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An international team of physicists has pushed the boundaries on ultra-precise measurement by harnessing quantum light waves in a new way.

It is one thing to be able to measure spectacularly small distances using "squeezed" light, but it is now possible to do this even while the target is moving around.

An Australian-Japanese research collaboration made the breakthrough in an experiment conducted at the University of Tokyo, the results of which have been published in an article, "Quantum-enhanced optical phase tracking" in the prestigious journal, Science.

Tampa, FL (Sept. 20, 2012) -- The newborns of obese pregnant women suffering from obstructive sleep apnea are more likely to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit than those born to obese mothers without the sleep disorder, reports a study published online today in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Sleep apnea, which causes repeated awakenings and pauses in breathing during the night, was also associated with higher rates of preeclampsia in the severely overweight pregnant women, the researchers found.

How do language families evolve over many thousands of years? How stable over time are structural features of languages? Researchers Dan Dediu and Stephen Levinson from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen introduced a new method using Bayesian phylogenetic approaches to analyse the evolution of structural features in more than 50 language families. Their paper 'Abstract profiles of structural stability point to universal tendencies, family-specific factors, and ancient connections between languages' was published online on September 20, 2012 in PLoS ONE.

Free bus passes for over-60s may be encouraging older people to be more physically active, say the authors of a study published today in the American Journal of Public Health.

Secondhand smoke is accountable for 42,000 deaths annually to nonsmokers in the United States, including nearly 900 infants, according to a new UCSF study.

Altogether, annual deaths from secondhand smoke represent nearly 600,000 years of potential life lost – an average of 14.2 years per person – and $6.6 billion in lost productivity, amounting to $158,000 per death, report the researchers.

The pressures of global trade may heighten disease incidence by dictating changes in land use. A boom in disease-carrying ticks and chiggers has followed the abandonment of rice cultivation in Taiwanese paddies, say ecologist Chi-Chien Kuo and colleagues, demonstrating the potential for global commodities pricing to drive the spread of infections. Their work appears in the September issue of ESA's journal Ecological Applications.

Los Angeles, CA (September 20, 2012) SAGE and The Society for Medical Decision Making are pleased to announce the release of seven new reports that will have a significant impact on modeling techniques in health care research and medical decision making. Written by the Modeling Good Research Practices Task Force, a special group of leading experts in decision analysis, economics, simulation, and health policy, these reports were published in a special issue of Medical Decision Making (MDM), a SAGE journal.

Investigators at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have identified two promising therapies to treat patients with acute megakaryocytic leukemia (AMKL), a rare form of leukemia where the number of cases is expected to increase with the aging population.

It's a high-pressure environment within solid tumors. Abnormal blood and lymphatic vessels cause fluids to accumulate, and the uncontrolled proliferation of cancer cells within limited space leads to the buildup of what is called solid stress. Both types of pressure can interfere with the effectiveness of anticancer treatments, but while strategies have been developed that reduce fluid pressures, little has been known about the impact of solid stress or potential ways to alleviate it.

PASADENA, Calif.—At any given moment, millions of cells are on the move in the human body, typically on their way to aid in immune response, make repairs, or provide some other benefit to the structures around them. When the migration process goes wrong, however, the results can include tumor formation and metastatic cancer. Little has been known about how cell migration actually works, but now, with the help of some tiny worms, researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have gained new insight into this highly complex task.

Regularly drinking low-calorie cranberry juice may help get your blood pressure under control, according to new findings presented at the American Heart Association's High Blood Pressure Research 2012 Scientific Sessions.

In a study that measured the effects of drinking low-calorie cranberry juice, participants drank either low-calorie juice or a placebo drink every day for eight weeks as part of a controlled diet.

Genetically, culturally and ethically the Khoe-San have something special to add to this world. The importance of this study is to put the Khoe and San heritage in the right place in history and this research will provide a genetic backdrop for future studies - Mattias Jakobsson.

The largest genomic study ever conducted among Khoe and San groups reveals that these groups from southern Africa are descendants of the earliest diversification event in the history of all humans - some 100 000 years ago, well before the 'out-of-Africa' migration of modern humans.

SANTA CRUZ, CA--Scientists have discovered an unusual symbiosis between tiny single-celled algae and highly specialized bacteria. Their partnership plays an important role in marine ecosystems, fertilizing the oceans by taking nitrogen from the atmosphere and "fixing" it into a form that other organisms can use.

The impact of crop pesticides on honeybee colonies is unlikely to cause colony collapse, according to a paper in the journal Science today (20 September 2012). More research is now needed to predict the impact of widely-used agricultural insecticides, called neonicotinoids, on honeybee populations.

STANFORD, Calif. — Feral cats in Northern California have enabled researchers to unlock the biological secret behind a rare, striped cheetah found only in sub-Saharan Africa, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, the National Cancer Institute and HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama. The study is the first to identify a molecular basis of coat patterning in mammals.