First 'mainly vegetarian' spider described

The 40,000 or so spiders that have been described are generally known as strict predators, trapping their prey in elaborate webs or hunting them down directly. But researchers have found one notable exception to this rule: The neotropical jumping spider...

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H1N1 critical illness can occur rapidly; predominantly affects young patients

Critical illness among Canadian patients with 2009 influenza A(H1N1) occurred rapidly after hospital admission, often in young adults, and was associated with severely low levels of oxygen in the blood,...

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Heart patients running the red light on traffic restrictions

Edmonton − More than half of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) don't get any counselling on their ability to drive after angioplasty – and this could be putting lives...

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Stanford scientists turn stem cells into precursors for sperm, eggs

Human embryonic stem cells derived from excess IVF embryos may help scientists unlock the mysteries of infertility for other couples struggling to conceive, according to new research from the Stanford...

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Blast from the past gives clues about early universe

Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope have gained tantalizing insights into the nature of the most distant object ever observed in the Universe --...

Science begins at the world's most powerful X-ray laser

Thirty-three LCLS undulator magnets create intense X-ray laser light from a pulse of electrons traveling 99.9999999 percent the speed of light.The first experiments are now underway using the world's most powerful X-ray laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source, located at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Illuminating...

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Earthquakes actually aftershocks of 19th century quakes

When small earthquakes shake the central U.S., citizens often fear the rumbles are signs a big earthquake is coming. Fortunately, new research instead shows that most of these earthquakes are...

Ion Tiger fuel cell unmanned air vehicle completes 23-hour flight

This photo shows the Ion Tiger in flight. The 550-watt fuel cell is show in the  
box in the lower left corner.The Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL's) Ion Tiger, a hydrogen-powered fuel cell unmanned air vehicle (UAV), has flown 23 hours and 17 minutes, setting an unofficial flight endurance record for a...

Scientists give flies false memories

By directly manipulating the activity of individual neurons, scientists have given flies memories of a bad experience they never really had, according to a report in the October 16th issue...

New analyses of dinosaur growth may wipe out one-third of species

Paleontologists from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Museum of the Rockies have wiped out two species of dome-headed dinosaur, one of them named three years ago – with...

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Mantis shrimps could show us the way to a better DVD

The remarkable eyes of a marine crustacean could inspire the next generation of DVD and CD players, according to a new study from the University of Bristol published today in...

Priscilla Frisch, Senior Scientist in Astronomy & Astrophysics, and member of the science team, Interstellar Boundary Explorer. Collaborating with former UChicago astronomer Thomas F. Adams, she made the first spectrum of interstellar hydrogen inside the heliosphere using data from the Copernicus satellite in 1975. Hydrogen and helium gas dominate interstellar space beyond the heliosphere. The spectrum showed that the hydrogen had the velocity expected of interstellar gas, proving its origin.
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Gamma-ray photon race ends in dead heat; Einstein wins this round

In this illustration, one photon (purple) carries a million times the energy of another (yellow). Some theorists predict travel delays for higher-energy photons, which interact more strongly with the proposed frothy nature of space-time. Yet Fermi data on two photons from a gamma-ray burst fail to show this effect, eliminating some approaches to a new theory of gravity.Racing across the universe for the last 7.3 billion years, two gamma-ray photons arrived at NASA's orbiting Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope within nine-tenths of a second of one another. The...

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Snows Of Kilimanjaro shrinking rapidly, and likely to be lost

Along with retreat of Kilimanjaro's glaciers at their margins, the surface of these massive ice fields have begun eroding as temperatures rise.The remaining ice fields atop famed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania could be gone within two decades and perhaps even sooner, based on the latest survey of the ice fields remaining...

Gene therapy technique slows brain disease

Progeny of HSCs that were engineered to carry the correct version of a gene (through the
integration of a lentiviral vector) distribute throughout the body. Cartier <i>et al</i>. show that
some cells replaced diseased microglia in the brain and relieved lipid storage in patients
suffering from ALD.A strategy that combines gene therapy with blood stem cell therapy may be a useful tool for treating a fatal brain disease, French researchers have found. These findings appear in...

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Help your kidneys: Pass on salt and diet soda

This is Julie Lin, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.S.N., from Brigham and Women's Hospital.Individuals who consume a diet high in sodium or artificially sweetened drinks are more likely to experience a decline in kidney function, according to two papers being presented at the...

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NASA's Fermi telescope detects gamma-ray from 'star factories' in other galaxies

M82, also known as the Cigar Galaxy, lies 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Fermi’s LAT and the ground-based VERITAS observatory have detected diffuse gamma rays from the galaxy’s core, which produces stars at a rate ten times faster than our entire galaxy.Nearby galaxies undergoing a furious pace of star formation also emit lots of gamma rays, say astronomers using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Two so-called "starburst" galaxies, plus a satellite...

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Opening up a colorful cosmic jewel box

The FORS1 instrument on the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at ESO's Paranal Observatory was used to take this exquisitely sharp close up view of the colorful Jewel Box cluster, NGC 4755. The telescope's huge mirror allowed very short exposure times: just 2.6 seconds through a blue filter (B), 1.3 seconds through a yellow/green filter (V) and 1.3 seconds through a red filter (R). The field of view spans about seven arcminutes.Star clusters are among the most visually alluring and astrophysically fascinating objects in the sky. One of the most spectacular nestles deep in the southern skies near the Southern Cross...

Shedding light on the cosmic skeleton

Astronomers have tracked down a gigantic, previously unknown assembly of galaxies located almost seven billion light-years away from us. The discovery, made possible by combining two of the most powerful ground-based telescopes in the world -- ESO's Very Large Telescope and NAOJ’s Subaru Telescope -- is the first observation of such a prominent galaxy structure in the distant Universe, providing further insight into the cosmic web and how it formed. 
This 3-D illustration shows the position of the galaxies and reveals the extent of this gigantic structure. The galaxies located in the newly discovered structure are shown in red. Galaxies that are either in front or behind the structure are shown in blue."Matter is not distributed uniformly in the Universe," says Masayuki Tanaka from ESO, who led the new study. "In our cosmic vicinity, stars form in galaxies and galaxies usually form...

The Milky Way's tiny but tough galactic neighbor

Astronomers obtained this portrait of Barnard's Galaxy using the Wide Field Imager attached to the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in northern Chile. Also known as NGC 6822, this dwarf irregular galaxy is one of the Milky Way’s galactic neighbors. The dwarf galaxy has no shortage of stellar splendor and pyrotechnics. Reddish nebulae in this image reveal regions of active star formation, wherein young, hot stars heat up nearby gas clouds. Also prominent in the upper left of this new image is a striking bubble-shaped nebula. At the nebula's center, a clutch of massive, scorching stars send waves of matter smashing into surrounding interstellar material, generating a glowing structure that appears ring-like from our perspective. Other similar ripples of heated matter thrown out by feisty young stars are dotted across Barnard’s Galaxy. 
The image was made from data obtained through four different filters (B, V, R, and H-alpha). The field of view is 35 x 34 arcmin. North is up, East to the left.In the new ESO image, Barnard's Galaxy glows beneath a sea of foreground stars in the direction of the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer). At the relatively close distance of...

Bad driving may have genetic basis, UCI study finds

Bad drivers may in part have their genes to blame, suggests a new study by UC Irvine neuroscientists.

Climate scientists uncover major accounting flaw in Kyoto Protocol and other climate legislation

This is Jerry Melillo, a senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory.An international team of top climate scientists has found a critical, but fixable, error in the accounting method used to measure compliance with carbon limits. The flaw, which centers...

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