زيست پويا /zistpooya

Researchers Use Multiphoton Microscopy To Watch Chromosomes In Action (September 28, 2006) - Feverish fruit fly larvae, warmed in a toasty lab chamber, are giving Cornell researchers a way to watch chromosomes in action and actually see how genes are expressed in living tissue. > full story

Study Explains Peaks And Troughs Of Dengue Epidemics (September 28, 2006) - Scientists have long known that epidemics of dengue fever wax and wane over a period of several years, but they've never been quite sure why. With the incidence and range of the potentially deadly mosquito-borne illness increasing, understanding the factors that influence these epidemics has never been more important. A new study by researchers at the University of Georgia suggests that a brief period of cross-immunity conferred by any one of the four viral strains, or serotypes, that cause dengue explains the timing of epidemics. > full story

Groundwork Laid For Everglades Restoration, But Projects Experiencing Delays (September 28, 2006) - Progress has been made in developing the scientific basis and management structures needed to support a massive effort to restore the Florida Everglades ecosystem, but some projects important to the restoration have experienced troubling delays, says a new report from the National Research Council. The report outlines an alternative approach that can help the initiative move forward even as it resolves remaining scientific uncertainties. > full story

Most Widely Used Organic Pesticide Requires Help To Kill (September 27, 2006) - The world's most widely used organic insecticide, a plucky bacterium known as Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt for short, requires the assistance of other microbes to perform its insect-slaying work, a new study has found. > full story

Safer Than Sun, More Natural Looking Than Sunless Tanners: Topical Treatment May Be The Next Advance In Tanning (September 27, 2006) - An organic compound that creates a realistic beachy glow while inducing a natural sun block effect in your skin may be just around the corner, as scientists at the University of Kentucky are testing a treatment that enhances melanin production in animal models. > full story

Meteorites Record Past Solar Activity (September 27, 2006) - Ilya Usoskin (Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory, University of Oulu, Finland) and his colleagues have investigated the solar activity over the past centuries. Their study is to be published this week in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters. They compare the amount of Titanium 44 in 19 meteorites that have fallen to the Earth over the past 240 years. Their work confirms that the solar activity has increased strongly during the 20th century. They also find that the Sun has been particularly active in the past few decades. > full story

Assessing Hidden Particles In The Air That We Breathe (September 27, 2006) - Scientists at the University of Hertfordshire are assessing 'hidden' particles in the air that we breathe and are developing methods to measure them. According to Professor Ranjeet Sokhi, Head of the University's Atmospheric Science Research Group (ASRG), current assessment methods for predicting air particles have not fully taken into account certain categories of air particles which do not come from vehicle exhausts. These include those from worn tyres, brakes and road surfaces. As a result current predictions of air pollution can be inaccurate. > full story

Satellites Reveal That Green Means Rain In Africa (September 27, 2006) - Scientists from the NERC-funded Climate and Land Surface Interactions Centre (CLASSIC) have found that the presence of green vegetation has a major influence on the amount of rain that falls in the Sahel region of Africa, south of the Sahara desert. Rains at the start of the growing season cause vegetation growth. This encourages a feedback loop as the greener the vegetation becomes, the greater the amount of rain that falls. > full story

Bird Flu Vaccine Additive May Stretch Supply (September 27, 2006) - Researchers have achieved an effective immune response to an avian influenza vaccine with doses as low as one-quarter of the norm when they added a chemical mixture known as MF59. The research is published in the November 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online. > full story

Solar Flares Could Seriously Disrupt GPS Receivers (September 27, 2006) - A minor solar flare in September 2005 produced a noticeable degradation of all GPS signals on the day side of the Earth. When scaled up to the larger solar flares expected in 2011-12, Cornell researchers expect massive outages of all GPS receivers on the day side of the Earth. > full story

NASA Technology Captures Massive Hurricane Waves (September 27, 2006) - NASA research is helping to increase knowledge about the behavior of hurricane waves. The NASA Scanning Radar Altimeter (SRA), designed to take measurements of the changing wave height and structure in and around hurricanes, flew through many storms on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) WP-3D aircraft from 1998-2005. It captured unprecedented details on wave behavior that are helping improve sea height forecasts. > full story

