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• Researchers edit plant DNA using mechanism evolved in bacteria
• How 'perfect' materials begin to fail
• Minding the gap: City bats won't fly through bright spaces
• Critically endangered species should be left to breed in the wild
• Women's contribution to healthcare constitutes nearly 5% of global GDP, but nearly half is unpaid and unrecognized
• Applying research agendas to sport fishing
• Moderate exercise helps prevent gestational diabetes, reduce weight gain during pregnancy
• Black women often cope with infertility alone
• Research offers a new approach to improving HIV vaccines
• Programming DNA to reverse antibiotic resistance in bacteria
• Immune system marker for therapy-resistant prostate cancer
• Historian discusses the threat birds posed to the power grid in 1920s California
• New tropical tree species await discovery
• Internet privacy manifesto calls for more consumer power
• Tuning friction to the point where it disappears may boost development of nanomachines
• Evidence against a global warming hiatus?
• Warmer, lower-oxygen oceans will shift marine habitats
• Planarian regeneration model discovered by artificial intelligence
• Delay of gratification linked to how brain structures are connected
• Eating less during late night hours may stave off some effects of sleep deprivation
• Why are 95% of people who live to 110 women? You're as old as your stem cells
• Clues to Earth's ancient core
• DNA breakage underlies both learning, age-related damage
• How dividing cells end up the same size
• Extra DNA creates cucumber with all female flowers
• Female mice are able to smell male pheromones only when ready to mate
• New species of horned dinosaur with 'bizarre' features revealed
• Global marine data to become unified, accessible
• World's first digitally-encoded synthetic polymers
• Do cheaters have an evolutionary advantage?
• Protein maintains double duty as key cog in body clock and metabolic control
• Your viral infection history in a single drop of blood
• Bee warned: Study finds pesticides threaten native pollinators
• Study maps types of physical activity associated with better sleep
• Withholding angiotensin receptor blockers after surgery increases risk of postoperative death
• Recovering predators create new wildlife management challenges
• Cancer screening increase may reflect Affordable Care Act provision
• Why some threatened corals swap 'algae' partners
• Household items, toys key to infant motor skill development, research finds
• How salmonella synchronizes its invasion plan
• Largest turtle breeding colony in the Atlantic discovered
• Feeding caterpillars make leaves shine
• Australian fossil forces rethink on our ancestors' emergence onto land
• Research points to effective methods of freezing avian red blood cells
• Air pollution below EPA standards linked with higher death rates
• Researcher finds rare Vietnamese rabbit
• Exiled stars explode far from home
• Low-cost weight loss program has long-term results, study shows
• Thirty years of AIDS data highlight survival gains, room for improvement
• Seven new miniaturized frog species found in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest
• Ancient El Niños triggered Baja bunny booms
• Developing delirium in ICU linked to fatal outcomes
• New tool brings standards to epigenetic studies
• New study calls for radical shake-up of the Early Years curriculum to help boost achievements of summer born children
• Interruption of Gulf Stream may lead to large cooling in Europe
• Re-use of paper sludge via pyrolysis
• DNA that only females have
• Simulation helps to prepare for the consequences of natural disasters
• 'Vampire' plants can have positive impact up the food chain
• Is dietary supplementation appropriate for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Researchers edit plant DNA using mechanism evolved in bacteria Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:35 PM PDT Researchers have used a gene editing tool known as CRISPR/Cas to modify the genome of a tree species for the first time. Their research opens the door to more rapid and reliable gene editing of plants. By mutating specific genes in Populus -- a genus of deciduous trees that includes poplar, aspen and cottonwood -- the researchers reduced the concentrations of two naturally occurring plant polymers.

How 'perfect' materials begin to fail Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:35 PM PDT Until recently, making a defect-free material was impossible. Now that nanotechnological advances have made such materials a reality, however, researchers have shown how these defects first form on the road to failure.

Minding the gap: City bats won't fly through bright spaces Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:35 PM PDT Researchers have discovered that bats living in a city are less likely to move from tree to tree in brightly lit areas. The bats studied in this experiment emerge in the evening from their roosts, often within residential housing areas, to feed on small insects in gardens, streams and other green spaces. To reach these feeding areas they often "commute" along lines of trees, which are thought to provide protection from predators and high winds.

Critically endangered species should be left to breed in the wild Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:34 PM PDT Some near-extinct species should be encouraged to breed in the wild rather than in captivity, according to new research. The study looks at the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps).

