Climate change plus human pressure caused large mammal extinctions in late Pleistocene
...ed only about 10,000 years ago with the end of the last ice age. In previous studies of animal remains lay...n West, Barnosky has found that during some of the last few glacial/interglacial cycles between 1 million and 600,000 years ago, the number of small, medium...Houston minority graduation rises in sciences, engineering as result of UH-led alliance
...cess in a national NSF-sponsored program. In the last five years, the Houston-Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (H-LSAMP), led by UH and consisting of seven other academic institutions of higher education, is one of the most successful in the nation and on track to achieve its goal of inc...Gladstone investigator Mike McCune wins prestigious NIH Director's Pioneer Award
...osen to receive the prestigious award, established last year and awarded for the first time this year. The NIH Director's Pioneer Award (NDPA) program was created to identify and fund investigators of exceptionally creative abilities and to provide them with enough funding -- $500,000 per year in direct c...'Most recent common ancestor' of all living humans surprisingly recent
...nd reproduction of all people who lived within the last 20,000 years. These more realistic models estimate that the most recent common ancestor of mankind lived as recently as about 3,000 years ago, and the identical ancestors point was as recent as several thousand years ago. The paper suggests, "N...Genetic differences might help distinguish thyroid cancers
...n cancer of the endocrine hormone system. Over the last few years, thyroid cancer has risen at an alarming rate, Eng says. An estimated 23,600 new cases of thyroid cancer are expected this year, nearly two-thirds of which will occur in women, and 1,460 Americans are expected to die from the disease. PTC r...Cardiac arrest may hinder ability to learn certain tasks
...re tested three times a day for three days. By the last day of these tests, the mice in the cardiac arrest group swam an average of two meters more than did the control mice in their search for the platform. "The mice now had to learn a new strategy for finding the platform, and the mice in the c......tics and nano-sized drug delivery systems over the last decade has been remarkable. A growing number of products have already secured regulatory authority approval and, in turn, are supported by a healthy clinical development pipeline. They include products used to treat multiple sclerosis, AIDS, cancer, ...Study: Emission of smog ingredients from trees is increasing rapidly
...areas where farmland has been abandoned during the last century have early generations of trees that produce higher levels of VOCs than older growth forests. In the South, pine plantations used for their fast-growing supplies of timber have proven to be havens for sweetgum trees, which are major producers...UCSF scientist Joe Derisi named MaCarthur Fellow
... a single phone call from the MacArthur Foundation last Tuesday, Sept. 21. "I feel like I'm in pretty extraordinary company." Candidates are nominated for the award, evaluated and selected through a rigorous and confidential process, according to the Foundation. No one can apply for the awards, and ...Newly identified master gene key in baby's first breath
...id. Because lungs do not fully mature until the last trimester of gestation, when an infant is born prematurely, the lungs are not fully developed and lack the necessary amount of surfactant needed to keep the lungs working properly. Surfactant is a natural chemical found in the lungs that prevents alv...Indiana University, EPA to study airborne PCBs
...vironment Canada since 1994. The EPA released data last month showing that elevated PCB levels have led to... to be less contaminated. Another study, published last year in the National Institutes of Health journal Environmental Health Perspectives and co-authored ...UCI scientists successfully target key HIV protein; breakthrough may lead to new drug therapies
...aid Weiss. The researchers reported their findings last week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. The print version of the research paper will appear in the Sept. 28 issue of the journal. Human immunodeficiency virus, commonly known as HIV, is known to cause AIDS. T...New hydrothermal vents discovered as 'South Pacific Odyssey' research begins
...d a veteran of over 20 deep-sea expeditions in the last two decades. "If we're successful, it will also be the first time that a systematic exploration and discovery of hydrothermal vents over hundreds of kilometers has been achieved." Continuous updates about this series of expeditions and its discoverie...Brown research reveals key insight into memory-making
... stimulation. This increased synaptic strength can last hours, even days, and is believed to be the cellular basis for memory. AMPA receptors on the membrane of the information-receiving neuron, known as the postsynaptic cell, act like gates, opening in response to chemical messages from a neighboring neu...'Fossil genes' reveal how life sheds form and function
...ange has to be relatively recent. Sometime in the last 5 to 10 million years the pressure (on these genes) started to relax," Carroll explains....Research suggests new avenue for stopping, preventing colon cancer
... significantly, DuBois and his colleagues reported last February in Nature Medicine. The same mutation is found in 80 percent of patients with colorectal cancer. The findings suggest that drugs that activate PPARdelta "may encourage abnormal cell growth in certain populations at risk for colorectal cancer...Targeted therapy knocks out pediatric brain cancer in mice
...rvous system has not improved significantly in the last three decades," explains study author Dr. Tom Curran from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. "This is partly due to the absence of adequate model systems for testing novel therapies." Dr. Curran and colleagues used a mouse m...US investment firm gives away Rhode Island-sized lands in Chile
...e region in perpetuity. The announcement was made last Friday in Chile. "This announcement underscores ...stablishing a formal Alliance, that is intended to last for three years. Goldman Sachs, the Goldman Sachs Charitable Fund, and WCS will begin immediately t...Folic acid vitamin use by women reaches all-time high, March of Dimes survey finds
... containing folic acid in 2004, up from 32 percent last year and the highest level since the March of Dimes began surveying women in the 1990s, according to the organization's latest survey, which was published today in Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report. "Frankly, we're surprised at this increase, but...9/11 search-and-rescue dogs exhibit few effects from exposure to disaster sites
...er-effects of working at the 9/11 sites. For the last three years, the Penn researchers tracked the health of dogs and handlers from the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Fresh Kills Landfill site on Staten Island, where debris from the World Trade Center was further searched. "Overall, t...