Scientists Document Warm Water Surging Into Arctic (September 27, 2006) - Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks International Arctic Research Center this fall documented that recent surges of warm water from the North Atlantic Ocean continue to pulse into the Arctic Ocean and are moving toward Alaska and the Canadian Basin. > full story

Mind The Gap: Space Scientists Uncover Causes Of Gap In Van Allen Belts (September 27, 2006) - A team of British and U.S. scientists have discovered that the gap in the Van Allen radiation belts is formed by natural wave turbulence in space, not by lightning. The discovery settles years of controversy among space scientists about the mechanisms responsible for causing the gap and has important implications for space weather forecasting. > full story

Solvent Exposure Linked To Birth Defects In Babies Of Male Painters (September 27, 2006) - Men who paint for a living may be placing their unborn children at increased risk of birth defects and low birth weight. > full story

Researchers Help Take Natural Gas Out Of Ethanol Production (September 27, 2006) - Iowa State University researchers are working with an Iowa company to replace the natural gas burned to make ethanol with a renewable gas made from biomass. > full story

Discovering How River Water Is Mixed Into The Sea Can Assist In Mapping Climate Change (September 27, 2006) - A study of the freshwater that flows into Liverpool Bay from the region's two main rivers is to help scientists piece together another part of the climate change 'map'. Scientist from the University of Wales, Bangor and Proudman Oceanographic Labs., Liverpool will be looking at how freshwater from the Mersey and Dee rivers mixes with the sea water in Liverpool Bay. > full story

World's Largest Scientific Computing Grid Sustains A Million Jobs Per Month (September 27, 2006) - A milestone for scientific Grid computing was announced recently at the launch of EGEE'06, a major conference on scientific Grids hosted by CERN and held in Geneva this week. The Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) project maintains a global Grid infrastructure that has been able to sustain more than 30,000 jobs a day -- over a million per month -- for a period of six months this year. > full story

Wild Lions Develop Manes In Accordance With Local Climate Regimes (September 26, 2006) - An article appearing in the current issue of the Journal of Zoology sheds light on several longstanding misconceptions regarding the controversial topic of mane variability among wild lions. This comprehensive scientific assessment of mane variation -- including "manelessness" -- is a first and took nearly seven years to complete. According to the overall findings of the study, wild lions generally develop manes in accordance with local climate regimes. > full story

No Laughing Matter: Reducing Levels Of Nitrous Oxide From Soil To Lessen Impact Of Global Warming (September 26, 2006) - Abertay University is supporting the University of Plymouth in a £1 million project which could reduce the impact of global warming by decreasing the levels of nitrous oxide -- 'laughing gas' -- produced by the earth's soil. > full story

MIT Finds Most Complex Protein Knot Ever Seen (September 26, 2006) - An MIT team has discovered the most complicated knot ever seen in a protein, and they believe it may be linked to the protein's function as a rescue agent for proteins marked for destruction. > full story

Jumping Gene Could Provide Non-viral Alternative For Gene Therapy (September 26, 2006) - A jumping gene first identified in a cabbage-eating moth may one day provide a safer, target-specific alternative to viruses for gene therapy, researchers say. They compared the ability of the four best-characterized jumping genes, or transposons, to insert themselves into a cell's DNA and produce a desired change, such as making the cell resistant to damage from radiation therapy. > full story

NASA Study Finds World Warmth Edging Ancient Levels (September 26, 2006) - A new study by NASA climatologists finds that the world's temperature is reaching a level that has not been seen in thousands of years. > full story

Better Sludge Through Metagenomics (September 26, 2006) - Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) and collaborators at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the Advanced Wastewater Management Centre, University of Queensland, Australia, have published the first metagenomic study of an activated sludge wastewater treatment process. The research provides a blueprint of the genes and hence the metabolic possibilities of the wastewater environment, a view to understand how the system works and predicting and averting failures or crashes. > full story

How Butterflies Got Their Spots: A 'Supergene' Controls Wing Pattern Diversity (September 26, 2006) - In an intriguing example of adaptive evolution, genetic linkage analysis identifies a conserved region in distantly related Heliconius butterfly species that controls the diverse effects of wing patterning and mimicry. > full story

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