ScienceDaily: Latest Science News


Solar activity not a key cause of climate change, study shows

Posted: 22 Dec 2013 01:18 PM PST

Climate change has not been strongly influenced by variations in heat from the sun, a new scientific study shows.

Clues to how plants evolved to cope with cold

Posted: 22 Dec 2013 01:18 PM PST

Researchers have found new clues to how plants evolved to withstand wintry weather. Scientists constructed an evolutionary tree of more than 32,000 species of flowering plants -- the largest time-scaled evolutionary tree to date. By combining their tree with freezing exposure records and leaf and stem data, the researchers were able to reconstruct how plants evolved to cope with cold as they spread across the globe.

Malaria drug target raises hopes for new treatments

Posted: 22 Dec 2013 01:00 PM PST

Scientists have taken an important step towards new malaria treatments by identifying a way to stop malaria parasites from multiplying.

Innovative screening strategy swiftly uncovers new drug candidates, new biology

Posted: 22 Dec 2013 01:00 PM PST

Scientists have demonstrated a drug-discovery strategy with a double payoff —- it enables the rapid selection of chemical compounds that have a desired effect on cells and also highlights how the compounds work.

Some plants may not adapt quickly to future climate change

Posted: 22 Dec 2013 01:00 PM PST

Using the largest dated evolutionary tree of flowering plants ever assembled, a new study suggests how plants developed traits to withstand low temperatures, with implications that human-induced climate change may pose a bigger threat than initially thought to plants and global agriculture.

Scientists anticipated size and location of 2012 Costa Rica earthquake

Posted: 22 Dec 2013 01:00 PM PST

Scientists using GPS to study changes in the Earth's shape accurately forecasted the size and location of the magnitude 7.6 Nicoya earthquake that occurred in 2012 in Costa Rica.

Greenland ice stores liquid water year-round

Posted: 22 Dec 2013 01:00 PM PST

Researchers have found an extensive reservoir in the Greenland Ice Sheet that holds water year round. A surprising discovery, the existence of the 27,000 square mile aquifer adds important information to sea level rise calculations.

Where Alzheimer's starts and how it spreads

Posted: 22 Dec 2013 01:00 PM PST

Using high-resolution fMRI imaging in patients with Alzheimer's disease and in mouse models of the disease, researchers have clarified three fundamental issues about Alzheimer's: where it starts, why it starts there, and how it spreads. In addition to advancing understanding of Alzheimer's, the findings could improve early detection of the disease, when drugs may be most effective.

Not just Koch brothers: New study reveals funders behind climate change denial effort

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 12:45 PM PST

A new study exposes the organizational underpinnings and funding behind the powerful climate change counter movement. This study marks the first peer-reviewed, comprehensive analysis ever conducted of the sources of funding that maintain the denial effort.

Two-drug combo helps adolescents with ADHD, aggression

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 11:30 AM PST

Prescribing both a stimulant and an antipsychotic drug to children with physical aggression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), along with teaching parents to use behavior management techniques, reduces aggressive and serious behavioral problems in the children, according to researchers.

How cells remove copper

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 08:58 AM PST

New research provides deeper insight into causes of serious diseases involving copper metabolism. Mapping the mechanism that regulates the transport of copper across the cell membrane and out of the body's cells actually provides a new understanding of conditions related to chronic imbalance in the body's level of copper.

Researchers develop new generation visual browser of epigenome

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 08:40 AM PST

ChroGPS is a software application that serves to facilitate the analysis and understanding of epigenetic data and to extract intelligible information, which can be downloaded free of charge in Bioconductor, a reference repository for biocomputational software. Scientists describe the uses of the program in a new article.

Elucidating biological cells' transport mechanisms

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 08:36 AM PST

Motion fascinates physicists. It becomes even more intriguing when observed in vivo in biological cells. Using an ingenious setup, scientists have now calculated the force of molecular motors acting on inner components of biological cells, known as organelles. In a new study, the focus is on mitochondria - akin to micrometric range cellular power plants - travelling along microtubules in a cell.