evolve Differently After All
Evolutionary scientists have long argued that species that live together must evolve in different ways in order to avoid direct competition with each other, but new research published Sunday in the journal Nature suggests otherwise.

A team of researchers led by Dr. Joe Tobias of Oxford University’s Department of Zoology studied ovenbirds, one of the most diverse families of birds in the world, in order to conduct an in-depth analysis of the processes that result in the evolution of species differences.

They found that even though bird species that occurred together were typically more varied than those that lived apart, this was “simply an artifact of species being old by the time they meet,” the researchers said. Once differences in the age of species was accounted for, they found that coexisting species tended to be more similar than those types of birds that evolved separately – the opposite of what Charles Darwin claimed in Origin of Species.

“It’s not so much a case of Darwin being wrong, as there is no shortage of evidence for competition driving divergent evolution in some very young lineages,” Dr. Tobias said in a statement. “But we found no evidence that this process explains differences across a much larger sample of species.”

“The reason seems to be linked to the way new species originate in animals, which almost always requires a period of geographic separation,” he added. “By using genetic techniques to establish the age of lineages, we found that most ovenbird species only meet their closest relatives several million years after they separated from a common ancestor. This gives them plenty of time to develop differences by evolving separately.”

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113034219/evolution-of-specie...

Baby Boys Prefer Dolls To Trucks!
Infants of both sexes are most interested in objects with faces, contrary to common belief that boys prefer more “macho” vehicle and construction toys.
Researchers have found that infants of both sexes are most interested in objects with faces, contrary to common belief that boys prefer more “macho” vehicle and construction toys.

In the study, published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, researchers tested multiple pictures of humans (men and women), dolls, stoves and cars on 48 four and five-month-old infants (24 girls and 24 boys) and 48 young adults (24 women and 24 men). Each trial contained a relevant pair of faces and objects.

The infant results showed no sex-related preferences, but they preferred faces of men and women regardless of whether they were real or doll faces over objects. Similarly, adults preferred faces to objects, but unlike infants they preferred faces of the opposite sex.

The finding adds an interesting dimension to the nature versus nurture debate around gender construction, dispelling the theory that boys prefer male-associated toys from birth.

The article can be found at: Escudero P et al. (2013) Sex-related preferences for real and doll faces versus real and toy objects in young infants and adults.

http://www.asianscientist.com/in-the-lab/baby-boys-prefer-dolls-tru...

Sex-related preferences for real and doll faces versus real and toy objects in young infants and adults
Multiple faces and objects were used to examine sex-related preferences in infants and adults.
•

Infants showed no sex-related preference but a group preference for faces.
•

Male adults preferred women’s faces over objects, while females preferred men’s faces.
•

This challenges an innate basis for sex-related preference in object perception.
•

Sex-related preferences seem to result from maturation and social learning.
Findings of previous studies demonstrate sex-related preferences for toys in 6-month-old infants; boys prefer nonsocial or mechanical toys such as cars, whereas girls prefer social toys such as dolls. Here, we explored the innate versus learned nature of this sex-related preferences using multiple pictures of doll and real faces (of men and women) as well as pictures of toy and real objects (cars and stoves). In total, 48 4- and 5-month-old infants (24 girls and 24 boys) and 48 young adults (24 women and 24 men) saw six trials of all relevant pairs of faces and objects, with each trial containing a different exemplar of a stimulus type. The infant results showed no sex-related preferences; infants preferred faces of men and women regardless of whether they were real or doll faces. Similarly, adults did not show sex-related preferences for social versus nonsocial stimuli, but unlike infants they preferred faces of the opposite sex over objects. These results challenge claims of an innate basis for sex-related preferences for toy real stimuli and suggest that sex-related preferences result from maturational and social development that continues into adulthood.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022096513001367

Who’s Patenting Whose Genome?
A free and open-source public resource aims to bring much-needed transparency to the murky and contentious world of gene patenting.
http://www.asianscientist.com/tech-pharma/whos-patenting-genome-2013/

50 years later, it’s hard to say who named black holes

https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/context/50-years-later-it%E2%80%99...

