Is there such a thing as "weather" on Mars? There are some doubts, considering the planet`s atmosphere is only 1 percent as dense as that of the Earth. Mars, however, definitely has clouds, drastically low temperatures and out-of-this-world dust storms. Istvan Szunyogh, a Texas A&M professor of atmospheric sciences, was recently awarded a NASA grant to analyze and forecast Martian we...

A Kansas State University study has shown that when preparing frozen foods, adolescents are less likely than adults to wash their hands and are more susceptible to cross-contaminating raw foods while cooking. "While half of the adults we observed washed their hands after touching raw chicken, none of the adolescents did," said Casey Jacob, a food safety research assistant at K-State. &qu...

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have shown that fat collection in different body locations, such as around the heart and the aorta and within the liver, are associated with certain decreased heart functions. The study, which appears online in Obesity, also found that measuring a person`s body mass index (BMI) does not reliably predict the amount of undesired fat in and...

An important, ground-breaking initiative is unfolding in the global critical care community in response to the H1N1 pandemic. While front-line health care workers and infectious disease experts around the world are working round the clock to control, treat and prevent H1N1 infection, those who deal with the most severely ill patients — physicians working in hospital intensive care units (ICU...

Carbon is usually typecast as a villain in terms of the environment but researchers at the University of Warwick have devised a novel way to miniaturise a technology that will make carbon a key material in some extremely green heating products for our homes and in air conditioning equipment for our cars. Most domestic heating and automotive air conditioning requires a lot of energy. Domestic space...

Novel nanomaterials developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are scheduled to blast off into orbit on November 16 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis. The project, funded by the U.S. Air Force Multi University Research Initiative (MURI), seeks to test the performance of the new nanocomposites in orbit. Space Shuttle Atlantis will carry the samples to the International Space Station (ISS). The mater...

Short-term memory may depend in a surprising way on the ability of newly formed neurons to erase older connections. That`s the conclusion of a report in the November 13th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, that provides some of the first evidence in mice and rats that new neurons sprouted in the hippocampus cause the decay of short-term fear memories in that brain region, without...

A study appearing in Science Translational Medicine puts scientists one step closer to clinical trials to test a gene delivery strategy to improve muscle mass and function in patients with certain degenerative muscle disorders. ...

Passing gas — flatulence — is normal and happens to everyone. But for some people, excessive gas and pain interfere with normal activities. The November issue of Mayo Clinic Women`s HealthSource offers tips to reduce gas. Gas is often caused by what and how one eats and drinks. "One common cause is swallowed air," says G. Richard Locke, III, M.D., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterolo...

Scientists at a group of 11 research centers in China are reporting for the first time assembly of the largest-ever collection of data about the proteins produced by genes in a single human organ. Their focus was the liver, and their massive database in both protein and transcript levels could become a roadmap for finding possible new biomarkers and treatments for liver disease. Those include hepa...