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Mathematics Might Save You A Trip To The ER:

Since the days of Hippocrates, people have known that certain illnesses come and go with the seasons. More recently, researchers have learned that these cyclic recurrences of disease, known as seasonality, are often related to the weather. In order to accurately predict when outbreaks of disease will occur, and how many people will be effected, Elena Naumova, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Public Heath and Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, and colleagues, are studying seasonality by creating mathematical models based on environmental factors like outdoor temperature.

Shape Encoding May Start In The Retina:

New evidence from the University of Southern California suggests that there may be dedicated cells in the retina that help compile small bits of information in order to recognize objects. The research was conducted by Ernest Greene, professor of psychology in the area of brain and cognitive sciences at USC. It is well established that the images the observer sees are divided in half as they are sent to the two hemispheres of the brain. When a person looks at the center of an object, the image from the right half of the object will be sent to one hemisphere of the brain and the image of the left half is sent to the other. This is true whether a person uses one eye or two to look at the object. “Given that the primary visual areas in each hemisphere are seeing only half of the object, it has been assumed that communication between the hemispheres was needed to combine the information,” said Greene.

What Makes One Wasp Queen? Old Developmental Pathways Spawn Revolutionary Evolutionary Changes:

When the larvae of the primitive social insect Polistes metricus, a paper wasp, slips into the quiet pupal stage, she doesn’t know if she’ll arise a worker or gyne (future queen) — unless she consults with Arizona State University’s social insect researcher Gro Amdam. Amdam’s group is shedding new light on the development of colonial insects from solitary ancestors through study of a primitive social order of wasps. In a paper highlighted on the cover and published Aug. 28 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), ASU’s Amdam and Florian Wolschin teamed up with Kari Norberg, from Amdam’s laboratory at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, and James Hunt and others from the University of Missouri. They reveal that the Polistes larvae that can become future queens show signs of developmental diapause, a period of overt quiescence and a life history trait of many insect orders.

Who Went There? Matching Fossil Tracks With Their Makers:

Fossilized footprints are relatively common, but figuring out exactly which ancient creature made particular tracks has been a mystery that has long stumped paleontologists. In the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, a team of researchers overcome this dilemma for the first time, and link a fossil trackway to a well-known fossil animal.

Bird Completes Epic Flight Across The Pacific:

A female bar-tailed godwit, a large, streamlined shorebird, has touched down in New Zealand following an epic, 18,000-mile-long (29,000 km) series of flights tracked by satellite, including the longest non-stop flight recorded for a land bird.

Primate Behavior Explained By Computer ‘Agents’:

The complex behaviour of primates can be understood using artificially-intelligent computer ‘agents’ that mimic their actions, shows new research published in a special edition of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B and presented at the BA Festival of Science in York.

Human C-reactive Protein Regulates Myeloma Tumor Cell Growth And Survival:

Scientists report that a protein best known as a common marker of inflammation plays a key role in the progression of human cancer. The research, published in the journal Cancer Cell, implicates C-reactive protein (CRP) as a potential target for cancer treatment.

Mother’s Milk A Gift That Keeps On Giving:

Extensive medical research shows that mothers’ milk satisfies babies’ nutritional needs far better than any manufactured infant formula. It also protects babies against many common infectious diseases and certain inflammatory diseases, and probably helps lower the risk of a child later developing diabetes, lymphoma and some types of leukemia.

Extra Gene Copies Were Enough To Make Early Humans’ Mouths Water:

To think that world domination could have begun in the cheeks. That’s one interpretation of a discovery, published online September 9 in Nature Genetics, which indicates that humans carry extra copies of the salivary amylase gene. Humans have many more copies of this gene than any of their ape relatives, the study found, and they use the copies to flood their mouths with amylase, an enzyme that digests starch. The finding bolsters the idea that starch was a crucial addition to the diet of early humans, and that natural selection favored individuals who could make more starch-digesting protein.

Very Young Children Can Step Into The Minds Of Storybook Characters:

A large part of enjoying a good book is getting immersed in the life of a character, especially a character’s thoughts and feelings. A new University of Waterloo psychology study shows that preschoolers can already perform this impressive perspective-taking feat and get into the minds of story characters.

Manic Phase Of Bipolar Disorder Benefits From Breast Cancer Medication:

The medication tamoxifen, best known as a treatment for breast cancer, dramatically reduces symptoms of the manic phase of bipolar disorder more quickly than many standard medications for the mental illness, a new study shows. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) who conducted the study also explained how: Tamoxifen blocks an enzyme called protein kinase C (PKC) that regulates activities in brain cells. The enzyme is thought to be over-active during the manic phase of bipolar disorder.