Women's contribution to healthcare constitutes nearly 5% of global GDP, but nearly half is unpaid and unrecognized Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:34 PM PDT A major new Commission on women and health has found that women are contributing around $3 trillion to global health care, but nearly half of this (2.35% of global GDP) is unpaid and unrecognized.

Applying research agendas to sport fishing Posted: 04 Jun 2015 02:21 PM PDT As one of the most highly prized game fish in the upper Midwest, muskellunge (also known as muskies) and northern pike help support a $20 billion sport fishing industry. Facing declines in natural reproduction, a team of scientists has developed a list of research and management needs to help keep the fish -- and the industry -- thriving.

Moderate exercise helps prevent gestational diabetes, reduce weight gain during pregnancy Posted: 04 Jun 2015 01:26 PM PDT Women who exercise during pregnancy are less likely to have gestational diabetes, and the exercise also helps to reduce maternal weight gain, finds a study. Gestational diabetes is one of the most frequent complications of pregnancy. It is associated with an increased risk of serious disorders such as pre-eclampsia, hypertension, preterm birth, and with induced or caesarean birth.

Black women often cope with infertility alone Posted: 04 Jun 2015 01:26 PM PDT African-American women are equally, if not more, likely to experience infertility than their white counterparts, but they often cope with this traumatic issue in silence and isolation, according to a new study.

Research offers a new approach to improving HIV vaccines Posted: 04 Jun 2015 01:26 PM PDT Researchers have identified a molecule that recognizes HIV and initiates an immune response. The findings could help improve the efficacy of HIV vaccines to prevent infection, they say.

Programming DNA to reverse antibiotic resistance in bacteria Posted: 04 Jun 2015 01:26 PM PDT New research introduces a promising new tool to combat the rapid, extensive spread of antibiotic resistance around the world. It nukes antibiotic resistance in selected bacteria, and renders other bacteria more sensitive to antibiotics. The research, if ultimately applied to pathogens on hospital surfaces or medical personnel's hands, could turn the tide on untreatable, often lethal bacterial infections.

Immune system marker for therapy-resistant prostate cancer Posted: 04 Jun 2015 01:26 PM PDT A research team shows how signaling by an immune system component called interleukin-6 (IL-6) appears to play an important role in driving aggressive, therapy-resistant prostate cancer.

Historian discusses the threat birds posed to the power grid in 1920s California Posted: 04 Jun 2015 01:26 PM PDT In 1913 in Southern California, two 241-mile-long electric lines began carrying power from hydroelectric dams in the Sierra Nevada to customers in Los Angeles--a massive feat of infrastructure. In 1923, power company Southern California Edison upgraded the line to carry 220,000 volts, among the highest voltage lines in the world at the time. Now a new paper examines a threat to that power grid: voluminous streams of bird excrement.

New tropical tree species await discovery Posted: 04 Jun 2015 01:26 PM PDT Scientists have raised the estimated number of tropical tree species to at least 40,000 to 53,000. Many tropical tree species risk extinction because of their rarity and restriction to small geographic areas, reaffirming the need for comprehensive, pan-tropical conservation efforts.

Internet privacy manifesto calls for more consumer power Posted: 04 Jun 2015 01:25 PM PDT A revolutionary power shift from internet giants such as Google to ordinary consumers is critically overdue, according to new research from an online privacy expert. In a manifesto that ranges from "the right to be treated fairly on the internet" to finding a better, more nuanced approach to using the internet as an archive, the author delves deeper into his research on the so-called 'right to be forgotten.'

Tuning friction to the point where it disappears may boost development of nanomachines Posted: 04 Jun 2015 01:25 PM PDT Physicists have developed an experimental technique to simulate friction at the nanoscale. Using their technique, the researchers are able to directly observe individual atoms at the interface of two surfaces and manipulate their arrangement, tuning the amount of friction between the surfaces. By changing the spacing of atoms on one surface, they observed a point at which friction disappears.

Evidence against a global warming hiatus? Posted: 04 Jun 2015 01:25 PM PDT An analysis using updated global surface temperature data disputes the existence of a 21st century global warming slowdown described in studies including the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment.

Warmer, lower-oxygen oceans will shift marine habitats Posted: 04 Jun 2015 01:24 PM PDT Warming temperatures and decreasing levels of dissolved oxygen will act together to create metabolic stress for marine animals. Habitats will shift to places in the ocean where the oxygen supply can meet the animals' increasing future needs.

