Current Science News and Events
The following is a collection of the latest news available on the world wide web. These links will lead you to sites outside of Visionlearning.
Current feeds as of 5/22/13 07:00pm EST include the following.
BBC Science
Feet home to more than 100 fungi
Fungi live all over the human body but their favourite spots are the heel, under toenails and between the toes, according to a US study.
Solar plane sets off again across US
The Solar Impulse plane, which holds records including the longest manned zero-fuel flight, sets off on the second leg of a bid to cross the US.
Climate 'spurred human innovation'
Abrupt climate change in Africa helped trigger technological and cultural advances in early modern humans, according to new research.
'Worrying declines' for UK species
A stocktake of UK nature suggests 60% of animal and plant species studied have declined in the past 50 years.
2013 cold start may mean fruit boom
UK fruit growers could enjoy a much better harvest of apples and pears this year, following the dismal crop in 2012, experts believe.
Green light for 'biggest' wave farm
Plans for the world's largest commercial wave farm off the Western Isles move forward after minister give full consent for the project.
Science Daily News
An amazing glow-in-the-dark cockroach, a harp-shaped carnivorous sponge and the smallest vertebrate on Earth are just three of the newly discovered top 10 species selected by a global committee of taxonomists.
Migraine and depression together may be linked with brain size
Older people with a history of migraines and depression may have smaller brain tissue volumes than people with only one or neither of the conditions, according to a new study.
Tests lead to doubling of fuel cell life
Researchers working to improve durability in fuel cell powered buses have discovered links between electrode degradation processes and bus membrane durability. The team is quantifying the effects of electrode degradation stressors in the operating cycle of the bus on the membrane lifetime.
Brain can be trained in compassion, study shows
A new study shows that adults can be trained to be more compassionate. The report investigates whether training adults in compassion can result in greater altruistic behavior and related changes in neural systems underlying compassion.
Novel approach for influenza vaccination shows promise in early animal testing
A new approach for immunizing against influenza elicited a more potent immune response and broader protection than the currently licensed seasonal influenza vaccines when tested in mice and ferrets. The new vaccine concept represents an important step forward in the quest to develop a universal influenza vaccine -- one that would protect against most or all influenza strains without the need for an annual vaccination.
Science Magazine News Summaries
[News of the Week] Random Sample
Last week, the National Science Foundation announced the winners of the unique Graduate 10K+ initiative addressing President Barack Obama’s call for U.S. high-tech companies to help train 1 million more STEM graduates by 2020. And according to a new study, the key to environmentally friendly sources of protein may be one that makes many Westerners squirm: edible insects.
R. Graham Cooks, a chemist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, has been awarded the 2013 Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical Sciences. And biochemist Christian de Duve, who helped reveal the internal organization and operation of cells, died on 4 May.
[News & Analysis] Biomedicine: Human Stem Cells From Cloning, Finally
This time it looks like it's for real: Researchers have made personalized human embryonic stem cells with a method similar to how Dolly the sheep was cloned—though with an added jolt of caffeine.
Author: Gretchen Vogel
[News & Analysis] Influenza: Synthetic Vaccine Strain May Speed Up Pandemic Response
Researchers publish technique that could shave up to 4 weeks off vaccine production time, which during a pandemic could save tens of thousands of lives.
Author: Kai Kupferschmidt
[News & Analysis] Glaciology: Melting Glaciers, Not Just Ice Sheets, Stoking Sea-Level Rise
A new study says that although field measurements were painting an accurate picture of the few glaciers being monitored, they were not representative of the world's glaciers.
Author: Richard A. Kerr
Science Magazine This Week in Science
Hydraulic fracturing, widely known as "fracking," is a relatively inexpensive way to tap into what were previously inaccessible natural gas resources. Vidic et al. (p. 1235009) review the current status … [Read more]
Quartz is used industrially as an abrasive, as an inert glassy material, or for high-quality crystals in microelectronics. It is also valued for its piezoelectronic properties. However, it is hard … [Read more]
During simple precipitation, molecules fall out of solution from locations of highest concentration and, consequently, the shape of the precipitate will be dictated by its crystallization thermodynamics. Noorduin et al. … [Read more]
In Gram-negative bacteria, the integrity of the outer membrane is crucial for survival and is an important aspect of resistance to antibiotics. The biogenesis of the major components lipopolysaccharide (LPS) … [Read more]
Although core components of circadian clocks in flies and mammals are transcriptional circuits, recent evidence indicates posttranscriptional regulation of the clock occurs. Studies from Lim and Allada (p. 875) and … [Read more]
