When President Ronald Reagan told the Soviet Communists to "tear down this wall" in his legendary Berlin speech, it resonated with a lot of people. Reagan was regarded as someone who could do things and listeners reacted accordingly. Some random guy standing on the wall saying the same thing would have had far less impact.

Or take the examples of what students think when a journalism professor who has little experience in journalism critiques their writing. A speaker's power to act on their words influences how a listener perceives the meaning of their message, according to a paper by linguists.

Researchers have identified new genetic mutations in the gene KCNK3 that can cause pulmonary arterial hypertension, a rare fatal disease characterized by high blood pressure in the lungs.

The
KCNK3
 mutations appear to affect potassium channels in the pulmonary artery, a mechanism not previously linked to the condition. Cell culture studies showed that the mutations' effects could be reversed with a phospholipase inhibitor.   The effects of the KCNK3 mutations were reversed in cell cultures with an experimental phospholipase inhibitor called ONO-RS-082. 

800 million people lack reliable access to drinkable water and that problem could engulf many more in the years ahead, warns Alex Scott, senior editor for Europe at Chemical&Engineering News.

Newly published research reveals that aberrant signaling by a protein called transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta - already known for its role in some connective tissue disorders) is also a potent player in many types of allergies. 

Scientists have long understood that allergies are the result of a complex interplay between environment and genes, but now, in what investigators call a scientific first, a single genetic pathway has been implicated in an array of allergic disorders. 

A team of astrophysicists using results based upon observations of 10 quasars say they have discovered the extent to which quasars and their black holes can influence their galaxies. 

Researchers have developed a battery made from a sliver of wood coated with tin that shows promise for becoming a tiny, long-lasting, efficient and environmentally friendly energy source - 1,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper.

 Liangbing Hu, Teng Li and colleagues note that today’s batteries often use stiff, non-flexible substrates, which are too rigid to release the stress that occurs as ions flow through the battery. They knew that wood fibers from trees are supple and naturally designed to hold mineral-rich water, similar to the electrolyte in batteries. They decided to explore use of wood as the base of an experimental sodium-ion battery. Using sodium rather than lithium would make the device environmentally friendly.