Testing a new class of blood pressure drugs, University of Florida researchers have been working to enhance a key enzyme called Ace-2. The enhanced Ace-2 enzyme helps relax blood vessels. But researcher David Ostrov and his team found that the enzyme has another more surprising effect.

Ostrov: “Not only did these compounds work in terms of reducing blood pressure and lowering heart rate, but they had a dramatic result that was not entirely anticipated and that result is that we are actually capable of reversing fibrosis, which means we are actually capable of reversing scarring in the heart and the kidney.”

When the study began, researchers had thought the enzyme might stop or inhibit that scarring, but it proved even more successful than that.

Ostrov: “If you think about it, we’re reversing scarring. There are currently no drugs capable of reversing scarring in any context that I’m aware of. But apparently this drug we’ve discovered has that property.”

Human trials may not start for several years, but researchers say their results suggest they may have found a key to combatting various forms of scarring.

This headset can reduce the loud and repetitive noises magnetic resonance imaging machines make. The sounds created by powerful magnets range from whirring to grinding noises as loud as a jet engine. Patients already stressed out from the experience often wiggle around because of the noise. Engineer Stephen Forguson says that causes a problem.

Forguson: “Any motion inside while they’re taking those pictures can cause image distortion and they’ll have to restart, so just for the patient’s side, having a quieter environment is more beneficial.”

Fewer repeat exams can also free up the machine for other patients. The MRI presented special challenges in designing the headset, since any metal in the chamber can distort the images.

Forguson: “All these were hard technical difficulties to overcome, but mostly it’s that we couldn’t put any electronics in there. And we had to come up with a new way to cancel noise that really had never been done as far as we could tell.”

The system pipes in sounds on top of the repetitive noises the MRI makes. So far engineers have reduced noise similar to an MRI by fifteen decibels.

Adolescence can prove tough enough now UF researcher Eric Storch and his team have linked verbal or social abuse by peers with emotional problems once teens become college-age young adults.

Storch: “What we tend to see is that being bullied, as one particular stressful experience, is related to problems with depression, anxiety and loneliness later on in life.”

Experts say bullying has become harder to control because it’s not always physical. Scars from social bullying aren’t easy to see, but can run deep.

Storch: “Oftentimes those are really good kids and the consequences of their experiences are things like anxiety and depression, which in truth most people don’t notice because they’re internal experiences as opposed to something external like acting out or getting into trouble.”

So teachers parents and other loved ones should look carefully for signs of this social victimization before it takes its toll.

Sheppard: “If it were to get into our waterways, it has the potential to essentially kill a lot of shellfish and shut down or greatly damage some industries. And so at the same time, the industries are damaged because the eco-system is damaged, so it’s both an eco-system and a shellfish industry issue.”

A domestic strain of the pathogen has hit oyster populations hard along the Atlantic coast. Now here comes a new foreign strain.

Sheppard: “It’s very important, if you buy an animal that’s exotic and you put it in your tank, that you never release it into natural waterways and if at all possible, treat the animal and its tissue and any water it’s been in with bleach and put it down a drain you know is going to go to some sort of water treatment plant.”

There’s little regulation controlling importation of Asian clams and experts say clams infected with the disease have almost certainly made their way into aquariums all over the country.

Erez: “In all three studies, we found that relatively minor incidents of being rude to people influences their functioning. It influences their performance on creative tasks, on complex tasks. It influences helpfulness and it was consistent across the three studies.”

Results show that rudeness not just from a boss, but also from colleagues, can also dramatically disrupt a worker’s mental focus. People treated badly literally become less productive and less creative.

Erez: “So, it’s not that they’re, on purpose, reducing their performance. It’s that they are thinking about the event instead of working. So it’s very disruptive.”

Researchers had expected to find strictly an emotional cause, but instead, they found rude behavior impacts how and what someone thinks and how they perform on the job.

The University of Florida’s yearly estimate shows population growth from 2006 to 2007 dropped more than 20% from the previous year. Researcher Stan Smith points to a sluggish housing market.

Smith: “Over the past year or years there’s been a real slowdown in the housing market. Foreclosures are up, new starts are down, housing prices are down in a lot of places, and that’s led to a substantial slowdown in both in the number of people moving to Florida and also, over the last year or so, in the construction industry.”

More than 330,000 new residents moved to Florida in the past year; about 100,000 less than the year before.

Smith: “Population growth has certainly had a big impact on the state budget, historically, and when you have a state that’s as heavily dependent on the sales tax as Florida is, booms and busts have a big impact on revenues.”

Yet experts still predict strong growth for Florida over the next 20 years thanks to a good job market and baby boomers about to retire in large numbers.

Margolis: “Now they’re scared to leave because if they leave, especially if they have American-born children, which many of them do, they have businesses and they have property in the US. If they leave, they’re very much afraid they won’t be able to get back in.”

