UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

Efficient ozone detection method created

PITTSBURGH, June 25 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers have developed a fluorescent substance that can detect harmful ozone molecules in the air as well as in the body.

University of Pittsburgh scientists said their fluorescent substance glows bright green when exposed to even minute amounts of ozone, which is a harmful pollutant and lung irritant. But the researchers said ozone is also a possible natural weapon that certain research suggests the human body employs against infections.

The scientists said their simple and fast-acting ozone detector can function as a consumer device to measure surrounding ozone, or as a laboratory tool that could provide insight into ozone's effect on the human body and its debated role in the human immune system.

"As you inhale air, you inhale ozone, and it is not known how deeply it penetrates the lung or its effect on the body," said Professor Kazunori Koide, the study's corresponding author. "Our method is quick, so people will know they've exceeded safe levels before they suffer the symptoms, and it's highly specific to ozone, so it will prevent having false data."

The study that included Professors George Leikauf and Bruce Pitt, Assistant Professor Claudette St. Croix and researchers Shin Ando and Amanda Garner appears in the journal Nature Chemistry.

Brain scans support dyslexia subtypes

EDINBURGH, Scotland, June 25 (UPI) -- Scottish medical scientists say they have discovered specific structural differences in the brains of people with distinct subtypes of dyslexia.

The University of Edinburgh researchers say their findings are among the first to directly link brain structure with dyslexia subtype and symptom severity.

Led by Cyril Pernet, the researchers compared magnetic resonance imaging scans of the brains of 38 people who had dyslexia with a typical brain constructed from the scans of 39 normal readers. The scientists found distinct neurological differences associated with specific language difficulties within the group of those with dyslexia. The differences were found in the brain's right hemisphere.

The scientists said it's increasingly accepted that dyslexia might not be a single disorder, but a group of related neurological pathologies.

"These results provide evidence for the existence of various subtypes of dyslexia characterized by different brain phenotypes," Pernet said. "In addition, behavioral analyses suggest that these brain phenotypes relate to different deficits of automatization of language-based processes …"

The study appears in the journal BMC Neuroscience.

Sharks threatened with extinction

GLAND, Switzerland, June 25 (UPI) -- A Switzerland headquartered conservation group says at least one-third of the Earth's sharks are threatened with extinction, primarily because of overfishing.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature said its study is the first to determine the global conservation status of 64 species of open ocean sharks and ray.

IUCN officials said the percentage of open ocean shark species threatened with extinction is higher for sharks taken in high-seas fisheries (52 percent), than for the group as a whole.

"Despite mounting threats, sharks remain virtually unprotected on the high seas," said Sonja Fordham, deputy chairwoman of the IUCN shark specialist group. "The vulnerability and lengthy migrations of most open ocean sharks call for coordinated, international conservation plans. Our report documents serious overfishing of these species … and demonstrates a clear need for immediate action on a global scale."

The report is available at http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/ssg_pelagic_report_final.pdf.

Mars rover: Stuck but still reporting

PASADENA, Calif., June 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency's Mars rover Spirit is still stuck in loose Martian soil, but it's providing scientists data on the planet's environmental history.

Spirit became stuck in April in an area composed of layers of soil with differing pastel hues hiding beneath a darker sand blanket, NASA said.

Scientists dubbed the site "Troy."

But while Spirit awaits extraction instructions, the rover is keeping busy examining Troy, which is next to a low plateau called Home Plate, approximately 2 miles from where Spirit landed in 2004.

Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, deputy principal investigator for the science payloads on Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity, said Spirit has been using tools on its robotic arm to examine Troy's tan, yellow, white and dark-red sandy soil.

"The layers have basaltic sand, sulfate-rich sand and areas with the addition of silica-rich materials, possibly sorted by wind and cemented by the action of thin films of water," Arvidson said. "This may be evidence of much more recent processes than the formation of Home Plate -- or is Home Plate being slowly stripped back by wind, and we happened to stir up a deposit from billions of years ago before the wind got to it?"

Richard Moddis, a Spirit team scientist, added, "If your rover is going to get bogged down, it's nice to have it be at a location so scientifically interesting."