Earth

Exposure to the chemical bisphenol A during early pregnancy may be associated with wheezing in children, according to a Penn State College of Medicine researcher.

Bisphenol A, or BPA is a chemical found in many consumer products, including plastic water bottles and food containers. It is present in more than 90 percent of the U.S. population, suggesting widespread exposure. Experimental research suggests that prenatal BPA exposure causes asthma in mice, but no data exists for humans.

Researchers from the MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, China, have expanded the range of monomer pairs used in their established metal-free click polymerization of aroylacetylene–azides to propiolate–azides. They efficiently prepared functional poly(aroxycarbonyltriazole) compounds with aggregation-induced emission characteristics. This study was reported in Volume 54 (Number 4, 2011) of SCIENCE CHINA Chemistry, owing to its significant scientific value.

DENVER – Parents who give young children prescription painkillers should take extra care to make sure they give just the right amount. What they may be surprised to learn, however, is that the dose given to them by the pharmacy could be too high, according to research to be presented Saturday, April 30, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Denver.

Today the University of Chicago's Flash Center for Computational Science will release a major new version of supercomputer code, called FLASH 4-alpha. Based on previous software for simulating exploding stars, this is the first version of the FLASH code that has extensive capabilities for simulating high-energy density physics experiments.

The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) applauds the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia's decision to dismiss District Court Judge Royce Lamberth's ruling against the use of public funds for embryonic stem cell research.

A team of scientists has produced an innovative new study of the environmental impact of major urban ecosystems, published in the April issue of the journal Ecological Applications.

The team includes Joseph P. McFadden and Jennifer Y. King, both of UC Santa Barbara's Department of Geography. They analyzed environmental data gleaned from the "Twin Cities Household Ecosystem Project," a study of 3,100 households in the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., and surrounding areas. The article is the first major paper to come out of the project.

Proton radiography imaging used prior to and during proton treatments for pediatric cancer patients provides for more accurate treatment delivery and a lower dose of radiation compared to standard diagnostic X-rays and cone beam CT, according to a study presented today at the Cancer Imaging and Radiation Therapy Symposium in Atlanta. The symposium is co-sponsored by the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and their colleagues have discovered that massive, swirling ocean eddies—known to be up to 500 kilometers across at the surface—can reach all the way to the ocean bottom at mid-ocean ridges, some 2,500 meters deep, transporting tiny sea creatures, chemicals, and heat from hydrothermal vents over large distances.

The 25-story construction crane used since 1995 to investigate such things as how Pacific Northwest forests absorb carbon dioxide, obtain sufficient water and resist attacks by pests and diseases is being pruned back to just the tower.

Valley-based electronics, also known as valleytronics, is one step closer to reality. Two researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have shown that the valley degree of freedom in graphene can be polarized through scattering off a line defect. Unlike previously proposed valley filters in graphene, which rely on confined structures that have proven hard to achieve experimentally, the present work is based on a naturally occurring line defect that has already been observed.

UPTON, NY -- Like atomic-level bricklayers, researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory are using a precise atom-by-atom layering technique to fabricate an ultrathin transistor-like field effect device to study the conditions that turn insulating materials into high-temperature superconductors.

A team of scientists led by Rice University has figured out why the Colorado Plateau – a 130,000-square-mile region that straddles Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico -- is rising even while parts of its lower crust appear to be falling. The massive, tectonically stable region of the western United States has long puzzled geologists.

Berkeley, CA-- As China's economy continues to soar, its energy use and greenhouse gas emissions will keep on soaring as well—or so goes the conventional wisdom. A new analysis by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) now is challenging that notion, one widely held in both the United States and China.

The antimatter equivalent of helium nuclei has been produced by an international team of physicists working with the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York. Two University of California, Davis, professors are members of the team. A paper describing their results is published online this week by the journal Nature.

In this week's PLoS Medicine, Kathryn Chu, from Médecins Sans Frontières in Cape Town, South Africa, and colleagues describe the experiences of MSF after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and discuss how to improve delivery of surgery in humanitarian disasters.