The discovery of a new species of human relative was announced today, 10 September 2015, by the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University), the National Geographic Society and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF). Besides shedding light on the origins and diversity of our genus, the new species, Homo naledi, appears to have intentionally deposited bodies of its dead in a remote cave chamber, a behaviour previously thought limited to humans. Consisting of more than 1 550 numbered fossil elements, ...

An accident waiting to happen: that's what an intoxicated driver is whose attention is further distracted by anything from a text message to dashboard controls. Such distractions are just too much to handle safely, even for people who drive while still within the legal alcohol limits, say Nicholas van Dyke and Mark Fillmore of the University of Kentucky in the US. Their study provides some of the first evidence on the degree to which distractions influence the ability of intoxicated drivers to safely control their vehicles. The findings are published in Springer's journal ...

James Cook University scientists have played a role in a discovery that may alter the known history of humankind. JCU's Professor Paul Dirks and Dr Eric Roberts were part of a team that explored the Rising Star Cave system in South Africa. A chamber deep in the caves was found to contain multiple specimens of what is being called Homo naledi - an extinct, previously unknown species related to modern homosapiens. Testing at JCU and the University of Johannesburg shows sediments in the chamber did not come from external sources, ruling out the possibility of flash ...

Researchers at EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) have developed a new method for studying the targets and effects of cancer drugs using data from discovery mass spectrometry (MS) experiments. The study is published in Nature Communications. Understanding the biological signaling pathways that regulate metabolism and gene expression is challenging, because so many things are happening at once. But this understanding is crucial for knowing how a drug will affect healthy and cancer cells. Protein kinases play a pivotal role in these pathways by turning ...

NS3 is an enzyme specific to the hepatitis C virus. If developed, a drug capable of recognizing and selectively attacking it could fight the disease without side effects for the body. However, to be able to develop one we need to know more about the behavior of this important protein in the virus replication process. Some SISSA scientists have provided a detailed and comprehensive view of the behavior of NS3. The study has been published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research. According to the WHO, a good 140 million people are affected by hepatitis C (3/4 million new cases ...

While sexual contact is not the most efficient means of hepatitis C (HCV) transmission, there have been several reports of outbreaks of sexually transmitted HCV in HIV-positive men who have sex with men (MSM). HCV infections are more likely to become persistent and to lead to progressive liver disease in people who are HIV-infected, even if they are receiving HIV treatment. Factors underlying these infections in HIV-positive MSM are only partially understood. Researchers at NYU's Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) at the College of Nursing (NYUCN) have conducted ...

Future computers will require a magnetic material which can be manipulated ultra-rapidly by breaking the strong magnetic coupling. A study has been published in Nature Communications today in which Swedish and German scientists demonstrate that even the strongest magnetic coupling may be broken within picoseconds (10-12 s). This will open up an exciting new area of research. The element gadolinium is named after the Uppsala chemist Johan Gadolin who discovered the first rare-earth metal yttrium in the late 1700s. Gadolinium is in the same class of elements and it has ...

Dublin, Thursday September 10th, 2015 - Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have discovered that one gene mutation in a single species can trigger dramatic changes in whole biological communities; changes can be as great as those caused by the extinction of a top predator. By using bacteria to replicate ecological systems in the lab, they found that mutations of a single gene that alter how one bacterial species interacts with others had huge structural impacts across their multi-species microbial communities. These 'social mutants' varied in their ability to produce ...

Mathematicians investigating one of science's great questions -- how to unite the physics of the very big with that of the very small -- have discovered that when the understanding of complex networks such as the brain or the Internet is applied to geometry the results match up with quantum behavior. The findings, published today (Thursday) in Scientific Reports, by researchers from Queen Mary University of London and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, could explain one of the great problems in modern physics. Currently ideas of gravity, developed by Einstein and Newton, ...

This news release is available in Japanese. The Earth's atmosphere contains oxygen because plants continuously produce it through photosynthesis. This abundant supply of oxygen allows life forms like animals to flourish. Therefore, oxygen had been thought to be an essential biomarker for life on extrasolar planets. But now, a research assistant professor Norio Narita of the Astrobiology Center of National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS), which was founded in April 2015, and an associate professor Shigeyuki Masaoka, of the Institute of Molecular Science of NINS, ...

DENVER (Sept. 10, 2015) - An international team of scientists, including one from the University of Colorado Denver and another from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, announced the discovery Thursday of a new species of hominin, a small creature with a tiny brain that opens the door to a new way of thinking about our ancient ancestors. The discovery of 15 individuals, consisting of 1,550 bones, represents the largest fossil hominin find on the African continent. "We found adults and children in the cave who are members of genus Homo but ...

A new study conducted in collaboration with Facebook using anonymised data from the social networking site shows a correlation between people's social and financial status, and the levels of internationalism in their friendship networks - with those from higher social classes around the world having fewer friends outside of their own country. Despite the fact that, arguably, people from higher social classes should be better positioned to travel and meet people from different countries, researchers found that, when it comes to friendship networks, people from those ...

ATLANTA -September 10, 2015- A new study finds breast cancer incidence and death rates are increasing in several low and middle income countries, even as death rates have declined in most high income countries, despite increasing or stable incidence rates. The findings come from a new report examining global patterns and trends in breast cancer using the most up-to-date cancer registry-based data available. It appears early online in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among all women worldwide overall and ...

