زيست پويا /zistpooya

for Friday, June 30, 2006

New Research May Reduce Global Need For Nitrogen Fertilizers (June 29, 2006) - Research published in the journal Nature reveals how UK and US scientists have managed to trigger nodulation in legumes, a key element of the nitrogen fixing process, without the bacteria normally necessary. This is an important step towards transferring nodulation, and possibly nitrogen fixation, to non-legume crops which could reduce the need for inorganic fertilizers. Intensive crop agriculture depends heavily on inorganic fertilisers and its production is highly energy intensiv e. > full story

How Cooperation Can Evolve In A Cheater's World (June 29, 2006) - Whether you're a free-loading virus or a meat-stealing monkey, selfishness pays. So how could cooperators survive in a cheater's world? Thomas Flatt, a postdoctoral research associate at Brown, was part of a group that created a theoretical model that neatly solves this dilemma, which has stumped evolutionary biologists and social scientists for decades. The trick: Keep the altruists in small groups, away from the swindling horde, where they multiply and migrate. > full story

Studies Show That Rockfish Thrive With Offshore Platforms As Their Home Base (June 29, 2006) - While some observers consider offshore oil and gas platforms to be an eyesore, new data shows they are performing a critical function for marine life. For the first time, scientists have documented the importance of platforms as nursery habitat for some species of rockfishes on the California coast. Two articles documenting the importance of the platforms are published in the current issue of Fisheries Bulletin, with lead authors from the University of California, S anta Barbara. > full story

New Fruit Fly Protein Illuminates Circadian Response To Light (June 29, 2006) - Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a new protein required for the circadian response to light in fruit flies. The discovery of this protein -- named JET -- brings investigators one step closer to understanding the process by which the body's internal clock synchronizes to light. Understanding how light affects circadian (24-hour) rhythms will likely open doors to future treatments of jetlag. > full story

What Can A Magnet Tell You About Rain Patterns? More Than You Would Guess (June 29, 2006) - In the journal Nature Physics, UCLA's Ole Peters and J. David Neelin report that the onset of intense tropical rain and magnetism share the same underlying physics even though the atmosphere spans the globe, while a magnet fits easily in your hand. > full story

Cranberries Contain Possible Anti-caries, Anti-plaque Agents (June 29, 2006) - Scientists have discovered that the humble cranberry harbors several anti-oxidants (flavonoids) that show the ability to counteract the damaging effects of the bacterium Streptococcus mutans, which causes dental caries (tooth decay). > full story

Australian Researchers To Trial Bird Flu Vaccine (June 29, 2006) - Australian researchers have begun a trial to test the effectiveness of a new vaccine to protect against the potentially deadly bird flu. The Vaccine Trials Group at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research and Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in Perth is recruiting 150 adult volunteers to participate in the study. > full story

Eighty Below And Loving It: Montana State University Scientists To Get New Cold Lab (June 29, 2006) - Montana State University is building a one-of-a-kind cold research laboratory. The facility will be used by researchers worldwide for work on everything from Antarctic ice, to avalanches, to wetlands, to the possibility of life on Mars. > full story

Avoiding House Dust Mites And Changing Diet Proves Ineffective (June 29, 2006) - New research shows avoiding house dust mite allergens from birth does not prevent the onset of asthma, eczema or atopy in high-risk children. > full story

Chocolate, Wine, Spicy Foods May Be OK For Heartburn, Stanford Study Finds (June 29, 2006) - For the past 15 to 20 years, the standard treatment for heartburn has been to cut out spicy cuisine, fried and fatty foods and all alcoholic and carbonated beverages. But recent Stanford research indicates there's no evidence to support a need for dietary deprivation among heartburn patients. > full story

NASA Satellite Positioning Software May Aid In Tsunami Warnings (June 28, 2006) - University scientists using Global Positioning System (GPS) software developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., have shown that GPS can determine, within minutes, whether an earthquake is big enough to generate an ocean-wide tsunami. This NASA-funded technology can be used to provide faster tsunami warnings. > full story

Carnegie Mellon Researchers Discover New Cell Properties (June 28, 2006) - Carnegie Mellon University researchers Kris Noel Dahl and mohammad F. Islam have made a new breakthrough for children suffering from an extremely rare disease that accelerates the aging process by seven times the normal rate. > full story

