Happy Labor Day. Time to rest, relax, celebrate all those who labor to keep our nation running day by day and time to take a shorter or a longer break from all the politics of the day and enjoy some science news. New discoveries, new takes on old knowledge, and other bits of news are all available for the perusing in today's information world. Over the fold are some of my favorite selections the past week from a few of the many excellent science news sites around the world. Today's tidbits include more evidence for the beneficial effects of vegetables, the process of weight reduction by exercise, giant galaxy hosts most distant supermassive black hole, improving the health of organic apple orchards from the ground up, Google algorithm for page rank may aid identification of necessary species in an ecosystem, and reduction of nicotine consumption before surgery reduces risk of poor wound healing. Follow down the yellow brick road for one more session of science education and entertainment.
Exercise has long been known to be an important part of the weight reduction puzzle.
Exercise helps prevent weight regain after dieting by reducing appetite and by burning fat before burning carbohydrates, according to a new study with rats. Burning fat first and storing carbohydrates for use later in the day slows weight regain and may minimize overeating by signaling a feeling of fullness to the brain.
The same research suggests exercise may prevent the proliferation of fat cells seen in other studies when sedentary behavior resumes. There is much more to be learned in this arena but at least the support for exercise continues and the means of its success are beginning to be better understood.
Black holes are interesting to astronomers in many ways as they attempt to understand the formation of the universe from the time of the Big Bang. Now a black hole seen as it was 12.5 billion years ago, when the universe was only 1/16 of its current size, is being added to the study list.
Knowledge of the host galaxies of supermassive black holes is important in order to understand the long-standing mystery of how galaxies and black holes have evolved together. Until now, studying host galaxies in the distant Universe has been extremely difficult because the blinding bright light from the vicinity of the black hole makes it more difficult to see the already faint light from the host galaxy.
The current discovery was made possible
by the use of new red-sensitive Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) installed in the Suprime-Cam camera on the Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea.
Knowing which species are necessary for sustaining an ecosystem is an important piece of understanding our natural world.
Every species is embedded in a complex network of relationships with others. So a single extinction can cascade into the loss of seemingly unrelated species.
Using the applied mathematics of the Google page-rank algorithm to determine which species may lead to the most damage if the species is removed from the ecosystem.
Organic apple orchard maintenance begins on the ground with weed prevention and control.
Logically, finding effective methods to increase production and marketability of organic apples is critically important to growers who have to deal with pests and disease without the use of conventional tools available to nonorganic growers.
The best solution turns out to be a combination of various techniques, no one of which was as successful alone.
Those patients who quit smoking as much as 4 weeks before surgery may reduce their risk of poor wound healing by as much as one-half.
Trials showed that only 14 percent of the patients who smoked had problems with wound healing if they had nicotine replacement therapy at least four weeks before surgery, compared to 28 percent of the patients who did not have nicotine replacement therapy. Poor wound healing is one of the most common complications after surgery.
Bonus Stories
Planned home birth with registered midwife as safe as hospital delivery. (PDF)
Faster searches key to a greener internet?
Toxin in bee venom (mellitin) attached to nanoparticles to attack tumor cells.
Strange jellyfish of the arctic ocean.
Alcohol and the circadian rhythm.
The coldest, driest, calmest place on earth found in search for new observatory location.
Hurricane seasons are more active today than any time in the last 1000 years.
U.S. dinosaur had Chinese cousin.
Indoor plants lead to increased student satisfaction.
For even more science news:
General Science Collectors:
Eureka Science News
New Scientist
LiveScience
PhysOrg.com
Science Daily
Space Daily
BBC News Science and Environment
Scientific American
Blogs:
A Few Things Ill Considered Techie and Science News
Cantauri Dreams space exploration
Deep Sea News marine biology
Laelaps more vertebrate paleontology
List of Geoscience Blogs
ScienceBlogs
Space Review
Techonology Review
Tetrapod Zoologyvertebrate paleontology
Wired News
Science RSS Feed: Medworm
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe--a combination of hard science and debunking crap
Daily Kos regular series:
Daily Kos University, a regular series by plf515
This Week in Science by DarkSyde
This Week in Space by nellaselim
Overnight News Digest:Science Saturday by Neon Vincent.
The daily science story by vladislaw.
All diaries with the DK GreenRoots Tag.
NASA picture of the day. For more see the NASA website.
Crab Nebula, NASA, Public Domain
Peace.