High Arctic ponds -- the most common source of surface water in many polar regions -- are now beginning to evaporate due to recent climate warming, say two of Canada’s leading environmental scientists.

John Smol (Professor of Biology at Queen’s University and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change) and Marianne Douglas (Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Director of the Canadian Circumpolar Institute at the University of Alberta) will publish their startling conclusions next week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“The final ecological threshold for an aquatic ecosystem is loss of water,” says Dr. Smol. “These sites have now crossed that threshold.”

A new study by researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Center for Mental Health and Media dispels some myths and uncovers some surprises about young teens and violent video and computer games.

The study, published in the July issue of Journal of Adolescent Health, is the first to ask middle-school youth in detail about the video and computer games they play and to analyze how many of those titles are rated M (Mature – meant for ages 17 and up). It is also the first to ask children why they play video games. Some of the more striking findings include:

- Almost all young teens play video games. Just six percent of the sample had not played any electronic games in the previous six months.

An overexpressed gene found at the scene of a variety of tumors is implicated in the development of two types of malignant brain cancer in a paper by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper will be posted online at the PNAS web site the week of July 2.

“Just because a gene is associated with cancer doesn’t mean that it’s actually causing cancer. In this paper we show for the first time that insulin-like growth factor binding protein 2 (IGFBP2) connects with two other proteins to fuel development and progression of brain tumors,” says senior author Wei Zhang, Ph.D., professor in M. D. Anderson’s Department of Pathology.

University of Oregon biologists studying a common ocean-dwelling worm have uncovered potentially fundamental insights into the evolutionary origin of genetic mechanisms, which when compromised in humans play a role in many forms of cancer.

Their research, appearing in the July issue of the journal Developmental Cell, also increases the visibility of a three-year effort at the UO to promote use of the bristle worm Platynereis dumerilii as a model organism for the study of evolutionary origins of cell types and animal forms.

The marine worm develops by a stereotypic pattern of asymmetric cell divisions generating differently sized embryonic cells.

According to a pilot study, pomegranate juice was found to have beneficial effects on erectile dysfunction (ED), a disorder that affects 1 in 10 men worldwide and 10 to 30 million men in the United States alone.

ED can be caused by several factors, including arterial plaque, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, nerve damage, endocrine imbalance or depression. Ultimately, ED is a condition that affects the blood flow to the penis during sexual stimulation.

The randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover pilot study examined the efficacy of pomegranate juice versus placebo in improving erections in 61 male subjects.

Researchers have come a step closer to understanding the incredible targeting system of human vision, namely how the brain and eye team up to spot an object in motion and follow it, a classic question of human motor control. The study shows that two distinctly different ways of seeing motion are used — one to catch up to a moving object with our eyes, a second to lock on and examine it.

“Without the ability to lock our eyes onto a moving target, something called smooth pursuit, athletes cannot ‘keep their eye on the ball,’ and a person walking down the street cannot examine the facial expression or identity of a passerby,” said Jeremy Wilmer, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology in Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences and lead author of the study.

Recently  we started this feature of interviews with leading scientists and thinkers on the subject of energy. The first interview was with Dennis M.

Jules Verne is the first of five ATVs ESA plans to use to send cargo to the Station. The development, production and launch of the first vehicle have cost over 11 years around 1.3 billion Euros. Each of the following ATVs assembly and launch will cost just over 300 million Euros. In this way Europe will pay for utilisation of the ISS, which includes conducting scientific experiments and astronaut missions.

'ATV is much more that a spaceship', emphasises ATV Project Manager John Ellwood with justified pride. 'It is a cargo ship, a laboratory, a rocket and two spacecrafts all in one.

Research has uncovered alarming evidence that high Arctic ponds, many which have been permanent bodies of water for thousands of years, are completely drying out during the polar summer. These shallow ponds, which dot the Arctic landscape, are important indicators of environment change and are especially susceptible to the effects of climate change because of their low water volume.

Marianne Douglas, Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Science and Director of the Canadian Circumpolar Institute at the University of Alberta, and John Smol, Professor of Biology at Queen’s University, studied these unique Arctic ponds for the past 24 years, collecting detailed data such as water quality and water levels from approximately 40 ponds.

You can’t watch the news, turn on the radio, or open a newspaper these days without hearing about global warming. It seems our future is looking rather warmish, and many of our modern conveniences may be to blame.

I’m not disputing the fact, but at the same time I’ve never had it explained to me precisely and quantitatively how many of the choices I make each day are contributing to global warming. I mean, I understand the link between driving my car and carbon emissions. The family minivan spews carbon dioxide for goodness sake, so I clearly understand how running my daily errands in a gasoline-powered car can contribute to the problem.