Stillbirth rates tied to lead in drinking water
High fetal death rates coincided with releases of toxic metal into Washington D.C.’s pipes

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/stillbirth-rates-tied-lead-drin...

When stressed, the brain goes ‘cheap’

https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/scicurious/when-stressed-brain-goe...

Memory Trick Increases Password Security

What’s my password again? Image association as a way to memorize dozens of unique security codes
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=memory-trick-incre...

Antibiotic resistance: The last resort

Health officials are watching in horror as bacteria become resistant to powerful carbapenem antibiotics — one of the last drugs on the shelf.

http://www.nature.com/news/antibiotic-resistance-the-last-resort-1....

10 Science Stories That Changed The Way We Look At The World Around Us In 2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/27/science-stories-2013_n_446...

Scientific American's Top 10 Science Stories of 2013

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=top-10-science-sto...

Weird! Strangest Science Stories of 2013

http://za.news.yahoo.com/weird-strangest-science-stories-2013-16030...

http://www.livescience.com/42211-2013-strangest-science-stories.html

Science's top 10 breakthroughs of 2013

http://www.sitnews.us/1213News/122713/122713_science_top.html

The 13 Most Obvious Scientific Findings of 2013

Here's a sampling of the unsurprising research of 2013—with a few notes on why scientists bothered

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-13-most-obviou...

Gone in 2013: A Tribute to 10 Remarkable Women in Science

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/12/30/gone-in-2...

Ten relevant science articles from 2013

http://www.itwire.com/science-news/biology/62714-ten-relevant-scien...

Nobel prize should only be for 'best of the best'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25468115

A Solar Boom So Successful, It's Been Halted!

Photovoltaics proved so successful in Hawaii that the local utility, HECO, has instituted policies to block further expansion
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-boom-so-su...

Dentists Make Larger Holes in Teeth Than They Need to If the Teeth Present a Visual Illusion of Size
Health care depends, in part, on the ability of a practitioner to see signs of disease and to see how to treat it. Visual illusions, therefore, could affect health care. Yet there is very little prospective evidence that illusions can influence treatment.
The visual context in which treatment takes place can influence the treatment. Undesirable effects of visual illusions could be counteracted by a health practitioner’s being aware of them and by using measurement.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0077343

True or another gimmick?

http://www.quantumjumping.com/lp/subconscious?sr=1&cid=[QJ-TB]-Content-WW-Kw-Shamanic&aid=[Text-Ad]-Shamanic-Meditation&placement=www.livescience.com&otag=[QJ-TB]#sthash.eZ3mEtjX.dpbs

7 Foods You Can Overdose On

http://www.livescience.com/35430-seven-good-foods-you-can-overdose-...

Sleeping Beauty: Science Proves Beauty Rest Is Real
The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine: Scientists have confirmed that when you sleep better, you look better.

http://www.livescience.com/39669-sleep-beauty-science-look-attracti...

How Wintry Weather Affects Emotions

Scientists investigate the effects of low temperatures on the brain

Multiple studies have proposed a link between hot weather and violent crime rates. Yet debate rages over whether aggression wanes at very high temperatures. Some interpretations of data for U.S. cities suggest temperature and violent crimes such as aggravated assault share a linear relation, with violence increasing at ever hotter temperatures. Other researchers argue that crime curves level off or even dip in supersweltering situations in ways that can vary with the time of day, the nature of the crime and even the season studied.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-wintry-weather...

A science news preview of 2014
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25301485

‘Body atlas’ heatmaps reveal where we feel different emotions
Study shows how humans all feel certain emotions in specific body parts, regardless of language or location
According to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, such feelings of “somatosensation” could be “at the core of the emotional experience”.