Is Social Networking Changing The Face Of Friendship?:

Online social networks tend to be far larger than their real-life counterparts, but online users say they have about the same number of close friends as the real-life average person. The advent of online social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook is changing the average number of friends people have, with some users befriending literally thousands of others, Dr Will Reader of Sheffield Hallam University told the BA Festival of Science on September 10. Past research by Professor Robin Dunbar at the Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioural Ecology Research Group at Liverpool University has shown that the average person has a social network of around 150 friends, ranging from very close friends to casual acquaintances.

Condoms Are Not ‘One Size Fits All’:

The following article considers condoms that don’t fit well, a brief and effective treatment for sexual problems that occur after treatment for gynecological cancers, and how to set health and fitness goals that really work.

Ethical Issues Of Scientific Research In Developing World Examined:

The first comprehensive examination of the ethical, social and cultural (ESC) challenges faced by major science programs in developing countries has identified a complex assortment of issues with the potential to slow critical global health research if left unaddressed.

Fire Ants Killing Baby Song Birds At High Rates:

Red imported fire ants may be killing as many as a fifth of baby song birds before they leave the nest, according to research recently completed at Texas A&M University.

Ecologist Finds Dire Devastation Of Snake Species Following Floods:

In science, it’s best to be good, but sometimes it’s better to be lucky.

Fossil Whale Puts Limit On Origin Of Oily, Buoyant Bones In Whales:

A fossilized whale skeleton excavated 20 years ago amid the stench and noise of a seabird and elephant seal rookery on California’s Año Nuevo Island turns out to be the youngest example on the Pacific coast of a fossil whale fall and the first in California, according to University of California, Berkeley, paleontologists.

Wild Male Chimpanzees Use Stolen Food To Win Over The Opposite Sex:

They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach and the same could be said for female chimpanzees. Researchers studying wild chimps in West Africa have discovered that males pinch desirable fruits from local farms and orchards as a means of attracting female mates.

Predation Linked To Evolution, Study Suggests:

The fossil record seems to indicate that the diversity of marine creatures increased and decreased over hundreds of millions of years in step with predator-prey encounters, Virginia Tech geoscientists report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Coral Reef Fish Harbor An Unexpectedly High Biodiversity Of Parasites:

IRD researchers showed that Epinephilus maculates, a fairly abundant species of grouper off New Caledonia, was parasitized by 12 species of microscopic monogenean worms. This diversity of parasites has just been confirmed also in the malabar grouper, Epinephilus malabaricus, another the coral reef species. If such a level of parasite diversity prevails in all coral-reef fish, tens of thousands of parasite species are in this ecosystem waiting to be discovered.

‘Killer Bees’ Now Established In New Orleans:

Africanized honeybees have been found in the New Orleans area since July of 2005, but the regularity and frequency of finding them there is new cause for concern.

Ancient Egyptians Mummified Their Cats With Utmost Care:

Examination of Egyptian mummies has shown that animals such as cats and crocodiles were given a far more careful and expensive trip to the afterlife than previously thought.

Extinction Crisis Escalates: Red List Shows Apes, Corals, Vultures, Dolphins All In Danger:

Life on Earth is disappearing fast and will continue to do so unless urgent action is taken, according to the 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Was Ability To Run Early Man’s Achilles Heel?:

The earliest humans almost certainly walked upright on two legs but may have struggled to run at even half the speed of modern man, new research suggests.

Tasmanian Tiger No Match For Dingo:

The wily dingo out-competed the much larger marsupial thylacine by being better built anatomically to resist the “mechanical stresses” associated with killing large prey, say Australian scientists.

A Dog In The Hand Scares Birds In The Bush:

New research showing that dog-walking in bushland significantly reduces bird diversity and abundance will lend support to bans against the practice in sensitive bushland and conservation areas.

Neuronal Conduction Of Excitation Without Action Potentials Based On Ceramide Production:

Researchers have succeeded in demonstrating that a neuronal network in mammals can work perfectly with a mode of conduction of excitation that is independent of action potentials. This new mechanism involves molecules known to play a role in numerous mechanisms of cell functioning, but not hitherto in conduction of excitation. To elucidate this mechanism, the teams have used a model of integrated physiology on an in vitro preparation in the mammal. This study has been performed using neuropharmacological and biochemical techniques.

Chocolate Is The Most Widely Craved Food, But Is It Really Addictive?:

Chocolate is the most widely and frequently craved food. People readily admit to being ‘addicted to chocolate’ or willingly label themselves as ‘chocoholics’. A popular explanation for this is that chocolate contains mood-enhancing (psychoactive) ingredients that give it special appeal.

How Vitamin C Stops Cancer:

Nearly 30 years after Nobel laureate Linus Pauling famously and controversially suggested that vitamin C supplements can prevent cancer, a team of Johns Hopkins scientists have shown that in mice at least, vitamin C – and potentially other antioxidants – can indeed inhibit the growth of some tumors ¯ just not in the manner suggested by years of investigation.

Molecular Probe ‘Paints’ Cancer Cells In Living Animals, Researchers Find:

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have developed a molecular probe that sets aglow tumor cells within living animals. Their goal is to use the probe to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other diseases.

Efforts To Save Greenback Cutthroat Trout Snagged: Wrong Fish Restocked For Decades:

A new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder indicates biologists trying to save Colorado’s native greenback cutthroat trout from extinction over the past several decades through hatchery propagation and restocking efforts have, in most cases, inadvertently restored the wrong fish.

Gray Whales A Fraction Of Historic Levels, Genetic Research Shows:

Gray whales in the Pacific Ocean, long thought to have fully recovered from whaling, were once three to five times as plentiful as they are now, according to a new article.

Why Genes Of One Parent Are Expressed Over Genes Of The Other: New Ideas In Genomic Imprinting:

How we come to express the genes of one parent over the other is now better understood through studying the platypus and marsupial wallaby — and it doesn’t seem to have originated in association with sex chromosomes.

Wild Male Chimpanzees Use Stolen Food To Win Over The Opposite Sex:

They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach and the same could be said for female chimpanzees. Researchers studying wild chimps in West Africa have discovered that males pinch desirable fruits from local farms and orchards as a means of attracting female mates.

Prehistoric Reptiles From Russia Possessed The First Modern Ears:

The discovery of the first anatomically modern ear in a group of 260 million-year-old fossil reptiles significantly pushes back the date of the origin of an advanced sense of hearing, and suggests the first known adaptations to living in the dark.

Biological Invasions Can Begin With Just One Insect:

A new study by York University biologists Amro Zayed and Laurence Packer has shown that a lone insect can initiate a biological invasion.

Student Proves Giant Whorled Sunflower’s Extreme Rarity:

For several months last spring, the Vanderbilt greenhouse held more individual plants of a rare species of native sunflower than are known to exist in the wild. This unusual bounty was the result of research being conducted by Jennifer Ellis, a doctoral student in the biological sciences department.

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Device To Predict Proper Light Exposure For Human Health:

Scientists have long known that the human body runs like clockwork, guided by a circadian system that responds to daily patterns of light and darkness. Now a team of researchers is developing a personal device to measure daily light intake and activity, which could allow them to predict optimal timing for light therapy to synchronize the circadian clock to the 24-hour solar day and relieve psychosocial stress.

Pivotal Hearing Structure Revealed:

Scientists have shed light on how our bodies convert vibrations entering the ear into electrical signals that can be interpreted by the brain. Exactly how the electrical signal is generated has been the subject of ongoing research interest. When a noise occurs, such as a car honking or a person laughing, sound vibrations entering the ear first bounce against the eardrum, causing it to vibrate. This, in turn, causes three bones in the middle ear to vibrate, amplifying the sound. Vibrations from the middle ear set fluid in the inner ear, or cochlea, into motion and a traveling wave to form along a membrane running down its length.

PCBs May Threaten Killer Whale Populations For 30-60 Years:

Orcas or killer whales may continue to suffer the effects of contamination with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) for the next 30 — 60 years, despite 1970s-era regulations that have reduced overall PCB concentrations in the environment, researchers in Canada report. The study calls for better standards to protect these rare marine mammals.

Marine Team Finds Surprising Evidence Supporting A Great Biblical Flood:

Did the great flood of Noah’s generation really occur thousands of years ago? Was the Roman city of Caesarea destroyed by an ancient tsunami? Will pollution levels in our deep seas remain forever a mystery? These are just a few of the questions that are being addressed by a new environmental marine research team from Tel Aviv University and the non-profit research and education organization, EcoOcean.