Afghanistan To Protect Wildlife And Wild Lands (June 28, 2006) - In a country known more for conflict than conservation, a joint effort by the government of Afghanistan and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been launched to protect the region's unique wildlife and develop the country's first official system of protected areas. > full story

Hopkins Researchers Develop New Quick Tool To Sort Out Insect Bites In Children (June 28, 2006) - Children afflicted with insect-bite rashes are often misdiagnosed or referred for extensive and costly tests, but a new, easy-to-remember set of guidelines developed at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center should help. > full story

Researchers Discover Which Organs In Antarctic Fish Produce Antifreeze (June 28, 2006) - Thirty-five years ago Arthur DeVries of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign first documented antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGPs) in Antarctic notothenioid fishes. This month three colleagues report they've solved the ensuing, long-running mystery of where these AFGPs, which allow the fish to survive in icy waters, are produced. > full story

Symbiotic Fungus Does Not Depend On Fungus-farming Ants For Reproduction, Researchers Say (June 28, 2006) - Fungus-farming ants around the world cultivate essentially the same fungus and are not as critical to the reproduction of the fungi as previously believed, biologists at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered. > full story

Prototype Tasty Snack Food Developed With Special Health Benefits (June 28, 2006) - Dr. Russell Keast, a senior lecturer in the school of exercise and nutrition sciences, has developed a new snack food with a parmesan cheese cracker, organic mashed potato and special healthy additives. > full story

Primates Take Weather Into Account When Searching For Fruits (June 28, 2006) - New findings reported this week reveal that at least some primates can use their stored knowledge of recent weather as a tool for guiding their foraging behavior when searching for ripening fruit. The work, which potentially informs our understanding of how cognitive skills developed in humans and other primates, is reported by Karline Janmaat, Richard Byrne, and Klaus Zuberbühler of the University of St. Andrews in the June 20th issue of Current Biology. > full story

Bacteria, Beware: New Finding About E Coli Could Block Infections, Lead To Better Treatments (June 28, 2006) - A newly discovered receptor in a strain of Escherichia coli can be blocked to avert infection, a finding that might aid in developing better therapies to treat bacterial infections resulting in food poisoning, diarrhea or plague. > full story

A Probable Cause For Parkinson's? (June 28, 2006) - A study by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine reveals that damage in Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other brain diseases is linked to a natural byproduct of metabolism and oxidative stress called nitration. Researchers surveyed nearly 8,000 proteins in a healthy mouse brain and found nitration on 31 sites along 29 different proteins, half of which had been previously implicated in several of the neurodegenerative diseases. > full story

Landfills, Chemical Weapon Debris Possibly A Good Match, Computer Model Suggests (June 28, 2006) - Putting building debris contaminated by chemical weapons into municipal landfills likely would pose only a minimal risk to nearby communities and the surrounding environment, according to a study scheduled for publication in the July 1 issue of the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science and Technology. The study's computer model could help policymakers and waste management officials determine what to do with these harmful materials if another terrorist attack occurs. > full story

Sperm, Egg, Genes: New Research Reveals Unexpected Post-mating Gene _Expression In Model Lab Insect (June 27, 2006) - Scientists have uncovered evidence that after fruit flies mate, the presence of sperm and male proteins in the female's reproductive tract sets off an amazing cascade of heretofore undescribed gene activity. Understanding how this works will give scientists new insights into reproduction, but it could also provide methods to safely control the spread of insect pests. > full story

No Risk-free Level Of Exposure To Secondhand Smoke, Surgeon General Says (June 27, 2006) - U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona today issued a comprehensive scientific report which concludes that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work increase their risk of developing heart disease by 25 to 30 percent and lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent. The finding is of major public health concern due to the fact that nearly half of all nonsmoking Americans are still regularly exposed to secondhand smoke. > full story

Better Beetle Sought For Salt Cedar Control (June 27, 2006) - Beetles from Uzbekistan are more prolific salt cedar eaters than beetles from Greece. At least that's what Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers hope. Uzbekistan salt cedar beetles being released by the Experiment Station's entomology department are the same species as those released on the salt cedar stands near Lake Meredith. They are just from a different collection point, said Vanessa Carney, Experiment Station entomology research associate. > full story