Scientists have long worked to understand how crystals grow into complex shapes. Crystals are important in materials from skeletons and shells to soils and semiconductor materials, but much is unknown about how they form. Now, an international group of researchers has shown how nature uses a variety of pathways to grow crystals that go beyond the classical, one-atom-at-a-time route. The findings, published today (Thursday, July 30) in Science, have implications for decades-old questions in science and technology regarding how animals and plants grow minerals into shapes ...

IgA deficiency is one of the most common genetic immunodeficiency disorders in humans and is associated with an insufficiency or complete absence of the antibody IgA. Researchers led from Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have now performed the first comparative genetic study of IgA deficiency by using the dog as genetic disease model. Novel candidate genes have been identified and the results are published in PLOS ONE. People with low IgA are at higher risk for developing recurrent infections, allergies and autoimmunity. The underlying genetic factors ...

Highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) has helped millions survive the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Unfortunately, HIV has a built-in survival mechanism, creating reservoirs of latent, inactive virus that are invisible to both HAART and the immune system. But now, researchers at UC Davis have identified a compound that activates latent HIV, offering the tantalizing possibility that the virus can be flushed out of the silent reservoirs and fully cured. Even better, the compound (PEP005) is already approved by the FDA. The study was published in the journal ...

(SEOUL and BOSTON) - The concept of walking on water might sound supernatural, but in fact it is a quite natural phenomenon. Many small living creatures leverage water's surface tension to maneuver themselves around. One of the most complex maneuvers, jumping on water, is achieved by a species of semi-aquatic insects called water striders that not only skim along water's surface but also generate enough upward thrust with their legs to launch themselves airborne from it. Now, emulating this natural form of water-based locomotion, an international team of scientists from ...

A study by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Duke University helps explain why the candidate vaccine used in the HVTN 505 clinical trial was not protective against HIV infection despite robustly inducing anti-HIV antibodies: the vaccine stimulated antibodies that recognized HIV as well as microbes commonly found in the intestinal tract, part of the body's microbiome. The researchers suggest that these antibodies arose because the vaccine boosted an existing antibody response to the intestinal microbiome, which may explain why ...

Washington -- Thousands of nonhuman primates continue to be confined alone in laboratories despite 30-year-old federal regulations and guidelines mandating that social housing of primates should be the default. A new article co-authored by PETA scientists and Marymount University researchers, published in Perspectives in Laboratory Animal Science, argues that many laboratories cage primates alone--a harmful practice often done for convenience--and that the U.S. government isn't doing enough to address this growing problem. Decades of research shows that housing highly ...

Boulder, Colo., USA - Two hundred and fifty million years ago, all the major continents were joined together, forming a continent called Pangea (which means "all land" in Greek). The plate thickness of continents can now be measured using seismology, and it is surprisingly variable, from about 90 km beneath places like California or Western Europe, to more than 200 km beneath the older interiors of the U.S., Eastern Europe, and Russia. Authors Dan McKenzie, Michael C. Daly, and Keith Priestley wondered what the pattern of plate thickness looked like before Pangea broke ...

190 million Americans share the luxuries of human life with their pets. Giving dogs and cats a place in human homes, beds and--sometimes even, their wills--comes with the family member package. Amongst these shared human-pet comforts is the unique luxury to overeat. As a result, the most common form of malnutrition for Americans and their companion animals results not from the underconsumption, but the overconsumption of food. The obesity epidemic also causes a similar array of diseases in people and pets: diabetes, hyperlipidemia and cancer. During this year's ADSA-ASAS ...

Do you ever notice how stress and mental frustration can affect your physical abilities? When you are worried about something at work, do you find yourself more exhausted at the end of the day? This phenomenon is a result of the activation of a specific area of the brain when we attempt to participate in both physical and mental tasks simultaneously. Ranjana Mehta, Ph.D., assistant professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Public Health, conducted a study evaluating the interaction between physical and mental fatigue and brain behavior. The study showed ...

North of the Aleutian Islands, submarine canyons in the cold waters of the eastern Bering Sea contain a highly productive "green belt" that is home to deep-water corals as well as a plethora of fish and marine mammals. Situated along the continental slope, the area also supports a thriving -- but potentially environmentally damaging -- bottom-trawling fishing industry that uses large weighted nets dragged across the seafloor to scoop up everything in their path. A new study, conducted by research biologist Robert Miller of UC Santa Barbara's Marine Science Institute ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass--Two key physical phenomena take place at the surfaces of materials: catalysis and wetting. A catalyst enhances the rate of chemical reactions; wetting refers to how liquids spread across a surface. Now researchers at MIT and other institutions have found that these two processes, which had been considered unrelated, are in fact closely linked. The discovery could make it easier to find new catalysts for particular applications, among other potential benefits. "What's really exciting is that we've been able to connect atomic-level interactions of water ...

A team of scientists has linked changes in the structure of a handful of central brain neurons to understanding how animals adjust to changing seasons. Its findings enhance our understanding of the mechanisms vital to the regulation of our circadian system, or internal clock. The work, which appears in the journal Cell, focuses on the regulation of "neuronal plasticity"--changes in neuronal structure--and its function in the brain. "Neuronal plasticity underpins learning and memory, but it is very challenging to tie changes in specific neurons to alterations in animal ...