Results show that even those with valid passports can face deportation if they overstay the limit on their visa and some relatives back home can’t visit at all.

Margolis: “Also, their relatives can’t visit them because it’s become much harder for everyone to get a tourist visa. So, in the past, oh, your daughter was here for a couple of years and her mother came and visited. Now, the mother can’t get a tourist visa, so what it’s doing is it’s separating families for long periods of time.”

And with tighter restrictions on tourist visas and stronger border patrols, those families may never reunite.

Jiang: “So we are trying to mimic this structure for the usefulness, for example, of making anti-reflection coatings for windows, treated windows, for treating of computer monitors.”

They can also reduce the water and dirt on your windows. The insect known as the cicada has a similar water resistant microstructure on its wings. Just watch water dance off this disk coated for anti-reflection.

Jiang: “If you can generate this kind of coating, say on your windows, you don’t need to wash them. If there’s a dust coat on there you just wait for rain. The rain will bring down all this kind of dust from the window surface.”

So if engineers have their way, you may never have to wash your windows or deal with glare again.

A University of Florida study shows a connection between companies that offer freebies and other loyalty rewards and those companies cutting employees. Researcher Steven Shugan says many businesses offer rewards as a way to stay afloat.

Shugan: “We’re observing this now in the travel industry where there are points being awarded for hotels and airlines and now suddenly the free flights and the free hotel rooms are not as available as they were at one time.”

Researchers say you’ll find “sham” loyalty programs in many industries. The Internet can help consumers choose companies worthy of their loyalty.

Shugan: “The firm has a very short time before they are found out if they’re not delivering on services, where maybe in the past they could have gone a few years before people figured out the promises made by the firm weren’t being fulfilled.”

So consumers might not want to stockpile a lot of frequent flier miles.

For years, jatropha curcas plants grew well in the drought conditions and margin soils of India, Africa, and China. The plant’s seeds are high in oil that can be made into bio-diesel fuel. Now UF researchers are planting the trees in southwest Florida where the climate and soil is better, which could lead to a higher number of seeds. And, researcher Roy Beckford says jatropha curcas already outproduces the two leading bio-fuel crops by more than 500%.

Beckford: “Soy and corn produce, in terms of oil yield, less than one hundred gallons per acre per year. Jatropha has the potential to produce at minimum 600 gallons per acre.”

Researchers say the plant could produce as much as a thousand gallons of bio-diesel per acre per year, once they figure out the best way to harvest the seeds.

Beckford: “We may have to use some hand harvesting at first, but certainly that’s one of the things I’ll be doing at the demonstration plots. I’ll definitely be looking at various ways to harvest this mechanically.”

Researchers will monitor the first test plot of the plants to determine the yield, speed of growth, and best growing methods.

Vliet: “We think alligators that are excited during a feeding process may be blowing a lot of air through their sinuses and maybe forcing those tears back up into the eye.”

Researchers made the discovery while studying a human condition where some people suffer involuntary tearing while eating. For crocs and gators, the excitement of feeding can prove too invigorating.

Vliet: “The muscles associated with the jaws are also associated with muscles around the eyes. So, the eyes sink into the skull and pop back up. They often close their eyes when they take a bite to protect their eyes. So, they may be incidentally lubricating their eyes at that time as well.”

So gators may cry at more than lost football games.

Cottrell: “What’s interesting, I think, is when trust is violated. Now that pops really quickly to our radar screen. That sends up red flags and bells and whistles and says ‘pay attention to this violation of trust, something isn’t right,’ and I think probably violations of trust are perceived more negatively than failings in other dimensions.”

So, society heaps a little extra disgrace on trust violators like adulterers or thieves. Experts say people may value trustworthiness more than ever because modern times don’t permit people to really get to know one another.

Cottrell: “In the sense that trustworthiness builds over time and I have to have repeated interactions with you for the trust between us to grow and to develop. Well, if I haven’t known you for very long, then those repeated interactions can’t occur and that trust can’t develop over time.”

So, these days you have to choose whom to trust faster than ever before.

Flowers: “When we saw it, we were so excited for Jorden because he hasn’t had ears. He’s 5 years old and we said that it’s his present for his fifth birthday. He’s always been fascinated with ears and now he can look in the mirror and see that he looks just like his brother, so we’re so blessed and so happy for Jorden”

Jorden’s mother has her own claim to fame as the first African-American to win an Olympic gold medal in bobsledding. Doctors made Jorden’s ears from molds of the ears of his twin brother, Jaden, who has normal ears and hearing.

Flowers: “As a child you want to look like other kids and to live a normal life, as normal as possible anyway, and we feel like Jorden is going to live a normal life and be very successful when he grows up”

Like mom, Jorden is setting records too.