Science News

(American Chemical Society) Scientists are reporting the first identification of a chemical basis for people's preference for certain brands of vodka, which outsells rum, gin, whiskey and tequila. They found that vodka differs from simple water-ethanol solutions in ways that could alter vodka's perceived taste. Their findings appear in the American Chemical Society's biweekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

(Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft) Cycle helmets are available in a wide range of types, including foldable models, models fitted with a flashing rear light or featuring an iPhone display. In the future, they will start to smell distinctively if they need to be replaced. A new process causes odoriferous oils to exude from plastic materials if they are cracked.

(University of Utah Health Sciences) In a surprising discovery that someday may lead to new treatments for many inflammatory diseases, University of Utah scientists found that a hormone involved in iron metabolism can save mice from deadly acute inflammation.

(Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft) To diagnose cancer reliably, doctors usually conduct a biopsy including tissue analysis -- which is a time-consuming process. A microscopic image sensor, fitted in an endoscope, is being developed for in vivo cancer diagnosis, to speed up the detection of tumors.

(Carlos III University of Madrid) Scientists at the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid have proven the validity of tomographic representation of quantum states, which can help quantum technologies transmit information more safely and efficiently.

(Elsevier) Elsevier, a world-leading health care and scientific publisher, announced today that it has reached an agreement with Tarrytown, NY-based InfoDesk to co-develop a federated drug pipeline intelligence solution for pharmaceutical and life science companies.

(Risoe National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, the Technical University of Denmark) Ten major research institutions in Europe, including Risoe DTU, decided 18 months ago to enter into formalized cooperation on the development of sustainable energy technologies and, at a conference, June 3-4, in Madrid, the first joint research programs are being launched by the European Energy Research Alliance.

(University of Copenhagen) The Earth and moon were created as the result of a giant collision between two planets the size of Mars and Venus. Until now it was thought to have happened when the solar system was 30 million years old or approximately 4,537 million years ago. But new research from the Niels Bohr Institute shows that the Earth and moon must have formed much later -- perhaps up to 150 million years after the formation of the solar system.

(American Chemical Society) News media and others interested in the chemical sciences are invited to join the next in a series of American Chemical Society webinars, focusing on understanding professional liability for scientific consultants. The free webinar is scheduled for Thursday, June 10, from 2-3 p.m. EDT. News media and scientists can tune into the conference without charge, but must register in advance.

(Air Force Office of Scientific Research) Scientists from the US and Russia, engaged in a unique collaboration organized by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research, are conducting research in high-speed wind tunnel facilities to make discoveries in plasma-assisted combustion and plasma-based flow control.

(University of Missouri-Columbia) A University of Missouri doctoral student has developed a technique that uses digital imaging of soil samples to take some of the guesswork out of wetland identification.

(Optical Society of America) The Optical Society today announced that it will host two energy meetings in Tucson: the Imaging and Applied Optics Congress, June 7-8, at the Westin La Paloma, and the Optical Interference Coatings Topical Meeting, June 6-11, at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort. Both events will include a focus on technical breakthroughs in optics and photonics affecting the areas of alternative energy and the environment.

(Technische Universitaet Muenchen) Physicists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen are gearing up for experimental tests of findings they arrived at through theoretical considerations: that electrochemical reactions take place more rapidly on isolated, nanometer-scale electrodes than on their familiar macroscopic counterparts, and that this surprising behavior is caused by thermal noise. They say their method accounts for effects that macroscopic models can't explain and is general enough to address a variety of research questions beyond those concerning nanoelectrodes.

(American Academy of Sleep Medicine) Subjective sleepiness decreased and objective nighttime alertness improved after participants received a two-millisecond pulse of bright light once per minute for 60 minutes. Flash exposure, as compared with darkness, elicited significant improvement in self-rated alertness and a significant 57-millisecond improvement in median reaction time on the auditory Psychomotor Vigilance Test, compared with no significant improvement after 60 minutes of darkness. The randomized crossover study involved seven people who were tested two times.

(American Academy of Sleep Medicine) Obstructive sleep apnea patients had reductions of gray-matter volume at baseline but showed significant gray-matter volume increase after three months of CPAP therapy. No further improvement in gray-matter volume was observed after one year of CPAP therapy. The study involved 17 patients with an apnea-hypopnea index greater than 30 (i.e., more than 30 breathing pauses per hour of sleep), indicating severe obstructive sleep apnea. They were compared with 15 healthy controls.

(University of Florida) Vitiligo -- a complex disease that typically causes patches of white skin on the face, neck and extremities, which pop star Michael Jackson may have experienced -- is associated with slight variations in genes that play a role in the body's natural defenses. Multiple cellular pathways may contribute to the onset and progression of vitiligo, which makes fully understanding the disease complicated, but it also gives scientists a variety of starting points to begin developing therapies.

(Brown University) In a paper in Nature Chemistry, Vivek Shenoy and colleagues pinpointed noncarbon atoms that create defects when graphene is produced through a technique called graphene-oxide reduction. The researchers also propose how to make that technique more efficient by precisely applying hydrogen -- rather than heat -- to remove the impurities.

(ESO) Raymond Wilson, whose pioneering optics research at ESO made today's giant telescopes possible thanks to "active optics" technology, has been awarded the 2010 Kavli Prize in astrophysics. The founder and original leader of the Optics and Telescopes Group at ESO, Wilson shares the million-dollar prize with two American scientists, Jerry Nelson and Roger Angel.

(United States Geological Survey) Pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities can be a significant source of pharmaceuticals to surface waters, according to a new study by the US Geological Survey and the State of New York.Outflow from two wastewater treatment plants in New York that receive more than 20 percent of their wastewater from pharmaceutical facilities had concentrations of pharmaceuticals that were 10 to 1,000 times higher than outflows from 24 plants nationwide that do not receive wastewater from pharmaceutical manufacturers.

(University of Houston) As recently as 2007, teachHOUSTON, a math and science teacher-preparation program at the University of Houston, was an emerging pilot program hosting 14 students. Three years later, teachHOUSTON has been awarded an $80,000 grant from ExxonMobil, as well as the reigns for the flagship Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp.