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Most popular science news & articles of the past 7 days

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.

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...

Does green tea prevent cancer? Evidence continues to brew, but questions remain

Vassiliki Papadimitrakopoulo, M.D. is the professor of medicine in the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.Although scientists are reluctant to officially endorse green tea as a cancer prevention method, evidence continues to grow about its protective effects, including results of a new study published in...

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'Genome 10K' proposal aims to sequence 10,000 vertebrates

An international group of scientists is proposing to generate whole genome sequences for 10,000 vertebrate species using technology so new it hasn't yet been invented. But the scientists say new...

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Dartmouth professor finds that iconic Oswald photo was not faked

Dartmouth Computer Scientist Hany Farid has new evidence regarding a photograph of accused John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Farid, a pioneer in the field of digital forensics, digitally...

Oral contraceptives may benefit women with asthma

New research shows that during natural menstrual cycles, women with asthma who were not taking oral contraceptives (OC) had lower exhaled nitric oxide levels (eNO), a marker of airway inflammation...

SMOS satellite successfully launched

A rocket carrying the European Space Agency's (ESA) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite (2 November) blasted off successfully today at 02:50 Central European Time from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in...

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Airborne nitrogen shifts aquatic nutrient limitation in pristine lakes

Scientist Laura Steger (University of Colorado) is sampling Sandvotni Lake in southwestern Norway. This lake receives elevated inputs of atmospheric N deposition due to transport of polluted air masses from northern Europe.The impact of airborne nitrogen released from the burning of fossil fuels and wide-spread use of fertilizers in agriculture is much greater that previously recognized and even extends to remote...

Researchers unlock the 'sound of learning' by linking sensory and motor systems

This is a participant in the study using a speech learning robotic device.Learning to talk also changes the way speech sounds are heard, according to a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by scientists at Haskins Laboratories,...

Follow Rosetta's final Earth boost

ESA Rosetta Flight Control Team in action during the encounter with asteroid Steins in 2008.ESA's comet chaser Rosetta will swing by Earth for the last time on 13 November to pick up energy and begin the final leg of its 10-year journey to comet...

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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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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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...

Postmenopausal women with higher testosterone levels

Postmenopausal women who have higher testosterone levels may be at greater risk of heart disease, insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome compared to women with lower testosterone levels, according to...

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Poorly cleaned public cruise ship restrooms may predict norovirus outbreaks

A team of researchers from Boston University School (BUSM), Carney Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance and Tufts University School of Medicine, have found that widespread poor compliance with regular cleaning of...

Time between treatment and PSA recurrence predicts death from prostate cancer

Men whose prostate specific antigen (PSA) rise within 18 months of radiotherapy are more likely to develop spread and die of their disease, according to an international study led by...

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African desert rift confirmed as new ocean in the making

In 2005, a gigantic, 35-mile-long rift broke open the desert ground in Ethiopia. At the time, some geologists believed the rift was the beginning of a new ocean as two...

First use of antibody and stem cell transplantation to successfully treat advanced leukemia

For the first time, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have reported the use of a radiolabeled antibody to deliver targeted doses of radiation, followed by a stem cell...

Acetaminophen may be linked to asthma in children and adults

New research shows that the widely used pain reliever acetaminophen may be associated with an increased risk of asthma and wheezing in both children and adults exposed to the drug....

Study links folic acid supplements to asthma

A University of Adelaide study may have shed light on the rise in childhood asthma in developed countries like Australia in recent decades.

Religion and medicine: Sometimes a healing prescription

Do pediatric oncologists feel that religion is a bridge or a barrier to their work? Or do they feel it can be either, depending on whether their patients are recovering...

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