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279,032 articles from PhysOrg

Feeling Stressed? So is the Poplar -- But Hormone Suppression Could Help the Tree

(PhysOrg.com) -- People aren't the only living things that suffer from stress. Trees must deal with stress too. It can come from a lack of water or too much water, from scarcity of a needed nutrient, from pollution or a changing climate. Helping trees and crops adapt to stress quickly and efficiently is a pressing goal of plant biologists worldwide.

New genes involved in human eye color identified

Three new genetic loci have been identified with involvement in subtle and quantitative variation of human eye colour. The study, led by Manfred Kayser of the Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands, is published May 6 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

Researchers find candidate gene culprits for chronic pain

Chronic pain severely limits patients' quality of life and is among the cost drivers in U.S. health care. Patients can suffer pain without an apparent cause and often fail to respond to available treatments. Mayo Clinic researchers and collaborators now report that chronic pain may be caused by the inadvertent reprogramming of more than 2,000 genes in the peripheral nervous system. The research...

Age, ethnicity and environment impact on risk of falls in elderly men

Falls and fall prevention are a major concern for the elderly and people with osteoporosis, a common chronic disease which causes weak and fragile bones. People with osteoporosis are at increased risk of fracture, even after a minor fall from standing height. A study presented today at the World Congress on Osteoporosis 2010 (IOF WCO-ECCEO10) shows that among elderly men the risk of falling, and...

Genes as fossils: Researchers discover the DNA responsible for creating fossil-like molecules found in ancient rocks

When exactly did oxygen first appear in Earth's atmosphere? Although many physical and chemical processes are thought to be responsible for that profound transformation, scientists have tried to answer at least part of that question by looking for the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis -- the process that organisms use to split water to make oxygen -- in rocks that are billions of years old.

Highly Sensitive Dark Matter Experiment Disproves Earlier Findings

(PhysOrg.com) -- Early data from a Columbia-led dark matter experiment rule out recent hints by other scientists who say they have found the elusive particle that holds the universe together. The findings show that dark matter, which is believed to make up 83 percent of the matter in the universe, is more elusive than many had hoped.

Statistcal Physics Offers Insight Into Moral Behavior

(PhysOrg.com) -- It seems a little strange for statistical physicists to consider questions of morality in behavior. However, that is is just what a study at ETH in Zurich, Switzeralnd, is doing. Led by Dirk Helbing, the study used game theory to consider how moral behavior arises from interactions with neighbors. Instead of moral behavior developing from an individual's interactions with society...

World record in current intensity achieved with distribution cables

Researchers at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain, and the firms Labein Tecnalia and Nexans, coordinated by the electrical company Endesa, have constructed a 30m cable and the terminals needed to connect it to the network using the high-temperature superconducting material BSCCO. This is the most advanced cable in terms of distribution (24 kV), since its current value is higher than that...

Red crabs lead the way in endurance running

(PhysOrg.com) -- Not even professional athletes would consider running a marathon without any training, but this is essentially what Christmas Island red crabs do every year, according to new research from the University of Bristol.

Sequencing of first frog genome sheds light on treating disease

A pair of University of Houston researchers contributed to the assembly of the first comprehensive DNA sequence of an amphibian genome, which will shed light on the study of embryonic development, with implications for preventing birth defects and more effectively treating many human diseases.

Social context may be a better indicator of obesity disparities than race

When analyzing obesity disparities among women, socioeconomic status and social context may be more important than race, according to a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions. The authors examined race disparities in obesity among black and white women living in the same social context with similar income and...

Study reveals neighborhood asthma risks

Mayo Clinic researchers recently released study data showing children who lived near major highway or railroad intersections have higher diagnoses of asthma. The researchers used this study to show how neighborhood environment is a risk factor in understanding the development of pediatric asthma. The study appears in a recent addition of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The LifeGene project provides unique insight into the causes of disease

The unique resources available in the Nordic region, such as civic registration numbers and the registries of genetically informative populations and health outcomes, make it an epidemiological goldmine. The LifeGene project is being coordinated by the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet to take advantage of Sweden's competitive edge in this field. Today, LifeGene is being launched...

Trapping giant Rydberg atoms for faster quantum computers

In an achievement that could help enable fast quantum computers, University of Michigan physicists have built a better Rydberg atom trap. Rydberg atoms are highly excited, nearly-ionized giants that can be thousands of times larger than their ground-state counterparts.