http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. An international team of researchers led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has deciphered the genome of a tropical marine organism known to produce substances potentially useful against human diseases. http://phys.org/news224179703.html Biology Mon, 09 May 2011 17:09:07 EST news224179703 After more than a decade of inquiry, a Princeton-led team of scientists has turned the tables on a long-standing controversy to re-establish an old truth about nitrogen mixing in the oceans. http://phys.org/news171118161.html Space & Earth Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:20:01 EST news171118161 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists worry that rising global temperatures accompanied by melting permafrost in arctic regions will initiate the release of underground methane into the atmosphere. Once released, that methane gas would speed up global warming by trapping the Earth's heat radiation about 20 times more efficiently than does the better-known greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. http://phys.org/news171116588.html Space & Earth Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:00:01 EST news171116588 In the paper, The Boundless Carbon Cycle, published in the September issue of Nature Geoscience, scientists from the University of Vienna, Uppsala University in Sweden, University of Antwerp, and the U.S. based Stroud Water Research Center argue that current international strategies to mitigate manmade carbon emissions and address climate change have overlooked a critical player - inland waters. http://phys.org/news171050510.html Space & Earth Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:10:06 EST news171050510 (PhysOrg.com) -- Subtle connections between the 11-year solar cycle, the stratosphere, and the tropical Pacific Ocean work in sync to generate periodic weather patterns that affect much of the globe, according to research appearing this week in the journal Science. The study can help scientists get an edge on eventually predicting the intensity of certain climate phenomena, such as the Indian monsoon and tropical Pacific rainfall, years in advance. http://phys.org/news170601993.html Space & Earth Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:00:01 EST news170601993 (PhysOrg.com) -- Solar flares are amongst the most dangerous cosmic phenomena man has ever known. Though they pose no harm to humans, their effect on technology is vast. When they occur, they possess the capability to knock out satellites orbiting earth and bring down power grids that provide electricity to millions of people. In order to avoid catastrophe physicists around the globe are working to accurately forecast these solar flares. http://phys.org/news170535071.html Physics Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:51:47 EST news170535071 (PhysOrg.com) -- New analysis shows that the water scarcity being experienced in southeast Australia started up to 15 years ago. http://phys.org/news170519675.html Space & Earth Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:50:03 EST news170519675 Tropical rainforests play a crucial role in Earth's carbon cycle by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in biomass. However, mapping these carbon stocks from space poses a huge technical challenge. An airborne campaign, being carried out in South America, is showing how spaceborne radar could be an answer. http://phys.org/news170077227.html Space & Earth Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:50:01 EST news170077227 (PhysOrg.com) -- What do the Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone," global climate change, and acid rain have in common? They're all a result of human impacts to Earth's biology, chemistry and geology, and the natural cycles that involve all three. http://phys.org/news168598594.html Space & Earth Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:09:20 EST news168598594 Establishing a key link between the solar cycle and global climate, research led by scientists at the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., shows that maximum solar activity and its aftermath have impacts on Earth that resemble La Niña and El Niño events in the tropical Pacific Ocean. http://phys.org/news166966122.html Space & Earth Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:29:09 EST news166966122 No one knows exactly how much Earth's climate will warm due to carbon emissions, but a new study this week suggests scientists' best predictions about global warming might be incorrect. http://phys.org/news166795736.html Space & Earth Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:00:07 EST news166795736 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers has discovered an unexpected concentration of a certain isotopic molecule in parts of the stratosphere that could have implications for understanding the carbon cycle and its response to climate change. http://phys.org/news166795373.html Space & Earth Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:03:31 EST news166795373 Through a recent modeling experiment, a team of NASA-funded researchers have found that future concentrations of carbon dioxide and ozone in the atmosphere and of nitrogen in the soil are likely to have an important but overlooked effect on the cycling of water from sky to land to waterways. http://phys.org/news166357620.html Space & Earth Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:00:01 EST news166357620 (PhysOrg.com) -- Fifty million years ago, the North and South Poles were ice-free and crocodiles roamed the Arctic. Since then, a long-term decrease in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has cooled the Earth. Researchers at Yale University, the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the University of Sheffield now show that land plants saved the Earth from a deep frozen fate by buffering the removal of atmospheric CO2 over the past 24 million years. http://phys.org/news165674929.html Space & Earth Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:10:01 EST news165674929 For the first time, researchers have been able to identify genetic predictors of the potential success or failure of IVF treatment in blood. Dr. Cathy Allen, from the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, Ireland, told the 25th annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology today that her research would help understand why IVF works for some patients but not for