ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

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• Learn that tune while fast asleep: Stimulation during sleep can enhance skill learning
• Significant sea-level rise in a two-degree warmer world
• Climate change and the South Asian summer monsoon
• Boosting blood system protein complex protects against radiation toxicity
• Brain structure helps guide behavior by anticipating changing demands
• Neurons that control overeating also drive appetite for cocaine
• Discovery of material with amazing properties
• Biodegradable artery graft will enhance bypass surgeries
• Genome-wide analysis shows previously undetected abnormalities in parents of affected children
• Gene mutations cause massive brain asymmetry
• Blood-brain barrier building blocks forged from human stem cells
• From the mouths of monkeys: Swab technique spots tuberculosis in non-human primates
• Researchers advance biometric security
• Cancers with disorganized 'traffic systems' more difficult to treat
• Environmental estrogens affect early developmental activity in zebrafish
• Rice blast infection mechanism uncovered

Learn that tune while fast asleep: Stimulation during sleep can enhance skill learning Posted: 24 Jun 2012 10:50 AM PDT Want to nail that tune that you've practiced and practiced? Maybe you should take a nap with the same melody playing during your sleep, new provocative research suggests. The research grows out of exciting existing evidence that suggests that memories can be reactivated during sleep and storage of them can be strengthened in the process.

Significant sea-level rise in a two-degree warmer world Posted: 24 Jun 2012 10:49 AM PDT Even if global warming is limited to two degrees Celsius, global mean sea level could continue to rise, reaching between 1.5 and four meters above present-day levels by the year 2300, with the best estimate being at 2.7 meters, according to a new study. However, emissions reductions that allow warming to drop below 1.5 degrees Celsius could limit the rise strongly.

Climate change and the South Asian summer monsoon Posted: 24 Jun 2012 10:49 AM PDT The vagaries of South Asian summer monsoon rainfall impact the lives of more than one billion people. This review of the most recent research concludes that with continued rise in CO2 the region can expect generally more rainfall due to the expected increase in atmospheric moisture stemming from global warming, as well as more variability in rainfall. Regional projections for devastating droughts and floods, however, are still beyond the reach of current climate models.

Boosting blood system protein complex protects against radiation toxicity Posted: 24 Jun 2012 10:49 AM PDT Boosting a protein pathway in the body's blood making system protects mice from otherwise fatal radiation poisoning. Scientists say their findings open the potential for new treatments against radiation toxicity during cancer treatment or environmental exposures -- such as in a nuclear explosion or accident.

Brain structure helps guide behavior by anticipating changing demands Posted: 24 Jun 2012 10:49 AM PDT A structure deep within the brain, believed to play an important role in regulating conscious control of goal-directed behavior, helps to optimize behavioral responses by predicting how difficult upcoming tasks will be.

Neurons that control overeating also drive appetite for cocaine Posted: 24 Jun 2012 10:49 AM PDT Researchers have zeroed in on a set of neurons in the part of the brain that controls hunger, and found that these neurons are not only associated with overeating, but also linked to non-food associated behaviors, like novelty-seeking and drug addiction.

Discovery of material with amazing properties Posted: 24 Jun 2012 10:49 AM PDT Normally a material can be either magnetically or electrically polarized, but not both. Now researchers have studied a material that is simultaneously magnetically and electrically polarizable. This opens up new possibilities, for example, for sensors in technology of the future.

Biodegradable artery graft will enhance bypass surgeries Posted: 24 Jun 2012 10:49 AM PDT With the development of a cell-free, biodegradable artery graft comes a potentially transformative change in coronary artery bypass surgeries: Within 90 days after surgery, the patient will have a regenerated artery with no trace of synthetic graft materials left in the body.

Genome-wide analysis shows previously undetected abnormalities in parents of affected children Posted: 24 Jun 2012 10:48 AM PDT The use of genome-wide array analysis in parents whose children are suspected of having a genetic disease shows that the parents frequently also have previously undetected genetic abnormalities, a researcher said.  Being aware of this is important to parents because it means that their risk of having another affected child is significantly increased.

Gene mutations cause massive brain asymmetry Posted: 24 Jun 2012 10:48 AM PDT Scientists say de novo somatic mutations in a trio of genes that help regulate cell size and proliferation are likely culprits for causing hemimegalencephaly, though perhaps not the only ones.

Blood-brain barrier building blocks forged from human stem cells Posted: 24 Jun 2012 10:48 AM PDT The blood-brain barrier may be poised to give up some of its secrets as researchers have created in the laboratory dish the cells that make up the brain's protective barrier. The researchers describe transforming stem cells into endothelial cells with blood-brain barrier qualities.

From the mouths of monkeys: Swab technique spots tuberculosis in non-human primates Posted: 21 Jun 2012 04:59 PM PDT A new technique detected the first published evidence of tuberculosis pathogens in the mouths of macaques living near people in six Asian countries. The method analyses mouth swabs from monkeys to check for tuberculosis DNA. The findings raise the question of interspecies transmission, but the origin of these infections is uncertain. However, the risk of spread to people appears minimal. The test could help protect the health of the world's primate populations.

Researchers advance biometric security Posted: 21 Jun 2012 04:59 PM PDT Researchers have developed a way for security systems to combine different biometric measurements -- such as eye color, face shape or fingerprints -- and create a learning system that simulates the brain in making decisions about information from different sources.

Cancers with disorganized 'traffic systems' more difficult to treat Posted: 21 Jun 2012 04:59 PM PDT Medical researchers reviewed test results from thousands of patients with various types of cancer and discovered that "disorganized" cancers were more difficult to treat and consistently resulted in lower survival rates.

Environmental estrogens affect early developmental activity in zebrafish Posted: 21 Jun 2012 04:56 PM PDT New research reveals that environmental estrogens may influence human and animal development at the very beginning stages of embryonic development, which is earlier than previously realized.

Rice blast infection mechanism uncovered Posted: 21 Jun 2012 12:15 PM PDT Scientists have made a new discovery that they hope might lead to effective control of rice blast disease. Rice blast is the most serious disease of cultivated rice and affects all the rice-growing regions of the world, causing losses of up to 30 percent of the global rice harvest.

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