COLUMBUS, Ohio – Charles Schulz, creator of the comic strip “Peanuts,” was anything but a hippie.   Still, he named the beloved yellow bird character in “Peanuts” Woodstock after the famous counterculture music festival that was attended and celebrated by the younger generation who grew up in the 1960s and ’70s, including many who saw themselves as hippies.   The question is why, says Michelle Ann Abate, author of the new book Blockheads, Beagles, and Sweet Babboos: New Perspectives on Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts.   Based on her critical analysis of the strips featuring Woodstock, ...

There's a bouncer in everyone: The blood-brain barrier, a layer of cells between blood vessels and the rest of the brain, kicks out toxins, pathogens and other undesirables that can sabotage the brain's precious gray matter. When the bouncer is off its guard and a rowdy element gains entry, a variety of conditions can crop up. Barrier-invading cancer cells can develop into tumors, and multiple sclerosis can occur when too many white blood cells slip pass the barrier, leading to an autoimmune attack on the protective layer of brain nerves, hindering their communication with the rest of the body. "A leaky blood-brain barrier is a common ...

EDMONTON — Combining a cancer-targeting virus with radiation to treat brain cancer in mice was more effective than either therapy on its own according to University of Alberta research, providing hope for new treatments that combine immunotherapy with traditional surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. The researchers treated mice with glioblastoma brain tumours simultaneously with high-dose radiation and a genetically engineered oncolytic vaccinia virus, a virus that has been used safely as a vaccine against smallpox.  The ...

As director of SRI’s Human Sleep Research Program, Fiona Baker studies the complex interplay between sleep and overall health and well-being. Much of her work has been focused on sleep patterns in adult women, but recently her attention has turned to adolescents. Adolescence is a crucial time for developing healthy sleep patterns as it is for brain development. In her research, Baker draws clear lines of connection between the two. “Sleep is so important to us all, but especially for teenagers or adolescents,” Baker says. “Between the ages of 10 and 21, or so, and even a little later, the ...

All around us, insects are speaking to each other: jockeying for mates, searching for food, and trying to avoid becoming someone else’s next meal. Some of this communication is easy to spot—like the flashes of fireflies on a summer night or a screaming chorus of cicadas in the afternoon—but many of the most sophisticated conversations are challenging to observe, occurring through an exchange of chemical scents. Understanding chemical communication could be the key to finding new, more effective ways to protect crops or ward off biting insects that can transmit diseases. Researchers ...

NEW YORK, NY — Anything with three hearts, blue blood and skin that can change colors like a display in Times Square is likely to turn heads. Meet Sepia bandensis, known more descriptively as the camouflaging dwarf cuttlefish. Over the past three years, a team led by neuroscientists at Columbia’s Zuckerman that includes data experts and web designers has put together a brain atlas of this captivating cephalopod: a neuroanatomical roadmap depicting for the first time the brain’s overall 32-lobed structure as well its cellular organization.    The ...

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), released just prior to an international climate convention in 2015, explicitly stated that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions were the highest in history, with clear and widespread impacts on the climate system. Since then, hundreds of cities across the world have published their own climate action plans (CAPs), detailing how their urban areas will handle climate change. How do the plans stack up against one another and against the recommended ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – New ultra-high-resolution CT technology enables excellent image quality and accurate diagnosis of coronary artery disease in high-risk patients, a potentially significant benefit for people previously ineligible for noninvasive screening, according to a study published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Coronary artery disease is the most common form of heart disease. Coronary CT angiography (CCTA) is highly effective for ruling out coronary artery disease ...

Self-driving revolution hampered by a lack of accurate simulations of human behaviour  Algorithms that accurately reflect the behaviour of road users - vital for the safe roll out of driverless vehicles - are still not available, warn scientists.  They say there is “formidable complexity” in developing software that can predict the way people behave and interact on the roads, be they pedestrians, motorists or bike riders.   To improve the modelling, a research team led by Professor Gustav Markkula from the Institute of Transport Studies ...

Fires in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) emit more toxic smoke than wildfires burning in natural vegetation, due to the chemicals in the structures, vehicles, and other manufactured goods that burn in fires in areas of human habitation. Amara Holder and colleagues surveyed the literature on emissions from urban fuels, finding 28 experimental studies that reported emission factors—emissions per unit of fuel burned—for various items, such as home furnishings, consumer electronics, and vehicle ...

Economically progressive candidates may fare better in US elections when delivering their message in terms of “binding values” such as patriotism, family, and respect for tradition, according to a study. Although large majorities of Americans favor increasing economic equality in the United States, candidates who promote policies intended to reduce economic inequality, such as raising the minimum wage or increasing access to health care, often fare poorly at the ballot box. One reason for their under-performance may ...

The telencephalon is the part of the brain responsible for executive functions in fish, according to an experimental study.  Zegni Triki and colleagues used guppies (Poecilia reticulata) that had been selected over five generations to have smaller or larger telencephalons, resulting in a 10% size difference between “up selected” and “down selected” lines of fish. Total brain size was not significantly affected. The authors then presented 48 male fifth-generation fish from both lines with tests of cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory—the three commonly accepted components ...

A model of human psychology could help self-driving cars interact with human drivers on the road, according to a study. Gustav Markkula and colleagues combined several computational psychological models into one master-model to simulate pedestrians attempting to cross a busy road and the human drivers on that road. The goal of the model was to capture the underlying cognitive mechanisms responsible for observed behavior. Computational models of Bayesian perception, theory of mind, behavioral game theory, long-term valuation of ...

