How the escape from gravity works: The plane flies a series of parabolas. From an altitude of about 20,000 feet (6,100 meters), the aircraft quickly ascends maybe another 20,000 feet into the sky and then plummets. It climbs and drops over and over again — 30 times — creating short periods of weightlessness at the crest.

Visual Cortex Found To Process Sound As Well As Sight
''Decoding Sound and Imagery Content in Early Visual Cortex''
Human early visual cortex was traditionally thought to process simple visual features such as orientation, contrast, and spatial frequency via feedforward input from the lateral geniculate nucleus. However, the role of nonretinal influence on early visual cortex is so far insufficiently investigated despite much evidence that feedback connections greatly outnumber feedforward connections. Here, the researchers explored in five fMRI experiments how information originating from audition and imagery affects the brain activity patterns in early visual cortex in the absence of any feedforward visual stimulation. They show that category-specific information from both complex natural sounds and imagery can be read out from early visual cortex activity in blindfolded participants. The coding of nonretinal information in the activity patterns of early visual cortex is common across actual auditory perception and imagery and may be mediated by higher-level multisensory areas. Furthermore, this coding is robust to mild manipulations of attention and working memory but affected by orthogonal, cognitively demanding visuospatial processing. Crucially, the information fed down to early visual cortex is category specific and generalizes to sound exemplars of the same category, providing evidence for abstract information feedback rather than precise pictorial feedback. The results suggest that early visual cortex receives nonretinal input from other brain areas when it is generated by auditory perception and/or imagery, and this input carries common abstract information. The findings are compatible with feedback of predictive information to the earliest visual input level, in line with predictive coding models.
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2814%2900458-8

Microbes defy rules of DNA code

Researchers find widespread 'recoding'.
The instructions encoded into DNA are thought to follow a universal set of rules across all domains of life. But researchers report today in Science1 that organisms routinely break these rules.

The finding has implications for the design of synthetic life: by designing organisms that break the rules, researchers may be able to make novel life forms resistant to viral infection. Making these organisms also been proposed as a way to stop synthetic life forms from infecting unintended hosts. Widespread exceptions to these rules, however, could make it difficult to engineer organisms that will not pass on their DNA to those in the wild.
http://www.nature.com/news/microbes-defy-rules-of-dna-code-1.15283

climate-smart rice to save farmers in flood-prone areas
Farmers in India’s eastern region, prone for flash floods, are now shifting to flood-tolerant variety of rice, developed by Manila-based International Rice Research Institute, IRRI. The variety – Swarna-SUB1, is bread from a popular Indian variety of rice Swarna by upgrading it with SUB1, the gene for flood tolerance. Swarna was developed by Andhra Pradesh Agriculture University.

The new variety can withstand floods for two weeks, unlike existing varieties which would wilt if remained under water even for a few days resulting in economic loss to farmers. However, Swarna-SUB1 can rise back to life after having submerged for two weeks.

“The demand for this variety is increasing and we are readying 300 quintal breeder seed this year,” said Dr. O.N. Singh, Head of Crop Improvement Division of Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack Odhisa. He told Indian Science Journal, after successful experimental crop, Swarna-SUB1 would now be distributed for cultivation in flood-prone areas of eastern India – Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Odhisa and Andhra Pradesh.

Climate-smart rice varieties are made to especially thrive in environments affected by flooding, drought, cold temperatures, and soils that are too salty or contain too much iron that leads to iron toxicity. IRRI has distributed the climate-smart rice varieties to about 10 million of the poorest and most disadvantaged rice farmers in various countries in South Asia under Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA) project promoted by IRRI. The STRASA project was initiated in 2007, with its first two phases funded with about USD 20 million each.

“Under the past phases of the project, 16 climate-smart rice varieties tolerant of flood, drought, and salinity were released in various countries in South Asia; about 14 such varieties were released in sub-Saharan Africa. Several more are in the process of being released,” said Abdelbagi Ismail, IRRI scientist and STRASA project leader.

In addition to improving varieties and distributing seeds, the STRASA project also trains farmers and scientists in producing good-quality seeds. Through the project’s capacity-building component, 74,000 farmers—including 19,400 women farmers—underwent training in seed production.

“An estimated 140,000 tons of seed of these varieties were produced between 2011 and 2013. These seed releases are estimated to have reached over ten million farmers, covering over 2.5 million hectares of rice land.” said Dr. Ismail. This is double the initial target of 5 million farmers reached.

IRRI collaborates with more than 550 partners in getting climate-smart rice varieties to farmers in South Asia and Africa. These partners include national agricultural research and extension programs, government agencies, nongovernment organizations, and private sector actors, including seed producers.

