Fwd: Science X Newsletter Friday, Sep 19

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From: Newsletter Phys.org <not-for-reply@physorg.com>
Date: Sat, Sep 20, 2014 at 2:33 AM
Subject: Science X Newsletter Friday, Sep 19
To: Pascal Alter <pascal.alter@gmail.com>

Dear Pascal Alter,

Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for September 19, 2014:

Spotlight Stories Headlines

- Particle detector finds hints of dark matter in space
- Fingertip sensor gives robot unprecedented dexterity
- Experiment with speeding ions verifies relativistic time dilation to new level of precision
- Quick-change materials break the silicon speed limit for computers
- Diminutive decoys: Membrane-cloaked nanoparticles disrupt antibody-mediated autoimmune diseases
- Ig Nobel winner: Using pork to stop nosebleeds
- How Paramecium protozoa claw their way to the top
- Study helps uncover mechanism behind solid-solid phase transitions
- Gene therapy in mice improves defects in neuromuscular junction reversing neuromuscular disease symptoms
- How the signal from light triggers biological action in bacteria
- Graphene sensor tracks down cancer biomarkers
- Elucidating extremophilic 'microbial dark matter'
- Researchers take a look at the competitor's brain, find possible switching mechanism
- Physical constant is constant even in strong gravitational fields
- Simple test can help detect Alzheimer's before dementia signs show

Astronomy & Space news

	Monster galaxies gain weight by eating smaller neighbors Massive galaxies in the Universe have stopped making their own stars and are instead snacking on nearby galaxies, according to research by Australian scientists.
	Halfway through Blue Dot mission Halfway through his six-month Blue Dot mission, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst is sharing the International Space Station with only two colleagues: Maxim Suraev and Reid Wiseman.
	Sandy ridges pose a mystery for future Martian beach vacations What are these thick dune-like features on Mars, and how were they formed? Scientists are still trying to puzzle out these ridges, which you can see above in a more tropical region of the Red Planet called Iapygia, which is south of Syrtis Major. The thick ridges were captured from orbit by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), and we've included some more intriguing pictures below the jump.
	Saturn-circling Cassini spacecraft plumbs Titan's seas next week Is the surf up yet on Titan? As the moon of Saturn moves towards northern summer, scientists are trying to spot signs of the winds picking up. This weekend, the Cassini spacecraft plans a look at the the largest body of liquid on Titan, Kraken Mare, to see if there are any waves on this huge hydrocarbon sea.
	The Great Cold Spot in the cosmic microwave background The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is the thermal afterglow of the primordial fireball we call the big bang. One of the striking features of the CMB is how remarkably uniform it is. Still, there are some small variations in temperature at various points in the sky. This is actually expected, and in fact the scale at which these fluctuations occur tells us a great deal about the structure of the universe. But there is also a fluctuation that isn't expected, and its cause is a bit of a mystery. It is known as the CMB cold spot, and there has been much speculation as to its cause.
	How baryon acoustic oscillation reveals the expansion of the universe Imagine a stadium filled with people. With everyone is in their seats, waiting for the game to begin, there is an undercurrent of noise. A few words between friends, the scuffle of shoes, the creak of a chair. All of these little sounds fill the stadium with a background of white noise.
Five facts about NASA's ISS-RapidScat NASA's ISS-RapidScat mission will observe ocean wind speed and direction over most of the globe, bringing a new eye on tropical storms, hurricanes and typhoons. Here are five fast facts about the mission.
	Winter in the southern uplands of Mars Over billions of years, the southern uplands of Mars have been pockmarked by numerous impact features, which are often so closely packed that they overlap. One such feature is Hooke crater, shown in this frost-tinged scene, imaged by ESA's Mars Express during winter in the southern hemisphere.
	Image: ESRO-4 readied for solar simulation testing The ESRO-4 satellite being prepared for solar simulation testing in Building 24 of the ESTEC technical centre in early 1972.
	Lockheed Martin successfully mates NOAA GOES-R satellite modules A team of technicians and engineers at Lockheed Martin has successfully mated together the large system and propulsion modules of the first GOES-R series weather satellite at the company's Space Systems facilities near Denver, Colorado. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R series (GOES-R) is NOAA's next-generation geostationary weather satellites.
	NRL, aerospace industry hosts 10th annual CanSat Student Challenge Created in 2004 by the American Astronautical Society (AAS) and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the Texas CanSat Competition is an undergraduate and graduate level design-build-launch event simulating the end-to-end life cycle of a complex engineering project.

