Science Blog

HIV-derived antibacterial shows promise against drug-resistant bacteria

ScienceBlog.com — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 18:31:59 +0000

A team of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh has developed antibacterial compounds, derived from the outer coating of HIV, that could be potential treatments for drug-resistant bacterial...

Academics earn street cred with TED Talks but no points from peers

ScienceBlog.com — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:11:46 +0000

TED Talks, the most popular conference and events website in the world with over 1 billion informational videos viewed, provides academics with increased popular exposure but does nothing to boost...

Detour ahead: Cities, farms reroute animals seeking cooler climes

ScienceBlog.com — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:09:33 +0000

Despite considerable human development, the southeastern United States region could provide some of the Western Hemisphere’s more heavily used thoroughfares for mammals, birds and amphibians on...

Laughing gas does not increase heart attacks

ScienceBlog.com — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:06:47 +0000

Nitrous oxide — best known as laughing gas — is one of the world’s oldest and most widely used anesthetics. Despite its popularity, however, experts have questioned its impact on the risk of a heart...

Making memories: Practical quantum computing moves closer to reality

ScienceBlog.com — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:05:19 +0000

Researchers have developed a new way to design quantum memory, bringing quantum computers a step closer to reality. The results will appear June 19 in the journal Nature Communications. Quantum...

Parasites affect the food web more than you think

ScienceBlog.com — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:01:47 +0000

Parasites are ubiquitous. They feed on virtually every animal and even on each other. Yet, for all the parasites’ collective contributions to biomass and biodiversity, conventional food webs...

Scientists find new tool to measure sugar consumption

ScienceBlog.com — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:00:26 +0000

Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks identified a new tool that can dramatically improve the notoriously inaccurate surveys of what and how much an individual eats and drinks. Their...

Tea Party: A hidden agenda of Obama’s opposition?

ScienceBlog.com — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:58:57 +0000

Is the US Tea Party movement a racial backlash against President Obama? A new study by Angie Maxwell from the University of Arkansas, and Wayne Parent from Louisiana State University, assesses...

The verdict on tiger-parenting? Studies point to poor mental health

ScienceBlog.com — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:36:40 +0000

Long before Amy Chua’s provocative 2011 memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, raised the bar for tough-love parenting, psychologists at UC Berkeley were studying the effects of three kinds of...

Surprising turns in magnetic thin films could lead to better data storage

ScienceBlog.com — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:16:02 +0000

A magnetic phenomenon newly discovered by MIT researchers could lead to much faster, denser and more energy-efficient chips for memory and computation. The findings, reported in the journal Nature...