Nobel laureates offer new interpretations of quantum mysteries

http://arxiv.org/abs/1405.1548

The Cellular Automaton Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. A View on the Quantum Nature of our Universe, Compulsory or Impossible?

When investigating theories at the tiniest conceivable scales in nature, "quantum logic" is taking over from "classical logic" in the minds of almost all researchers today. Dissatisfied, the author investigated how one can look at things differently. This report is an overview of older material, but also contains many new observations and calculations. Quantum mechanics is looked upon as a tool, not as a theory. Examples are displayed of models that are classical in essence, but can be analysed by the use of quantum techniques, and we argue that even the Standard Model, together with gravitational interactions, may be viewed as a quantum mechanical approach to analyse a system that could be classical at its core. We then explain how these apparently heretic thoughts can be reconciled with Bell's theorem and the usual objections voiced against the notion of 'super determinism'. Our proposal would eradicate the collapse problem and the measurement problem.

https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/context/nobel-laureates-offer-new-...

Scientists develop new hybrid energy transfer system
Scientists from the University of Southampton, in collaboration with the Universities of Sheffield and Crete, have developed a new hybrid energy transfer system, which mimics the processes responsible for photosynthesis. From photosynthesis to respiration, the processes of light absorption and its transfer into energy represent elementary and essential reactions that occur in any biological living system.

This energy transfer is known as Forster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET), a radiationless transmission of energy that occurs on the nanometer scale from a donor molecule to an acceptor molecule. The donor molecule is the dye or chromophore that initially absorbs the energy and the acceptor is the chromophore to which the energy is subsequently transferred without any molecular collision. However, FRET is a strongly distance dependent process which occurs over a scale of typically 1 to 10 nm.

In a new study, published in the journal Nature Materials, the researchers demonstrate an alternate non-radiative, intermolecular energy transfer that exploits the intermediating role of light confined in an optical cavity. The advantage of this new technique which exploits the formation of quantum states admixture of light and matter, is the length over which the interaction takes places, that is in fact, considerably longer than conventional FRET-type processes.

Using thoughts to control airplanes
Pilots of the future may be able to control their aircraft by merely thinking commands, scientists say.

Researchers at the Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM) in Germany have demonstrated the feasibility of flying via brain control - with astonishing accuracy.
The scientists have logged their first breakthrough: They succeeded in demonstrating that brain-controlled flight is indeed possible -- with amazing precision. Seven subjects took part in the flight simulator tests. They had varying levels of flight experience, including one person without any practical cockpit experience whatsoever. The accuracy with which the test subjects stayed on course by merely thinking commands would have sufficed, in part, to fulfill the requirements of a flying license test. "One of the subjects was able to follow eight out of ten target headings with a deviation of only 10 degrees," reports Fricke. Several of the subjects also managed the landing approach under poor visibility. One test pilot even landed within only few meters of the centerline.

The TU München scientists are now focusing in particular on the question of how the requirements for the control system and flight dynamics need to be altered to accommodate the new control method. Normally, pilots feel resistance in steering and must exert significant force when the loads induced on the aircraft become too large. This feedback is missing when using brain control. The researchers are thus looking for alternative methods of feedback to signal when the envelope is pushed too hard, for example.

Electrical potentials are converted into control commands

In order for humans and machines to communicate, brain waves of the pilots are measured using electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes connected to a cap. An algorithm developed by scientists from the Department of Biological Psychology and Neuroergonomics at the Berlin Institute of Technology allows the program to decipher electrical potentials and convert them into useful control commands.

Only the very clearly defined electrical brain impulses required for control are recognized by the brain-computer interface. "This is pure signal processing," emphasizes Fricke. Mind reading is not possible.

The researchers will present their results end of September at the "Deutscher Luft- und Raumfahrtkongress."

Protection against chemical weapons
Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered that some compounds called polyoxoniobates can degrade and decontaminate nerve agents such as the deadly sarin gas, and have other characteristics that may make them ideal for protective suits, masks or other clothing. The use of polyoxoniobates for this purpose had never before been demonstrated, scientists said, and the discovery could have important implications for both military and civilian protection.
The study findings were just published in the European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry.

Some other compounds exist that can decontaminate nerve gases, researchers said, but they are organic, unstable, degraded by sunlight and have other characteristics that make them undesirable for protective clothing -- or they are inorganic, but cannot be used on fabrics or surfaces.

By contrast, the polyoxoniobates are inorganic, do not degrade in normal environmental conditions, dissolve easily and it should be able to incorporate them onto surfaces, fabrics and other material.
"As stable, inorganic compounds they have an important potential to decontaminate and protect against these deadly nerve gases."
Besides protection against nerve gas, their chemistry might allow them to function as a catalyst that could absorb carbon dioxide and find use in carbon sequestration at fossil-fuel power plants -- but little has been done yet to explore that potential.

