Heavens

ST. PAUL, Minn. – New research suggests that people who are exposed to low levels of sunlight coupled with a history of having a common virus known as mononucleosis may be at greater odds of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) than those without the virus. The research is published in the April 19, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Virtual nasal surgery has the potential to be a productive tool that may enable surgeons to perform personalized nasal surgery using computer simulation techniques, according to researchers at The Medical College of Wisconsin.

Boston, MA – Using 120 years of feathers from natural history museums in the United States, Harvard University researchers have been able to track increases in the neurotoxin methylmercury in the black-footed albatross (Phoebastria nigripes), an endangered seabird that forages extensively throughout the Pacific.

The study shows that the observed increase in methylmercury levels, most likely from human-generated emissions, can be observed and tracked over broad time periods in organisms that live in the Pacific Ocean.

Ann Arbor, Mich., -- Childhood obesity affects 1 of every 6 kids in the United States, in part due to a lack of physical activity. Schools can play a key part in offering elementary-age kids lots of chances to be active—on the playground during recess and when they're in gym.

But recent increasing expectations about academic achievement, coupled with budget cuts, have prompted many schools to cut back on both recess and gym class.

Oxygenation brings dead sea bottoms to life. This creates the necessary conditions for the establishment of new ecosystems that enable nature itself to deal with eutrophication. By conducting pilot studies in two fjords in Sweden, researchers at the University of Gothenburg have demonstrated that pumping oxygen-rich surface water down to sea bottoms is effective. A large wind-driven pump is now to be tested in open water in the Baltic.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---The hottest stars in the universe spin so fast that they get a bit squished at their poles and dimmer around their middle. The 90-year-old theory that predicts the extent of this "gravity darkening" phenomenon has major flaws, according to a new study led by University of Michigan astronomers.

The von Zeipel law, named for its creator, Swedish astronomer Edvard Hugo von Zeipel, has been used for the better part of a century to predict the difference in surface gravity, brightness and temperature between a rapidly rotating star's poles and its equator.

Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder that currently affects about one in every 200 people. Most patients find some relief from their symptoms by treatment with antipsychotics, however they may still suffer from cognitive and negative symptoms. These include poor concentration and memory, apathy, or a reduced ability to cope in social situations. Preliminary research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine shows that patients who received L-lysine alongside their normal medication found some reduction in the severity of their symptoms.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---For the first time, scientists have made star-shaped, biodegradable polymers that can self-assemble into hollow, nanofiber spheres, and when the spheres are injected with cells into wounds, these spheres biodegrade, but the cells live on to form new tissue.

A new paper appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests that people, governments, and institutions that shape the way people interact may be just as important for determining environmental conditions as the environmental processes themselves.

"Tipping points," qualitative changes in an ecosystem that often result in reduced ecosystem health and are difficult and costly to reverse increasingly concern environmental scientists.

The low pressure area formerly known as System 92S has strengthened overnight and developed into Tropical Storm Errol today, April 15. Infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite showed strong thunderstorms near Errol's center, but they remained off-shore from Western Australia's northern coast.

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who are hospitalized for pneumonia and treated with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) have decreased mortality when compared to those who are not treated with ICS, according to a retrospective analysis of almost 16,000 COPD patients admitted to VA hospitals.

The results were published online ahead of the print edition of the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

If you've ever stood in front of a hot stove, watching a pot of water and waiting impatiently for it to boil, you know what it feels like to be a solar physicist.

Back in 2008, the solar cycle plunged into the deepest minimum in nearly a century. Sunspots all but vanished, solar flares subsided, and the sun was eerily quiet.

"Ever since, we've been waiting for solar activity to pick up," says Richard Fisher, head of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. "It's been three long years."

Dark matter, the mysterious substance that may account for nearly 25 percent of the universe, has so far evaded direct observation. But researchers from UCLA, Columbia University and other institutions participating in the international XENON collaboration say they are now closer than ever before.

In the first scientific results from the new European telescope LOFAR (Low Frequency Array) to appear in a journal – Astronomy & Astrophysics – the scientists present the most sensitive, low-frequency observations of pulsars ever made.

The International LOFAR Telescope is the first in a new generation of massive radio telescopes, designed to study the sky at the lowest radio frequencies accessible from the surface of the Earth with unprecedented resolution. Deep observations of pulsars is one of its key science goals.

Some of the Pharmaceuticals intended for the treatment of minor illnesses of astronauts in space may require special packaging and reformulation to remain stable for long periods in the space environment. That's according to Dr. Putcha and her colleagues from NASA, Johnson Space Centre. Their findings, published online in The AAPS Journal suggest that some of the pharmaceuticals stored on space flights may have shorter shelf-life than they do on Earth.