A Blog Around The Clock

Rare Microorganism That Produces Hydrogen May Be Key To Tomorrow's Hydrogen Economy:

An ancient organism from the pit of a collapsed volcano may hold the key to tomorrow's hydrogen economy. Scientists from across the world have formed a team to unlock the process refined by a billions-year old archaea. The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute will expedite the research by sequencing the hydrogen-producing organism for comparative genomics.

Are Hands-free Cellphones Really Safer?:

Since April 1 when Nova Scotia outlawed the use of hand-held cellphones while driving, sales of hands-free devices have gone through the roof. It seems everyone's driving--even walking--with tiny electronic devices tucked into their ears.

Good Golf Players See The Hole As Larger Than Poor Players:

Golfers who play well are more likely to see the hole as larger than their poor-playing counterparts, according to a Purdue University researcher.

Baby's Smile Is A Natural High:

The baby's smile that gladdens a mother's heart also lights up the reward centers of her brain, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in a report that recently appeared in the journal Pediatrics.

Children Born From Frozen Embryos Weigh More And Do Better Than Those Born After Fresh Transfer:

Children born after a frozen, thawed embryo has been replaced in the womb have higher birth weight than those born where fresh embryos were used, Danish scientists reported to the 24th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology July 8th. The mothers had longer pregnancies, and the children did not show an increased risk of congenital malformations, said Dr. Anja Pinborg, from the Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Crawling The Internet To Track Infectious Disease Outbreaks:

Could Internet discussion forums, listservs, and online news outlets be an informative source of information on disease outbreaks? A team of researchers from Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School thinks so, and it has launched a real-time, automated data-gathering system called HealthMap to gather, organize and disseminate this online intelligence.

Early-life Nutrition May Be Associated With Adult Intellectual Functioning:

Adults who had improved nutrition in early childhood may score better on intellectual tests, regardless of the number of years they attended school, according to a new article.

Creating A New Approach To Archiving Human Genetic Information:

A genome sequence is a long sequence written in a four letter code--3 billion letters in the case of a human genome. But what is the meaning--how is the code deciphered? Traditionally this is left to professional annotators who use information from a number of sources (for instance, knowledge about similar genes in other organisms) to work out where a gene starts, stops, and what it does. Even the "gold standard" of professional annotation is an exceptionally slow process. However, new technology may provide a faster solution.

Why Mosquitoes Select Certain Outdoor Water Containers For Laying Eggs And Avoid Others:

North Carolina State University scientists have figured out one reason why pregnant yellow fever mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti), one of the most important disease transmitters worldwide, choose to lay their eggs in certain outdoor water containers while eschewing others. In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the NC State researchers show that certain chemicals emanating from bacteria in water containers stimulate the female mosquitoes to lay their eggs. The female mosquitoes sense these chemical cues and decide that the water container is a preferable environment for their larvae to develop.

Can You Hear Me Now? Primitive Single-Celled Microbe Expert In Cellular Communication Networks:

When it comes to cellular communication networks, a primitive single-celled microbe that answers to the name of Monosiga brevicollis has a leg up on animals composed of billions of cells. It commands a signaling network more elaborate and diverse than found in any multicellular organism higher up on the evolutionary tree, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have discovered.

Study Shows Rise In Cornwall's Dolphin, Whale, And Porpoise Deaths:

Four weeks since the shocking incident that led to the death of 26 dolphins near Falmouth, research sheds new light on the extent of the problems facing Cornwall's marine mammals.