Carbon in deeper soil threatening our climate
Deep soils can contain long-buried stocks of organic carbon which could, through erosion, agriculture, deforestation, mining and other human activities, contribute to global climate change.

"There is a lot of carbon at depths where nobody is measuring," said Erika Marin-Spiotta, assistant professor of geography at University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US.

It was assumed that there was little carbon in deeper soils and so most studies so far focused only the top 30 centimetres.

"Our study is showing that we are potentially grossly underestimating carbon in soils," Marin-Spiotta added.

The soil studied by Marin-Spiotta and her colleagues, known as the Brady soil, formed between 15,000 and 13,500 years ago in what is now Nebraska, Kansas and other parts of the Great Plains.

It lies up to six-and-a-half metres below the present-day surface and was buried by a vast accumulation of windborne dust known as loess beginning about 10,000 years ago, when the glaciers that covered much of North America began to retreat.

The study appeared in the journal Nature Geoscience.

30% of world is now fat - and I am not one among them!
Almost a third of the world is now fat, and no country has been able to curb obesity rates in the last three decades, according to a new global analysis.

Researchers found more than 2 billion people worldwide are now overweight or obese. The highest rates were in the Middle East and North Africa, where nearly 60 percent of men and 65 percent of women are heavy. The U.S. has about 13 percent of the world's fat population, a greater percentage than any other country. China and India combined have about 15 percent.
There was a strong link between income and obesity; as people get richer, their waistlines also tend to start bulging. He said scientists have noticed accompanying spikes in diabetes and that rates of cancers linked to weight, like pancreatic cancer, are also rising.

The new report was paid for by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and published online Thursday in the journal, Lancet.

What is Quantum Tunneling?
Scientists from Japan have demonstrated that an important physical effect accounts for the dynamics of a quantum tunneling system
A team of Japanese scientists has found new experimental evidence for a fundamental quantum mechanical phenomenon, resolving previously unverified hypotheses about the dynamics of quantum tunneling.

In quantum mechanics, the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect describes the observation in which an electrically charged particle is affected by an electromagnetic field despite lying outside its region. A fundamental phenomenon believed to be caused by interactions between the electromagnetic field potential and the particle’s wavefunction, the AB effect has been used by physicists to explain and make predictions about the behavior of particles.

Led by Shinji Urabe, professor at Osaka University, the team investigated quantum tunneling using two-dimensional ionic structures in a “linear Paul trap” that captures ions into a region. Quantum tunneling is a phenomenon describing how particles can be transmitted across a supposedly insurmountable barrier.

By manipulating the ground state of an ion using laser cooling and arranging three calcium ions in a triangular structure, the research, which was published in Nature Communications, demonstrated that the charged particles contained in the quantum tunneling system behave in accordance to the AB effect.
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140513/ncomms4868/full/ncomms4868...

Fast Growing Bornean Trees Important For Carbon Cycling
Rainforests in Borneo produce 50 percent more wood biomass than comparable forests in the Amazon, scientists say.
An international collaboration including scientists from Taiwan and Malaysia has found that certain species of trees in Bornean rainforests achieve faster wood growth rates than even the most productive forests in the Amazon. The research, published in the Journal of Ecology, suggests that these trees may play an important role in mitigating global warming through carbon sequestration
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2745.12263/abstract...

A new study finds that shining a low-power laser on damaged rat teeth activates molecular growth factors already present in the tissue. These growth factors cue stem cells to generate dentin, the bonelike substance that teeth are mostly made of.

Researchers also found that when mice were missing those growth factors or when the factors were blocked from working, the stem cells would not regenerate dentin when exposed to laser light. That finding confirms the important role these signaling pathways play in dental development. The study, led by David Mooney at Harvard’s Wyss Institute, is in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Laser Light Coaxes Damaged Rodent Tooth Repair
Low-power laser light shined on damaged rat teeth activates growth factors that cue stem cells to generate the tooth constituent dentin, leading to regeneration.
http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/6/238/238ra69

Have been waiting to have one, love this self driving car Designed to operate safely and autonomously without requiring human intervention. They won’t have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal… because they don’t need them. Google's software and sensors will do all the work. They will take you where you want to go at the push of a button. And that's an important step toward improving road safety and transforming mobility for millions of people.

