Kelly Lagor's – August 2008 Archive (18)

Researchers Discover Technique to Regrow Hair Cells; Potential for Curing Deafness

Concert revelers rejoice! All those years spent shunning earplugs may not mean permanent hearing loss after all.

Researchers have found a way to regrow hair cells in the inner ear, which become irreparably damaged due to aging, disease and exposure to loud sounds.

From the… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 29, 2008 at 3:07pm — 2 Comments

Diabetes Researchers Convert Pancreas Cells to Produce Insulin

Researchers at Harvard have devised a way to turn normal pancreatic cells into insulin-producing ones.

From the article in the LA Times:

"The Harvard University scientists activated a trio of dormant genes that commanded the cells to transform themselves, much as a person might upload… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 29, 2008 at 2:28pm — No Comments

Flies in Danger Escape With Safety Dance

Anyone who works on a floor with a lab doing Drosophila research knows that those pesky little red-eyed creatures get in everything, and no matter how frantically you swat at them, they always seem to slip through your fingers. Now researchers know why they're so wily.

Michael Dickenson, a… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 29, 2008 at 2:20pm — No Comments

Crows Never Forget a Face

Ever have the urge to throw a rock at one of the thousands of crows in the San Diego area? Think again. It might be able to pick you out of a line up.

An article in the New York Times interviews Dr. John Marzluff, a professor of Ecosystem Sciences at the University of Washington, who studies… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 27, 2008 at 3:07pm — No Comments

Genetics Gives Psychiatrists a Boost

Genome-wide association studies are useful for identifying genetic loci that may be contributing to a disease, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A News and Views article appearing in the latest issue of Nature Genetics discusses the breakthroughs this approach has supplied to a field whose… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 27, 2008 at 2:58pm — No Comments

Scripps Scientist Warns of the "Rise of Slime"

Jeremy Jackson, an oceanography professor at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography is profiled in this week's UCSD News, discussing his hypothesis that pollution of the oceans by humans will cause mass extinctions beneath the waves.

From the UCSD News article:

"He cites the… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 26, 2008 at 12:21pm — No Comments

Monkeys Find Giving Rewarding

A research group headed by Dr. Frans de Waal at the Yerkes National Primate Research center at Emory University in Georgia have found that monkeys actually garner satisfaction from giving.

From the article in the Telegraph:

"Dr de Waal, director of the Living Links… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 26, 2008 at 12:06pm — No Comments

Beijing Air Clean-Up Means Big Research Opportunities

In the weeks leading up to the just-concluded Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government began cracking down on polluters, including car emissions and industrial pollution. This effort gave scientists a chance to see exactly how effective such clean-up efforts can be in such a short period of time. A researcher… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 25, 2008 at 6:03pm — No Comments

Cows Can Sense Earth's Magnetism

Even fledgling navigators know that moss grows on the North sides of trees, but now you can just look at a bunch of cows in a field. A recent article in PNAS describes how cows align to face magnetic north or south while grazing or resting.

From the NPR article:

"Eventually, his team… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 25, 2008 at 5:54pm — No Comments

Elephant Legs Much Bendier Than Shakespeare Thought

Think of an elephant. Are you picturing it standing around grazing? Perhaps ambling slowly through an African valley towards a lazy stream. Did you picture it bolting through the grass at 15mph? No? You're not alone. Shakespeare, and even Aristotle, have described them as having inflexible columns… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 22, 2008 at 4:46pm — No Comments

Magpies and Humans Share a "Recognizable" Trait

We humans are one of the few animals capable of recognizing ourselves in the mirror. Recent research indicates that magpies, the first bird species, also has this ability.

From the LA Times article:

"In a series of tests, each bird -- Gerti, Goldie, Harvey, Lilly and Schatzi -- was… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 22, 2008 at 4:30pm — No Comments

The Science of Getting a Yes

From the NPR website:

"Is persuasion an art or a science? We talk to Robert Cialdini, a social psychologist, who thinks a little psychology can improve your shot at getting what you want."

Listen to the full story on NPR… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 22, 2008 at 4:11pm — No Comments

Mice Can Sniff Out Fear

After coming back from a personal two week fiction writing retreat/vacation, where I finally finished a short horror story that had been sitting on my hard drive for a few months, I came across this little gem on NPR about how scientists have discovered an "alarm pheromone" and the neural cells… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 22, 2008 at 4:00pm — No Comments

Researchers Introduce Next Generation Tool for Visualizing Genomic Data

Many researchers have been eager to use genomics in order to understand the many and complex changes occurring between different experimental treatments or tissues. There's no lack of data out there these days, but the classic problem has been taking… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 4, 2008 at 11:17am — 1 Comment

Science Festivals: Celebrating Science as Culture

Dr. Lawrence Krauss, a Physics and Astronomy professor as well as author of The Physics of Star Trek, has written a commentary in the latest issue of Science about… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 2, 2008 at 5:36pm — No Comments

Scientists Create First Personalized Stem Cells in ALS Patients

A study published in the latest online edition of Science describes how researchers have reprogrammed the skin cells of ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) patients with the goal of creating fresh motor neurons to replace diseased cells.…

Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 2, 2008 at 5:25pm — No Comments

A Study of the Origins of Language Structure

In the latest edition of PNAS, a study by researchers at the University of Edinburgh and Northumbria University have developed an experimental approach to study the cumulative cultural evolution of language.

From the abstract:

"...we provide the first experimental… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 2, 2008 at 4:51pm — No Comments

Organic Lakes on Titan

Further study of Jupiter's moon, Titan, has revealed further similarities to Earth. A study published in Nature describes open bodies of liquid on Titan's surface.

From the commentary in Nature:

"The Voyager probes were unable to get a peek at Titan's surface, as it was… Continue

Added by Kelly Lagor on August 1, 2008 at 3:41pm — No Comments