Stories of modern science ... from UPI

GLOBAL HOUSING BOOM THREATENS BIODIVERSITY

The explosion in the number of homes worldwide is threatening the planet's biodiversity and natural resources, a new study concludes. Researchers at Stanford University and the University of Michigan report although the average number of people living in a single household is shrinking, the rate of residential construction is outpacing population growth. "We had hoped to find that, where human population growth was slowing, biodiversity might be given some breathing room," said Gretchen Daily, co-author of the study. "But instead, we've found that urban and suburban sprawl are accelerating faster than population growth is decelerating." More housing translates into greater reliance on natural resources for construction materials and loss of habitat for other animals and plants. Researchers also noted that fewer people per household leads to higher consumption of water. The study said the housing boom was due primarily to lower fertility rates, higher divorce rates and incomes, aging populations, and a decline in housing multi-generational families.

IMAGE COULD REVEAL SECRETS OF DEEP SPACE

European astronomers have constructed a full-moon size image of deep space, allowing a detailed look at the universe since it was 2 billion years old. The true-color image is based on a total exposure time of 50 hours over about four years. Using the wide-field camera at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile, the image consists of more than 100,000 galaxies, thousands of stars and hundreds of quasars. Although it sounds crowded, to astronomers the image appears relatively empty, a characteristic that will provide a clear view of even more distant areas of the universe. The astronomers have agreed to make their data available to the public and said they expect the composite will reveal information about the history of star formation and how internal structures of galaxies change over time.

NEW NANO TECH COULD OPEN DOORS TO NOVEL RESEARCH

Researchers at Rice University have found a new way to control nanoparticles that which could lead to new approaches in molecular research. The technology, called nanoshell, is based on Raman spectroscopy, which allows scientists to determine molecular fingerprints by controling the electromagnetic field around nanoparticles. The research could lead to chemical screening techniques to examine samples as small as a single molecule. "This result is extremely important because it is the first time that anyone has actually designed and engineered a nanosensor specifically for obtaining chemical information," said Naomi Halas, nanoshell's inventor. "There are widespread applications for this technology in environmental science, chemistry and biosensing, and it may have very important applications in the early detection of cancer."

EMOTIONAL LANGUAGE PROCESSED BY BOTH SIDES OF BRAIN

Although the right side of the brain normally is identified with emotions, researchers found people use both sides to process emotional language. Thirty-six participants listened to different sentences that expressed happiness, sadness, anger and fear. When researchers told them to focus on the words, ultrasounds showed blood flow increased to the left side of the brain. When researchers told participants to pay attention to how a sentence was said, the tone of voice and emotion, blood flow increased to the right side without affecting flow to the left. "Even if you pay attention to the 'how' information, you can't help hearing the semantic content, the 'what' of the message," said Guy Vingerhoets, the study's lead author. "We do this all the time; we are trained in it."

(Editors: For more information on HOUSING IMPACT, contact Mark Shwartz at 650-723-9296 or mshwartz@stanford.edu. For DEEP SPACE, Richard West in Germany at +49-893-200-6275 or rwest@eso.org. For NANOSHELL, Jade Boyd at 713-348-6778 or jadeboyd@rice.edu. For EMOTIONS, Pam Willenz at 202-336-5700 or public.affairs@apa.org)