DuPont's Power of Shunya wins four gold medals at DMAi Echo Awards in India
DuPont's 'Power of Shunya', a branded content and activation initiative, received four gold medals at the recently held DMAi Awards.
DuPont's “Power of Shunya”, a branded content and activation initiative, received four gold medals at the recently held Direct Marketing Association India (DMAi) Awards.

The initiative won gold medals in the categories of creativity in direct response, branded content, the craft of animation, and effectiveness. DMAi Awards, in alliance with DMA International Echo Awards, honour creative excellence in marketing and advertising campaigns that have raised the bar on originality, response strategy, interactivity and marketing impact.

At its core, the Power of Shunya is a collaborative and science driven platform consisting of two television series – The Quest for Zero and The Challenge for Zero. The programmes showcased companies and individuals that epitomise the spirit of Indian ingenuity and how science-driven solutions can help solve some of the key challenges facing India.

Jitin Munjal, regional director, South Asia & ASEAN, Corporate Marketing & Sales, DuPont, said, “At DuPont, we believe in the power of collaboration to address the world’s most important challenges. We created the Power of Shunya initiative to start a conversation about the various challenges facing India, and how science can play an important role in solving them. The success of this programme and these gold medals clearly demonstrate the power of branded content and activation efforts to build customer engagement and reinforce DuPont’s position as a preferred innovation partner and scientific thought leader.”

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/duponts-power-of-shunya-wins-f...

http://www.powerofshunya.com/Winner.aspx

Human Evolution Traded Brawn For Brains
Have you ever wondered why it is that monkeys, chimpanzees, apes and other primates are frighteningly strong compared to us humans? If your answer was yes, you are not alone. And now a new study goes in depth in explaining why and how this phenomenon has occurred evolutionarily.

If we take the primate as the most logical known last point in human evolution, then describing primate strength and cognitive abilities as superhuman and subhuman, respectively, would be incorrect. In fact, human strength and cognition would better be described as subprimate and superprimate, again, respectively.

Humans were able to walk out of the forests and slowly civilize over millenia, eventually mastering and manipulating our environments. As we have progressed, we have done such things as create the car and the airplane, land men on the moon, and surf this virtual landscape we call the worldwide web. All of that brain power required more and more energy. With a finite amount of energy able to be ingested, some human features had to suffer. Muscle strength, it turns out, was an excellent candidate for energy to be siphoned from.

This finding was discovered as the result of a study conducted by scientists from Shanghai’s CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology and other research teams based at the Max Planck Institutes in Germany. In their study, the teams investigated the evolution of metabolites – small molecules like sugar, vitamins, amino acids and neurotransmitters that represent key elements of our physiological functions. Their investigation showed how metabolite concentrations actually evolved in humans at a staggeringly fast pace compared to our primate cousins. This was especially true in two tissue areas: the brain and muscle.

--
Exceptional Evolutionary Divergence of Human Muscle and Brain Metabolomes Parallels Human Cognitive and Physical Uniqueness
Metabolite concentrations reflect the physiological states of tissues and cells. However, the role of metabolic changes in species evolution is currently unknown. Here, we present a study of metabolome evolution conducted in three brain regions and two non-neural tissues from humans, chimpanzees, macaque monkeys, and mice based on over 10,000 hydrophilic compounds. While chimpanzee, macaque, and mouse metabolomes diverge following the genetic distances among species, we detect remarkable acceleration of metabolome evolution in human prefrontal cortex and skeletal muscle affecting neural and energy metabolism pathways. These metabolic changes could not be attributed to environmental conditions and were confirmed against the expression of their corresponding enzymes. We further conducted muscle strength tests in humans, chimpanzees, and macaques. The results suggest that, while humans are characterized by superior cognition, their muscular performance might be markedly inferior to that of chimpanzees and macaque monkeys.
http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.10...

Smart WCup teams tap science to beat Brazil's heat
Trying to reproduce the environmental conditions that we will likely find, above all in Manaus, but also in Recife and Natal," team physician Enrico Castellacci said. "Players work on a specific program and then we evaluate their resistance to the fatigue, by monitoring their heartbeat and weight before and after the exercises."

Players cooled off by plunging their hands into icy water. Tipton said that technique was first developed to cool navy firefighters and works better than soaking the whole body in ice baths or fancy gizmos like air-conditioned vests and jackets packed with dry ice.
Doctors can analyze players' sweat to gauge how acclimatized they are and to tailor salt dosages in their rehydration drinks.
"Players need to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable''.
Some players use special sun-reflecting hair gel.
http://www.wkrn.com/story/25646049/smart-wcup-teams-tap-science-to-...

