Alike It:
Our Immune Systems Are More Alike Than Previously Thought
by Simon Magus

When it comes to the mechanics of the human immune system, we are all more alike than previously thought, according to a new study.

This finding has significant implications for developing new ways to detect, diagnose and treat cancer and diseases of the immune system.

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Posted in: Science by bubblejam at 09:21 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry

Phage Turner:
Macrophages Regulate Immunity & Help Heal Wounds
by Simon Magus

The term 'macrophage' conjures images of a hungry white blood cell gobbling invading bacteria.

But macrophages do much more than that -- not only do they act as antimicrobial warriors, they also play critical roles in immune regulation and wound-healing.

They can respond to a variety of cellular signals and change their physiology in response to local cues.

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Posted in: Science by bubblejam at 08:48 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry

Funny Peculiar:
Laughter Plays Key Role in Group Dynamics
by Sir Thomas More

Laughter can play a key role in group communication and dynamics -- even when there's nothing funny going on.

That's according to a new study that examined the role of laughter in jury deliberations during a capital murder case.

Researchers were given access to the full transcript of jury deliberations in the 2004 Ohio trial of Mark Ducic, a white male charged with two murders and 30 additional counts, largely related to drug violations.

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Posted in: Science by bubblejam at 09:04 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry

Prescription for Addiction:
Many Opioid Addicts Got Hooked by Prescribed Drugs
by Simon Magus

When scientists wanted to find out how people became addicted to opioids and why they kept using, they asked addicts directly.

Thirty-one of 75 patients hospitalised for opioid detoxification told researchers that they first got hooked on drugs legitimately prescribed for pain.

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Posted in: Science by bubblejam at 06:33 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry

Sweet:
Moderate Chocolate Consumption Linked to Lower Risks of Heart Failure
by Simon Magus

chocolate.jpgA new study shows that middle-aged and elderly Swedish women who regularly ate a small amount of chocolate had lower risks of heart failure risks.

Women who ate an average of one to two servings of high cocoa chocolate per week had a 32 per cent lower risk of developing heart failure.

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Posted in: Science by bubblejam at 08:42 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry

SANE in the Membrane:
Low-Cost Nanopatterning Using Shrinky Dinks
by Sit Thomas More

Shrinky Dinks -- an arts and crafts material used by children since the 1970s -- are being used by scientist researching ways to fabricate nanomaterials.

The flexible plastic sheets have inspired a new inexpensive way to create, test and mass-produce large-area patterns on the nanoscale.

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Posted in: Science by bubblejam at 10:32 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry

This Old House:
Stone Age Remains Uncover Britain's Earliest House
by Simon Magus

Archaeologists excavating Stone Age remains at a site in North Yorkshire believe that it contains Britain's earliest surviving house.

The team from the Universities of Manchester and York say that the home dates to at least 8,500 BC -- when Britain was still attached to the continental European landmass.

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Posted in: Science by bubblejam at 09:27 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry

The Beauty Myth:
Attractive Women Face Prejudice in Certain Jobs
by Simon Magus

A new study has found that attractive women are discriminated against when applying for jobs considered 'masculine' and for which appearance is not seen as important.

These positions include manager of research and development, director of finance, mechanical engineer and construction supervisor.

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Posted in: Science by bubblejam at 05:42 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry

Human See, Human Do:
People Imitate Voices Even When They Can't Hear Them
by Sir Thomas More

Humans are constant imitators. We unintentionally mirror subtle aspects of each other’s mannerisms, postures and facial expressions.

We also imitate other people's speech patterns, including inflections, talking speed and speaking style -- even foreign accents of people we talk to.

A new study shows that unintentional speech imitation can even make us sound like people whose voices we never hear.

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Posted in: Science by bubblejam at 08:30 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry

Leftovers:
Ancient Viral DNA Found in Human Genome
by Simon Magus

Retroviruses are known to insert their genetic material into the host genome as part of their replication.

Scientists have previously found genetic material from retroviruses in vertebrate genomes.

Now a team of researchers have now discovered that human and other vertebrate genomes also contain many ancient sequences from Ebola/Marburgviruses and Bornaviruses -- two deadly virus families.

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Posted in: Science by bubblejam at 09:26 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry

Mine, All Mine:
New Breakthrough in Data Mining
by Sir Thomas More

When you deal with companies, you aren't just a customer, but you're also a mass of information with many 'dimensions' within a computer database.

Researchers have devised a new method for simpler, faster 'data mining' -- a way to simply extract and analyse massive amounts of this data.

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Posted in: Science by bubblejam at 08:28 AM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry

Spaceballs:
Buckyballs Found in Space
by Simon Magus

Astronomers have used Nasa's Spitzer Space Telescope to discover carbon molecules, known as buckyballs, floating in space for the first time.

Buckyballs were previously thought to float through space, but they had evaded detection until now.

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Posted in: Science by bubblejam at 05:22 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry