"La naturaleza es grande en las grandes cosas, pero es grandísima en las más pequeñas" Saint-Pierre (1737-1814)

martes, 22 de julio de 2014

Noticias científicas diarias

- Determinan el impacto que tienen en la función neuronal las alteraciones en la estructura de la cromatina.
Un trabajo en el que han participado investigadores del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) ha determinado por primera vez el impacto de las alteraciones en la estructura tridimensional de la cromatina neuronal (el complejo de ADN y proteínas que protege la información genética y permite que se exprese de forma adecuada) en la función neuronal y el comportamiento animal. El estudio ha sido publicado en la revista Nature Communications.
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- Seals 'feed' at offshore wind farms, study shows.
Some seals prefer to forage for food at offshore wind farms, a study suggests.

- What if you could edit the genes of animals in the wild--pests like mosquitoes that carry malaria or invasive plants? What happens when those genes are perpetuated in the population?

- Obesity researchers have been studying ways to turn the body’s energy-storing “bad fat” into energy-burning “good fat.” Now, scientists are reporting that the flip side of that approach could address a huge killer of cancer patients—the muscle wasting, emaciation, and frailty known as cachexia, which kills 30% to 80% of people in the advanced stages of cancer.
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- How data will transform science?
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- More than 26 million American adults have chronic kidney disease, it is the 9th leading cause of death in the United States. Chronic kidney disease and osteoporosis: evaluation and management.
More information: http://bit.ly/1manRVi 

- How do the fantastical arch shapes seen in in places like Utah's Arches National Park form? They have long been thought to be sculpted by wind and rain. But a team of researchers now report in Nature Geoscience that the shapes are inherent to the rock itself, and how gravity distributes stress during erosion.
To validate their models, the team exposed 10-centimeter blocks of sandstone from a Czech quarry to erosion by water. The weight distributed itself unevenly, which led to the formation of pillars (one in the first experiment, two in the second) that lasted longer than the surrounding material. The first sequence is a continuous recording of about 90 minutes, accelerated by 200x. The second is accelerated 100x in the first half, followed by two cuts, and the process lasted just over an hour.
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- Providing basic medical services, including polio vaccinations, to children in Pakistan’s poorest and most conflict-ridden areas is the key to ending polio worldwide, argues Zulfiqar Bhutta in a Comment piece in Nature.
   

sábado, 19 de julio de 2014

Noticias científicas diarias

- Slicing the wheat genome.
Researchers now have a draft sequence of the bread wheat genome, achieving a major milestone on the road to creating the full reference sequence of one of the world’s most widely grown cereal crops. Their work gives scientists a tool for rapidly locating specific genes on individual wheat chromosomes, a resource that will help them improve wheat breeding to meet ever-higher food demands, accelerate the development of new wheat varieties, and increase the resistance of wheat to environmental stresses.  
More information: http://bit.ly/1mQMqLV

- Expanding health coverage under the Affordable Care Act may significantly improve outcomes for men with prostate cancer who are not yet eligible for Medicare. Access this article to find out more. 
More information: http://bit.ly/1oWMGIV

- This week's Nature Podcast on SoundCloud: Scientists are squeezing diamond to test how matter inside giant planets might behave, a protein leaked by tumours could explain cachexia - and the first boron buckyball could prove useful for storing hydrogen.

- The discovery of a new member of the anomalocaridids — a group of predators that dominated marine ecosystems more than 500 million years ago — with a well-preserved nervous system offers insights into the neuroanatomy of these creatures. 
More information: http://bit.ly/1lb5dNF        

viernes, 18 de julio de 2014

Noticias científicas diarias

- 'Biological pacemaker' tested in lab.
Grow-your-own pacemakers are a step closer to reality, after pioneering experiments in pigs.

- Rosetta heads for space 'rubber duck'.
Europe's mission to land on a comet was always going to be difficult, but the pictures released this week of the giant ice ball illustrate just how daunting the task will be.

- MIT scientists develop sensor-operated robotic fingers.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a robotic extension to the human hand they said could help with everyday tasks.

- Slicing the wheat genome, optimizing food security, & controlling quantum systems--the new Science is up!

