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TwitterChoosing a holiday can be a headache – and now scientists know precisely which bit of the head it affects.They have identified a brain region that predicts choices before we even know what they are.The caudate nucleus, part of a structure called the striatum, is involved in anticipating rewards.Scientists conducted an experiment in which volunteers imagined taking a holiday in 80 different destinations around the world.
Posts Tagged ‘Scientists’
Scientists identify brain region that helps us make choices
March 25th, 2009 
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Posted in Tech News 
Tags: Absence, Brain Activity, Brain Region, Brain Scan, Caudate Nucleus, Choices, Decisions, Different Destinations, Greece, Headache, Nucleus Part, Participants, Rewards, Scientists, Striatum, Study Leader, Tali, Thailand, University College London, Volunteers 
Comments OffCurtains And Pyjamas To Become Weapons Against Superbugs
March 3rd, 2009 admin Intensive cleaning takes place on a hospital ward Photo: Rii SchroerFrom The Telegraph:Hospital curtains, bedding, and even patients’ pyjamas could become weapons in the war against hospital superbugs.A study has found that an antimicrobial treatment, which could be incorporated into dozens of surfaces on the ward, can kill MRSA on contact, reducing the risk of infection between patients.Scientists hailed the discovery by researchers from Imperial College London as a “very significant” step in the war on hospital superbugs which kill 10,000 people a year.Read more ….
Posted in Science News Tags: Antimicrobial Treatment, Bedding, Discovery, Dozens, Hospital Curtains, Hospital Superbugs, Imperial College London, Photo, Pyjamas, Risk, Schroer, Scientists, Surfaces, Telegraph, Weapons Comments OffScientists See Merit In Sharks’ Many Teeth
March 2nd, 2009 admin Scientists have looked into the fearsome jaws of sharks and seen a possible benefit to humans: many rows of teeth. Kat Wade/the ChronicleFrom San Francisco Chronicle:Ever wonder why sharks get several rows of teeth and people only get one? Some geneticists did, and their discovery could spur work to help adults one day grow new teeth when their own wear out.A single gene appears to be in charge, preventing additional tooth formation in species destined for a limited set.When the scientists bred mice that lacked that gene, the rodents developed extra teeth next to their first molars – backups like sharks and other non-mammals grow, University of Rochester scientists reported Thursday.Read more ….
Posted in Science News Tags: Adults, Benefit, Discovery, First Molars, Geneticists, Jaws, Kat, Mammals, Mice, People, Rodents, San Francisco Chronicle, Scientists, Sharks Teeth, Tooth Formation, University Of Rochester Comments OffThe Big Melt
March 1st, 2009 admin From Popular Science:A two-year polar survey finds ice sheets melting faster than expected, and more grim news.Less than two weeks before scientists from around the world gather in Copenhagen to issue recommendations for a new global climate-change treaty, the results from the two-year International Polar Year survey have arrived.
Posted in Science News Tags: Antarctica, Arctic Sea Ice, Climate Change Treaty, Copenhagen, David Carlson, Director David, Dramatic Impact, Geneva, Global Climate Change, Global Climate System, Global Ocean, Greenland Ice, Ocean Circulation, Ocean Currents, Popular Science, Scientists, Seawater, Shelves Comments OffWriting Math On The Web
February 28th, 2009 admin From American Scientist:The Web would make a dandy blackboard if only we could scribble an equation.The world wide web was invented at a physics laboratory, and the first users were scientists and engineers. You might think, therefore, that this new channel of communication would be especially well adapted to scientific discourse—that it would facilitate the expression of ideas likeorIf only it were so!
Posted in Science News Tags: American Scientist, Blackboard, Chemical Formulas, Expression, Formatting, Marketplace, Math, Mathematics, Notations, Physics Laboratory, Playground, Plug Ins, Protocols, Sad Situation, Scientific Discourse, Scientists, Typewriter, Web Browsers, Web Offer, World Wide Web Comments Off‘Eye of God’: The nebula that watches our tiny world from 700 light years away
February 28th, 2009 admin The ‘eye of god’ – also known as the Helix nebula – is so huge, it would take abeam of light two-and-a-half years to cross itFrom The Daily Mail:It stares down at us from the depths of space, watching our tiny world from 700 light years away.Scientists have nicknamed the image – captured by a giant telescope on the Chilean mountains – the eye of God.In fact, it shows the death throes of a star similar to our sun, before it retires as a ‘white dwarf’ believed to be the final evolutionary state of a medium-sized star.Read more ….
Posted in Science News Tags: Beam Of Light, Chilean Mountains, Cross Daily, Daily Mail, Death Star, Death Throes, Evolutionary State, Eye Of God, Giant Telescope, Helix Nebula, Image, Light Years, Scientists, Sized Star, Stares, Sun, Tiny World, Two And A Half Years, Watches, White Dwarf Comments OffFungus Threatens Prehistoric Cave Drawings
February 27th, 2009 admin Photo: Part of Lascaux famed cave drawings in southwest France, shown last summer. (AP Photo/Pierre Andrieu, Pool)From CBS News:Scientists Meet To Try And Save Lascaux’s Murals In France At Risk Due To Global Warming.(AP) Geologists, biologists and other scientists convened Thursday in Paris to discuss how to stop the spread of fungus stains – aggravated by global warming – that threaten France’s prehistoric Lascaux cave drawings.Black stains have spread across the cave’s prehistoric murals of bulls, felines and other images, and scientists have been hard-pressed to halt the fungal creep.Marc Gaulthier, who heads the Lascaux Caves International Scientific Committee, said the challenges facing the group are vast and global warming now poses an added problem.Read more ….
Posted in Science News Tags: Andrieu, Ap Photo, Biologists, Bulls, Cbs, Cbs News, Challenges, Felines, Fungus, Gaulthier, Geologists, Global Warming, International Scientific Committee, Lascaux Cave Drawings, Lascaux Caves, Murals, Prehistoric Cave Drawings, Scientists, Southwest France, Stains Comments OffSex Goes Way Back, Fossil Find Shows
February 26th, 2009 admin The armored fish, Materpiscis attenboroughi, may have given birth to its young tail-first, similar to some sharks and rays. Credit: Museum Victoria.From Live Science:Remains of embryos entombed in their fish mothers’ wombs for 380 million years have been found in fossils from an ancient rock outcrop in Western Australia. The finding is a big deal because it suggests that sex goes way back.The prehistoric fish, called placoderms, are found at the base of the vertebrate evolutionary tree (in a large group we humans also belong to), so it now looks like sexual intercourse, and the mating behaviors that go along with it, were more widespread in these ancient animals than previously thought, said the scientists who made the discovery.Read more ….
Posted in Science News Tags: Ancient Animals, Discovery, Embryos, Evolutionary Tree, Fossil Fish, Fossils, Large Group, Live Science, Million Years, Museum Victoria, Prehistoric Fish, Rock Outcrop, Scientists, Sex Shows, Sexual Intercourse, Sharks, Western Australia Comments Off