A team of European scientists has taken an important step closer to understanding the root cause of age-related dementia. In research involving both worms and mice, they have found that age-related dementia is likely the result of a declining ability of neurons to dispose of unwanted aggregated...

In Africa and Thailand, communities that worked together on HIV-prevention efforts saw not only a rise in HIV screening but a drop in new infections. Fuente : http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/uoc...

In a position statement unveiled today, the Endocrine Society advocates that all methods for measuring estrogens, which play a crucial role in human biology, be made traceable to a common standard. Fuente : http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/tes...

"We know that a process that has to happen as reliably and stably as cell division also has to be flexible enough to allow the organism to grow and respond to its ever-changing environment. We're interested in uncovering all the steps and back-up safeguards that cells use to robustly protect replication while at the same time...

A new report published today concludes that nearly half of Africa's wild lion populations may decline to near extinction over the next 20-40 years without urgent conservation measures. The plight of many lion populations is so bleak, the report concludes that fencing them in -- and fencing humans out -- may be their only hope...

Scientists have assembled transcriptomes of a noxious weed, Brachypodium sylvaticum, or slender false brome. The transcriptome provides an extensive genetic tool for studying how invasive species, like slender false brome, successfully spread into novel ranges. In addition, the genome is available for a closely related...

Antarctica's topography began changing from flat to fjord-filled starting about 34 million years ago, according to a new report from a University of Arizona-led team of geoscientists. Knowing when Antarctica's topography started shifting from a flat landscape to one with glaciers, fjords and mountains is important for...

New theoretical modeling by Carnegie's Alan Boss provides clues to how the gas giant planets in our solar system -- Jupiter and Saturn -- might have formed and evolved. His work was published recently by the Astrophysical Journal. Fuente : http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/ci-...

For men with low-risk prostate cancer, focal laser ablation treats just the diseased portion of the prostate rather than the entire gland. A phase 1 trial found it was safe. None of the nine men in the study had a significant side effect. Seven of the nine patients had no evidence of disease six months later. Fuente :...

In the family Cactaceae, isolation of genetic material can be difficult due to the presence of polysaccharide-based mucilage content and other secondary compounds. Although important for water storage, these compounds necessitate the use of toxic chemicals and numerous modifications to DNA extraction protocols. Shannon D....

Some 5.8 million Americans suffer from heart failure, a currently incurable disease. But scientists at Temple University School of Medicine's Center for Translational Medicine have discovered a key biochemical step underlying the condition that could aid the development of new drugs to treat and possibly prevent it. Fuente :...

If you think giving someone the cold shoulder inflicts pain only on them, beware. A new study shows that individuals who deliberately shun another person are equally distressed by the experience. Fuente : http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/uor...

A new analysis points the way to optimizing efficiency of an integrated system for harvesting sunlight to make storable fuel. Fuente : http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/O...

Researchers have identified distinctive brain patterns associated with different stages of general anesthesia. Fuente : http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/M...

Shipping lanes through the Arctic Ocean won't put the Suez and Panama canals out of business anytime soon, but global warming will make these frigid routes much more accessible than ever imagined by melting an unprecedented amount of sea ice during the late summer, new research shows. Fuente :...

Researchers have discovered how oxidative stress can turn to the dark side a cellular protein that's usually benign, and make it become a powerful, unwanted accomplice in neuronal death. This finding could ultimately lead to new therapeutic approaches to many of the world's debilitating or fatal...

For the first time ever, a research team is able to explain why our brains feel tired when we exercise. By mapping the mechanism behind so-called central fatigue, the researchers are hoping, among other things, to learn more about how to identify doping use. Fuente :...

A new mother may constantly worry and check to see if her baby is breathing. Or she may obsess about germs. A new study found postpartum moms have a much higher rate of obsessive-compulsive symptoms than the general population. This is the first large-scale study of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in...

Scientists have discovered how to detect abnormal brain rhythms associated with Parkinson's by implanting electrodes within the brains of people with the disease. Fuente : http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/s...

The mammalian placenta is more than just a filter through which nutrition and oxygen are passed from a mother to her unborn child. According to a new study, if a mother is exposed to stress during pregnancy, her placenta translates that experience to her fetus by altering levels of a protein that...

The brain adds new cells during puberty to help navigate the complex social world of adulthood, neuroscientists report. Fuente : http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/g...

Oxidative stress turns a protein that normally protects healthy cells into their executioner, according to a new study. Fuente : http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/O...

Physicists are manipulating light on superconducting chips, and forging new pathways to building the quantum devices of the future -- including super-fast and powerful quantum computers. Fuente : http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/d...

A new study finds that long-term lower extremity functional electrical stimulation cycling, as part of a rehabilitation regimen, is associated with substantial improvements in individuals with chronic spinal cord injury. Improvements include neurological and functional gains, as well as enhanced...

Three antiretroviral-based strategies intended to prevent HIV infection among women did not prove effective in a major clinical trial in Africa. For reasons that are unclear, a majority of study participants -- particularly young, single women -- were unable to use their assigned approaches daily...

Biologists have discovered what might be a universal property of size distributions in living systems. If valid throughout the animal kingdom, it could have profound implications on how we understand population dynamics of large ecosystems. Fuente :...

Physicists have succeeding in creating a vortex knot -- a feat akin to tying a smoke ring into a knot. Linked and knotted vortex loops have existed in theory for more than a century, but creating them in the laboratory had previously eluded scientists. Fuente :...

Behind locked doors, in a lab built like a bomb shelter, Perry Gerakines makes something ordinary yet truly alien: ice. This isn't the ice of snowflakes or ice cubes. No, this ice needs such intense cold and low pressure to form that the right conditions rarely, if ever, occur naturally on Earth....

A distant world gleaming in sunlight, Earth's twin planet, Venus, shines like a bright beacon in images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn. Fuente : http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/-...