ARLINGTON, Va., April 30 (UPI) -- Scientists say they have discovered 14 potential new species in Brazil's Cerrado area -- one of the world's 34 biodiversity conservation hot spots.

The discoveries by an expedition of scientists from Conservation International and Brazilian universities include a legless lizard and a dwarf woodpecker, in addition to eight fish, two reptiles, one amphibian and one mammal. The discoveries were made in and near the Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station, a 1.7 million-acre protected area that is the Cerrado's second largest.

"It's very exciting to find new species and data on the richness, abundance, and distribution of wildlife in one of the most extensive, complex and unknown regions of the Cerrado," said CI biologist Cristiano Nogueira, the expedition's leader. "Protected areas such as the Ecological Station are home to some of the last remaining healthy ecosystems in a region increasingly threatened by urban growth and mechanized agriculture."

The expedition included 26 researchers from the University of Sao Paulo, the federal universities of Sao Carlos and Tocantins and CI-Brazil.

Study: Synesthetes share commonalities

EDINBURGH, Scotland, April 30 (UPI) -- British psychological researchers say they've discovered evidence that commonalities exist across synesthetes.

A synesthete is a person who experiences vivid colors whenever they see, hear or even just think about ordinary letters and digits.

Although synesthetes will consistently see the same colors associated with the same letters or digits, few of the experiences have appeared to be shared with other synesthetes.

Now in a study of 70 synesthetes, and a re-analysis of 19 more in previously published data, psychologists Julia Simner of the University of Edinburgh and Jamie Ward of the University of Sussex found synesthetes do, in fact, share certain grapheme-color combinations. For example, the letter 'A' is frequently associated with seeing the color red.

They also found the particular pairings are determined by how frequently graphemes and the color terms are used in language: common letters -- such as "A" -- pair with common color terms like red. Uncommon letters -- such as "V" -- pair with uncommon color terms like purple. That, the scientists say, shows perceptual synaesthetic experiences are influenced by environmental learning.

The research appears in the journal Psychological Science.

Alaska hardest hit by U.S. climate change

DURHAM, N.H., April 30 (UPI) -- Scientists say Alaska leads the rest of the United States in experiencing the effects of global warning.

Researchers from the universities of New Hampshire and Maine said small Alaskan villages are slipping into the sea due to coastal erosion and soggy permafrost is cracking buildings and trapping trucks.

In an effort to better understand how the Pacific Northwest fits into the larger climate-change picture, the scientists are heading to Denali National Park to recover ice cores from Alaskan glaciers.

Associate Professor Cameron Wake of the University of New Hampshire Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space and Karl Kreutz of the University of Maine Climate Change Institute are leading the expedition that's part of a decadelong goal to gather climate records from ice cores from around the entire Arctic region.

"Just as any one meteorological station can't tell you about regional or hemispheric climate change," said Wake. "A series of ice cores is needed to understand the regional climate variability in the Arctic."

He said scientists have long thought the North Atlantic drives global climate changes. However, there are now indications a change in the North Pacific might occur first and then be followed by a North Atlantic response.

Drug therapy benefits diabetic eye disease

NEW YORK, April 30 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say a new drug designed to treat diabetic eye disease performed better in clinical trials than did the current standard of laser surgery.

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation collaboration between Johns Hopkins University and the pharmaceutical company Genentech Inc. (NYSE:DNA) produced the findings, representing the six-month end-point evaluation of the READ-2 (Ranibizumab for Edema of the mAcula in Diabetes) clinical trial.

The multi-center study, which began in December 2006, was designed to test the long-term safety and effectiveness of injections of the drug ranibizumab in patients with diabetic macular edema, a condition characterized by swelling of the central portion of the retina, or macula, at the back of the eye. In addition, the trial sought to determine the comparative efficacy of ranibizumab versus conventional treatment -- laser photocoagulation therapy -- or both together.

The medical scientists found patients treated with ranibizumab experienced significantly greater improvements in visual acuity compared with patients receiving other interventions. In addition, patients treated with ranibizumab had a 56 percent reduction in excess retinal thickness, whereas only an 11 percent reduction was seen in those receiving laser treatments.

Ranibizumab is manufactured by Genentech.