Medicine & Health news

	Diminutive decoys: Membrane-cloaked nanoparticles disrupt antibody-mediated autoimmune diseases (Medical Xpress)—What do rheumatoid arthritis, type I diabetes, myasthenia gravis, multiple sclerosis, rheumatic heart disease, and narcolepsy have in common? All of these (and many other) apparently unrelated disorders are caused by autoimmunity, in which the immune system produces antibodies that attack normal, healthy cells and tissues. Currently considered incurable, these autoimmune diseases can be managed – albeit with varying efficacy and sometimes serious side effects – by immunosuppressive (reducing the activation or efficacy of the immune system), anti-inflammatory (steroids), or palliative (for example, insulin injections if type 1 diabetes) treatment. Moreover, autoimmune diseases include a wide range of dysfunctional immune responses known as type II, type III, and type IV immune hypersensitivity reactions.
	Scientists show rise and fall of brain volume (Medical Xpress)—We can witness our bodies mature, then gradually grow wrinkled and weaker with age, but it is only recently that scientists have been able to track a similar progression in the nerve bundles of our brains. That tissue increases in volume until around age 40, then slowly shrinks. By the end of our lives the tissue is about the volume of a 7-year-old.
	Researchers link gene to increased dendritic spines – a signpost of autism (Medical Xpress)—Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine have discovered that knocking out the gene NrCAM leads to an increase of dendritic spines on excitatory pyramidal cells in the brains of mammals. Other studies have confirmed that the overabundance of dendritic spines on this type of brain cell allows for too many synaptic connections to form between neurons – a phenomenon strongly linked to autism.
	New insights into eyewitness memory from groundbreaking replication initiative (Medical Xpress)—An innovative research replication initiative has generated results that have important implications for eyewitness memory. The project confirms earlier findings that asking witnesses to provide a verbal description of a suspect can impair their ability to select that suspect from a lineup—the so-called "verbal overshadowing" effect.
	Gene therapy in mice improves defects in neuromuscular junction reversing neuromuscular disease symptoms (Medical Xpress)—A team of researchers working in Japan has found that injecting a genetically engineered virus into the muscle of mice afflicted with two types of neuromuscular disease caused a reversal of symptoms. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes how they genetically modified a harmless virus to allow for carrying a corrected mouse gene into mouse muscle, causing the muscle to begin producing a missing protein, and reversing symptoms in the mice.
	Researchers take a look at the competitor's brain, find possible switching mechanism (Medical Xpress)—A small team of researchers at Yale University has found a possible logic switching mechanism in the brains of rhesus monkeys. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes how they attached brain monitoring devices to three rhesus monkeys and then set up an arrangement where the monkeys played a token-matching game with a computerized opponent—with a juice reward based payoff. Watching as different parts of the brain were activated during play revealed which parts of the brain were used for different game playing techniques.
	Simple test can help detect Alzheimer's before dementia signs show York University researchers say a simple test that combines thinking and movement can help to detect heightened risk for developing Alzheimer's disease in a person, even before there are any telltale behavioural signs of dementia.
The 'Angelina Effect' was not only immediate, but also long-lasting Referrals for genetic counselling and testing for breast cancer risk more than doubled across the UK after actress Angelina Jolie announced in May last year that she tested positive for a BRCA1 gene mutation and underwent a double mastectomy. The rise in referrals continued through to October long after the announcement was made. This is according to research published in the journal Breast Cancer Research.
Even without kids, couples eat frequent family meals Couples and other adult family members living without minors in the house are just as likely as adults living with young children or adolescents to eat family meals at home on most days of the week, new research suggests.
	How pneumonia bacteria can compromise heart health Bacterial pneumonia in adults carries an elevated risk for adverse cardiac events (such as heart failure, arrhythmias, and heart attacks) that contribute substantially to mortality—but how the heart is compromised has been unclear. A study published on September 18th in PLOS Pathogens now demonstrates that Streptococcus pneumoniae, the bacterium responsible for most cases of bacterial pneumonia, can invade the heart and cause the death of heart muscle cells.
Condoms 'too small' for Uganda men Ugandan MPs have been inundated with complaints that many condoms on sale in the east African nation are too small, warning the problem is a blow to the fight against AIDS.
Adding chemotherapy to radiation treatment not effective in treating vulvar cancer (Medical Xpress)—The addition of chemotherapy to post-surgical radiation treatment is not effective in treating vulvar cancer, according to Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC research presented this week in San Francisco at the 56th annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
Mother-daughter research team studies severe-weather phobia No one likes severe weather, but for some just the thought of a thunderstorm, tornado, hurricane or blizzard can severely affect their lives. When blood pressures spike, individuals obsessively monitor weather forecasts and they can't leave the house, the weather can go from simple concern to the level of phobia. A mother-daughter professor team has teamed up to write a journal article exploring the phenomena of severe-weather phobia.
