Somehow, colorful tropical scarlet macaws from tropical Mesoamerica -- the term anthropologists use to refer to Mexico and parts of northern Central America -- ended up hundreds of miles north in the desert ruins of an ancient civilization in what is now New Mexico. Early scientists began excavating the large Pueblo settlements in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico and found the birds' remains in the late 1890s, but only recent radiocarbon dating of the physical evidence has pushed back the time period of sophisticated Pueblo culture by at least 150 years, according ...

Social networks affect every aspect of our lives, from the jobs we get and the technologies we adopt to the partners we choose and the healthiness of our lifestyles. But where do they come from? In a new study, the University of Pennsylvania's Damon Centola shows how social networks form and what that means for the ideas that will spread across them. Counterintuitively, he finds that breaking down group boundaries to increase the spread of knowledge across populations may ultimately result in less-effective knowledge sharing. Instead, his research shows that best ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. - A study at Oregon State University indicates that both a high-fat and a high-sugar diet, compared to a normal diet, cause changes in gut bacteria that appear related to a significant loss of "cognitive flexibility," or the power to adapt and adjust to changing situations. This effect was most serious on the high-sugar diet, which also showed an impairment of early learning for both long-term and short-term memory. The findings are consistent with some other studies about the impact of fat and sugar on cognitive function and behavior, and suggest that ...

If planets had personalities, Mars would be a rock star according to recent preliminary results from NASA's MAVEN spacecraft. Mars sports a "Mohawk" of escaping atmospheric particles at its poles, "wears" a layer of metal particles high in its atmosphere, and lights up with aurora after being smacked by solar storms. MAVEN is also mapping out the escaping atmospheric particles. The early results are being discussed at a MAVEN-sponsored "new media" workshop held in Berkeley, California, on June 19-21. The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft was launched ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. - In 1964, renowned biologists Peter Raven and Paul Erhlich published a landmark study that introduced the concept of co-evolution. Using butterflies and plants as primary examples, the team determined that two species can reciprocally drive each other's evolution and development. Now, an international team of researchers led by the University of Missouri and Stockholm University has used cutting-edge genomics to analyze the co-evolution theory and identified the mechanisms responsible for this phenomenon. Scientists believe that understanding how co-evolution ...

Our brains track moving objects by applying one of the algorithms your phone's GPS uses, according to researchers at the University of Rochester. This same algorithm also explains why we are fooled by several motion-related optical illusions, including the sudden "break" of baseball's well known "curveball illusion." The new open-access study published in PNAS shows that our brains apply an algorithm, known as a Kalman filter, when tracking an object's position. This algorithm helps the brain process less than perfect visual signals, such as when objects move to the ...

Amid reports that rank today's teens as the most stressed generation in the country, a new study offers hope for helping them effectively manage stress and build long-term resiliency. A pilot study, published in the spring issue of the journal Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, describes how a stress-reduction/resiliency-building curriculum developed by the Benson-Henry Institute (BHI) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) helped a group of Boston-area high school students significantly reduce their anxiety levels, increase productivity and effectively manage stress over ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Fish are power eaters. In many species, large muscles running along their backs and bellies provide bursts of speed for chasing down prey. Then, at the very instant they close in, they vacuum victims into their suddenly gaping mouths with overwhelming suction. It turns out that these power surges are no anatomical coincidence. A new study shows that largemouth bass get their slurping power from the very same muscles that provide their swimming power. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Brown University researchers ...

Chemists and biologists at UC San Diego have succeeded in designing and synthesizing an artificial cell membrane capable of sustaining continual growth, just like a living cell. Their achievement, detailed in a paper published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, will allow scientists to more accurately replicate the behavior of living cell membranes, which until now have been modeled only by synthetic cell membranes without the ability to add new phospholipids. 'The membranes we created, though completely synthetic, mimic several ...

WASHINGTON (June 18, 2015) -- Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that some individuals exposed to HIV-1, but who remain uninfected, have a certain pattern of virus-specific immune responses that differentiated them from individuals who became infected. The findings build upon prior research by studying these responses in the context of a controlled clinical trial, examining a large number of subjects, and by having access to specimens saved before anyone was infected. In the future, this information could be used to assess HIV-1 ...

CHAPEL HILL, NC - Painful insulin injections could become a thing of the past for the millions of Americans who suffer from diabetes, thanks to a new invention from researchers at the University of North Carolina and NC State, who have created the first "smart insulin patch" that can detect increases in blood sugar levels and secrete doses of insulin into the bloodstream whenever needed. The patch - a thin square no bigger than a penny - is covered with more than one hundred tiny needles, each about the size of an eyelash. These "microneedles" are packed with microscopic ...

New Vanderbilt-led research shows hospitals are doing a better job of using antibiotics less commonly associated with antibiotic resistance to treat children hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). The report, 'Antibiotic choice for children hospitalized with pneumonia and adherence to national guidelines,' was released today in the journal Pediatrics. This study was nested within a larger study, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Etiology of Pneumonia in the Community (EPIC). The multi-center EPIC study was a prospective, population-based ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Time management isn't just important for busy people -- it's critical for plants, too. A Duke University study shows how two biological clocks work together to help plants deal with intermittent demands such as fungal infections, while maintaining an already-packed daily schedule of activities like growth. The researchers also identified a gene that senses disturbances in the 'tick-tock' of one clock, and causes the other clock to tighten its timetable. Their work appears in the June 22 issue of the journal Nature. From daily sleep/wake cycles and fluctuations ...

For diabetics, a quick prick of the finger can give information about their blood glucose levels, guiding them in whether to have a snack or inject a dose of insulin. Point-of-care glucose meters, or glucometers, are also used in the veterinary world to monitor cats and dogs with diabetes or pets hospitalized for other reasons. In both cases, the device's readout can literally be a matter of life and death. While glucometers have the advantage of being fast and requiring only a small drop of blood, they are not as accurate as some other methods of measuring blood glucose. ...

Mild elevations in blood pressure considered to be in the upper range of normal during young adulthood can lead to subclinical heart damage by middle age -- a condition that sets the stage for full-blown heart failure, according to findings of a federally funded study led by scientists at Johns Hopkins. A report on the findings of the multicenter study that followed 2,500 men and women over a period of 25 years is published online June 22 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Persistently elevated blood pressure, or hypertension, is one that tops 140/90, ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A new study shows that captive black rhinos -- but not their wild counterparts -- are at high risk for two common health problems suffered by millions of humans: inflammation and insulin resistance. The finding suggests captive black rhinos have metabolic problems. In humans, these same conditions can both result from a rich diet and sedentary lifestyle and contribute to obesity and other diseases. To be clear, this study does not suggest that zoos cause health problems in black rhinos, said Pam Dennis, clinical assistant professor of veterinary preventive ...

WASHINGTON (June 22, 2015) - Young adults who had blood pressure that was elevated but still within normal range for long periods of time were more likely to show signs of cardiac dysfunction in middle age, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Researchers followed 2,479 men and women for 25 years, conducting health assessments -- including blood pressure readings -- seven times during the study period beginning as part of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults, or CARDIA study. Participants ranged in ...

The impact of cancer treatments on cardiovascular health is an important consideration when treating cancer patients, but many hospital training programs have no formal training or services in cardio-oncology and a lack of national guidelines and funding are frequent barriers to establishing such programs, according to a nationwide survey published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The ACC conducted the survey to determine the existing practices and current needs in this area and plan for a cardio-oncology section that would fill gaps in resources ...

From the old Charles Atlas ads showing a scrawny male having sand kicked in his face to sitcom clichés of henpecked husbands, men have long faced pressure to live up to ideals of masculinity. Societal norms dictating that men should be masculine are powerful. And new University of Washington research finds that men who believe they fall short of those ideals might be prompted to reassert their masculinity in small but significant ways. Published last week in Social Psychology, the research sought to understand how men respond when their masculinity is threatened, ...

Cost to hospitals from uncompensated care roughly equals the state cost of Medicaid expansion Hospitals absorb most of the uncompensated costs through lower profits Hospital closures generally increase uncompensated care of nearby hospitals that remain open EVANSTON, Ill. -- Twenty-one states have opted not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), arguing that the expansion would be too expensive. But according to new research, the cost to hospitals from uncompensated care in those states roughly equals the cost of Medicaid expansion. The ...

Rochester, Minn. -- Diabetes is a known risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia, age-related conditions that affect memory and thinking skills. However, little is known about how the diabetes-cognitive decline link compares across cultures. Scientists from Mayo Clinic and Huashan Hospital in Shanghai explored the association between Type 2 diabetes and cognitive impairment to find out if the relationship varies in different populations. Study participants had not been diagnosed with memory-related diseases, such as vascular dementia or Alzheimer's dementia. For ...

Most women -- about 86% -- with early-stage breast cancer will undergo imaging to determine if the cancer has metastasized, despite international guidelines that recommend against testing, found a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Guidelines from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Cancer Care Ontario and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommend against imaging for metastatic cancer in asymptomatic women with stage I or II breast cancer, because the likelihood of metastases is low, at 0.2% and 1.2% respectively, and the chance of ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- New research could help reverse deadly side effects caused by excessive doses of the drug acetaminophen, the major ingredient in Tylenol and many other over-the-counter and prescription medicines. Researchers at Duke University have developed a mathematical model of acetaminophen metabolism based on data from lab rats. The findings suggest that giving patients glutamine -- a common amino acid in the body -- alongside the standard antidote for acetaminophen overdose could prevent liver damage and boost the body's ability to recover. The results appear ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Safety-net agencies, such as food banks and nonprofits offering health care, serve vulnerable individuals who are uninsured or underinsured and help them connect with services, such as health care, legal aid and housing. A researcher from the University of Missouri studied the closure of a large, safety-net agency and how the closure affected clients and other, smaller agencies that depended on the larger agency for referrals. Based on her research, Nidhi Khosla, an assistant professor of health sciences in the MU School of Health Professions, offers recommendations ...

The remnants of Tropical Depression Bill soaked a large part of the U.S. from Texas to Washington, D.C. before moving into the Atlantic Ocean. NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured the movement over several days. An animation of images captured June 20 to 22 from NOAA's GOES-East satellite was created by the NASA/NOAA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. The animation shows Tropical Depression Bill's remnants moving through the Ohio Valley and moving off the northeastern U.S. The animation includes visible and infrared imagery taken from ...