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168,130 articles from ScienceDaily

Fungus Foot Baths Could Save Bees

One of the biggest world wide threats to honey bees, the varroa mite, could soon be about to meet its nemesis. Researchers at the University of Warwick are examining naturally occurring fungi that kill the varroa mite. They are also exploring a range of ways to deliver the killer fungus throughout the hives from bee fungal foot baths to powder...

A Hormone That Enhances One’s Memory Of Happy Faces

Oxytocin was originally studied as the “milk let-down factor,” i.e., a hormone that was necessary for breast-feeding. However, there is increasing evidence that this hormone also plays an important role in social bonding and maternal behaviors. A new study scheduled for publication in the August 1st issue of Biological Psychiatry now shows that one way oxytocin promotes social affiliation in...

International Monetary Fund Loans Linked To Higher Death Rates From Tuberculosis

International Monetary Fund loans were associated with a 16.6 percent rise in death rates from tuberculosis in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern European countries between 1992 and 2002. The study also found that IMF loans were linked with a 13.9 percent increase in the number of new cases of TB per year and a 13.2 percent increase per year in the total number of people with the...

Phonon Floodgate In Monolayer Carbon: Unexpected Gap-like Feature Found In Energy Spectrum Of Electrons Tunneling Into Graphene's Single Layer Of Atoms

The first scanning tunneling spectroscopy of graphene flakes equipped with a "gate" electrode has found an unexpected gap-like feature in the energy spectrum of electrons tunneling into graphene's single layer of atoms. Scientists who performed the research believe the peculiar feature arises from the interaction of the tunneling electrons with phonons, the quantized vibrations of the 2-D graphene...

Breast Cancer Detection: A Simpler Alternative To Mammograms?

Whether a painless, portable device that uses electrical current rather than X-ray to look for breast cancer could be an alternative to traditional mammograms is under study. New research will compare traditional mammograms to impedence scanning, a technique based on evidence that electrical current passes through cancerous tissue differently than through normal...

Plant Steroids Offer New Paradigm For How Hormones Work

Steroids bulk up plants just as they do human athletes, but the molecular signals that tell the genes to boost growth and development in plant cells is far more complicated than in human and animal cells. Understanding how these plant hormones activate genes could lead not only to enhanced harvests but also to new insights into how steroids regulate growth in both plant and animal...

New Piece Of Climate Change Puzzle Found In Ancient Sedimentary Rocks

Researchers have added a new source of carbon dioxide to the complex climate change puzzle by showing that ancient rocks can release substantial amounts of organic matter into Earth's rivers and oceans, and that this organic matter is easily converted by bacteria to carbon dioxide, which enters the atmosphere and contributes to climate...

Prevalence Of Dementia In The Developing World Underestimated

Previous estimates of levels of dementia in the developing world may have substantially underestimated the problem, according to research published today. The findings suggest that policymakers in low-income and middle-income countries may need to re-examine the burden and impact that dementia places on their health...

Scientists Suspect Omega-3 Fatty Acids Could Slow Acute Wound Healing

A recent study shows that popular fish oil supplements have an effect on the healing process of small, acute wounds in human skin. But whether that effect is detrimental, as researchers initially suspected, remains a mystery. The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils are widely considered to benefit cardiovascular health and other diseases related to chronic inflammation because of their...

Anti-HIV Therapy Boosts Life Expectancy More Than 13 Years

HIV patients taking a cocktail of drugs called combination antiretroviral therapy have seen a 13-year boost in life expectancy, according to a new study. Improved survival has led to a nearly 40 percent drop in AIDS deaths among 43,355 HIV-positive study participants in Europe and North America, bolstering the call for improved anti-HIV efforts worldwide, the study authors...

Anthropologist Helps Unravel Mummy Mystery

Anthropologists are in the process of unraveling a mummy bundle found in Peru's historic Huaura Valley. The mummy is believed to have been an elite member of the Chancay culture, a civilization that thrived in the central coast of Peru from about 1000 to 1400 AD. The territory of the Chancay was later home to the...

Paying To Save Tropical Forests Could Be A Way To Reduce Global Carbon Emissions

Wealthy nations willing to collectively spend about $1 billion annually could prevent the emission of roughly half a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year for the next 25 years, new research suggests. It would take about that much money to put an end to a tenth of the tropical deforestation in the world, one of the top contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, researchers...