A team from the Biomedical Engineering department at Aalto University, Finland, conducted the experiment using more than 700 volunteers from Finland, Sweden and Taiwan.
Even when controlling for different language-specific expressions like “heart-ache” for sadness or “cold feet” for nervousness, the results showed that “consistent patterns of bodily sensations are associated with each of the six basic emotions”.
They noted that many of the basic emotions involved increased activity in the upper chest area, “likely corresponding to changes in breathing and heart rate”. Sensations in the upper limbs tended to go hand in hand with “approach-oriented emotions, such as anger and happiness”, while decreased, “heavy” limbs related to sadness.
While changes in the face were linked to many emotions, throat and belly sensations only really appeared in participants feeling disgust.

“In contrast with all of the other emotions”, the study says, “happiness was associated with enhanced sensations all over the body.”
“Unravelling the subjective bodily sensations associated with human emotions may help us to better understand mood disorders such as depression and anxiety,” they wrote.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/racing-pulse-glowing-chee...

Artificially Sweeteners ‘Neutral’ To The Gut: Study
Artificially sweetened drinks produced no different response in the healthy human gut to a glass of water, according to a study.

http://www.asianscientist.com/health-medicine/artificially-sweetene...

Do Brain Training Programs Really Make You Smarter?
Apps for ‘brain training’ claim to use games or tasks as a way of enhancing cognitive abilities. However, a new study the Journal of Neuroscience suggests that these games may only improve a person’s capacity to perform the specific training task and lack evidence that this skill translates to other cognitive abilities.

Study researchers looked specifically at a brain training program that caused a positive shift in inhibitory control. Because the team only looked at the effects on inhibitory control, they said they were unable to determine if any improvement extends to other kinds of cognitive abilities such as working memory.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113038003/do-brain-training-p...

Three-Dimensional Mid-Air Acoustic Manipulation (2013,2014-) Yoichi Ochiai
Sound wave 3Dvolution: Japanese scientists move objects using acoustic levitation
In order to move expanded polystyrene particles of 0.6 mm and 2 mm in diameter, the Japanese scientists at the University of Tokyo and the Nagoya Institute of Technology had to place the objects inside a complex set-up of four arrays of speakers. Using a refinement of the existing technology of sound wave management, bubbles, a screw and a tiny piece of wood were airlifted and moved around in all direction within the experiment’s confines.
“The essence of levitation technology is the countervailing of gravity. It is known that an ultrasound standing wave is capable of suspending small particles at its sound pressure nodes,” Yoichi Ochiai from University of Tokyo said.

Currently, acoustic levitators are used mostly in industry and for researchers of anti-gravity effects such as at NASA.

Now vegetable milk for lactose intolerant people!
scientists have formulated substitutes for yoghurt from grain and nuts using probiotic bacteria.

Researchers at the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia have obtained new products fermented with probiotic bacteria from grains and nuts - what is known as plant-based or vegetable "milks" - are an alternative to conventional yoghurts.

The products are specially designed for people with allergies to cow's milk, lactose or gluten intolerance, as well as children and pregnant women, reports Science Daily.

From the laboratories at the Institute of Food Engineering for Development, a team worked with almonds, oats and hazelnuts and will soon evaluate the use of walnuts and chestnuts as raw material for these new products.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/vegetable-milk-f...

Scientists have made a breakthrough in their efforts to understand what causes so-called supervolcanoes to erupt.
Supervolcanoes are capable of eruptions thousands of times larger than normal outpourings.

It was thought that an external trigger, such as an earthquake, was needed to bring about a giant blast.

But tests at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble show the sheer volume of liquid magma is enough to cause a catastrophic super-eruption.
There are about 20 known supervolcanoes on Earth - including Lake Toba in Indonesia, Lake Taupo in New Zealand, and the somewhat smaller Phlegraean Fields near Naples, Italy.

Super-eruptions occur rarely - only once every 100,000 years on average. But when they do occur, they have a devastating impact on Earth's climate and ecology.

