TOP 100 CAMPING SITES
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| Robert Duncan: From Scrubbing Smokestacks to Superfluids in Space His finalist year: 1978 [More] rss.sciam.com |
Car Exhaust Associated With Premature Births in Southern California Women exposed to air pollution from freeways and congested roads are much more likely to give birth to premature babies and suffer from preeclampsia, according to a study by University of California scientists published Wednesday.The findings, based on pregnant women in the Long Beach/Orange County region of Southern California, add to the growing evidence that car and truck exhaust can jeopardize the health of babies while they are in the womb. [More] Presented By:You Need the Speed of Norton 2009Introducing the revolutionary Norton Internet Security 2009. With a one-click, one-minute install, under 7MB of memory usage and fewer, shorter scans, it?s the fastest security suite anywhere. Get your FREE trial today!Click to Learn More www.norton.com/speed Ads by Pheedo rss.sciam.com |
Balance of power: Wind fluctuations complicate energy distribution through grids When temperatures rose into the triple digits in the Pacific Northwest last week, breaking local heat records, electricity use also skyrocketed. Most grids can handle such events, but there was a problem in this case, Reuters reported. Just as A-C demand went up, winds slowed to nearly a halt. The calm air wasn’t turning turbines, a growing component of the region’s suite of energy sources. [More] rss.sciam.com |
50 Years Ago: Kidney Transplantation OCTOBER 1959 FOUNDER OF KIDNEY TRANSPLANTS -- “Identical-twin grafts have demonstrated that where an immunological barrier does not exist kidneys can be successfully transplanted to cure otherwise incurable kid­-ney and vascular disease. We transplanted a kidney from a healthy man to his criti­cally uremic brother. Though the men were probably not identical twins, we hoped that their relationship might make for some immunologic compatibility. The recipient was given a total dose of X-rays large enough to depress his reticuloendothelial tissues severely. As the patient’s reticuloendothelial system recovers from the radiation, it may be forced to become familiarized with the antigens and the transplanted kidney. It is as yet too early to evaluate the results of this transplant, but initially it appears to be successful. -- John P. Merrill ” [More] rss.sciam.com |
DNA Testing to Help Sharks Keep Fins I should start this podcast off with an admission--I have a serious problem with shark fin soup. Fishermen slice the fin off the shark and toss the creature back into the water to die. This happens to millions of sharks around the world, and some of those shark populations are endangered. Scientists have been trying to figure out which shark populations are most at risk by the slash-and-toss. Now there’s new DNA evidence that’s aiding the effort.Researchers used a tool called “genetic stock identification” to test samples of 62 scalloped hammerhead shark fins--an endangered species--from the Hong Kong fin market. They analyzed the mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down from the mother and is traceable to the sharks’ birth waters. Fifty-seven of those sharks came from Atlantic and Indo-Pacific waters, and 21 percent live in the western atlantic, where sharks’ numbers have now collapsed. The results were published online in the journal Endangered Species Research . [More] rss.sciam.com |