Hurricane Floyd signal of a new weather era?
...hat operates on a timescale of several decades and affects world weather patterns. When it's active, ... is fluctuations in the sun's magneticfield, which affects the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth and tends tochange on a 20-27 year cycle. What...Scientists identify brain chemicals involved in 'switching on' cocaine addiction
...ns, thereby affecting theiractivity, which in turn affects brain function. Studies have suggested thatchanges in glutamate receptors, perhaps involving changes in individualcomponents or subunits of the receptors, may be important in cocaine addiction. The scientists found that switching on the delta...Male courtship pheromone identified
...fied the pheromone, a single proteincomponent that affects the female, and the gene that is responsible forproduction of that protein. Of considerable interest, Houck said, is that thisgene is similar, although not identical, to one found in humans. In salamanders, the courtship and mating process is...Learning how organs tell left from right
...nvolved in a condition calledsitus invertus, which affects approximately 1 in 10,000 humans and gives rise toa mirror-image organization of the internal organs. In many cases the disorderhas no adverse consequences, though it can be associated with heartabnormalities. Rosenfeld also hopes to begin identifyi...NIAMS funds the North American Spondylitis Consortium
..., especially in thelower back. While AS primarily affects the spine, it can also causeinflammation in the hips, shoulders and knees. AS usually begins in lateadolescence or early adulthood. The disease is primarily diagnosed in men;however, recently, diagnosis of AS among women has increased. Treatment f...First results of male osteoporosis treatment study
...steoporosis. Though widely known as a disease that affects women, osteoporosis is responsiblefor bone fractures in as many as 25 percent of men over the age of 60. Almost 50percent of women over 60 suffer fractures from the disease. "The problem of male osteoporosis is becoming more important as there are mo...Study confirms protein culprit in alcohol-induced liver disease
...p drug therapies for thisdevastating disease which affects 11 million people in the United States alone,"says senior study author Dr. Ronald G. Thurman, professor of pharmacology atUNC-CH School of Medicine. The report points to tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) as theliver injury culprit. Thi...Scientists to discuss role of water vapor in Earth's climate system
...ns 6-10 miles (10-16kilometers) altitude, where it affects the quantity of ozone (O3). But, despitewater vapor's importance, its distribution and variability has not been as wellstudied as scientists would wish. One of the conference goals is to bring together specialists in the troposphereand the stratosph......d drowning could becaused by a genetic defect that affects the heart's rhythm," says MichaelAckerman, M.D., P...ect." Long-QT syndrome is a genetic condition that affects the heart's electricalsystem. In patients with long-QT syndrome, the heart takes longer to reset, or...UT Southwestern researchers discover structure of molecule that repairs sun and cigarette damage
... that NER recognizes damage because ofhow a lesion affects DNA flexibility rather than because of its chemical makeup. This model, if proven, would help to explain the whole NER system andcould aid in development of more effective cancer drugs. The other researchers involved in the study were...Just how serious a problem is alcoholism?
...ay that alcoholism is a happy place to be. Alcohol affects virtually every organ system in the body and alters the activityof most major neurochemicals in the brain. People who abuse alcohol are, inessence, destroying their own bodies. According to some studies, 14 to 17percent of the American population h......mal size. Limb girdle muscular dystrophy affects several thousand people in the UnitedStates, causing rapid degeneration of the large muscles attached to theshoulders and hips. Currently no effective treatment exists for this fataldisorder. The Children's/Pitt team of investigators is currently p...CU studies suggest exercise protects body against negative effects of stress from brain to cell
...-down" explanation of how and why regular exercise affects stress. Doctors know that people who exercise regularly are less likely to get sick after stressful situations than those who don't exercise, and that exposure to mental or physical stress increases a person's susceptibility to illness or disease, s...Unveiling all of the consequences: Introduced plants may be causing hidden trouble
...North America. To determine how crested wheatgrass affects the prairie ecosystem, Christian and Wilson compared hundreds of samples of grass and soil from Canada's Grasslands National Park in southwestern Saskatchewan. The park is a mosaic of undisturbed prairie and 50-year-old fields of the introduced wheat......ves around molecular shapes and how theenvironment affects the persistence of pollutants. When molecular shapes do notpermit a close fit, they cannot interact very well, and thus chemicals withthese molecules pose a less-serious threat to living things. "It's like trying to shake someone's right han...Alzheimer protein found critical to brain development
...Disease is the most common form of dementia, which affects 316,500 Canadians. The number is expected to grow to 750,000 Canadians affected by the year 2031. The other study authors are: Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital; Masaki Ikeda, Centre for Research...UNC-CH scientist encourages all to watch PBS series on microbes
...sing exclusively on the microbial world and how it affects life on Earth. The hour-long programs will begin Tuesday (Nov. 9) at 8 p.m. on the Public Broadcasting System. A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill microbiologist who was intimately involved in designing and producing the series called it "...Global warming threatens state's quality of life
...raught with water shortages, wildfires and adverse affects on its habitat, economy and quality of life as soon as 2030. That is the prediction of a study released today by the Ecological Society of America and the Union of Concerned Scientists which includes major contributions by three University of Califo...Koehler awarded NSF grant for study of atmospheric gases
...w soot derived from the exhaust stream of jet fuel affects the chemical balance of the atmosphere such as through the formation of visible condensation trails behind jet aircraft. Scientists have discovered that sulfur from jet fuel is converted into sulfuric acid more rapidly than would have predicted wit......nged the dynamics of those ecosystem processes. It affects ecosystem functioning and population dynamics. The...ientific debate about how the loss of biodiversity affects the way in which ecosystems function - recently a major focus of ecological research. The BIODEPTH e...