When a supervolcano erupted 600,000 years ago in Wyoming, in what today is Yellowstone National Park, it ejected more than 1,000 cubic km of ash and lava into the atmosphere - enough to bury a large city to a depth of a few kilometres. This ejection was 100 times bigger than Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1992 and dwarfs even historic eruptions like Krakatoa (1883).
Being able to predict such a catastrophe is obviously critical. But the trigger has remained elusive - because the process is different from conventional volcanoes like Pinatubo and Mt St Helens.

One possible mechanism was thought to be the overpressure in the magma chamber generated by differences between the less dense molten magma and more dense rock surrounding it.
But whether this buoyancy effect alone was enough was not known. It could be that an an additional trigger - such as a sudden injection of magma, an infusion of water vapour, or an earthquake - was required.
the transition from solid to liquid magma creates a pressure which can crack more than 10 kilometres of Earth's crust above the volcano chamber.

"Magma penetrating into the cracks will eventually reach the Earth's surface. And as it rises, it will expand violently - causing an explosion,"

http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo2042.html

Google search fails to find any sign of time travelers
https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/context/google-search-fails-find-a...

GPS satellites suggest Earth is heavy with dark matter
GPS is handy for finding a route, but it might be able to solve fundamental questions in physics too. An analysis of GPS satellite orbits hints that Earth is heavier than thought, perhaps due to a halo of dark matter.

Dark matter is thought to make up about 80 per cent of the universe's matter, but little else is known about it, including its distribution in the solar system. Hints that the stuff might surround Earth come from observations of space probes, several of which changed their speeds in unexpected ways as they flew past Earth. In 2009, Steve Adler of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey, showed how dark matter bound by Earth's gravity could explain these anomalies.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129503.100?cmpid=NLC|NSNS|2014-0109-GLOBAL&utm_medium=NLC&utm_source=NSNS&#.Us9Z0Pvngb4

Blame slow jet stream for US deep freeze not Polar Vortex!
As temperatures fell in North America, some blamed a mysterious polar vortex, but this is a system of winds in the stratosphere that spins around the Arctic and Antarctic during their respective winters, many kilometres above the weather. There is nothing unusual about the polar vortex, according to the UK Met Office. Instead, cold Arctic air has reached North America thanks to a weakened jet stream – the continent's atmospheric conveyor belt.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24824?cmpid=NLC|NSNS|2014-0109-GLOBAL&utm_medium=NLC&utm_source=NSNS&#.Us9aq_vngb4

New clues to how bacteria evade antibiotics
Scientists have made an important advance in understanding how a subset of bacterial cells escape being killed by many antibiotics. Cells become "persisters" by entering a state in which they stop replicating and are able to tolerate antibiotics. Unlike antibiotic resistance, which arises because of genetic mutations and is passed on to later generations, this tolerant phase is only temporary, but it may contribute to the later development of resistance.

In a new study in the journal Science, researchers from the MRC Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection at Imperial College London have succeeded in visualising persister cells in infected tissues for the first time, and have identified signals that lead to their formation.

Virtually all bacterial species form subpopulations of persisters that are tolerant to many antibiotics. Persisters are likely to be a cause of many recurrent infections, but little is known about how they arise.

The team developed a method for tracking single cells using a fluorescent protein produced by the bacteria. They showed that Salmonella, which causes gastroenteritis and typhoid fever, forms large numbers of non-replicating persisters after being engulfed by immune cells called macrophages. By adopting this non-replicating mode, Salmonella survives antibiotic treatment and lingers in the host, accounting for its ability to cause recurrent infections.

The researchers also identified factors produced by human cells that trigger bacteria to become persisters.

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2014/01/09/new.clues.how.bacteria....

Study dispels theories of Y chromosome's demise
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2014/01/09/study.dispels.theories....!+Science+News+-+Popular%29

Competition Between Coral, Seaweed Occurs On A Chemical Level
Scientists investigating the chemical warfare that takes place on Fijian coral reefs have discovered that one species of seaweed increases its production of noxious anti-coral compounds when placed in contact with reef-building corals.

The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, show that as this seaweed competes chemically with the corals, its growth slows. The seaweed becomes more attractive to herbivorous fish, which boost their consumption of the skirmishing seaweed by 80 percent.