- Preeclampsia is the leading cause of death in pregnant women, but no one knows what causes it or how to prevent it. Now, a team of researchers offers an entirely new take on the disorder: Preeclampsia, like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, is marked by misfolded and clumped proteins.
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- Do the genes that increase the risk of developing schizophrenia also increase the propensity to use cannabis? It may be so! Access this paper from Molecular Psychiatry to find out more. 
More information: http://bit.ly/1oOe9fC 

jueves, 17 de julio de 2014

Noticias científicas diarias

- El MNCN expone en Cercedilla “Nombrando especies, las Top10 y el proyecto BHLE”.
La exposición forma parte de las actividades de la VII Semana de la Montaña que organiza el Ayuntamiento de Cercedilla.
Más información: http://www.mncn.csic.es/

- Diamond crushed to Saturn's extremes.
Diamond, nature's hardest material, has been crushed to record extremes of pressure using the "world's biggest laser", US scientists report.

- Stand-off in brain project debate.
After leaders of the billion-euro Human Brain Project hit back at critics, six top neuroscientists have expressed "dismay" at their public response.

- Cell and tissue engineering for liver disease, safer radiation for the lung, reprogramming heart cells into pacemakers, and much more in the 16 July 2014 issue of Science Translational Medicine.
More information: http://scim.ag/WbmgcM

- Record levels of intense ultraviolet radiation have been measured in South America, reports a study from Frontiers in Environmental Science.
The extraordinary UV fluxes, observed in the Bolivian Andes only 1,500 miles from the equator, are far above those normally considered to be harmful to both terrestrial and aquatic life.
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miércoles, 16 de julio de 2014

Noticias científicas diarias

- Los machos de papamoscas cerrojillo se adaptan a las necesidades de las hembras.
El canal de comunicación entre machos y hembras podría ser una adaptación para garantizar el éxito de la incubación. Investigadores del Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN), del CSIC, han demostrado experimentalmente que, durante el periodo de incubación, los machos de Papamoscas cerrojillo, Ficedula hypoleuca, aumentan el aporte de alimento a las hembras cuando éstas así lo solicitan.
Más información: http://www.mncn.csic.es/

- El Real Jardín Botánico, CSIC participa en la exposición "El último viaje de la fragata Mercedes".
Ha cedido al Museo Arqueológico Nacional varias piezas procedentes de la Expedición Botánica al Virreinato del Perú (1777-1788) que se encuentran en el Herbario del RJB, CSIC. La muestra, que se ha distribuido también en el Museo Naval, se puede visitar hasta el próximo 30 de noviembre.

- Los centros distinguidos con el Severo Ochoa reciben su galardón.
Los directores de tres centros del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) han recibido este martes el galardón de excelencia científica Severo Ochoa que promueve el Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad a través de la Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación. La mención pretende promover la investigación de excelencia que se realiza en España en los campos de la ciencia y les asigna un millón de euros anuales durante cuatro años.
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- Do friends have similar genomes?
A study from a controversial pair of US researchers claims that we are more genetically similar to our friends than we are to strangers.

- Flying dino had long, feathery tail.
Please welcome the latest member of the growing club of flying dinosaurs, Changyuraptor yangi, pictured here in an artist’s reconstruction. This latest specimen, found in 125-million-year-old sediments in northeastern China, was about 1.2 meters long and is related to a noted group of flying dinosaurs called Microraptor, which has provided important insights into the evolution of powered flight. Like Microraptor, the new specimen had feathers on all four limbs; but its feathery tail, which takes up about 30% of its total length, is the longest known among flying dinosaurs. Changyuraptor, described online today in Nature Communications, weighed 4 kilograms, making it among the heaviest flying dinosaurs known. As for its long tail, the dino probably used it to slow itself down when descending, thus avoiding crash landings.
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- Scientists call for limit on creating dangerous pathogens.
A group of prominent scientists and others are calling for a limit to experiments that modify influenza and other dangerous viruses to make them spread more easily in mammals.

- Updated: U.S. biosafety panel to come out of hibernation with new members.
On the heels of several mishaps involving deadly pathogens, U.S. officials are reconvening an expert advisory panel that hasn’t met in nearly 2 years. But the government has also dismissed 11 of the original members of the 23-person panel, called the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB).