others. http://phys.org/news165643562.html Medicine & Health Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:07:31 EST news165643562 US and European scientists were Tuesday bidding farewell to the tenacious solar probe Ulysses which has been recording data around the sun for more than 18 years, four times longer than planned. http://phys.org/news165584644.html Space & Earth Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:10:01 EST news165584644 The Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute (JGI) announced today that they will sequence the genomes of four species of labyrinthulomycetes. These little-known marine species were selected for sequencing as the result of a proposal submitted to the competitive JGI Community Sequencing Program by a team of microbiologists led by Dr. Jackie Collier, assistant professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University. http://phys.org/news165498490.html Biology Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:48:47 EST news165498490 Exercise and electro-acupuncture treatments can reduce sympathetic nerve activity in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), according to a new study. The finding is important because women with PCOS often have elevated sympathetic nerve activity, which plays a role in hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, obesity and cardiovascular disease http://phys.org/news165475002.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:17:54 EST news165475002 Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) losses from tile drains are an underquantified portion of the terrestrial carbon cycle. This is particularly important in the eastern corn belt where tile drainage dominates the agricultural landscape. Specific land management practices, such as manure application, can play a large role in the export of DOC as soluble organic carbon is applied to or injected into the soil surface. As animal agriculture intensifies in the upper Midwest, measuring DOC exported through tile drains is important when evaluating carbon budgets and carbon sequestration potential. http://phys.org/news164639559.html Space & Earth Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:51:03 EST news164639559 The sun is in the pits of a century-class solar minimum, and sunspots have been puzzlingly scarce for more than two years. Now, for the first time, solar physicists might understand why. http://phys.org/news164550243.html Space & Earth Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:00:01 EST news164550243 (PhysOrg.com) -- Many cancerous tumors possess a genetic mutation that disables a tumor suppressor called PTEN. Now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown why inactivation of PTEN allows tumors to resist radiation therapy. http://phys.org/news163845046.html Medicine & Health Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:31:10 EST news163845046 Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine are trailblazing the molecular pathway that regulates replication of pancreatic beta cells, the insulin-producing cells that are lacking in people who have type 1 or type 2 diabetes. http://phys.org/news163736694.html Medicine & Health Tue, 09 Jun 2009 03:25:32 EST news163736694 More and more, scientists are getting a better grip on the nitrogen cycle. They are learning about sources of nitrogen and how this element changes as it loops from the nonliving, such as the atmosphere, soil or water, to the living, whether plants or animals. Scientists have determined that humans are disrupting the nitrogen cycle by altering the amount of nitrogen that is stored in the biosphere. http://phys.org/news163344321.html Space & Earth Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:28:56 EST news163344321 (PhysOrg.com) -- Young Australians need to be better informed about the use of emergency contraception to reduce terminations and unwanted pregnancies. http://phys.org/news163263273.html Medicine & Health Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:55:18 EST news163263273 Nearly one percent of the population suffers from bleeding disorders, yet many women don't know they have one because doctors aren't looking for the condition, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center. http://phys.org/news163145690.html Medicine & Health Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:15:30 EST news163145690 (PhysOrg.com) -- An international panel of experts led by NOAA and sponsored by NASA has released a new prediction for the next solar cycle. Solar Cycle 24 will peak, they say, in May 2013 with a below-average number of sunspots. http://phys.org/news163083874.html Space & Earth Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:05:13 EST news163083874 Sleep disturbances increase as we age. Some studies report more than half of seniors 65 years of age or older suffer from chronic sleep disturbances. Researchers have long believed that the sleep disturbances common among the elderly often result from a disruption of the body's circadian rhythms -- biological cycles that repeat approximately every 24 hours. http://phys.org/news162813350.html Medicine & Health Fri, 29 May 2009 10:56:21 EST news162813350 ESA's next Earth Explorer, SMOS, has just passed the all-important Flight Acceptance Review, signifying that all the elements that make up the mission are in place for launch later this year. The satellite can now be prepared for its journey to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. http://phys.org/news162745439.html Space & Earth Thu, 28 May 2009 16:04:35 EST news162745439 (PhysOrg.com) -- An international panel of experts has released a new prediction for the next solar cycle, stating that Solar Cycle 24 will peak in May 2013 with a below-average number of sunspots. Led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and sponsored by NASA, the panel includes a dozen members from nine different government and academic institutions. Their forecast sets the stage for at least another year of mostly quiet conditions before solar activity resumes in earnest. http://phys.org/news162653480.html Space & Earth Wed, 27 May 2009 14:32:07 EST news162653480 An emerging form of the pathogenic yeast Candida is able to complete a full sexual cycle in a test tube, even though it's missing the genes for reproduction. And it may also do so while infecting us, according to Duke University Medical Center researchers. http://phys.org/news162395184.html Biology Sun, 24 May 2009 14:47:12 EST news162395184