Domestic violence likely more frequent for same-sex couples Domestic violence occurs at least as frequently, and likely even more so, between same-sex couples compared to opposite-sex couples, according to a review of literature by Northwestern Medicine scientists.
	The human race evolved to be fair for selfish reasons "Make sure you play fairly," often say parents to their kids. In fact, children do not need encouragement to be fair, it is a unique feature of human social life, which emerges in childhood. When given the opportunity to share sweets equally, young children tend to behave selfishly but, by about eight years of age, most prefer to distribute resources to avoid inequalities, at least among members of their own social group.
	Can you train your brain to crave healthy foods? The mere sight of a slice of gooey chocolate cake, a cheesy pizza, or a sizzling burger can drive us to eat these foods. In terms of evolution we show preference for high calorie foods as they are an important source of energy. We tend to crave these rich, tasty foods not only when we are hungry, but when we are emotional, bored, or stressed out.
	Seniors successfully withdraw from meds Elderly people have proved receptive to being de-prescribed medications, as part of a trial aimed at assessing the feasibility of withdrawal of medications among older people.
	New approach to arthritis treatment could avoid serious side-effects (Medical Xpress)—A new approach to arthritis treatment, which avoids unforeseen side-effects by delivering drugs exclusively to affected inflamed joints, has been developed by researchers at Queen Mary University of London.
Study shows inconsistent dosages of widely used eye disease drug Custom-made versions of a widely prescribed, low-cost drug used to prevent a leading cause of blindness in the elderly vary widely in their dosages, Weill Cornell Medical College scientists found in analyses of the eye injections. Investigators saw no evidence of impurities or contamination but found that many of the samples, which were prepared by pharmacists through a process called compounding, contained less medication than doses of the drug obtained directly from the manufacturer. The research, published today in JAMA Ophthalmology, is likely to increase scrutiny of compounding pharmacies, which tailor-mix drugs for individual patients, and to question whether eye-care specialists should continue to prescribe the cancer drug Avastin for age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Premature deaths could be reduced by 40 percent over next 20 years, according to the Lancet New research published today in The Lancet suggests that, with sustained international efforts, the number of premature deaths could be reduced by 40% over the next two decades (2010-2030), halving under–50 mortality and preventing a third of the deaths at ages 50–69 years.
Mouse model sheds light on role of mitochondria in neurodegenerative diseases A new study by researchers at the University of Utah School of Medicine sheds light on a longstanding question about the role of mitochondria in debilitating and fatal motor neuron diseases and resulted in a new mouse model to study such illnesses.
	Neurons express 'gloss' using three perceptual parameters Japanese researchers showed monkeys a number of images representing various glosses and then they measured the responses of 39 neurons by using microelectrodes. They found that a specific population of neurons changed the intensities of the responses linearly according to either the contrast-of-highlight, sharpness-of-highlight, or brightness of the object. This shows that these 3 perceptual parameters are used as parameters when the brain recognizes a variety of glosses. They also found that different parameters are represented by different populations of neurons. This was published in the Journal of Neuroscience (September 4, 2014 issue).
Researchers discover new gene responsible for traits involved in diabetes A collaborative research team led by Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) scientists has identified a new gene associated with fasting glucose and insulin levels in rats, mice and in humans. The findings are published in the September issue of Genetics.
	Strategies can help docs lower their tax burden (HealthDay)—Strategies are presented to help physicians lower their tax burden in an article published Sept. 2 in Medical Economics.
	CDC: Almost everyone needs a flu shot (HealthDay)—Less than half of all Americans got a flu shot last year, so U.S. health officials on Thursday urged that everyone 6 months and older get vaccinated for the coming flu season. "It's really unfortunate that half of Americans are not getting the protection from flu they could get," said Thomas Frieden, M.D., director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during a morning news conference.
A better way to track emerging cell therapies using MRIs Cellular therapeutics – using intact cells to treat and cure disease – is a hugely promising new approach in medicine but it is hindered by the inability of doctors and scientists to effectively track the movements, destination and persistence of these cells in patients without resorting to invasive procedures, like tissue sampling.
	Research predicts possible 6,800 new Ebola cases this month New research published today in the online journal PLoS Outbreaks predicts new Ebola cases could reach 6,800 in West Africa by the end of the month if new control measures are not enacted.
	Researchers reveal pathway that contributes to Alzheimer's disease Researchers at Jacksonville's campus of Mayo Clinic have discovered a defect in a key cell-signaling pathway they say contributes to both overproduction of toxic protein in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients as well as loss of communication between neurons—both significant contributors to this type of dementia.