Planarian regeneration model discovered by artificial intelligence Posted: 04 Jun 2015 01:24 PM PDT An artificial intelligence system has for the first time reverse-engineered the regeneration mechanism of planaria -- the small worms whose power to regrow body parts makes them a research model in human regenerative medicine. The discovery presents the first model of regeneration discovered by a non-human intelligence and the first comprehensive model of planarian regeneration, which has eluded human scientists for a century.

Delay of gratification linked to how brain structures are connected Posted: 04 Jun 2015 01:22 PM PDT The ability to delay gratification in chimpanzees is linked to how specific structures of the brain are connected and communicate with each other, according to new research.

Eating less during late night hours may stave off some effects of sleep deprivation Posted: 04 Jun 2015 11:19 AM PDT Eating less late at night may help curb the concentration and alertness deficits that accompany sleep deprivation, according to results of a new study.

Why are 95% of people who live to 110 women? You're as old as your stem cells Posted: 04 Jun 2015 11:19 AM PDT Human supercentenarians share at least one thing in common--over 95 percent are women. Scientists have long observed differences between the sexes when it comes to aging, but there is no clear explanation for why females live longer. In a discussion of what we know about stem cell behavior and sex, researchers argue that it's time to look at differences in regenerative decline between men and women. This line of research could open up new explanations for how the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone, or other factors, modify lifespan.

Clues to Earth's ancient core Posted: 04 Jun 2015 11:19 AM PDT Old rocks hold on to their secrets. Now, a geophysicist has unlocked clues trapped in the magnetic signatures of mineral grains in those rocks. These clues will help clear up the murky history of the Earth's early core.

DNA breakage underlies both learning, age-related damage Posted: 04 Jun 2015 11:18 AM PDT The process that allows brains to learn also leads to degeneration with age, researchers have discovered. The finding could ultimately help researchers develop new approaches to preventing cognitive decline in disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.

How dividing cells end up the same size Posted: 04 Jun 2015 11:18 AM PDT A new study shows that how much a cell grows before it splits into two depends on its initial size. The finding goes against recent publications suggesting cells always add the same amount of mass, with some random fluctuations, before beginning division.

Extra DNA creates cucumber with all female flowers Posted: 04 Jun 2015 11:18 AM PDT A new study identifies the gene duplication that causes cucumber varieties produce only female flowers -- a high-yeild variety. The researchers discovered the extra DNA by screening genome sequences from a core collection of 115 different cucumber lines.

Female mice are able to smell male pheromones only when ready to mate Posted: 04 Jun 2015 11:17 AM PDT An American study in mice reveals that hormones that dictate a female's attraction towards males do so in part by controlling her sense of smell. The findings provide an example of how hormones may use the nose to circumvent the brain and influence behavior.

New species of horned dinosaur with 'bizarre' features revealed Posted: 04 Jun 2015 11:17 AM PDT About 10 years ago, someone stumbled across some bones sticking out of a cliff along the Oldman River in southeastern Alberta, Canada. Now, scientists describe that those bones belonged to a nearly intact skull of a very unusual horned dinosaur -- a close relative of the familiar Triceratops that had been unknown to science until now.

Global marine data to become unified, accessible Posted: 04 Jun 2015 11:16 AM PDT An international project aims to enable the next great scientific advances in global marine research by making marine data sets more easily accessible to researchers worldwide.

World's first digitally-encoded synthetic polymers Posted: 04 Jun 2015 11:16 AM PDT Researchers have for the first time succeeded in recording a binary code on a synthetic polymer. Inspired by the capacity of DNA to retain an enormous amount of genetic information, the team synthesized and read a multi-bit message on an artificial polymer.

Do cheaters have an evolutionary advantage? Posted: 04 Jun 2015 11:15 AM PDT What is it with cheating? Cheaters seem to have an immediate advantage over cooperators, but do they have an evolutionary advantage? A new study suggests the benefits of cheating change with its prevalence,in a population. Cheaters may succeed, for example, only when they are rare, and fail when they become so numerous they push out cooperators.

Protein maintains double duty as key cog in body clock and metabolic control Posted: 04 Jun 2015 11:14 AM PDT Rev-erb? is a transcription factor that regulates a cell's internal clock and a new study describes how it regulates the clock in most cells in the body and metabolic genes in the liver in distinct ways.

Your viral infection history in a single drop of blood Posted: 04 Jun 2015 11:14 AM PDT New technology makes it possible to test for current and past infections with any known human virus by analyzing a single drop of a person's blood. The method, called VirScan, is an efficient alternative to existing diagnostics that test for specific viruses one at a time.