A recent study unveiled the doorway that SARS-CoV2 uses to slip inside cells undetected. SARS-CoV-2 uses the receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, or ACE2, to infect human cells. However, this receptor alone does not paint a complete picture of how the virus enters cells. ACE2 is like a doorknob; when SARS-CoV-2 grabs it and maneuvers it precisely, this allows the virus to open a doorway to the cell’s interworking and step inside. However, the identity of the door eluded scientists. Scott Hansen, an associate ...

The 2023 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize has been awarded to scientist David J. Lipman for his visionary work in the conception, design, and implementation of computational tools, databases, and infrastructure that transformed the way biological information is analyzed and accessed freely and rapidly around the world.  The $500,000 award is bestowed by The Warren Alpert Foundation in recognition of work that has improved the understanding, prevention, treatment, or cure of human disease. The prize is administered by Harvard Medical School.  Lipman will be honored at a scientific symposium on Oct. 11, 2023, hosted by HMS. For further information, visit ...

Two papers published by Macquarie University researchers reveal that most of us ignore the meter when a moral choice is clear, but we use it when the choice is more morally ambiguous. And some of us, about ten per cent, will do anything to win. You are playing The Great Fire, a narrative computer game. It’s all about Frankie, an usher in a cinema in regional Australia in the 1940s, who is confronted by a murderous psychopath. Along the way, players have to make choices which affect the progress and outcome of the game. Some are simple black and white decisions, such as ...

Adults who live in walkable neighborhoods are more likely to interact with their neighbors and have a stronger sense of community than people who live in car-dependent communities, report researchers at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at University of California San Diego. The findings of the study, published online in the journal Health & Place, support one of six foundational pillars suggested by United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy as part of a national strategy to address a public health crisis caused by loneliness, ...

HOUSTON, SAN DIEGO and LONDON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Replay today announced that the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a ‘safe to proceed’ for the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for NY-ESO-1 TCR/IL-15 NK, an engineered T cell receptor natural killer (TCR NK) cell therapy for advanced synovial sarcoma and myxoid/round cell liposarcoma. MD Anderson is the IND sponsor. NY-ESO-1 TCR/IL-15 NK is being developed by Syena, an oncology-focused product company launched by Replay and MD Anderson based upon the scientific discoveries of Katy Rezvani, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Stem Cell ...

The analysis, which appears in the journal Nature Reviews Earth and Environment, also points to ways to improve assessments in order to achieve sustainable water use and food production in the future.  “Even though irrigation covers a small fraction of the earth, it has a significant impact on regional climate and environments—and is either already unsustainable, or verging on towards scarcity, in some parts of the world,” explains Sonali Shukla McDermid, an associate professor in NYU’s Department of Environmental Studies and the paper’s lead author. “But because irrigation supplies 40% of the world’s food, we need to understand ...

Quantum technology is expected to fundamentally change many key areas of society. Researchers are convinced that there are many more useful quantum properties and applications to explore than those we know today. A team of researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have now developed open-source, freely available software that will pave the way for new discoveries in the field and accelerate quantum research significantly. Within a few decades, quantum technology is expected to become a key technology in areas such as health, communication, defence and energy. The ...

Digesting fish waste can allow circular fish and vegetable farms (aquaponics) to produce biogas that can be fed back into the energy system of these farms. This also generates excellent nutrition for plants, according to new research from the University of Gothenburg. There is increasing growth in circular, land-based, combined fish and vegetable farms- often referred to as aquaponics. Aquaponics makes use of nutrient-rich water produced by fish (aquaculture) which can be used to fertilise plants (hydroponics) ...

Every day, tens of thousands of songs are released. This constant stream of options makes it difficult for streaming services and radio stations to choose which songs to add to playlists. To find the ones that will resonate with a large audience, these services have used human listeners and artificial intelligence. This approach, however, lingering at a 50% accuracy rate, does not reliably predict if songs will become hits. Now, researchers in the US have used a comprehensive machine learning technique applied to brain responses and were able to predict ...

LOGAN, Utah, June 20, 2023 — A detailed, high-resolution map of the rusty patched bumble bee’s genome has been released by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) scientists, offering new possible approaches for bringing the native pollinator back from the danger of extinction. Putting together the rusty patched bumble bee genome is part of the Beenome 100 project, a first-of-its-kind effort to create a library of high-quality, ...

  The face of a 16-year-old woman buried near Cambridge (UK) in the 7th century with an incredibly rare gold and garnet cross (the ‘Trumpington Cross’) has been reconstructed following analysis of her skull. The striking image is going on public display for the first time on 21st June, with new scientific evidence showing that she moved to England from Central Europe as a young girl, leading to an intriguing change in her diet.   The image and artefacts from the mysterious woman’s ...

Weak policies and political ideologies risk jeopardising plans to tackle health and climate change, says Cambridge expert Efforts to tackle major issues facing the UK, including the nation’s health and climate change, are being hampered because politicians often ignore the existing evidence when setting policies, according to Dame Theresa Marteau, a public health expert at the University of Cambridge. Writing in the journal Science and Public Policy, Professor Marteau argues that this ‘evidence-neglect’ is a result of incentive structures that encourage politicians to set ambitious policy goals while simultaneously disincentivising ...