	Adults over 45 not meeting US muscle strengthening guidelines, study says (HealthDay)—Although there is mounting evidence that muscle-strength training provides key health benefits, most middle-aged and older adults in the United States don't engage in this type of exercise, according to new research.
	Tight blood sugar control doesn't prevent strokes in diabetics (HealthDay)—A six-year study of people with type 2 diabetes found that intensively lowering blood pressure had a long-lasting effect in preventing heart attacks, strokes and deaths. But intensive blood sugar control didn't produce those benefits, the researchers found.
	Study explores docs' roles in end-of-life hospitalizations (HealthDay)—Family physicians have several distinct roles in preventing and guiding hospitalization at the end of life, according to a study published in the September/October issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.
	Electronic health records tied to shorter time in ER (HealthDay)—Length of emergency room stay for trauma patients is shorter with the use of electronic health records, according to a study published in the September issue of the Journal of Emergency Nursing.
	Vitamin K antagonist plus clopidogrel feasible for PCI (HealthDay)—Vitamin K antagonists (VKA) combined with clopidogrel may be a better alternative to triple anticoagulant therapy in patients on long-term VKA undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and stenting, according to a review published in the Sept. 23 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
	Presence of peers ups health workers' hand hygiene (HealthDay)—The presence of other health care workers improves hand hygiene adherence, according to a study published in the October issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
Experts issue plea for better research and education for advanced breast cancer Breast cancer experts around the world have issued a plea to researchers, academics, drug companies, funders and advocates to carry out high quality research and clinical trials for advanced breast cancer, a disease which is almost always fatal and for which there are many unanswered questions.
France oks 'experimental treatments' on Ebola-hit nurse France's health minister on Friday authorised "experimental treatments" for a French nurse who has contracted Ebola and is now being treated in a Paris hospital.
World Bank chief says Ebola took the world by surprise The devastating Ebola outbreak caught the world off guard, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said Friday as he questioned the international community's readiness to respond to other pandemics.
Sierra Leone launches controversial Ebola shutdown Sierra Leone on Friday launched a controversial three-day shutdown to contain the deadly spread of the Ebola virus, as the UN Security Council declared the deadly outbreak a threat to world peace.
Sierra Leone streets deserted as shutdown begins Sierra Leone's normally chaotic capital resembled a ghost town on Friday as residents were confined to their homes for the start of a three-day lockdown aimed at halting the deadly Ebola epidemic.
What doctors say to LGBT teens matters When doctors speak to teens about sex and LGBT issues, only about 3 percent of them are doing so in a way that encourages LGBT teens to discuss their sexuality, and Purdue University researchers say other doctors can learn from these conversations.
	New biomedical implants accelerate bone healing A major success in developing new biomedical implants with the ability to accelerate bone healing has been reported by a group of scientists from the Department of Restorative Dentistry, University of Malaya. This stems from a project partly funded by HIR and also involves Mr. Alireza Yaghoubi, HIR Young Scientist.
New study compares two continuous glucose monitoring sensors for effectiveness and patient satisfaction Simultaneous use of two popular continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) sensors revealed clear differences in their accuracy and in patient-rated treatment experiences, including ease of use, feelings of safety, and willingness to use the system in daily life. Results of a clinical trial comparing the Dexcom G4 and Enlite sensors are published in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics (DTT).
	A mycotoxin present in many types of food deteriorates neuroregeneration The research, carried out in the Faculty of Health Sciences of CEU Cardenal Herrera University, in cooperation with the University of Valencia, was published in the Journal of Applied Toxicology. This is one of the first articles worldwide to research the effect of Ochratoxin A on the subventricular zone of the brain, which in the adult mammalian brain is where neurogenesis primarily occurs.
FDA tweaks food safety rules due next year The government is rewriting sweeping new food safety rules after farmers complained that they could hurt business.
Patients with advanced, incurable cancer denied palliative care Many patients with advanced, incurable cancer do not receive any palliative care, reveals new research to be presented later this month at the ESMO 2014 Congress in Madrid, Spain, 26-30 September. The findings are astonishing as they come at the same time as 15 new oncology centres in Europe, Canada, South America and Africa are being awarded the prestigious title of 'ESMO Designated Centre of Integrated Oncology and Palliative Care.'
Germany, France plan air lifts to help fight Ebola Germany and France will send military transport planes to West Africa to help efforts to contain the Ebola epidemic, Chancellor Angela Merkel and military officials said on Friday.

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