Bee warned: Study finds pesticides threaten native pollinators Posted: 04 Jun 2015 07:41 AM PDT A new study of New York state apple orchards finds that pesticides harm wild bees, and fungicides labeled 'safe for bees' also indirectly may threaten native pollinators.

Study maps types of physical activity associated with better sleep Posted: 04 Jun 2015 07:41 AM PDT Physical activities, such as walking, as well as aerobics/calisthenics, running, weight-lifting, and yoga/Pilates are associated with better sleep habits, compared to no activity, according to a new study. In contrast, the study shows that other types of physical activity -- such as household and childcare -- work are associated with increased cases of poor sleep habits.

Withholding angiotensin receptor blockers after surgery increases risk of postoperative death Posted: 04 Jun 2015 07:41 AM PDT Withholding angiotensin receptor blockers for longer than two days after surgery is associated with a significantly increased risk of postoperative death, according to a study of more than 30,000 patients.

Recovering predators create new wildlife management challenges Posted: 04 Jun 2015 07:41 AM PDT A new study examines recovering predator populations along the West Coast of the United States and in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, and the conflicts surrounding them.

Cancer screening increase may reflect Affordable Care Act provision Posted: 04 Jun 2015 07:41 AM PDT Screening for colorectal cancer increased in lower socioeconomic status individuals after 2008, perhaps reflecting the Affordable Care Act's removal of financial barriers to screening, according to a new analysis.

Why some threatened corals swap 'algae' partners Posted: 04 Jun 2015 07:09 AM PDT A new research study showed why threatened Caribbean star corals sometimes swap partners to help them recover from bleaching events. The findings are important to understand the fate of coral reefs as ocean waters warm due to climate change.

Household items, toys key to infant motor skill development, research finds Posted: 04 Jun 2015 07:09 AM PDT New research is helping parents and pediatricians better predict what household items and toys will help infants develop their motor skills.

How salmonella synchronizes its invasion plan Posted: 04 Jun 2015 07:08 AM PDT A new study has uncovered a mechanism by which Salmonella bacteria organize the expression of genes required for infection. Salmonella bacteria are one of the leading causes of food borne illness. Part of what makes them so successful is their ability to invade our bodies, overcoming our natural defenses. Understanding how they do this could lead to new ways of preventing their invasion, researchers say.

Largest turtle breeding colony in the Atlantic discovered Posted: 04 Jun 2015 07:08 AM PDT A new study has revealed that the Central African country of Gabon is providing an invaluable nesting ground for a vulnerable species of sea turtle considered a regional conservation priority.

Feeding caterpillars make leaves shine Posted: 04 Jun 2015 07:08 AM PDT Scientists have succeeded in visualizing the immediate wound or herbivory responses in plants. They used Arabidopsis thaliana plants that produce a special protein which breaks down after the binding of calcium ions and emits free energy in the form of light. Visualization revealed that calcium signals occur systemically and wander from attacked to neighboring leaves.

Australian fossil forces rethink on our ancestors' emergence onto land Posted: 04 Jun 2015 07:08 AM PDT A fossil's age raises the possibility that the first animals to emerge from the water to live on land were large tetrapods in Gondwana in the southern hemisphere, rather than smaller species in Europe.

Research points to effective methods of freezing avian red blood cells Posted: 04 Jun 2015 07:08 AM PDT Birds, like people, can suffer from conditions where a blood transfusion is a necessary life-saving measure. But in many instances, unless an avian donor is readily available, accessing blood is impossible because of the challenges associated with storing the species' red blood cells. A substance called dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) shows promise as a potential cryopreservant for freezing avian blood, research shows.

Air pollution below EPA standards linked with higher death rates Posted: 04 Jun 2015 07:08 AM PDT Death rates among people over 65 are higher in zip codes with more fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) than in those with lower levels of PM2.5, researchers have found. The harmful effects from the particles were observed even in areas where concentrations were less than a third of the current standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Researcher finds rare Vietnamese rabbit Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:47 AM PDT A rare and elusive rabbit has been found, held and photographed by a researcher. The Annamite striped rabbit, found in the forests of Laos and Vietnam, was first documented by rabbit expert Dr Diana Bell in 1999. It has rarely been seen since. A British researcher set out on a three-month expedition to track the recently discovered rabbit and study its habitat.

