New Hydrothermal Vents Discovered

A team of 27 U.S. marine scientists beginning an intensive program of exploration at the Lau Basin in the South Pacific has discovered a new cluster of hydrothermal vents along a volcanically active crack in the seafloor. About a mile and a half down, the basin could hold answers to questions about the origin of life on Earth, say the scientists, whose plans for their ”South Pacific Odyssey” include an unprecedented number of research expeditions to this geologically unique ”back-arc basin” during the next two years.

Coast-mapping satellites will follow the tides

Satellite image acquisitions will be synchronised with the tides as part of an ambitious new project to map coastlines from space. Formally beginning in September, the project aims to develop and qualify a specialised coastline information system that provides satellite-derived coastal data products suitable for operational use by hydrographic organisations. Accurate up-to-date marine charts are essential for safe shipping navigation. They also increasingly serve as management tools for coastal zones — areas that are economically and environmentally important as sites of harbours, fisheries, oil and gas fields, tourism sites, wildlife habitats and home to the majority of the human race.

Physiotherapy no better than advice for back pain

Routine physiotherapy for mild to moderate low back pain is no more effective than a single advice session with a physiotherapist, finds a new study. Physiotherapists in the British NHS treat around 1.3 million people for low back pain each year, but there is very little evidence for its effectiveness. International guidelines vary but generally recommend advice to remain active.

Dogs can ‘smell’ bladder cancer

Dogs can be trained to detect bladder cancer by ‘smelling’ urine, concludes new research published in this week’s British medical Journal. Tumours are thought to produce volatile organic compounds with distinctive odours. Even when present in minute quantities, it is possible that they are detectable by dogs, with their exceptional sense of smell. The study involved urine samples from 36 patients with bladder cancer and 108 control samples from diseased (non-cancerous) and healthy individuals; 63 of the samples were used exclusively in final testing of the dogs.

Researchers ID chlorophyll-regulating gene

Researchers have identified a critical gene for plants that start their lives as seeds buried in soil. They say the burial of seeds was an adaptation that likely helped plants spread from humid, wet climates to drier, hostile environments. In a new study, the researchers describe how a gene called phytochrome-interacting factor 1, or PIF1, affects the production of protochlorophyll, a precursor of the chlorophyll used by plants to convert the sun’s energy into food during photosynthesis.

At molecular scale, vibrational couplings define heat conduction

Too much heat can destroy a sturdy automobile engine or a miniature microchip. As scientists and engineers strive to make ever-smaller nanoscale devices, from molecular motors and switches to single-molecule transistors, the control of heat is becoming a burning issue. The shapes of molecules really matter, say scientists who timed the flow of vibrational heat energy through a water-surfactant-organic solvent system. The rate at which heat energy moves through a molecule depends specifically on the molecule’s structure, they found.

Atacama Rover Helps NASA Learn to Search for Life on Mars

A dedicated team of scientists is spending the next four weeks in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert. They are studying the scarce life that exists there and, in the process, helping NASA learn more about how primitive life forms could exist on Mars. The NASA funded researchers are studying the Atacama Desert, described as the most arid region on Earth, to understand the desert as a habitat that represents one of the limits of life on Earth. The project, part of NASA’s Astrobiology Science and Technology Program for Exploring Planets, involves technology experiments to test robotic capabilities for mobility, autonomy and science.

Brightly colored cups, plates encourage Alzheimer’s patients to eat

”Frame it with color” might soon become a mealtime dictum for those caring for individuals with severe Alzheimer’s disease. According to new visual perception research from a team at Boston University, the use of boldly colored tableware is a mealtime aid to those with severe AD, helping individuals overcome a diminished sensitivity to visual contrast, a condition often found among people with advanced AD. With bright ”frames” for the food and beverage in front of them, study participants were found to increase by 25 percent or more the amount they ate and drank.

Umbilical stem cells given intravenously reduce stroke damage

Stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood, then given intravenously along with a drug known to temporarily breach the brain’s protective barrier, can dramatically reduce stroke size and damage, Medical College of Georgia and University of South Florida researchers say. ”What we found was interesting, phenomenal really,” says Dr. Cesario V. Borlongan, neuroscientist and lead author of the study published in the October issue of the American Heart Association journal, Stroke.

New nanotubes change colors, form ‘nanocarpet,’ kill bacteria

Researchers have synthesized a simple molecule that not only produces perfectly uniform, self-assembled nanotubes but creates what they report as the first ”nanocarpet,” whereby these nanotubes organize themselves into an expanse of upright clusters that when magnified a million times resemble the fibers of a shag rug. Moreover, unlike other nanotube structures, these tubes display sensitivity to different agents by changing color and can be trained to kill bacteria, such as E. coli, with just a jab to its cell membrane.

Wealth does not create individual happiness, build a strong country

A study in the recent issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest addresses how economic status is no longer a sufficient gauge of a nation’s well-being. The authors argue that the psychological well-being of its citizens is the greatest measure of a nation– not the well-being of its economy. ”While wealth has trebled over the past 50 years?well-being has been flat, mental illness has increased at an even more rapid rate, and data, not just nostalgic reminiscences, indicate that the social fabric is more frayed than it was in leaner times,” the authors state. Prosperity is neither the answer nor the cause of satisfaction. The study calls for an ongoing systematic set of national indicators of well-being to report on a society and aid in its policy-making.

Fathers less likely to live with infants in poor health

A study of mainly unwed, U.S. urban parents finds that fathers of infants in poor health are less likely to be living with the child’s mother following the child’s first birthday than fathers of healthy children. The study also finds that having an infant in poor health decreases the chances a couple who had been living together (either married or cohabiting) at the time of the child’s birth still would be living together 12 to 18 months later. ”Within a very short period, having a child in poor health increased the likelihood the parents became less involved.”

Heart diseases and strokes are becoming more deadly, especially for poor

Heart diseases and strokes kill 17 million people every year – more than any other cause – and are increasingly likely to afflict people in poor countries, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said today as it published an atlas mapping the scale of the global epidemics. The Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke, released to coincide with World Heart Day this Sunday, shows that the two diseases are also becoming more deadly, with a projected combined death toll of 24 million by 2030.

Spun from bone

Bone and enamel start with the same calcium-phosphate crystal building material but end up quite different in structure and physical properties. The difference in bone and enamel microstructure is attributed to a key protein in enamel that molds crystals into strands thousands of times longer and much stronger than those in bone. The dimension of an enamel strand is 100,000 by 50 by 25 nanometers; bone is 35 by 25 by 4 nanometers. But how that protein achieves this feat of crystal-strand shape-shifting has remained elusive. Today, scientists have reported the first direct observation of how this protein, amelogenin, interacts with crystals like those in bone to form the hard, protective enamel of teeth.