Despite their remarkably similar appearance, the "golden jackals" of East Africa and Eurasia are actually two entirely different species. The discovery, based on DNA evidence and reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on July 30, increases the overall biodiversity of the Canidae--the group including dogs, wolves, foxes, and jackals--from 35 living species to 36. "This represents the first discovery of a 'new' canid species in Africa in over 150 years," says Klaus-Peter Koepfli of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, DC. The new study, ...

The desire to quit smoking--often considered a requirement for enrolling in treatment programs--is not always necessary to reduce cigarette cravings, argues a review of addiction research published July 30 in Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Early evidence suggests that exercises aimed at increasing self-control, such as mindfulness meditation, can decrease the unconscious influences that motivate a person to smoke. Scientists are looking to the brain to understand why setting a "quit day" isn't a surefire way to rid oneself of a cigarette habit. Recent neuroimaging studies ...

A study that took a novel approach to investigating factors affecting the emergence of symptoms of Huntington's disease (HD) has identified at least two genome sites that house variants that can hasten or delay symptom onset. In their report in the July 30 issue of Cell, the multi-institutional research team describes how genome-wide association analysis of samples from more than 4,000 HD patients found that particular variants on two chromosomes were more common in individuals who first exhibited HD-associated movement disorders either earlier or later than would otherwise ...

Not every mom and dad agree on how their offspring should behave. But in genetics as in life, parenting is about knowing when your voice needs to be heard, and the best ways of doing so. Typically, compromise reigns, and one copy of each gene is inherited from each parent so that the two contribute equally to the traits who make us who we are. Occasionally, a mechanism called genomic imprinting, first described 30 years ago, allows just one parent to be heard by completely silencing the other. Now, researchers at the University of Utah School of Medicine report on a ...

A new imaging tool developed by Boston scientists could do for the brain what the telescope did for space exploration. In the first demonstration of how the technology works, published July 30 in the journal Cell, the researchers look inside the brain of an adult mouse at a scale previously unachievable, generating images at a nanoscale resolution. The inventors' long-term goal is to make the resource available to the scientific community in the form of a national brain observatory. "I'm a strong believer in bottom up-science, which is a way of saying that I would prefer ...

Oropharyngeal cancer patients who were found to have detectable traces of human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) in their saliva following cancer treatment are at an increased risk for recurrence, a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has found. The oropharynx is the area of the upper throat that includes the back of the tongue, the soft palate, the tonsils and the walls of the throat. Oropharyngeal cancer accounts for 2.8 percent of new cancers in the United States; it is often treated successfully with surgery. In a small ...

In the last two decades, prosthetic limb technology has grown by leaps and bounds. Today, the most advanced prostheses incorporate microprocessors that work with onboard gyroscopes, accelerometers, and hydraulics to enable a person to walk with a normal gait. Such top-of-the-line prosthetics can cost more than $50,000. Amos Winter is aiming to develop a passive, low-tech prosthetic knee that performs nearly as well as high-end prosthetics, at a fraction of the cost. "We're going after this disruptive opportunity," says Winter, an assistant professor of mechanical ...

NEW YORK, July 30, 2015 - Major achievements have been made in the domestic HIV/AIDS response as a result of increased realignment and coordination of efforts at the federal level. However, that level of consistent coordination and alignment has yet to take place in most states. In an effort to identify what needs to be done, amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, in collaboration with the National HIV/AIDS Initiative at the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law, has released a set of recommendations for how states across the U.S. can ...

BUFFALO, N.Y. - A little recognition for a job well done means a lot to children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) - more so than it would for typically developing kids. That praise, or other possible reward, improves the performance of children with ADHD on certain cognitive tasks, but until a recent study led by researchers from the University at Buffalo, it wasn't clear if that result was due to heightened motivation inspired by positive reinforcement or because those with ADHD simply had greater room for improvement at certain tasks relative to ...

The presence of persistent human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 DNA in oral rinses after treatment for HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer was rare but it appears to be associated with poor prognosis and therefore may have potential as a long-term tool for tumor surveillance, according to an article published online by JAMA Oncology. HPV infection is responsible for the majority of oropharyngeal carcinomas in the United States. In 10 percent to 25 percent of patients with HPV-positive tumors, the cancer will progress after treatment and earlier diagnoses of progressive or ...

(Boston)--New evidence highlights the importance of the liver in immunity against bacterial pneumonia. The study is the first of its kind to directly show such a link between liver-produced molecules and pneumonia susceptibility during sepsis. Led by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), the study appears in the journal Infection and Immunity. Pneumonia, according to the World Health Organization, is the leading infectious cause of death in children worldwide, taking more than 900,000 lives of children under the age of 5 in 2013 alone. Pneumonia, ...

A new piece of research led by the University of Southampton has found that the behaviour of fruit flies, which are commonly used in laboratory experiments, is altered by electric fields. The research indicates that the wings of the insects are disturbed by static electric fields, leading to changes in avoidance behaviour and the neurochemical balance of their brains. The paper, published in the Proceeding of the Royal Society B, suggests that the plastic housing laboratory fruit flies are commonly kept in (which hold their own static electric charge) could agitate the ...

In a survey of hospital medical physicians across the United States, women made nearly $15,000 less than their male counterparts, with a portion of this disparity explained by female doctors' tendency to prioritize collegiality and control over personal time, rather than substantial pay. The figure was determined after controlling for a number of factors, including age, geography, specialty, and amount and type of clinical work. Optimal workload was the top priority for both male and female physicians, 776 of whom responded to survey questions on work priorities. Substantial ...