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PhysOrg.com
Simian foamy virus found to be widespread among chimpanzees Researchers in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Gabon, Germany, Japan, Rwanda, the United Kingdom, and the United States have found that simian foamy virus (SFV) is widespread among wild chimpanzees throughout equatorial Africa. Details are published July 4th in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens. Brain noise is a good thing Canadian scientists have shown that a noisy brain is a healthy brain. Researchers clarify function of glucose transport molecule Researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA have solved the structure of a class of proteins known as sodium glucose co-transporters (SGLTs), which pump glucose into cells. These transport proteins are used in the treatment of chronic diarrhea via oral rehydration therapy, saving the lives of millions of children each year. The solution of the SGLT structure will accelerate development of new drugs designed to treat patients with diabetes and cancer. Prevalence of religious congregations affects mortality rates LSU associate professor of sociology Troy C. Blanchard recently found that a community's religious environment - that is, the type of religious congregations within a locale - affects mortality rates, often in a positive manner. These results were published in the June issue of Social Forces, a leading journal in the field of sociology. Neither Rain Nor Sleet Will Stop NASA's Ares Rockets Barry Roberts wants to help build a better rocket…one that can fly despite record low temperatures, one that hail and rain can`t stop. Acidifying oceans add urgency to CO2 cuts It's not just about climate change anymore. Besides loading the atmosphere with heat-trapping greenhouse gases, human emissions of carbon dioxide have also begun to alter the chemistry of the ocean—often called the cradle of life on Earth. The ecological and economic consequences are difficult to predict but possibly calamitous, warn a team of chemical oceanographers in the July 4 issue of Science, and halting the changes already underway will likely require even steeper cuts in carbon emissions than those currently proposed to curb climate change. Mercury's surface dominated by volcanism and iron-deficiency Volcanism has played a more extensive role in shaping the surface of Mercury than scientists had thought. This result comes from multispectral imaging data gathered in January 2008 by MESSENGER, the latest spacecraft to visit the Sun's innermost planet. Einstein was right: Unique stellar system provides 'laboratory' for testing relativity Researchers at McGill University's Department of Physics - along with colleagues from several countries - have confirmed a long-held prediction of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, via observations of a binary-pulsar star system. Their results will be published July 3 in the journal Science. Scientists develop a mouse model of sudden infant death syndrome Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is a condition that unexpectedly and unexplainably takes the lives of seemingly healthy babies aged between a month and a year. Now researchers of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Monterotondo, Italy, have developed a mouse model of the so-called crib or cot death, which remains the leading cause of death during the first year of life in developed countries. The model, published in this week's issue of Science, reveals that an imbalance of the neuronal signal serotonin in the brainstem is sufficient to cause sudden death in mice. Ancient marine invertebrate diversity less explosive than thought Diversity among the ancestors of such marine creatures as clams, sand dollars and lobsters showed only a modest rise beginning 144 million years ago with no clear trend afterwards, according to an international team of researchers. This contradicts previous work showing dramatic increases beginning 248 million years ago and may shed light on future diversity. ... |