Scientists find compound to fight virus behind SARS, MERS
An international team of scientists say they have identified a compound that can fight coronaviruses, responsible for the SARS and MERS outbreaks, which currently have no cure.
Coronaviruses affect the upper and lower respiratory tracts in humans. They are the reason for up to a third of common colds.

A more severe strain of the virus, thought to have come from bats, triggered the global SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic in 2002, which killed nearly 800 people.

The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is a new strain discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and thought to have originated in camels. More deadly but less contagious, it has so far killed 193 people out of 636 confirmed cases.

Now, a team of scientists led by Edward Trybala from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and Volker Thiel from the University of Bern, have discovered a compound called K22, which appears to block the ability of the virus to spread in humans.
In an article for specialist journal "PLOS Pathogens", the scientists explained that the virus reproduces in the cells that line the human respiratory system.

The virus takes over the membranes that separate different parts of human cells, reshaping them into a sort of protective armor in order to start its production cycle, and so creating "viral factories," Trybala told AFP.

K22 acts at an early stage in this process, preventing the virus from taking control of the cell membranes and so opening up "new treatment possibilities," he said.

"The results confirm that the use of the membrane of the host cell is a crucial step in the life-cycle of the virus," the researchers wrote. Their work shows that "the process is highly sensitive and can be influenced by anti-viral medications".

They said the recent SARS epidemic and MERS outbreak mean there should be urgent investment in testing K22 outside the laboratory and developing medicines.

While K22 still has a way to go before it can be tested on humans, that identification of this new strategy of combating coronaviruses will aid to develop an effective and safe antiviral drug.
- Agence France-Presse

Scientists discover how to make children eat vegetables

Study shows how parents can encourage their toddlers to eat more vegetables to inculcate healthy eating habits early on.
A new study by the University of Leeds Institute of Psychological Sciences shows that parents can, in fact, help their children be more willing to eat healthy foods by exposing them to it routinely at a younger age. The study offers insight into habits and tricks that will help get children eating even the ‘yuckiest’ of vegetables by choice.

The study, published in the journal Public Library of Science ONE (PLOS ONE), was conducted with participant babies and toddlers from the UK, France and Denmark. Participants were fed between one and 10 servings of a minimum of 100 g of one of three versions of artichoke puree: basic; sweetened with added sugar; or added energy with vegetable oil. Artichoke was chosen as it was unanimously the least-offered vegetable by the participants’ parents.

Evolution Sparks Silence of the Crickets
Males on two Hawaiian islands simultaneously went mute in just a few years to avoid a parasite
Populations of a male cricket on different Hawaiian islands have lost their ability to chirp as a result of separate, but simultaneous, evolutionary adaptations to their wings. The changes, which allow the insects to avoid attracting a parasitic fly, occurred independently over just 20 generations and are visible to the human eye, a study reveals.

The findings could help to shed light on the earliest stages of convergent evolution — when separate groups or populations independently evolve similar adaptations in response to natural selection.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/evolution-sparks-silence-...

Delaying Vaccines Increases Risks—with No Added Benefits
Some parents delay vaccines out of a misinformed belief that it’s safer, but that decision actually increases the risk of a seizure after vaccination and leaves children at risk for disease longer
Concerns about vaccine safety have led up to 40 percent of parents in the U.S. to delay or refuse some vaccines for their children in hopes of avoiding rare reactions. Barriers to health care access can also cause immunization delays. But delaying some vaccines, in addition to leaving children unprotected from disease longer, can actually increase the risk of fever-related seizures, according to a new study.
The new study, published in the May 19 Pediatrics, found that administering the MMR shot or the less frequently used MMRV one (which includes the varicella, or chickenpox, vaccine) later, between 16 and 23 months, doubles the child’s risk of developing a fever-caused, or febrile, seizure as a reaction to the vaccine. The risk of a febrile seizure following the MMR is approximately one case in 3,000 doses for children aged 12 to 15 months but one case in 1,500 doses for children aged 16 to 23 months “This study adds to the evidence that the best way to prevent disease and minimize side effects from vaccines is to vaccinate on the recommended schedule.
It's not clear why the MMR and MMRV vaccines increase febrile seizure risk in the older children, but it may be simply that they receive the vaccines when they are already more susceptible to the seizures. Hambidge says evidence shows the immune system may still be maturing during the second year of life, and febrile seizures caused by viruses naturally peak around 16 to 18 months. Vaccines administered during this interval may increase the risk of fever, and therefore febrile seizures, because the vaccines rev up the immune system to mount a better immune response. These seizures do not cause any long-term health effects. Even though they’re scary for parents, these seizures are temporary events. They don’t recur and don’t cause epilepsy.
No evidence to date reveals any benefits to delaying vaccines. A study in 2010 showed that children who received delayed vaccinations performed no better at ages seven to 10 on behavioral and cognitive assessments than children who received their vaccines on time.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/delaying-vaccines-increas...

