The 1949 letter by the physicist and Nobel laureate discusses bees, birds and whether new physics principles could come from studying animal senses. It's a position still being realised within physics to this day, with a growing body of research and understanding of how animals such as birds and bees find their way around. Now a study led by RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, discusses how recent discoveries in migratory birds back up Einstein's thinking 72 years ago. The previously unpublished letter was shared with researchers by Judith Davys - Einstein had addressed ...

If you did not catch the flu this year -- and there is an overwhelming chance that you did not -- you have COVID-19 to thank. It's a small consolation, given the enormously disruptive scope of the pandemic. But it's the focus of a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health by two Concordia researchers and their colleagues that studies the 2020 influenza figures from Canada, the United States, Australia and Brazil. The authors show there is a clear relationship between the implementation of COVID-mitigation measures such as hand-washing, masking and social distancing and the spread of the annual flu. They write that these preventive measures all but eliminated ...

The quest to create safer, more successful pregnancies is one of the top goals of modern science. While pregnancy is better understood today than ever before, with improvements in technology helping to lower the risk of negative outcomes, there is much researchers still don't know about a vital part of the pregnancy process: uterine fluid. Secreted by glands in the uterus during pregnancy, uterine fluid is believed to play an important role in supporting a developing embryo by sending information from the uterus to the embryo, along with a host ...

In 2020, stores sold out of garden seed, coops and rabbit cages. Now, we have an idea how much protein people can grow in their backyards. The 2020 meat shortages led many to wonder what to eat for protein when supply chains are disrupted. Some people turned to gathering eggs, raising animals and growing their own food. A team from Michigan Technological University and the University of Alaska Fairbanks found that the work is well worth it. In a new study published in Sustainability, the researchers looked at how a typical household with a typical backyard can raise chickens, rabbits or soybeans to meet its protein needs. People eat a lot of protein in the U.S. and the average person needs 51 grams of ...

MINNEAPOLIS/ST.PAUL (05/12/2021) -- In a study recently published in END ...

DURHAM, N.H.-- A national report from the University of New Hampshire shows close to one and a half million children each year visit a doctor, emergency room or medical facility as a result of an assault, abuse, crime or other form of violence. This is four times higher than previous estimates based only on data from U.S. emergency rooms for violence-related treatment. In their END ...

A portable, rapid testing platform can detect gonorrhea infections in patient samples in under 15 minutes, far faster than standard-of-care tests that can take hours or days. The platform accurately detected infections and determined resistance to a common antibiotic in 217 patient samples from sexual health clinics in Baltimore and Uganda. The technology's speed and low cost could empower quicker and more affordable gonorrhea testing in low-resource regions, as well as help combat the spread of drug-resistant strains. Rates of gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted ...

A new, noninvasive method for measuring brain blood flow with light has been developed by biomedical engineers and neurologists at the University of California, Davis, and used to detect brain activation. The new method, functional interferometric diffusing wave spectroscopy, or fiDWS, promises to be cheaper than existing technology and could be used for assessing brain injuries, or in neuroscience research. The work is published May 12 in Science Advances. "Now we can assess how well the brain regulates blood flow, and even detect brain activation noninvasively in adult humans, using principles similar to functional ...

MISSOULA - Only an anthropologist would treasure millennia-old human feces found in dry caves. Just ask Dr. Meradeth Snow, a University of Montana researcher and co-chair of UM's Department of Anthropology. She is part of an international team, led by the Harvard Medical School-affiliated Joslin Diabetes Center, that used human "paleofeces" to discover that ancient people had far different microorganisms living in their guts than we do in modern times. Snow said studying the gut microbes found in the ancient fecal material may offer clues to combat diseases like diabetes that afflict people living in today's industrialized societies. "We ...

Researchers used genetic engineering tools to create a virus that can enter specific neurons and insert into the prefrontal cortex a new genetic code that induces the production of modified proteins. In tests with mice, the alteration of these proteins was sufficient to modify brain activity, indicating a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and autism. Sometimes referred to as the "executive brain", the prefrontal cortex is the region that governs higher-level cognitive functions and decision making. Studies of tissue from this brain region in patients with schizophrenia have detected alterations in two proteins: BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) and trkB (tyrosine receptor kinase B). The relationship ...

A new study by the University of Georgia revealed that more college students change majors within the STEM pipeline than leave the career path of science, technology, engineering and mathematics altogether. Funded by a National Institutes of Health grant and a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship and done in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin, the study examined interviews, surveys and institutional data from 1,193 students at a U.S. midwestern university for more than six years to observe a single area of the STEM pipeline: biomedical fields of study. Out of 921 students ...

UCLA life scientists have identified six "words" that specific immune cells use to call up immune defense genes -- an important step toward understanding the language the body uses to marshal responses to threats. In addition, they discovered that the incorrect use of two of these words can activate the wrong genes, resulting in the autoimmune disease known as Sjögren's syndrome. The research, conducted in mice, END ...

A new study from North Carolina State University finds that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from standing dead trees in coastal wetland forests - colloquially called "tree farts" - need to be accounted for when assessing the environmental impact of so-called "ghost forests." In the study, researchers compared the quantity and type of GHG emissions from dead tree snags to emissions from the soil. While snags did not release as much as the soils, they did increase GHG emissions of the overall ecosystem by about 25 percent. Researchers say the findings show snags are important for understanding the total environmental impact of the spread of dead trees in coastal wetlands, known as ghost forests, ...

The immune system's main job is identifying things that can make us sick. In the language of immunology, this means distinguishing "self" from "non-self": The cells of our organs are self, while disease-causing bacteria and viruses are non-self. But what about the billions of bacteria that live in our guts and provide us with benefits like digesting food and making vitamins? Are they friend or foe? This isn't only a philosophical question. An immune system that mistakes our good gut bacteria for an enemy can cause a dangerous type of inflammation in the intestines called colitis. An immune system that looks the other way while gut microbes spill past their assigned borders is equally dangerous. Understanding ...

