Gov’t to establish national schizophrenia brain image database

Brain images from hundreds of people with schizophrenia at 10 research sites nationwide will be shared in a first-of-its-kind research project funded by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a branch of the National Institutes of Health. The project will create an extensive database of brain information that it is hoped will expand understanding of disabling brain illnesses such as schizophrenia and speed the development of new treatments.

‘Dust belt’ causing some cosmic rays

Researchers have found that a portion of anomalous cosmic rays — charged particles accelerated to enormous energies by the solar wind — results from interactions with dust grains from a belt of comet-sized objects near Pluto’s orbit. These objects make up what is known as the Kuiper Belt, a remnant of the formation of the solar system.

Popular sports supplement has no effect on endurance

An amino acid supplement called L-tyrosine, recommended by fitness trainers and sold by supplement outlets as an endurance booster, has no effect on endurance, according to a new Brigham Young University study. “There wasn’t any indication from our tests that tyrosine had an effect in the blood or in the brain,” said Allen Parcell, assistant professor in the Human Performance Research Center at BYU. “Tyrosine didn’t improve endurance performance in our subjects.”

Popular weed killer feminizing America’s frogs

Bad news, guys. Native male leopard frogs throughout the nation’s Corn Belt are being feminized by an herbicide, atrazine, used extensively to kill weeds on the country’s leading export crops, corn and soybeans, according to a study at the University of California at Berkeley. The Berkeley biologists also report male frogs raised in laboratory tanks contaminated with atrazine develop egg cells in their testes and essentially turn into hermaphrodites.

Software assesses terror threat … to cows

Software developed at the federal Sandia National Laboratories could help farmers keep the nation’s dairy supply safer from bioterrorism. The system asses factors such as dairy location, numbers of buildings, how many cows there are and the types of shelters present. It then provides a risk assessment. Dull, you say? Maybe. But dairy is a multibillion dollar industry in the U.S. and no one wants to eat anthrax-tainted ice cream.

Researchers Get First Look into Antimatter

Finally, a little exposure.Researchers working at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, say they have for the first time probed the properties of whole atoms of antimatter, the “mirror image” of matter. Their results provide the first look into the inside of an antimatter atom and are a big step on the way to testing standard theories of how the universe operates.

Experiment could reveal ‘extra dimensions,’ exotic forces

Physicists have devised a new experiment that will be used in the quest for exotic forces in nature and “additional spatial dimensions.” The researchers have shown what they say is a new way to measure a phenomenon known as the Casimir effect ? findings that also could have implications for the design of microscopic machines that contain tiny parts on the size scale of nanometers ? or billionths of a meter. The Casimir effect, predicted in 1948 by Dutch physicist Hendrick Casimir, is a force that pushes together two plates of metal placed near each other in empty space ? or a vacuum. The closer the plates are to each other, the stronger the force.

Physicists develop new rain prediction formula

Physicists in Israel have developed a new formula for predicting when clouds will spew forth rain. The trick, it seems, is all in the cloud turbulence. The more turbulence, the greater likelihood small droplets will smack into each other and form larger, heavier drops that fall to earth. Clouds are formed by warm water vapors rising to the sky. When a cloud cools, the vapors condense into droplets that increase in size and are eventually pulled back to earth by gravity, causing rain. Simple as this cycle may sound, when and where exactly the rain will fall is extremely difficult to predict.

Risk of dying after heart failure down by one-third

Survival after a heart failure diagnosis has greatly improved over the past 50 years, according to a study from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study found that the risk of dying after being diagnosed with heart failure had dropped by about a third in men and women during that period. About 4.8 million Americans have heart failure, with about 550,000 new cases being diagnosed each year. Heart failure contributes to about 287,000 deaths a year.

International Consortium Launches Genetic Variation Mapping Project

An international research consortium has launched an approximately $100 million public-private effort to create the next generation map of the human genome. Called the International HapMap Project, the new venture is aimed at speeding the discovery of genes related to common illnesses such as asthma, cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Scientists decipher tooth decay bug’s genome

Researchers in Oklahoma have deciphered the complete genome sequence of Streptococcus mutans, the main organism implicated in causing tooth decay. The work, supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, has been made freely available online. Said one of the team members involved in the four-year effort: “Building on this basic research may one day lead us to new approaches for preventing and treating tooth decay.” Added another: “By targeting the adherence genes, for example, we might be able to develop a way of preventing S. mutans from sticking to teeth.”