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 2/4/12 03:00am EST include the following.
BBC Science
Striking galaxy image from Hubble
The Hubble space telescope captures an image of a "barred spiral" galaxy that could help us better understand our own Milky Way.
Largest optical telescope created
Astronomers at the Paranal observatory combine four telescope to create the world's largest virtual device with a 130m-mirror.
Prince optimistic for fisheries
Prince Charles says there is a reason to be optimistic about the state of the world's oceans, but it is "critically urgent" to tackle overfishing.
Malaria toll 'is twice as high'
The number of deaths worldwide from malaria has been underestimated, according to data published in the medical journal the Lancet.
Brains may be wired for addiction
Abnormalities in the brain may make some people more likely to become drug addicts, according to scientists.
More Galileo satellites ordered
The German-UK consortium building the operational spacecraft for Europe's Galileo sat-nav system wins a contract to provide an additional eight units.
Science Daily News
One of the big mysteries in biology is why cells age. Now scientists report that they have discovered a weakness in a component of brain cells that may explain how the aging process occurs in the brain.
A lonely heart can make you sick: Middle aged divorced women vulnerable to contracting HIV
Newly divorced middle aged women are more vulnerable to contract HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, according to new research, because they tend to let their guard down with new sexual partners and avoid using protection since they are not afraid of getting pregnant.
Regular use of vitamin and mineral supplements could reduce the risk of colon cancer, study suggests
Could the use of vitamin and mineral supplements in a regular diet help to reduce the risk of colon cancer and protect against carcinogens? A study published in the Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology found that rats given regular multivitamin and mineral supplements showed a significantly lower risk of developing colon cancer when they were exposed to carcinogens.
The complex relationship between memory and silence
People who suffer a traumatic experience often don't talk about it, and many forget it over time. But not talking about something doesn't always mean you'll forget it; if you try to force yourself not to think about white bears, soon you'll be imagining polar bears doing the polka. A group of psychological scientists explore the relationship between silence and memories.
Schooling protects refugee children from disease
Refugee children have scant access to medical care and are particularly vulnerable to disease. Fresh research results show that just a few hours of schooling a week may have a pronounced positive impact on their health not only in childhood but later in life when they achieve adulthood.
Science Magazine News Summaries
[News of the Week] Random Samples
Thomas Edison is still number one when it comes to invention. Researchers think they know why the male orb-web spider will often voluntarily break off his whole sex organ while it's still lodged in the female's abdomen: It continues to transfer sperm into the female long after the male has fled or been consumed. A British seismologist has a geologic twist on the classic nightstand "word-a-day" calendar: the daily rock. And this week's numbers quantify the price offered for DNA sequencing company Illumina and the percentage of plant collectors who have found more than 50% of the world's known species.
This week's Newsmakers are Janet Rowley of the University of Chicago, Brian Druker of the Oregon Health & Science University, Nicholas Lydon of Blueprint Medicines, and Masato Sagawa of Intermetallics Co., winners of the Japan Prizes; Scott Doney, whose nomination to be chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been withdrawn by the White House; Johannes Vogel, an expert on fern genetics, who took over as director of Berlin's Natural History Museum this week; and Paul Alivisatos of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Charles Lieber of Harvard University, Jacob Bekenstein of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ronald Evans of the Salk Institute, Michael Aschbacher of the California Institute of Technology, and Luis Caffarelli of the University of Texas, Austin, winners of the Wolf Prizes.
[News & Analysis] Avian Influenza: The Limits of Avian Flu Studies in Ferrets
How concerned should people be that what happened in the controversial experiments that exposed ferrets to H5N1 avian influenza viruses engineered to be more transmissible will apply to humans?
Author: Jon Cohen
[News & Analysis] Cell Biology: Donation Spurs a Cell Observatory—And Bigger Plans
The Broad Institute received a $32.5 million gift last week to take on one of the biggest challenges in biology: mapping the molecular "circuitry" inside several kinds of mammalian cells.
Author: Jocelyn Kaiser
[News & Analysis] Astronomy: Celebrated Exoplanet Vanishes in a Cloud of Dust—Or Maybe Not
Last week, Fomalhaut b, an exoplanet that once enjoyed celebrity status, faced an identity crisis after astronomers failed to spot it in a new round of observations.
Author: Yudhijit Bhattacharjee
Science Magazine This Week in Science
During meiosis, or in yeast sporulation, haploid cells are generated from diploid cells. Brar et al. (p. 552, published online 22 December) performed a detailed analysis of messenger RNA (mRNA) … [Read more]
Nailing Down the Superfluid Transition
A gas of fermions, the class of particle that protons, neutrons, and electrons belong to, can be found in contexts as different as neutron stars and a block of metal. … [Read more]
Pulsars are strongly magnetized, rapidly rotating neutron stars. Those with periods of the order of milliseconds obtain their fast spin by accreting mass from a companion star in a binary … [Read more]
Dansgaard/Oeschger (D/O) events—the sudden, millennial-scale periods of warmth that punctuate the cold climate of the Last Glacial period, and Heinrich events—cold intervals characterized by tremendous discharges of icebergs into the … [Read more]
Carbon-silicon bonds are integral to the structure of the silicone materials widely used in adhesives, cosmetics, and numerous other industrial and consumer products. Generally, platinum-based catalysts have performed best in … [Read more]
