Forced evolution: Can we mutate viruses to death?

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HOUSTON -- Nov. 10, 2008 -- It sounds like a science fiction movie: A killer contagion threatens the Earth, but scientists save the day with a designer drug that forces the virus to mutate itself out of existence. The killer disease? Still a fiction. The drug? It could become a reality thanks to a new study by Rice University bioengineers.

Study confirms increased heart attack deaths in NYC ambulance diversions

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Ambulance diversions from nearby, crowded New York emergency rooms to more distant emergency departments are associated with increased deaths among patients suffering from heart attacks, according to a paper presented at a meeting of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®).

Research hightlights, AAO-SOE Joint Meeting, Nov. 9 sessions

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ATLANTA— The 2008 Joint Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (Academy) and European Society of Ophthalmology (SOE ), the largest and most comprehensive ophthalmic educational meeting in the world, is in session November 8 to 11 at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta. Offerings include 277 continuing medical education courses, 179 "Breakfast with the Experts" roundtables, 95 skills transfer courses, and more than 100 hours of scientific presentations, at no charge.

When a good nanoparticle goes bad

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Researchers at Cornell University recently made a major breakthrough when they invented a method to test and demonstrate a long-held hypothesis that some very, very small metal particles work much better than others in various chemical processes such as converting chemical energy to electricity in fuel cells or reducing automobile pollution.

Victoria Petite, a Stevens art and technology major, presents research at annual iDMAa conference

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HOBOKEN , N.J. – Victoria Petite '09, a Stevens Institute of Technology Art & Technology major, was invited to give a presentation at the annual International Digital Media and Arts Association (iDMAa) conference on her Technogenesis Summer Scholars research project, conducted this past summer with Professor H. Quynh Dinh and Professor Ebon Fisher. The conference was hosted in Savannah, Georgia, by the Savannah College of Art and Design, November 5-8.

Sedimentary records link Himalayan erosion rates and monsoon intensity through time

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Throughout history, the changing fortunes of human societies in Asia have been linked to variations in the precipitation resulting from seasonal monsoons.

A new paper published online today in the journal Nature Geoscience suggests that variations in monsoon climate over longer time scales also influenced the evolution of the Himalaya mountain chain, the world's highest.

The climate over much of Asia is dominated by seasonal winds that carry moist air over the Pacific Ocean into East Asia and over the Indian Ocean into South Asia.

Babies placed in incubators decrease risk of depression as adults

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Montreal, November 10, 2008 – Babies who receive incubator care after birth are two to three times less likely to suffer depression as adults according to a new study published in the journal Pyschiatry Research. The surprising discovery was made by scientists from the Université de Montréal and Sainte Justine Hospital Research Center in collaboration with researchers from McGill University, the Douglas Hospital Research Centre and the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College in the U.K.

Cornell researchers' study showing evidence of a major environmental trigger for autism

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ITHACA, N.Y. — The American Medical Association journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine has published a new study by researchers at Cornell University indicating evidence of an environmental trigger for autism among genetically vulnerable children. It is the first peer-reviewed study to positively associate the prevalence of autism to a factor related to the levels of precipitation in the areas in which children live.

Caring for the caregiver: Redefining the definition of patient

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INDIANAPOLIS – One quarter of all family caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients succumb to the stress of providing care to a loved one and become hospital patients themselves, according to an Indiana University study published in the November 2008 issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Ethanol will curb farm income until economy rebounds, economist says

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Ethanol helped drive two years of record profits for grain farmers, but also will hold income down during a looming recession that has already sliced crop prices in half, a University of Illinois economist says.

Scott Irwin says agriculture's fortunes are now tethered more to ethanol than food, making crop growers vulnerable to sharp price swings at filling stations rather than the typically slower cost shifts at grocery stores.