Risk factors for febrile seizures include developmental delay, discharge from a neonatal unit after 28 days, day care attendance, viral infections, a family history of febrile seizures, certain vaccinations, and possibly iron and zinc deficiencies. Febrile seizures may occur before or soon after the onset of fever, with the likelihood of seizure increasing with the child's temperature and not with the rate of temperature rise.

Vaccinations associated with increased risk include 2010 Southern Hemisphere seasonal influenza trivalent inactivated vaccine (Fluvax Junior and Fluvax); diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and whole-cell pertussis (DTP); and measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR). A Cochrane review and a review of 530,000 children receiving the MMR vaccine showed that the risk of febrile seizures increased only during the first two weeks after vaccination, was small (an additional one or two febrile seizures per 1,000 vaccinations), and was likely related to fever from the vaccine.
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2012/0115/p149.html

A genetic predisposition for febrile seizures has been postulated, although no susceptibility gene has been identified. Genetic abnormalities have been reported in persons with febrile epilepsy syndromes, such as severe myoclonic epilepsy in infancy and generalized epilepsy with febrile seizures plus (GEFS+).14 Most causes of febrile seizures are multifactorial, with two or more genetic and contributing environmental factors.

Vision Involves a Bit of Hearing, Too
Researchers could tell what sounds blindfolded volunters were hearing by analyzing activity in their visual cortexes.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/vision-involves-h...

Drug Developers Take a Second Look at Herbal Medicines
Desperate to develop new drugs for malaria and other ailments, researchers are running clinical trials with traditional herbal medicines—and generating promising leads

A Swedish-German research team has successfully tested a new method for the production of ultra-strong cellulose fibers at DESY’s research light source PETRA III. The novel procedure spins extremely tough filaments from tiny cellulose fibrils by aligning them all in parallel during the production process. The new method is reported in the scientific journal Nature Communications.
Hydrodynamic alignment and assembly of nanofibrils resulting in strong cellulose filaments
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140602/ncomms5018/full/ncomms5018...
Cellulose nanofibrils can be obtained from trees and have considerable potential as a building block for biobased materials. In order to achieve good properties of these materials, the nanostructure must be controlled. Here we present a process combining hydrodynamic alignment with a dispersion–gel transition that produces homogeneous and smooth filaments from a low-concentration dispersion of cellulose nanofibrils in water. The preferential fibril orientation along the filament direction can be controlled by the process parameters. The specific ultimate strength is considerably higher than previously reported filaments made of cellulose nanofibrils. The strength is even in line with the strongest cellulose pulp fibres extracted from wood with the same degree of fibril alignment. Successful nanoscale alignment before gelation demands a proper separation of the timescales involved. Somewhat surprisingly, the device must not be too small if this is to be achieved.

A failed replication draws a scathing personal attack from a psychology professor
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2012/03/10/failed-replicati...

Science sometimes gets things wrong. Scientists often get things wrong. But what makes science so powerful is how it responds to new evidence and how scientists learn from their mistakes.

http://www.opb.org/news/article/npr-science-trust-and-psychology-in...

Anti-science politics in the US:

Democrats Have a Problem With Science, Too

We shouldn't let them off the hook just because Republicans are worse.

Take anti-GMO sentiment, for example. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) notes in its statement on the issue that “25 years of research involving more than 500 independent research groups” has found genetically modified foods to be no riskier than foods resulting from conventional breeding. Eating a GM tomato is just as safe as eating a non-GM tomato. The AAAS therefore opposes GMO labeling because it could “mislead and falsely alarm customers.” Though some polling has shown GMO labeling support to be about equal among Republicans, Democrats and Independents, looking at GMO-related legislation tells another story

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/democrats-have-a-pro...

Media Coverage of Medical Journals: Do the Best Articles Make the News?

Newspapers were more likely to cover observational studies and less likely to cover RCTs than high impact journals. Additionally, when the media does cover observational studies, they select articles of inferior quality. Newspapers preferentially cover medical research with weaker methodology.
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Newspapers were more likely to cover observational studies and less likely to cover randomized trials than high impact journals. Additionally, when the media does cover observational studies, they select articles of inferior quality. We present evidence that newspapers preferentially cover medical research with weaker methodology. Our findings add to the understanding of how journalists and medical researchers weight studies. Ultimately such understanding may facilitate communication between researchers and the media and promote coverage that is in the greatest interest of the public health.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone....

How to report on foreign aid for science

Journalists should go beyond aid announcements and follow up results

Ask who is involved, not just who benefits — science aid should build capacity

Aid is important and complex: your job is to keep asking the tough questions
http://www.scidev.net/global/journalism/practical-guide/how-to-repo...

How genomics can tackle antimicrobial resistance
By decoding the genomes of a large number of bacteria, scientists will be able to understand how common pathogens respond to antibiotics and what genetic changes drive them to become resistant. They can therefore predict how resistance will develop and design strategies that could save millions of people, particularly in vulnerable areas such as developing countries, where healthcare infrastructure is more basic.
http://www.scidev.net/global/genomics/multimedia/genomics-antimicro...

Indian frogs kick up their heels
Some new species impress a potential mate with a dance
Some frogs use a little fancy footwork to get attention during mating season. A 12-year search of a 1,600-kilometer-long mountain range on India’s west coast has turned up 14 new frog species, including at least four “dancing frogs,” Indian researchers report May 8 in the Ceylon Journal of Science (Biological Sciences). This finding more than doubles the number of species in the genus Micrixalus, a group of frogs known for their dance moves. The amphibian boogie starts off with Micrixalus males calling to females, showing off their bright white throats. Then males tap their feet and finish off by stretching out a hind leg and whipping it around behind them. Called foot-flagging, this pretty maneuver isn’t just for show. Should a rival male intrude on the display, he may get kicked.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/indian-frogs-kick-their-heels

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh found people who spoke two or more languages had significantly better cognitive skills later in life
(Wow! I speak five languages! - K)
Learning a second language slows the speed at which brains age, a study has found, even if it learned in adulthood.
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh found people who spoke two or more languages had significantly better cognitive skills later in life compared with what would be predicted from their IQ results in childhood.

The team, led by Dr Thomas Bak, from the Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, looked at data taken from intelligence tests on 262 English people at 11-years-old who could all speak at least two languages.

The tests were then repeated when they were in their seventies.

From that group, 195 learned a second language before turning 18 and 65 had acquired a second language after that age.

Researchers found that reading, verbal fluency and intelligence were better than what was expected from their test in childhood, particularly with reading and intelligence.

This was the case even if the second language was acquired in adulthood.
The study was published in the journal Annals of Neurology

Scientists prove bees make mental maps
Previous theory indicated that bees oriented themselves only by noting their relative position to the Sun. New research shows that bees produce cognitive maps of the area they inhabit much like mammals do. The research was conducted led by James F. Cheeseman from the University of Auckland in New Zealand and colleagues from New Zealand, Germany, and the United States. The study was presented in the June 2, 2014, edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Spiders could be the key to saving bees from harmful toxins after researchers found a bio-pesticide created using spider venom and a plant protein is highly toxic to a number of insect pests – but safe for honeybees.
Common neonicotinoid pesticides are believed to be behind the catastrophic decline in honeybees and this decline could have a serious impact on food production.

A team at Newcastle University tested a combination of a natural toxin from the venom of an Australian funnel web spider and snowdrop lectin called Hv1a/GNA fusion protein bio-pesticide.

The researchers found this new pesticide allows honeybees to forage without harm, even when they received unusually high doses of it. Honeybees perform sophisticated behaviours while foraging that require them to learn and remember floral traits associated with food.
The team’s findings have been published this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The secret to baby girls’ enhanced ability to survive to birth could lie in a risk-averse strategy, according to a study of placental gene expression.

Integrative transcriptome meta-analysis reveals widespread sex-biased gene expression at the human fetal–maternal interface

Abstract

As males and females share highly similar genomes, the regulation of many sexually dimorphic traits is constrained to occur through sex-biased gene regulation. There is strong evidence that human males and females differ in terms of growth and development in utero and that these divergent growth strategies appear to place males at increased risk when in sub-optimal conditions. Since the placenta is the interface of maternal–fetal exchange throughout pregnancy, these developmental differences are most likely orchestrated by differential placental function. To date, progress in this field has been hampered by a lack of genome-wide information on sex differences in placental gene expression. Therefore, our motivation in this study was to characterize sex-biased gene expression in the human placenta. We obtained gene expression data for >300 non-pathological placenta samples from 11 microarray datasets and applied mapping-based array probe re-annotation and inverse-variance meta-analysis methods which showed that >140 genes (false discovery rate (FDR) <0.05) are differentially expressed between male and female placentae. A majority of these genes (>60%) are autosomal, many of which are involved in high-level regulatory processes such as gene transcription, cell growth and proliferation and hormonal function. Of particular interest, we detected higher female expression from all seven genes in the LHB-CGB cluster, which includes genes involved in placental development, the maintenance of pregnancy and maternal immune tolerance of the conceptus. These results demonstrate that sex-biased gene expression in the normal human placenta occurs across the genome and includes genes that are central to growth, development and the maintenance of pregnancy

http://molehr.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/05/20/molehr.ga...

