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EurekAlert! - Breaking News
The premier online source for science news since 1996. A service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

• Duke researchers show reading can help obese kids lose weight
  It's no secret that reading is beneficial. But can it help kids lose weight? In the first study to look at the impact of literature on obese adolescents, researchers at Duke Children's Hospital discovered that reading the right type of novel may make a difference.
• How much are you really exercising?
  In a study to be presented at the Obesity Society's annual meeting, researchers at Temple's Center for Obesity Research and Education found that obese women reported their activity levels most accurately, when compared to overweight and normal weight women.
• Corner stores capture kids on morning commute
  Researchers from Temple University and The Food Trust recently examined the eating habits of urban children before and after school as part of a larger project to make corner store snacks healthier.
• Newly identified cells make fat
  The discovery of an important fat precursor cell may explain how changes in the numbers of fat cells might increase and lead to obesity.
• New study on effects of disclosing financial interests on participation in medical research
  Knowing how an investigator is paid for running a research study surprisingly plays a small role in patients' willingness to take part in clinical trials. However, according to a new Johns Hopkins University study more participants are troubled when they are told that the investigator could profit or lose money depending on the results.
• Discovery of natural compounds that could slow blood vessel growth
  sing computer models and live cell experiments, biomedical engineers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered more than 100 human protein fragments that can slow or stop the growth of cells that make up new blood vessels.
• Oklahoma researchers support biodiversity in biofuels production
  US and European mandates for subsidies of cellulosic ethanol production and use have uncertain environmental consequences according to an international group of scientists which includes researchers from the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University.
• Gas from the past gives scientists new insights into climate and the oceans
  In recent years, public discussion of climate change has included concerns that increased levels of carbon dioxide will contribute to global warming, which in turn may change the circulation in the Earth's oceans, with potentially disastrous consequences.
• Viewers will receive greatest benefit in presidential town hall debate
  The candidates will be joined by dozens of "undecided" citizens eager to interrogate the two presidential hopefuls. While political strategists and media pundits are busy pondering which candidate is best served by such encounters, Mitchell McKinney, a University of Missouri associate professor of communication and presidential debate expert, says that citizens at home viewing the debate may be the greatest beneficiaries.
• Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News reports on growing role of molecular diagnostics
  Novel platform technologies and key advances in genomics are rapidly driving the development of molecular diagnostics, reports Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News. The payoff for successful molecular diagnostic products can be significant as Kalorama Information predicts that this market currently exceeds $3.2 billion worldwide and will reach $5.4 billion in four years.
• World's biggest computing grid launched
  The world's largest computing grid is ready to tackle mankind's biggest data challenge from the earth's most powerful accelerator. Today, three weeks after the first particle beams were injected into the Large Hadron Collider, the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid combines the power of more than 140 computer centers from 33 countries to analyze and manage more than 15 million gigabytes of LHC data every year.
• More research needed to make good on biofuel promise, experts say
  While cellulosic biofuels derived from grasses, crop residues and inedible plant parts have real potential to be more efficient and environmentally friendly than grain-based biofuels like corn ethanol, more research and science-based policies are needed to reap these benefits, says an international group of experts.
• Traits produced by melanin may signal the bearer's capacity to combat free radicals
  A recent article by Ismael Galván at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid and Carlos Alonso-Alvarez at IREC-CSIC, Spain, published in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE proposes a novel hypothesis suggesting that these melanin-produced traits could indicate the ability of the bearer in fighting free radicals and oxidative damage.
• Gene expression in alligators suggests birds have 'thumbs'
  The latest breakthrough in a 120 year-old debate on the evolution of the bird wing was published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE, Oct. 3, by Alexander Vargas and colleagues at Yale University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.
• Discovery of a type of aerosols from Sahara which will be useful to study climate change
  Scientists from Granada have named iberulites certain spheric mineral aggregates smaller than a millimeter which come from Central Africa (Sahara desert and Sahel countries) to the Iberian Peninsula swept away through the air, and which had not been identified previously.The researchers are carrying out weekly samples collecting atmospheric dust since 1999, and they have determined through satellite images the route followed by these particles in their atmospheric journey.
• Medical student gender and self-confidence
  Despite performing equally to their male peers in the classroom and the clinic, female medical students consistently report decreased self-confidence and increased anxiety, particularly over issues related to their competency.
• SNM releases new fact sheet on breast cancer and molecular imaging
  Coinciding with the observance of Nuclear Medicine Week (Oct. 5 to 11) and National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October), SNM released today a new fact sheet highlighting recent developments in molecular imaging technologies that are dramatically improving the ways in which breast cancer is diagnosed and treated.
• Researchers find household insecurity associated with food insecurity, poor health
  Researchers from Boston Medical Center have recently found that as household energy insecurity increases, the odds of infants and toddlers experiencing food insecurity, negative health, hospitalizations and developmental risks also increases. A household experiences energy insecurity when it lacks consistent access to the amount or the kind of energy needed for a healthy and safe life. These findings appear in the Vol. 122, No. 4, October 2008, issue of the journal Pediatrics.
• The geology of the Civil War
  Historians have spent decades analyzing the military actions of the Civil War. Nowgeologists are having their say.
• Safer buildings are goal of new code changes based on recommendations from NIST WTC investigation
  Future buildings -- especially tall structures -- should be increasingly resistant to fire, more easily evacuated in emergencies, and safer overall thanks to 23 major and far-reaching building and fire code changes approved recently by the International Code Council based on recommendations from the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology. The recommendations were part of NIST's investigation of the collapses of New York City's World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001.