Eureka Alert

(Public Library of Science) Scientists report the discovery of a new species of Ebola virus, provisionally named Bundibugyo ebolavirus, Nov. 21 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens. The virus, which was responsible for a hemorrhagic fever outbreak in western Uganda in 2007, has been characterized by a team of researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Ga., the Uganda Virus Research Institute, the Uganda Ministry of Health and Columbia University.

(BioMed Central) A course of water aerobics classes has been shown to reduce the amount of pain-killing medication women request during labor. Research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Reproductive Health has shown that, as well as being safe, the gentle exercise has the benefit of making it easier to give birth.

(St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center) Neuroscientists at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center have discovered a direct link between eye motions and the perception of illusory motion that solves a 200-year-old debate.

(University of Pittsburgh) Research from the University of Pittsburgh published in the Nov. 20 edition of Heredity could finally provide evidence of the first stages of the evolution of separate sexes, a theory that holds that males and females developed from hermaphroditic ancestors. These early stages are not completely understood because the majority of animal species developed into the arguably less titillating separate-sex state too long ago for scientists to observe the transition.

(Duke University Medical Center) A team of researchers at Duke University Medical Center and the Universite catholique de Louvain has found that lactic acid is an important energy source for tumor cells. In further experiments, they discovered a new way to destroy the most hard-to-kill, dangerous tumor cells by preventing them from delivering lactic acid.

(DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory) A team led by Thomas Schulthess of the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory received the prestigious 2008 Association for Computing Machinery Gordon Bell Prize Thursday after attaining the fastest performance ever in a scientific supercomputing application.

(University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston) NanoMedical Systems Inc., an Austin-based startup cofounded by Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D., of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, to improve the effectiveness of anti-cancer agents and other medications, has received a record $3.5 million Commercialization Award through the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.

(Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres) For the first time it is now possible to get a comprehensive overview of which alien species are present in Europe, their impacts and consequences for the environment and society. More than 11,000 alien species have been documented by DAISIE, a unique three year research project with more than 100 European scientists, funded by the European Union that provides new knowledge on biological invasions in Europe.

(Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research) While the physiological damage and social havoc created by alcohol abuse and dependency are well-known, it is also true that light-to-moderate drinking has certain health benefits. This mini-review summarizes a roundtable discussion held at the July 2007 annual meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism in Chicago, Ill.

(Prometheus Books) Despite access to the best technologies, human beings have severe problems using information and deciphering the truth. Christopher Burns' newest book "Deadly decisions: How false knowledge sank the Titanic, blew up the shuttle, and led America into war" takes an in-depth look at how even the best technological advancements cannot change how the biological brain works.

(Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore) Singapore researchers have developed an unlimited number of pure insulin-producing cells from mouse embryonic stem cells.

(Emory University) Cells can turn on tumor-promoting growth circuits by falsely reporting critical genetic information during the process of transcription: making RNA from DNA.Damage to the DNA making up a gene can lead to a misreading of the gene as it is made into RNA, a process called transcriptional mutagenesis.Transcriptional mutagenesis could represent an additional way DNA damage contributes to tumor formation.

(American Chemical Society) With millions of Americans planning to gather around dinner tables for the annual Thanksgiving feast, researchers are reporting key research advances in providing safer and more nutritious food in the 10th and 11th episodes of the American Chemical Society's Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions podcast series. Those advances include putting that Thanksgiving turkey on a special diet -- animal feed with a natural substance that reduces levels of food-poisoning bacteria inside gobblers and other poultry.

(University of Exeter) New research could explain why females of many species have multiple partners. Females of most species, including many mammals, mate with multiple partners. The driving forces for this practice, known as 'polyandry', have been a mystery for evolutionary biologists for decades. This research suggests that polyandry could be the result of females adapting to avoid producing offspring carrying selfish genetic elements that reduce male fertility.

(California Institute of Technology) More than a century ago, the development of the earliest motion picture technology made what had been previously thought "magical" a reality: capturing and recreating the movement and dynamism of the world around us. A breakthrough technology based on new concepts has now accomplished a similar feat, but on an atomic scale by allowing, for the first time, the real-time, real-space visualization of fleeting changes in the structure and shape of matter barely a billionth of a meter in size.

(Harvard University) Quantum computers would likely outperform conventional computers in simulating chemical reactions involving more than four atoms, according to scientists at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Haverford College. Such improved ability to model and predict complex chemical reactions could revolutionize drug design and materials science, among other fields.

(Northwestern University) Islet cell transplantation is a promising therapy for people with type 1 diabetes, but it requires a regime of powerful immunosuppressive drugs so the immune system won't reject the insulin-producing islets. The drugs raise the risk of infections and cancer and are toxic to the islets themselves. Northwestern researchers have developed a new technique that eliminated the need for these drugs. The strategy is a potential therapy for human islet cell transplantation.

(New Jersey Institute of Technology) A structural engineer and world-renowned expert on how structures respond to natural disasters, M. Ala Saadeghvaziri, PhD, a professor at NJIT, has been named a fellow by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

(DOE/Argonne National Laboratory) The US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory has been named a winner of the annual High Performance Computing Challenge Award at the SuperComputing 08 Conference in Austin, Texas.

(University of Missouri-Columbia) Now's the perfect time to increase anti-smoking campaigns -- Nov. 20 is the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout. In a new study, University of Missouri researchers examined the effects of two types of content commonly used in anti-tobacco ads -- tobacco health threats that evoke fear and disturbing or disgusting images. The researchers found that ads focused on either fear or disgust increased attention and memory in viewers; however, ads that included both fear and disgust decreased viewers' attention and memory.