Amazon trees much older than assumed

Trees in the Amazon tropical forests are old. Really old, in fact, which comes as a surprise to a team of American and Brazilian researchers studying tree growth in the world’s largest tropical region. Using radiocarbon dating methods, the team, which includes UC Irvine’s Susan Trumbore, found that up to half of all trees greater than 10 centimeters in diameter are more than 300 years old. Some of the trees, Trumbore said, are as much as 750 to 1,000 years old. Study results appear in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Mental health of children most harmed before divorce

The most harm to a child’s mental health takes place in the years before parents split up, according to a University of Alberta study that suggests staying together for the sake of the kids is not always the right choice. “Perhaps we should pay more attention to what happens to kids in the period leading up to parental divorce rather than directing all our efforts to helping children after the event occurs,” said Dr. Lisa Strohschein, from the U of A’s Department of Sociology. “For example, levels of child antisocial behaviour actually drop following parental divorce for kids living in highly dysfunctional families.” Her work is published in the current edition of the Journal of Marriage and Family.

Tiny self-assembling cubes could carry medicine, cell therapy

Johns Hopkins researchers have devised a self-assembling cube-shaped perforated container, no larger than a dust speck, that could serve as a delivery system for medications and cell therapy. The relatively inexpensive microcontainers can be mass-produced through a process that mixes electronic chip-making techniques with basic chemistry. Because of their metallic nature, the cubic container’s location in the body could easily be tracked by magnetic resonance imaging.

Study pinpoints epicenters of Earth’s imminent extinctions

Safeguarding 595 sites around the world would help stave off an imminent global extinction crisis, according to new research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Conducted by scientists working with the 52 member organizations of the Alliance for Zero Extinction (www.zeroextinction.org), the study identifies 794 species threatened with imminent extinction, each of which is in need of urgent conservation action at a single remaining site on Earth.

S. African geraniums effective in treatment of adults with acute bronchitis

A recent clinical trial in Europe showed that a remedy made from the roots of Pelargonium sidoides — a species of geranium unique to South Africa, is an effective alternative treatment of acute bronchitis. Upper respiratory tract infections such as acute bronchitis are one of the most frequent infections encountered by primary care healthcare providers. In approximately 70% of cases, acute bronchitis, which is almost always caused by viruses, is treated with antibiotics.

Hundreds of auroras detected on Mars

Auroras similar to Earth’s Northern Lights appear to be common on Mars, according to physicists at the University of California, Berkeley, who have analyzed six years’ worth of data from the Mars Global Surveyor. The discovery of hundreds of auroras over the past six years comes as a surprise, since Mars does not have the global magnetic field that on Earth is the source of the aurora borealis and the antipodal aurora australis.

Function of ‘Unicorn’ Whale’s 8-foot Tooth Discovered

Researchers believe they have discovered why the narwhal, or “unicorn,” whale has an 8-foot-long tooth emerging from its head, and what its function is. The narwhal has a tooth, or tusk, which emerges from the left side of the upper jaw and is an evolutionary mystery that defies many of the known principles of mammalian teeth. The tooth’s unique spiral, the degree of its asymmetry to the left side, and its odd distribution among most males and some females are all unique expressions of teeth in mammals. The narwhal is usually 13 to 15 feet in length and weighs between 2,200 and 3,500 pounds.

Researchers confirm lead as cause of Beethoven’s illness

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have found massive amounts of lead in bone fragments belonging to 19th Century composer Ludwig von Beethoven, confirming the cause of his years of chronic debilitating illness. The bone fragments, confirmed by DNA testing to have come from Beethoven’s body, were scanned by X-rays from the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne, which provides the most brilliant X-rays in the Western Hemisphere. A control bone fragment sample from the same historic period was also examined. Both bone fragments were from the parietal section ( the top) of the skull.

Sunflower seeds, pistachios among top nuts for lowering cholesterol

Researchers have known for some time that nuts and seeds are rich sources of phytosterols, a class of plant chemicals that have been shown to reduce cholesterol levels and improve heart health. In what is believed to be the most comprehensive analysis to date of the phytosterol content of nuts and seeds, chemists analyzed some 27 nut and seed products and found that pistachios and sunflower kernels had the highest levels of phytosterols among the nuts and seeds that are most commonly consumed as snack foods in the United States.

Global warming could halt ocean circulation

Absent any climate policy, scientists have found a 70 percent chance of shutting down the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean over the next 200 years, with a 45 percent probability of this occurring in this century. The likelihood decreases with mitigation, but even the most rigorous immediate climate policy would still leave a 25 percent chance of a thermohaline collapse.

Chlamydia parasite lives off our fat

Invasive bacterial pathogens, the Chlamydiae know us very, very well. The Chlamydiae learned to parasitize eukaryotic cells half a billion years ago by reprogramming cellular functions from within. In humans today, chlamydial infections are responsible for a range of ailments from sexually transmitted infections to atypical pneumonias to chronic severe disorders such as pelvic inflammatory disease and atherosclerosis. The Centers for Disease Control says that Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common sexually-transmitted infection in the US, with three million new cases a year.