Future reduction of sea ice in the Arctic could result in a loss of 2/3 of the world's polar bear population within 50 years according to a series of studies just released by the U.S. Geological Survey. Polar bears depend on sea ice as a platform to hunt seals, their primary food. But sea ice is decreasing throughout their Arctic range due to climate change. Models used by the USGS team project a...

A new CDC report shows the largest one-year increase in youth suicide rate in 15 years. Suicide rates for 10-19 year-old females and 15-19 year-old males increased significantly in 2004 in the United States. An increase in the suicide rates for three gender-age groups accounts for the increase in the overall suicide rate, the report said. Rates rose for 10- to-14-year-old females, 15...

Supercomputers keep growing ever faster, racing along at the blazing speed of nearly one petaflops -- 10 to the fifteenth, or one thousand trillion calculations per second -- equivalent to around 250 thousand of today's laptops. In contrast, the experience of a computational scientist can be anything but fast -- waiting hours or days in a queue for a job to run and yield precious results needed...

When it comes to boosting antioxidant intake, recent research indicates there's little benefit from taking diet supplements. A better way, according to a report in the September issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter, is eating a diet rich in antioxidant-containing foods. Antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, carotene, lycopene, lutein and many other substances may play a role in helping to prevent...

Human remains yield secrets. Researchers are now probing the secrets of 'bog mummies' some dating back 2000 years, preserved from the Iron Age with amazing detail in peat bogs of Europe. Bog mummies have particularly interesting stories to tell. Physical anthropologists draw conclusions from the eerily preserved hair, leathery skin and other features that emerge from the bogs.

Migraines are more than a bad headache. As nearly 30 million Americans can attest, the throbbing pain of a migraine can be debilitating, lasting from a few hours to several days. The condition can be aggravated by light, sounds, odors, exercise, even routine physical activities. Nausea, with or without vomiting, may occur. Fortunately, treatment helps most people who have migraines.

A nanotechnology developed by a University at Buffalo professor has enabled researchers to identify a molecular signature common to both familial and sporadic cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease. It is the first time that a common molecular signature has been found in patients with both familial and sporadic cases, where no other family members have the disease,...

Type 1 diabetes occurs when immune cells destroy pancreatic insulin producing beta-cells. It was hoped that islet transplantation would provide a cure for the disease, however, transplant success is short-lived and accompanied by significant side effects. New data indicate that the immunosuppressive drugs used to prevent islet transplant rejection suppress beta-cell regeneration in diabetic mice,...

A new study has found an unexpected number of viruses and viral subtypes in patients with respiratory tract infections. The technique used in the study may help identify new viruses associated with human diseases.

A new study demonstrates the anti-cancer effect of a new therapeutic (eIF4E-specific anti-sense oligonucleotides) in a mouse model of human tumors and has spawned clinical trials to test the ability of this therapeutic to treat human cancers.

By 1763, the world of Cherokee Indians in the Southeastern U.S. was in tatters. The French and Indian War had wracked the sprawling Cherokee settlements that stretched from the headwaters of the Savannah River in South Carolina and Georgia to the Overhills towns in eastern Tennessee. Though 75 years would pass before the Trail of Tears would banish the remnants of the nation west to Oklahoma, the...

Skeletal muscle is composed of two types of muscle fiber, slow and fast, which have different capabilities -- slow fibers do not tire easily and are high endurance, whereas fast fibers tire easily and are low endurance. The relative amount of each fiber type is determined by muscle usage -- exercise training causes fast fibers to become slow fibers, whereas inactivity that results in muscle...

New evidence from a patient shows that the area of the brain that processes visual inputs can reorganize after an injury caused by stroke. Scientists found that a brain region that had stopped receiving signals from the eyes because of a stroke began responding to signals formerly processed in adjacent brain areas.

Researchers have developed a method for culturing mammalian neurons in chambers not much larger than the neurons themselves. The new approach extends the lifespan of the neurons at very low densities, an essential step toward developing a method for studying the growth and behavior of individual brain cells.

Several genes with strong associations to schizophrenia have evolved rapidly due to selection during human evolution, according to new research. Researchers found a higher prevalence of the influence of so-called positive selection on genes or gene regions known to be associated with the disorder than a comparable control set of non-associated genes, functioning in similar neuronal processes. This...

UCSD computer scientists have designed a system that automatically analyzes the behavior of all the WiFi connections in the UCSD computer science building. "In the end, we can say 'it's because of this that your wireless is slow or has stopped working' -- and we can tell you immediately," said one of the computer science professors working on the research.

Researchers working on the automatic recognition of manuscript documents have designed a new system that is more efficient and reliable than currently existing ones. The BSM ("Blurred Shape Model") has been designed to work with ancient, damaged or difficult to read manuscripts, handwritten scores and architectural drawings. It represents at the same time an effective human machine interface in...

Mice containing a mutated human gene implicated in autism exhibit the poor social skills but increased intelligence akin to the title character's traits in the movie "Rain Man," researchers have found. The researchers' study also shows how the mutation affects nerve function and provides an animal model that might allow further study of the debilitating condition.

Residents of Italy's capital will glimpse the future of urban mapmaking with the launch of "Wiki City Rome," a project developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that uses data from cellphones and other wireless technology to illustrate the city's pulse in real time. The project will debut Sept. 8 during Rome's "Notte Bianca" or white night, an all-night festival of events across the...

The release of sulfur and nitrogen into the atmosphere by power plants and agricultural activities plays a minor role in making the ocean more acidic on a global scale, but the impact is greatly amplified in the shallower waters of the coastal ocean, according to new research by atmospheric and marine chemists.

Color contrast is detected much earlier in the brain than previously thought, a new study shows. The research also confirms that the brain does most of the work in seeing the difference between colors, rather than the eye.

The underlying cause of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes is that there are insufficient pancreatic beta-cells to control the level of glucose in the blood. Given its potential impact on the treatment of diabetes, deciphering the molecular pathways that control beta-cell proliferation is an area of intensive investigation. In a new study scientists show that the protein Skp2 has a critical role in...

Postmenopausal women consuming two or more alcoholic beverages a day may double their risk of endometrial cancer, suggests a new study. The study also found that the association of alcohol intake and endometrial cancer is stronger among lean women than among overweight or obese postmenopausal women.

The future career path and creative direction of gifted youth can be predicted well by their performance on the SAT at age 13, a new study from Vanderbilt University finds. The study offers insights into how best to identify the nation's most talented youth. Overall, the creative potential of the participants was extraordinary. The findings contradict recent reports that the SAT has no predictive...