(From Science Daily) Researchers watched two groups of mice, both nearing the end of a two-day fast. One group was quietly huddled together, but the other group was active and alert. The difference? The second set of mice had been engineered so their brains produced more SIRT1, a protein known to play a role in aging and longevity. “This result surprised us,” says the study’s senior author Shin-ichiro Imai, MD, PhD, an expert in aging research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “It demonstrates that SIRT1 in the brain is tied into a mechanism that allows animals to survive when food is scarce. And this might be involved with the lifespan-increasing effect of low-calorie diets.” (more…)

(From Science Daily) A new article published in the 29 July issue of the journal Nature reveals for the first time that microscopic marine algae known as “phytoplankton” have been declining globally over the 20th century. Phytoplankton forms the basis of the marine food chain and sustains diverse assemblages of species ranging from tiny zooplankton to large marine mammals, seabirds, and fish. Says lead author Daniel Boyce, “Phytoplankton is the fuel on which marine ecosystems run. A decline of phytoplankton affects everything up the food chain, including humans.” (more…)

(From Science Daily) When your mind drifts, it’s hard to remember what was going on before you stopped paying attention. Now a new study has found that the effect is stronger when your mind drifts farther — to memories of an overseas vacation instead of a domestic trip, for example, or a memory in the more distant past. (more…)

(From Science Daily) Monarch butterflies — renowned for their lengthy annual migration to and from Mexico — complete an even more spectacular journey home than previously thought. New research from the University of Guelph reveals that some North American monarchs born in the Midwest and Great Lakes fly directly east over the Appalachians and settle along the eastern seaboard. Previously, scientists believed that the majority of monarchs migrated north directly from the Gulf coast. (more…)

(From Science Daily) That dry, dusty moon overhead? Seems it isn’t quite as dry as it’s long been thought to be. Although you won’t find oceans, lakes, or even a shallow puddle on its surface, a team of geologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), working with colleagues at the University of Tennessee, has found structurally bound hydroxyl groups (i.e., water) in a mineral in a lunar rock returned to Earth by the Apollo program. (more…)

(From Science Daily) The confidence you feel when making a choice might depend on whether you’re thinking concretely or abstractly, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. “In three experiments across a sample of 750 participants, we found that subjective feelings of ease experienced during judgments (choosing a digital camera, art, movie, or charity) can increase or decrease confidence in their choice and the amount of donation depending on whether consumers are thinking, respectively, concretely or abstractly,” write authors Claire I. Tsai (University of Toronto) and Ann L. McGill (University of Chicago). (more…)

(From Science Daily) Can light-colored rooftops and roads really curb carbon emissions and combat global climate change? The idea has been around for years, but now, a new study by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that is the first to use a global model to study the question has found that implementing cool roofs and cool pavements in cities around the world can not only help cities stay cooler, they can also cool the world, with the potential of canceling the heating effect of up to two years of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions. (more…)

(From Science Daily) A universal influenza vaccine — so-called because it could potentially provide protection from all flu strains for decades — may become a reality because of research led by scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. (more…)

(From the AP) A company working to send tourists on suborbital flights says it has tested its spacecraft with a crew for the first time. Virgin Galactic says the craft remained attached to a specially designed airplane throughout a six-hour flight over California’s Mojave desert Thursday. (more…)

(From Science Daily) Parents are being urged not to use domestic spoons to give children medicine after a study found significant differences in capacity. A parent using one of the biggest domestic teaspoons would be giving their child 192 per cent more medicine than a parent using the smallest teaspoon and the difference was 100 per cent for the tablespoons. This increases the chance of a child receiving an overdose or indeed too little medication. (more…)

(From Science Daily) Postmastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT) for some breast cancer patients can reduce their risk of recurrence by almost 30 percent and increase their five-year overall survival by almost 50 percent, according to a study in the June 1 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). (more…)

(From Science Daily) Research presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior suggests that the key to losing weight could lie in manipulating our beliefs about how filling we think food will be before we eat it, suggesting that portion control is all a matter of perception. Test subjects were more satisfied for longer periods of time after consuming varying quantities of food for which they were led to believe that portion sizes were larger than they actually were. (more…)

(From Science Daily) A tiny, little-understood plant pore has enormous implications for weather forecasting, climate change, agriculture, hydrology, and more. A study by scientists at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, with colleagues from the Research Center Jülich in Germany, has now overturned the conventional belief about how these important structures called stomata regulate water vapor loss from the leaf-a process called transpiration. They found that radiation is the driving force of physical processes deep within the leaf. (more…)

(From Science Daily) Individual results of genetic research studies should not be disclosed to participants without careful consideration, a scientist told the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics. Dr. Robin Hayeems, from the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, Canada, says that she believes that the view held by many ethicists that individual genetic research findings should always be reported to participants involved in genetic research studies was perhaps misguided, and that to do so without careful consideration of evidentiary assumptions and clinical capacity could distort the responsibilities of researchers and lead to misunderstanding. (more…)

(From Science Daily) Exceptionally long heat waves and other hot events could become commonplace in the United States in the next 30 years, according to a new study by Stanford University climate scientists. “Using a large suite of climate model experiments, we see a clear emergence of much more intense, hot conditions in the U.S. within the next three decades,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, an assistant professor of environmental Earth system science at Stanford and the lead author of the study. (more…)

(From Science Daily)  In the initial stages of sleep, energy levels increase dramatically in brain regions found to be active during waking hours, according to new research in the June 30 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. These results suggest that a surge of cellular energy may replenish brain processes needed to function normally while awake. (more…)

(From Science Daily) Scientists at The University of Manchester have solved a mystery connected with why people die from sudden cardiac arrest during sleep — potentially saving thousands of lives. The pioneering research, using detailed computer models, could help save lives through preventative treatment of those most at risk from a form of heart rhythm disorder called sick sinus syndrome. (more…)

(From Science Daily) A new academic study led by UCLA scientists has found that even brief exposure to ultrafine pollution particles near a Los Angeles freeway is potent enough to boost the allergic inflammation that exacerbates asthma. Published online in the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology in June, the study shows that the tiniest air pollutant particles ? those measuring less than 180 nanometers, or about one-thousandth the width of a human hair ? incited inflammation deep in the lungs. (more…)