The findings are the first to demonstrate that seaweeds can boost their chemical defenses in response to competition from corals. Whether such responses are common or rare, however, will take further study with a broader range or seaweeds and corals.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113042729/seaweed-chemical-wa...

Effect of Gravitational Focusing on Annual Modulation in Dark-Matter Direct-Detection Experiments

http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v112/i1/e011301

A New Method to Measure Consciousness Proposed

It's an important new tool for doctors, but what is it actually measuring?
Leonardo Da Vinci, in his Treatise on Painting (Trattato della Pittura), advises painters to pay particular attention to the motions of the mind, moti mentali. “The movement which is depicted must be appropriate to the mental state of the figure,” he advises; otherwise the figure will be considered twice dead: “dead because it is a depiction, and dead yet again in not exhibiting motion either of the mind or of the body.” Francesco Melzi, student and friend to Da Vinci, compiled the Treatise posthumously from fragmented notes left to him. The vivid portrayal of emotions in the paintings from Leonardo’s school shows that his students learned to read the moti mentali of their subjects in exquisite detail.

Associating an emotional expression of the face with a “motion of the mind” was an astonishing insight by Da Vinci and a surprisingly modern metaphor. Today we correlate specific patterns of electrochemical dynamics (i.e. “motions”) of the central nervous system, with emotional feelings. Consciousness, the substrate for any emotional feeling, is itself a “motion of the mind,” an ephemeral state characterized by certain dynamical patterns of electrical activity. Even if all the neurons, their constituent parts and neuronal circuitry remained structurally the same, a change in the dynamics can mean the difference between consciousness and unconsciousness.

But what kind of motion is it? What are the patterns of electrical activity that correspond to our subjective state of being conscious, and why? Can they be measured and quantified? This is not only a theoretical or philosophical question but also one that is of vital interest to the anesthesiologist trying to regulate the level of consciousness during surgery, or for the neurologist trying to differentiate between different states of consciousness following brain trauma.

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-new-method-to-measure-c...

Q. If global warming exists then how is there a January 2014 North American polar vortex?
A. Well, actually it is the global warming that has caused the January 2014 polar vortex descent on North America.

Let me explain. First of all, global warming is a global event, whereas January 2014 North American Polar Vortex is a local temperature drop. Even if it has affected a large territory, it is in fact counter-balanced by a way more warm weather on the North Pole, so that the overall, the North Hemisphere is still warmer than usual.

Here is a visual image of more or less what is going on right now (actually what was going on in the late November, except that now the temperatures are way lower):
As you can see, the cold air from the north pole is pouring down onto the Canada and US territory, leading to a lower temperature in the USA, but a higher temperature in Europe/England/Norway/Siberia, but especially on the North Pole.

Now, the air from the North Pole doesn't usually pour down to the south, because it is contained by circular winds around the North Pole. These winds are due to the fact that the earth rotates on itself and are generated by the so-called Coriolis effect:

To displace the cold air from the North Pole so that it goes down, something has to destabilize it and push it out of it's place. More precisely, the only thing that would be able to do it is a huge convective force rising from a warm water and into the cold air. Pretty much in the same way the convective force creates the hurricanes:

Usually, this convective force doesn't exist on the North Pole, because of a huge sheet of ice, that protects the cold air from warm water and avoids convection. However, with global warming, this is less and less true. This is particularly untrue this year: according to NASA, in 2013 the Arctic Sea Ice Minimum is Sixth Lowest on Record). Thus this year this protection is particularly thin and and this protection is right now very thin. Coupled with the Gulfstream bringing up lots of warm water from equator, this leads to a massive convective cell over Arctic, leading to a cold air warming up over (relatively) warm thin ice and pushing out the masses of cold air over it to the regions where such warming does not occur, i.e. Canada, USA and Siberia.

Just like this:

http://www.quora.com/January-2014-North-American-Polar-Vortex/If-gl...