Exiled stars explode far from home Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:47 AM PDT Astronomers usually discover supernovae within large galaxies, where a star explodes perhaps once a century. Now a team of astronomers has used the sharp imaging capability of the Hubble Space Telescope to confirm that three exploding stars found in the empty regions between galaxies in a cluster were in fact lonely supernovae unattached to any galaxy at all. They were probably ripped from their host galaxies eons ago and exploded far from home.

Low-cost weight loss program has long-term results, study shows Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:47 AM PDT Clinically significant weight loss is defined as losing 5 percent or more of one's body weight, because weight-related medical conditions, such as diabetes, can improve with that level of weight loss. As America's obesity epidemic continues to grow, a new study shows that a low-cost, non-profit weight loss program offers the kind of long-term results that often elude dieters.

Thirty years of AIDS data highlight survival gains, room for improvement Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:47 AM PDT Although treatment advances have dramatically reduced deaths from opportunistic infections related to AIDS, a new study drawing on 30 years of data from more than 20,000 patients in San Francisco suggests there is still ample room to improve. About a third -- 35 percent -- of AIDS patients diagnosed with their first opportunistic infection from 1997 to 2012 in that city died within five years, according to the study.

Seven new miniaturized frog species found in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:47 AM PDT Following nearly five years of exploration in mountainous areas of the southern Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, a team of researchers has uncovered seven new species of a highly miniaturized, brightly colored frog genus known as Brachycephalus. Each species is remarkably endemic, being restricted to cloud forests in one or a few adjacent mountaintops, thus making them highly vulnerable to extinction, particularly due to shifts in the distribution of cloud forest due to climate change.

Ancient El Niños triggered Baja bunny booms Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:46 AM PDT At times during the past 10,000 years, cottontails and hares reproduced like rabbits and their numbers surged when the El Niño weather pattern drenched the Pacific Coast with rain, according to an analysis of 3,463 bunny bones.

Developing delirium in ICU linked to fatal outcomes Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:46 AM PDT About one-third of patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) will develop delirium, a condition that lengthens hospital stays and substantially increases one's risk of dying in the hospital, according to a new study.

New tool brings standards to epigenetic studies Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:46 AM PDT A new technique has been developed that calibrates a commonly-used tool in epigenetic experiments with an internal standard - dramatically improving accuracy and the development of therapeutics against diseases linked to epigenetic changes.

New study calls for radical shake-up of the Early Years curriculum to help boost achievements of summer born children Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:45 AM PDT A new study has suggested that summer born children struggle at school entry because of unrealistic education targets and a curriculum that is out of step with their developmental levels.

Interruption of Gulf Stream may lead to large cooling in Europe Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:45 AM PDT A new record of past climate change shows that a warm climate in northern Europe can be hit by a sudden cooling associated with an interruption of the North Atlantic Ocean circulation and the Gulf Stream. This study investigates the development of northern European climate about 120 thousand years ago.

Re-use of paper sludge via pyrolysis Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:45 AM PDT Scientists are helping the paper industry to convert paper sludge - the largest waste stream from paper factories - into bio-oils and raw materials suitable for re-use. They aim to build a self-regulating, mobile pilot plant for the pyrolysis of paper sludge.

DNA that only females have Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:45 AM PDT In many animal species, the chromosomes differ between the sexes. The male has a Y chromosome. In some animals, however, for example birds, it is the other way round. In birds, the females have their own sex chromosome, the W chromosome. For the first, researchers have mapped the genetic structure and evolution of the W chromosome.

Simulation helps to prepare for the consequences of natural disasters Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:44 AM PDT A simulation tool has been developed to help users prepare for unexpected catastrophes and natural disasters. A pilot case in Finland focused on winter storms and the resulting power cuts and evacuations.

'Vampire' plants can have positive impact up the food chain Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:44 AM PDT New research has revealed that parasitic 'vampire' plants that attach onto and derive nutrients from another living plant could benefit the abundance and diversity of surrounding vegetation and animal life.

Is dietary supplementation appropriate for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder? Posted: 04 Jun 2015 05:44 AM PDT Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are often picky eaters, which can lead parents to suspect that their children might not be getting adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals. This sometimes leads parents of children with ASD to try nutritional supplements and dietary regimens such as gluten-free and casein-free (GFCF) diets without professional supervision. In the largest study of its kind, researchers report that these well-intentioned efforts can result in both insufficient nutrients and excessive nutrients. Despite supplementation, children with ASD still were deficient in calcium, for example, while some were consuming excessive amounts of vitamin A and other nutrients.

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