- Darwin's ship library goes online.
As Charles Darwin cruised the world on the HMS Beagle, he had access to an unusually well-stocked 400-volume library. That collection, which contained the observations of numerous other naturalists and explorers, has now been recreated online.  
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- Why the Amazon flows backward.
Millions of years ago, rivers flowing westward across what is now northern Brazil reversed their course to flow toward the Atlantic, and the mighty Amazon was born. A previous study suggested that the about-face was triggered by gradual changes in the flow of hot, viscous rock deep beneath the South American continent. But new computer models hint that the U-turn resulted from more familiar geological processes taking place at Earth’s surface—in particular, the persistent erosion, movement, and deposition of sediment wearing away from the growing Andes.

- Backpacking on Mars.
At the height of the summer travel season, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has released its most detailed geological map of Mars.

- Nature Research Briefings: Graphene. It’s free to download.
Nature Research Briefings: Graphene is a collection of recently published Research Highlights, News and Views selected from across the Nature Publishing Group journals. Each edition highlights some of the latest and most exciting developments in this key area of interest. 
More information: http://bit.ly/1n3nwUv

- NEW! Mucosal Immunology presents a Focus on mononuclear phagocyte diversity in mucosal tissues.
The articles and reviews in this web focus are likely to be of central importance not only to our understanding of how mucosal immune responses are initiated and regulated, but also to the development of novel therapies and mucosal vaccines.
More information: http://bit.ly/1oAxnm5

- Astronomers will get a rare close-up look at a pristine comet in October, when Comet Siding Spring squeaks past Mars and a flotilla of spacecraft orbiting the red planet. NASA scientists are finalizing their plans to observe the event.
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- Advances in thin display technology that may pave the way for a new class of smart devices are detailed in Nature. 
More information: http://bit.ly/1jL3ROR

martes, 15 de julio de 2014

- Amphibians can learn to avoid infectious fungi, can acquire resistance after repeated exposures, and can be immunised with dead fungi, a study in Nature reports. 
More information: http://bit.ly/1jqActG

- Nature Conferences - Immune Homeostasis and Inflammatory Disease: A Herrenhausen Symposium.

- The latest Nature Podcast on SoundCloud: The STAP cell paper retractions, immunising frogs against a deadly fungus, how kangaroos use their tails as a fifth leg - and how scientists change the optical properties of a material by applying electricity.

- Publishing is one of the most ballyhooed metrics of scientific careers. Now, a new study finds that very few scientists—fewer than 1%—manage to publish a paper every year. But this 1% of scientists dominates the research journals, having their names on 41% of all papers (and on 87% of the most highly cited.)

- Insight: Hepatitis C can be cured globally, but at what cost? 
The high costs of drugs for treating Hepatitis C, which kills up to 500,000 people every year -- more than tuberculosis or malaria -- can be significantly decreased with the mass production of generic versions, according to the authors of a Perspective in this week’s issue. New drugs capable of curing 90 percent of patients cost between $60,000 to $85,000 per person for a 12 weeks of treatment. With generics, these costs can be brought down to somewhere between $75 and $170 for the same time span. But current U.S. patents prohibit companies from producing generic versions of the drugs for the next 12 to 15 years.
More information: http://bit.ly/1mnikzy

sábado, 12 de julio de 2014

Noticias científicas diarias

- Sigue disfrutando en verano de las visitas de fin de semana al Real Jardín Botánico.
Dentro del programa educativo que financia la Comunidad de Madrid a través de la Consejería de Medio Ambiente y Ordenación del Territorio. Las visitas son en castellano, los sábados y domingos, y en inglés, dos veces al mes, los primeros y terceros domingos.

- China 'admits' trading in tiger skins.
China has for the first time admitted in public that it permits trade in skins from captive tigers, according to participants and officials at a meeting of an international convention to protect endangered species.

- In a FREE special section this week, experts weigh in on the state of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.

- Phase III trial from The Pharmacogenomics Journal.
Identification of SNPs associated with response of breast cancer patients to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in the EORTC-10994 randomized phase III trial.
More information: http://bit.ly/1q2c5o4

- Check out Nature Research Briefings: Cancer. It’s free to download.
Nature Research Briefings: Cancer is a collection of recently published Research Highlights selected from across the Nature Publishing Group journals. Each edition highlights some of the latest and most exciting developments in this key area of interest. PDF – 12 pages, free.
More information: http://bit.ly/1k1Kk7i

- Helmholtz Zentrum München and Nature Medicine are pleased to announce the 2nd Annual Helmholtz-Nature Medicine Diabetes Conference.