Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Feds probe Gulf spill health risks
The Institute of Medicine will be hosting a small public workshop in New Orleans, June 22 and 23, on possible health risks to Gulf coast residents and workers in the wake of the catastrophic BP oil spill. A June 16 congressional hearing previewed some of the concerns likely to arise at the meeting. They ranged from potential long-terms risks of DNA damage to claims that BP failed to provide protective gear to contract crews hired to clean up oil.
- Humans
For sight-reading music, practice doesn’t make perfect
Individual memory differences may set upper limits on pianists’ sight-reading skill, regardless of their experience.
- Health & Medicine
Genetic defect tied to autoimmune diseases
Rare mutations in an enzyme lead to several different disorders.
- Health & Medicine
Vitamin B6 linked to lowered lung cancer risk
High levels of folate and the amino acid methionine also seem to help, a new study finds.
- Earth
Loop Current will determine spill’s ultimate fate
Oceanographers track a newly formed eddy in the Gulf of Mexico and where it might carry oil.
- Science & Society
Citation inflation
Many journals – and the authors who publish their novel data and analyses in them – rely on “impact factors” as a gauge of the importance and prestige of their work. However, a new analysis turns up subtle ways that journals can game the system to artificially inflate their impact factor.
- Health & Medicine
H1N1 virus lacks Spanish flu’s killer protein
Researchers uncover a deadly secret of Spanish flu.
- Health & Medicine
Different berries, similar cancer-fighting effects
Animal tests suggest that esophageal and breast cancer might make good targets for several types of berries as dietary supplements.
- Humans
Crude pick-ups
To date, 400 skimmers have retrieved some 18 million gallons of oiled water from the BP Gulf spill, according to Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen during a June 11 press briefing. After removing the entrained water, this translates to between 1.8 million and 2.7 million gallons of crude oil. Another 3.8 million gallons of oil have been burned at sea. Four million gallons more have been collected through a near-mile-long riser tube and a containment cap fitted over the broken Deepwater Horizon wellhead.
- Humans
First Mexican-American and African-American genomes completed
Studies hint that genetic diversity among Native Americans may rival that seen in some African populations.
- Psychology
Travelers have southern bias
Southern routes to a destination often get picked over same-distance northern routes, possibly because people equate north with “up.”
- Humans
BP spill: Gulf is primed to heal, but . . .
Every day, Mother Nature burps another 1,000 barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, along with additional quantities of natural gas. Normally, these hydrocarbons don’t stick around long because local bacteria have evolved to eat them about as fast as they appear. Which is potentially good news, she explained in testimony during a pair of June 9 House subcommittee events on Capitol Hill, because those bugs are now in place to begin chowing down on the oil and gas entering the Gulf from BP's damaged Deepwater Horizon well.