Antibiotic Resistance Revitalizes Century-Old Virus Therapy
The use of viruses that kill bacteria as a tool for treating infections are under study again by Western researchers and governments
http://www.nature.com/news/phage-therapy-gets-revitalized-1.15348

Climate change will make food less nutritious: Study
Plants make food from carbon dioxide in the air, using energy from sunlight. So, if carbon dioxide levels in the air are going up due to climate change, plants should be making more food, right? Wrong, says a new study published last week in the science journal Nature.

According to the study conducted by a team of US, Australian and Japanese scientists, carbon dioxide emissions are slowly making the world's staple food crops less nutritious. Wheat, maize, soybeans and rice will see their levels of nutrients iron and zinc, as well as proteins, go down between now and 2050.

Rice, maize, soybeans and wheat are the main source of nutrients for over 2 billion people living in poor countries. But with climate change and the rising amount of CO2 in the air we breathe, their already low nutrient value compared to meat, for instance, is set to decrease.

Probiotics prevent deadly complications of liver disease
Probiotics are effective in preventing hepatic encephalopathy in patients with cirrhosis of the liver, according to a study by the Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital, New Delhi.

Hepatic encephalopathy is the deterioration of brain function — a serious complication of liver disease.

The research shows that probiotics modify the gut microbiota to prevent hepatic encephalopathy.

According to experts, the results offer a safe, well tolerated and a cheaper alternative to current treatments.

Is de-extinction a real possibility?
Yes, says, this article:
Fact or Fiction?: Mammoths Can Be Brought Back from Extinction
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-mammoths-...

Scientists find world's highest number of song birds in the Himalayas
On 9 June 2014 India's Endangered reported: There is a new song they sing and that's what makes them unique. The results of the first ever mapping of birds in the eastern Himalayan region of India has confirmed that there are more than 360 different songbird species in the regions, most of which are not found anywhere else on the planet. Scientists add that the presence of so many species within this small geographical location may be the highest diversity of song birds in the world
http://www.globalgoodnews.com/science-news-a.html?art=1402261051292...

GM strains crash mosquito population in lab
Scientists have created mosquitoes that produce 95% male offspring, with the aim of helping control malaria.

Flooding cages of normal mosquitoes with the new strain caused a shortage of females and a population crash.

The system works by shredding the X chromosome during sperm production, leaving very few X-carrying sperm to produce female embryos.

In the wild it could slash numbers of malaria-spreading mosquitoes, reports the journal Nature Communications.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27765974

Classroom Decorations Can Distract Young Students
Five-year-olds in highly decorated classrooms were less able to hold their focus, spent more time off-task and had smaller learning gains than kids in bare rooms
''Visual Environment, Attention Allocation, and Learning in Young Children
When Too Much of a Good Thing May Be Bad''

A large body of evidence supports the importance of focused attention for encoding and task performance. Yet young children with immature regulation of focused attention are often placed in elementary-school classrooms containing many displays that are not relevant to ongoing instruction. We investigated whether such displays can affect children’s ability to maintain focused attention during instruction and to learn the lesson content. We placed kindergarten children in a laboratory classroom for six introductory science lessons, and we experimentally manipulated the visual environment in the classroom. Children were more distracted by the visual environment, spent more time off task, and demonstrated smaller learning gains when the walls were highly decorated than when the decorations were removed.

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/05/20/0956797614533801.ab...

Microwave-based stroke diagnosis making global pre-hospital thrombolytic treatment possible
A helmet placed on the head of a stroke victim sends low-intensity microwaves through the brain to quickly determine whether a blockage or hemorrhage is taking place, making faster treatment possible.
When a person suffers a stroke quick treatment is crucial. But there are two very different kinds of strokes: some result from blood clots that block circulation within the brain, others are caused by ruptured vessels that spill blood into surrounding tissue. The use of clot-busting drugs when a hemorrhage is happening can cause additional injury or death. So doctors lose precious time waiting for stroke victims to get MRIs or CAT scans before they start treatment.

But soon EMT’s might be able to quickly tell whether patients have a blockage or a bleed—by having them wear a high-tech helmet.

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden developed the prototype helmet and tested it on 45 stroke patients.

The gadget covers the head with a patchwork of antennas. As each antenna beams low-intensity microwaves through the head in sequence, the other antennas detect how the waves scatter. Any pooling blood from a hemorrhage causes deflections easily spotted on an attached computer.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&a...