Our body's relationship with bacteria is complex. While infectious bacteria can cause illness, our gut is also teaming with "good" bacteria that aids nutrition and helps keep us healthy. But even the "good" can have bad effects if these bacteria end up in tissues and organs where they're not supposed to be. Now, research published in END ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Neighborhoods without opioid treatment providers likely serve as a widespread barrier to care for those who are ready to seek help, a new study has found. The study, led by researchers at The Ohio State University, appears today (May 12, 2021) in the journal PLOS ONE. "The study identified clear opioid treatment deserts that undoubtedly stand in the way of access to needed care and that likely exist throughout the state and the nation. These are areas where treatment providers should be setting up shop - we need a surge of resources into these areas," said Ayaz Hyder, an assistant professor in Ohio State's College of Public Health ...

Elephant Seals' Extreme Diving Allows Them to Exploit Deep Ocean Niche Using data captured by video cameras and smart accelerometers attached to female elephant seals, Taiki Adachi and colleagues show that the animals spend at least 80% of their day foraging for fish, feeding between 1,000 and 2,000 times per day. The unique glimpse at elephant seal foraging strategy shows how these large marine mammals exploit a unique ocean niche filled with small fish. The findings also may offer a way to monitor the health of the mesopelagic zone, the dark and cold ocean "twilight zone" ecosystem at 200 to 1,000 meters deep. Small mesopelagic fish dominate the world's ocean ...

A Johns Hopkins University-led team has created an inexpensive portable device and cellphone app to diagnose gonorrhea in less than 15 minutes and determine if a particular strain will respond to frontline antibiotics. The invention improves on traditional testing in hospital laboratories and clinics, which typically takes up to a week to deliver results--time during which patients can unknowingly spread their infections. The team's results appear today in Science Translational Medicine. "Our portable, inexpensive testing platform has the potential to change the game when it comes to diagnosing and enabling rapid treatment of sexually transmitted infections," said team leader Tza-Huei Wang, a professor of mechanical engineering ...

People who are genetically more likely to suffer from cardiovascular diseases may benefit from boosting a biomarker found in fish oils, a new study suggests. In a genetic study in 1,886 Asian Indians published in PLOS ONE today (Wednesday 12 May), scientists have identified the first evidence for the role of adiponectin, an obesity-related biomarker, in the association between a genetic variation called omentin and cardiometabolic health. The team, led by Professor Vimal Karani from the University of Reading, observed that the role of adiponectin was linked to cardiovascular disease markers that were independent of common and central obesity among the Asian Indian population. ...

Misleading claims about COVID-19 vaccines can negatively impact public confidence in immunisation uptake, a new UNSW Sydney study reveals. A new study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE revealed over 103 million people globally liked, shared, retweeted or reacted with an emoji to misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines. In 2020, a social media post claiming, "a new vaccine for COVID-19 will alter a person's DNA and result in them becoming genetically modified" was circulated on Facebook accounts in Australia. Up until August 21, 2020, this false claim had attracted 360 shares and was viewed 32,000 times. The study, led by UNSW researchers, ...

Quick: Pick your three favorite fast-food restaurants. If you're like many people, McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King may come to mind--even if you much prefer In-N-Out or Chick-fil-A. A new study from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and UC San Francisco's Department of Neurology found that when it comes to making choices, we surprisingly often forget about the things we like best and are swayed by what we remember. The paper, publishing this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, combines insights from economics and psychology with decision-making experiments and fMRI brain scans to examine how our imperfect memories affect our decision making. "Life is not a multiple-choice test," says Berkeley ...

Autoimmune diseases have something in common with horses, bachelor's degrees and daily flossing habits: women are more likely to have them. One reason for autoimmune diseases' prevalence in women may be sex-based differences in inflammation. In a new study, West Virginia University researcher Jonathan Busada investigated how sex hormones affect stomach inflammation in males and females. He found that androgens--or male sex hormones--may help to keep stomach inflammation in check. "Stomach cancer is primarily caused by rampant inflammation," said Busada, an assistant professor in the School of ...

Brown bears that are more inclined to grate and rub against trees have more offspring and more mates, according to a University of Alberta study. The results suggest there might be a fitness component to the poorly understood behaviour. "As far as we know, all bears do this dance, rubbing their back up against the trees, stomping the feet and leaving behind odours of who they are, what they are, what position they're in, and possibly whether they are related," said Mark Boyce, an ecologist in the Department of Biological Sciences. "What we were able to show is that both males and females have more offspring if they rub, more surviving offspring if they rub and they have more mates if they rub." The research team led by Boyce ...

Citrus greening disease was first discovered in Florida in 2005. Since then, production of oranges in the United States for processing has declined by 72 percent between the 2007-2008 growing season and the 2017-2018 growing season, primarily in Florida. The disease was discovered in California in 2012, and now the state is beginning to see a rapid increase of citrus greening disease. As there is currently no cure for citrus greening disease, many growers are concerned about its rapid spread and many plant pathologists are focused on learning more about the complicated nature of this disease. To add to this growing body of knowledge about citrus greening disease, a group of scientists working in California, ...

Annually, more than 350,000 children in the world are affected by pediatric cancer. Radiation has improved outcomes dramatically, but the damage caused to healthy tissue can affect the long-term health of a child. While clinicians and radiation specialists design treatments using the most up-to-date information available, there hasn't been a single guiding source of data to make evidence-based decisions that are specific for children. Now, a volunteer international research collaboration is working toward providing evidence-based guidelines for radiation therapy dosing for children. Results from this effort will help in minimizing side effects while continuing to provide ...