Dinosaur To Birds: Height Or Flight?:

Paleontologists have long theorized that miniaturization was one of the last stages in the long series of changes required in order for dinosaurs to make the evolutionary “leap” to take flight and so become what we call birds. New evidence from a tiny Mongolian dinosaur, however, may leave some current theories about the evolution of flight up in the air.

Primates Expect Others To Act Rationally:

When trying to understand someone’s intentions, non-human primates expect others to act rationally by performing the most appropriate action allowed by the environment, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard University. The work was led by Justin Wood, a graduate student in the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard, with David Glynn, a research assistant, and Marc Hauser, professor of psychology at Harvard, along with Brenda Phillips of Boston University.

Brain’s Timing Linked With Timescales Of The Natural Visual World:

Researchers have long attempted to unravel the cryptic code used by the neurons of the brain to represent our visual world. By studying the way the brain rapidly and precisely encodes natural visual events that occur on a slower timescale, a team of Harvard bioengineers and brain scientists from the State University of New York have moved one step closer towards solving this riddle.

Role Reversal: Humans Suck Life Out Of Leeches:

Global warming may be to blame for the gradual extinction of cold-loving species, and the European land leech in particular, according to Ulrich Kutschera and colleagues from the University of Kassel in Germany and the Karl-Franzens-University of Graz in Austria.

Cell Phones Should Be Kept Away From Hospital Beds, Dutch Experts Say:

Cell phones should come no closer than one meter to hospital beds and equipment, according Dutch research published in the online open access journal, Critical Care. Scientists demonstrated that incidents of electromagnetic interference (EMI) from second and third generation mobile phones occurred even at distance of three meters.

The Hygiene Hypothesis: Are Cleanlier Lifestyles Causing More Allergies For Kids?:

A little dirt never hurt. But in today’s super-clean world, vaccinations, anti-bacterial soaps, and airtight doors and windows are keeping dirt and disease-causing germs at bay. While staying germ-free can prevent the spread of disease and infections, leading a cleanlier lifestyle may be responsible for an increase in allergies among children.

Adult Brain Can Change, Study Confirms:

It is well established that a child’s brain has a remarkable capacity for change, but controversy continues about the extent to which such plasticity exists in the adult human primary sensory cortex. Now, neuroscientists from MIT and Johns Hopkins University have used converging evidence from brain imaging and behavioral studies to show that the adult visual cortex does indeed reorganize–and that the change affects visual perception.

Ecologists Get To The Bottom Of Why Bears Rub Trees:

Ecologists have at last got to the bottom of why bears rub trees – and it’s not because they have itchy backs. Speaking at the British Ecological Society’s Annual Meeting in Glasgow the week of September 10, Dr Owen Nevin of the University of Cumbria will reveal that adult male grizzly bears use so-called “rub trees” as a way to communicate with each other while looking for breeding females, and that this behaviour could help reduce battles between the bears.

Females Promiscuous For The Sake Of Their Grandchildren:

Female animals that mate with multiple partners may be doing so to ensure the optimum health of their grandchildren, according to researchers at the universities of Leeds and Exeter. Despite mating being a risky business for females – not least with the threat of injury, sexually transmitted diseases and vulnerability to predators – polyandry (females taking multiple mates) is widespread in the animal kingdom.

Force For Democracy — Or Information Chaos? Expert Forum Spotlights Blogging:

Controversial Internet entrepreneur turned cultural critic Andrew Keen, who says the revolution of interactivity and user-generated content on the internet is leading to ‘less culture, less reliable news and a chaos of useless information’ is one contributor certain to ignite debate at the two-day conference at the University of York. The conference is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through its e-Society programme.

Future Career Path Of Gifted Youth Can Be Predicted By Age 13 By SAT:

The future career path and creative direction of gifted youth can be predicted well by their performance on the SAT at age 13, a new study from Vanderbilt University finds. The study offers insights into how best to identify the nation’s most talented youth, which is a focus of the new $43 billion America Competes Act recently passed by Congress to enhance the United States’ ability to compete globally.

Polar Bear Population Predicted To Dwindle WIth Retreating Ice:

Future reduction of sea ice in the Arctic could result in a loss of 2/3 of the world’s polar bear population within 50 years according to a series of studies just released by the U.S. Geological Survey. Last December, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) was proposing to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. In January 2008, following a one-year review period, the Service is expected to make a recommendation to Secretary Kempthorne on whether or not to list the polar bear as threatened.