MBARI teams with Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary to study effects of shipping containers lost at sea

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10 March 2011
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Each year, an estimated 10,000 shipping containers fall off container ships at sea. Although many of these containers float at the surface for months, most eventually sink to the seafloor. No one knows what happens to these containers once they reach the deep seafloor.

From March 8 to March 10, 2011, a team of researchers from MBARI and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) will use a robotic submarine to study the biological impacts of a shipping container resting on the seafloor about 20 kilometers (12 miles) outside of Monterey Bay (but still within the boundaries of the sanctuary) — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Gel deal to benefit university

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6 March 2011
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A revolutionary new gel for healing wounds after sinus surgery has been successfully commercialised in a lucrative collaborative deal for the University of Otago.

Otago University officials say the exact financial details are commercially sensitive, but it is understood the deal is likely to substantially boost university research funds — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Australia pipped by US in the race to rollout the bionic eye

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5 March 2011
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Australia’s aim to be world leaders in commercialising the bionic eye has been dealt a blow with a US company gaining approval to sell its device this year.

Los Angeles-based Second Sight Medical Products said Australia was now one of a series of countries “on its radar” for marketing and transplanting its bionic eye, which this week received commercial go-ahead in Europe.

Second Sight’s bionic eye, the Argus II, will be available commercially after it attained the required CE Certification in Europe — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Plague Death Came Within Hours, Spurred by Scientist’s Medical Condition

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5 March 2011
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University of Chicago infectious disease specialist Ken Alexander still remembers the shock he felt almost 18 months ago when his pager shook with the message that a colleague had died from the plague.

A half-hour later, Alexander was sitting at a table in the dean’s office with researchers, lawyers, administrators and campus security officers, he recalled in an interview. The stricken colleague, Malcolm Casadaban, a 60-year-old genetics and cell biology professor, had checked into a hospital five days earlier and died within hours. Lab results were positive for the plague, and the university’s biosafety fire alarm had been triggered, Alexander said — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Plastic fantastic! Carrier bags ‘not eco-villains after all’

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5 March 2011
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Unpublished Government research suggests the plastic carrier may not be an eco villain after all – but, whisper it, an unsung hero. Hated by environmentalists and shunned by shoppers, the disposable plastic bag is piling up in a shame-filled corner of retail history. But a draft report by the Environment Agency, obtained by the Independent on Sunday, has found that ordinary high density polythene (HDPE) bags used by shops are actually greener than supposedly low impact choices.

HDPE bags are, for each use, almost 200 times less damaging to the climate than cotton hold-alls favoured by environmentalists, and have less than one third of the Co2 emissions than paper bags which are given out by retailers such as Primark — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Ibuprofen may reduce risk of getting Parkinson’s disease by a third

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5 March 2011
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Regular use of the painkiller and anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen may reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease by a third, a major study has found.

People who took the drug at least twice a week had a 38% lower risk of developing the condition than those who used other painkillers, such as aspirin, scientists said.

The findings, based on a review of 136,000 patient records, build on previous studies that also reported an apparent protective effect in those who took the drug — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Prehistoric giant hyena’s bone-cracking habit

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5 March 2011
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Scientists have established how the largest bone-cracking carnivore to have ever lived went about its business.

The giant hyena, Pachycrocuta brevirostris, roamed Africa more than 2.5 million years ago.

Using new evidence uncovered from recently unearthed fossils, and a biomechanical analysis of the hyena’s jaws, scientists have worked out what it ate and how — via redwolf.newsvine.com

How to train your mouse to be a wine snob

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4 March 2011
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Performance of mice in discrimination of liquor odors: behavioral evidence for olfactory attention.

We examined performance of mice in discrimination of liquor odors by Y-maze behavioral assays. Thirsty mice were initially trained to choose the odor of a red wine in the Y-maze. After successful training (>70% concordance for each trained mouse), the individual mice were able to discriminate the learned red wine from other liquors, including white wine, rosé wine, sake, and plum liqueur — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Sotheby’s to auction 1961 Soviet space capsule

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2 March 2011
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Before blasting the first human into space in 1961, the Soviet Union fired off one last test flight of the tiny capsule that would carry Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on his historic mission.

The test capsule, Vostok 3KA-2, still scorched from re-entry, will be sold at Sotheby’s in New York on April 12, the 50th anniversary of Gagarin’s flight.

Sotheby’s, which is displaying the capsule at its New York headquarters ahead of the sale, estimates it will fetch between $2 million to $10 million. The owner, who wished to remain anonymous, bought it privately from Russia several years ago — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Being bilingual may delay Alzheimer’s and boost brain power

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21 February 2011
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Learning a second language and speaking it regularly can improve your cognitive skills and delay the onset of dementia, according to researchers who compared bilingual individuals with people who spoke only one archers who compared bilingual individuals with people who spoke only one language.

Their study suggests that bilingual speakers hold Alzheimer’s disease at bay for an extra four years on average compared with monoglots. School-level language skills that you use on holiday may even improve brain function to some extent.

In addition, bilingual children who use their second language regularly are better at prioritising tasks and multitasking compared with monolingual children, said Ellen Bialystok, a psychologist at York University in Toronto — via redwolf.newsvine.com

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