Mothers who quit smoking in pregnancy are more likely to light-up again after their baby is born if they feel stressed - according to a new report from the University of East Anglia. Researchers studied interviews with more than 1,000 new mothers and found that the stress of caring for a newborn, sleepless nights, social pressure, and the idea that they no longer need to protect the baby - all contribute to relapse. The study also found that women who felt they were being supported by a partner were less likely to start smoking again. Lead researcher Dr Caitlin Notley, ...

Major European study moves a step closer to treatments for severe asthma Initial findings from a major European study have helped identify key characteristics of severe asthma, which will help with the development of new treatments for patients with the condition. The new paper, published online today (10 September, 2015) in the European Respiratory Journal, is one of the largest assessments of adults with severe asthma to date, looking at several characteristics including symptoms, patients' quality of life and blood and airway measurements. Over 30 million adults ...

A new study in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) is the first to show that high intensity intermittent exercise training improves heart structure and benefits diabetes control in patients with type 2 diabetes. The study is led by Professor Michael Trenell and Dr Sophie Cassidy from Newcastle University (UK) and was funded by the National Institute for Health Research. People with type 2 diabetes are twice as likely as those without diabetes to have heart disease, and heart disease is the leading cause of death and complications ...

Most men in Europe want to spend fewer hours at work and more time with their families even though it would cut their income, a major study on employment shows. The common belief that higher-earning men like to work longer to build their careers is shown to be wrong by the study - men who earn the majority of their household's income were most likely to want to work less. Sociologists Dr Shireen Kanji and Dr Robin Samuel also found that for men breadwinners the attraction of spending more time with their partner is as strong a pull as children's company. Dr Kanji, ...

PHILADELPHIA - A multiple myeloma patient whose cancer had stopped responding after nine different treatment regimens experienced a complete remission after receiving an investigational personalized cellular therapy known as CTL019 developed by a team at the University of Pennsylvania. The investigational treatment was combined with chemotherapy and an autologous stem cell transplant - a new strategy designed to target and kill the cells that give rise to myeloma cells. The team's findings are published in a case report today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Prior ...

PHILADELPHIA--Of the more than 50 known lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs)-rare inherited metabolic disorders-only seven can be treated with approved enzyme-replacement therapies. Lysosomal acid lipase deficiency (LALD) is an LSD that causes fatty liver disease and cirrhosis. There is no treatment for the disease, which afflicts 1- 40,000 - 1 in 300,000 people across the world. In this week's New England Journal of Medicine, researchers report results of a trial showing the efficacy of a new enzyme-replacement therapy for LALD. In an accompanying editorial, Daniel J. Rader, ...

Non-small cell lung cancer frequently spreads to the central nervous system (CNS), but patients with CNS metastases may be excluded from clinical trials of new drugs. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study being presented at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer reveals the full extent to which the CNS may be under-explored in clinical research. The study combed the website ClinicalTrials.gov to identify 413 open lung cancer clinical trials. Overall, 41 percent of trials only included patients if their CNS disease was previously treated. Twenty-six percent allowed ...

MINNEAPOLIS - Researchers may have discovered a new marker found in the blood for episodic migraine, according to a study published in the September 9, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Episodic migraine is defined as having less than 15 headaches per month. "While more research is needed to confirm these initial findings, the possibility of discovering a new biomarker for migraine is exciting," said study author B. Lee Peterlin, DO, with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and a member ...

A new study out today in the journal Neurology examines the question of quality of life for individuals with a common form of lower back pain called lumbar spinal stenosis. The findings show that, when asked to choose between treatments that reduced pain or would help them stand or walk, patients overwhelmingly chose pain relief. "There has long been a debate in the medical community over striking the right balance between pain relief and physical function," said John Markman, M.D., director of the Translational Pain Research Program in the University of Rochester ...

This news release is available in German. Ten percent of the world's cotton is produced in the Xinjiang region in northwestern China. Irrigating the cotton fields, however, is causing ecological problems. After many years of research, a team of international researchers headed by Prof. Markus Disse at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has developed a set of recommendations aimed at preserving the local environment. The Tarim basin in the Xinjiang region of northwestern China is unique. No other natural landscape is located as far from the ocean. It has ...

EVANSTON, Ill. --- In both blacks and whites, everyday feelings of discrimination can mess with the body's levels of the primary stress hormone, cortisol, new research suggests. In African-Americans, however, the negative effects of perceived discrimination on cortisol are stronger than in whites, according to the study, one of the first to look at the biological response to the cumulative impact of prejudicial treatment. The team of researchers, led by Northwestern University, also found that the teenage years are a particularly sensitive period to be experiencing ...

Are black voters more likely to vote for black candidates, regardless of political party affiliation? A new study by a University of Cincinnati researcher presents discouraging news for Republican leaders hoping to win over this Democratic stronghold by nominating black Republican candidates for political offices. "There are some very successful African-American Republicans, but those folks don't attract African-American votes," said the study's author, David Niven, a University of Cincinnati professor of political science. "Party matters so much more than race." In ...