UCLA biologists have identified a gene that can slow the aging process throughout the entire body when activated remotely in key organ systems. Working with fruit flies, the life scientists activated a gene called AMPK that is a key energy sensor in cells; it gets activated when cellular energy levels are low. Increasing the amount of AMPK in fruit flies' intestines increased their lifespans by about 30 percent — to roughly eight weeks from the typical six — and the flies stayed healthier longer as well. The research, published Sept. 4 in the open-source journal Cell ...

One shot of an experimental vaccine made from two Ebola virus gene segments incorporated into a chimpanzee cold virus vector (called chimp adenovirus type 3 or ChAd3) protected all four macaque monkeys exposed to high levels of Ebola virus 5 weeks after inoculation, report National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists and their collaborators. The ability of the ChAd3 Ebola virus vaccine to elicit rapid protection in monkeys is notable as the world health community battles an ongoing Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa. While the protective effects of the single ...

ARLINGTON, Texas -- A high school senior who lives with two college-educated parents is significantly less likely to drink alcohol or smoke marijuana than a teenager who lives with one parent, a new University of Texas at Arlington study has found. For example, teens living with their mother only are 54 percent more likely to use alcohol, and 58 percent more likely to smoke if they live only with their father. Eusebius Small, an assistant professor in the UT Arlington School of Social Work, analyzed data on 14,268 teenagers to determine the impact of family structure ...

ATHENS, Ohio (Sept. 8, 2014)—Ohio University paleontologists have identified a new species of titanosaurian, a member of the large-bodied sauropods that thrived during the final period of the dinosaur age, in Tanzania. Although many fossils of titanosaurians have been discovered around the globe, especially in South America, few have been recovered from the continent of Africa. The new species, named Rukwatitan bisepultus, was first spotted by scientists embedded in a cliff wall in the Rukwa Rift Basin of southwestern Tanzania. Using the help of professional excavators ...

Life can be so intricate and novel that even a single cell can pack a few surprises, according to a study led by Princeton University researchers. The pond-dwelling, single-celled organism Oxytricha trifallax has the remarkable ability to break its own DNA into nearly a quarter-million pieces and rapidly reassemble those pieces when it's time to mate, the researchers report in the journal Cell. The organism internally stores its genome as thousands of scrambled, encrypted gene pieces. Upon mating with another of its kind, the organism rummages through these jumbled genes ...

(PHILADELPHIA) – These days, cancer researchers aim to design targeted and specific therapy – those that kill cancer but spare the surrounding tissue. Immunotoxins, which use cancer-targeted antibodies linked to deadly toxins such as ricin, are one such therapy. However, few have succeeded to date in part because cancer cells share many molecules with normal cells, and because it can be challenging to unlock the deadly chemical only after the antibody has homed to the diseased tissue. Now researchers at Thomas Jefferson University have discovered the unique biological ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Engineers have created a shape-changing "soft" robot that can tread over a variety of adverse environmental conditions including snow, puddles of water, flames, and the crushing force of being run over by an automobile. Videos: https://cornell.box.com/softrobot The engineers from Cornell and Harvard Universities will detail the robot in an upcoming edition of the journal Soft Robotics. An early online version of the study can be found at: http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/soro.2014.0008 The pneumatically powered, fully untethered robot was ...

Tropical Storm Fengshen is a large storm and infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite shows that it's about as long as the big island of Japan. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Storm Fengshen on September 7 and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument known as AIRS gathered temperature data about the storm's cloud tops and surrounding sea surface temperatures. The infrared data showed strong thunderstorms surrounded the center of circulation and also appeared in large bands south and northeast of the storm's center. Another large and fragmented band on ...

The conversion of forests into cropland worldwide has triggered an atmospheric change that, while seldom considered in climate models, has had a net cooling effect on global temperatures, according to a new Yale study. Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, Professor Nadine Unger of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) reports that large-scale forest losses during the last 150 years have reduced global emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), which control the atmospheric distribution of many short-lived climate pollutants, ...

DARIEN, IL – A neuroimaging study is the first to show that white matter damage caused by severe obstructive sleep apnea can be reversed by continuous positive airway pressure therapy. The results underscore the importance of the "Stop the Snore" campaign of the National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project, a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Sleep Research Society and other partners. Results show that participants with severe, untreated sleep apnea had a significant reduction in white matter fiber integrity ...

VIDEO: When a bird forages on nectar, the flower twists as the spur complies with the shape of the bird's bill. In consequence, pollen is placed in an unusual location on... Click here for more information. When researchers studying several bird-pollinated species of Impatiens flowers in the mountains of western Cameroon noticed one with an odd, upwardly curving nectar spur, they couldn't imagine how any sunbird could ever sip from it. After recording visitors to the flower continuously ...

VIDEO: Coral trout are choosey about moray collaborators. Click here for more information. Coral trout not only work with moray eels to improve their chances of a meal, but they can also be choosy when it comes to picking the best moray partner. The findings reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on September 8 show that such sophisticated collaborative abilities are not limited to apes and humans. The fish's behavior is remarkable in other ways too, the researchers ...

Coral trout are fast when chasing prey above the reefs of their habitat, but can't pursue their quarry if it buries itself into a hard-to-reach reef crevice. When this happens, the trout will team up with a snake-like moray eel to flush out the unfortunate fish in a remarkable piece of interspecies collaboration: either the eel takes the prey in the reef, or scares it back into the open so the trout can pounce. Coral trout - along with close relative the roving coral grouper - will use gestures and signals to flag the location of prey to an eel, including head shakes ...

A new study suggests that nearly half of workers who care for animals in large industrial hog farming operations may be carrying home livestock-associated bacteria in their noses, and that this potentially harmful bacteria remains with them up to four days after exposure. Researchers had believed that livestock-associated bacteria would clear from the noses of hog workers quickly – within 24 hours. But this small study of hog workers in North Carolina, reported online Sept. 8 in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, suggests it can stick around longer. ...

September 8, 2014 CHAPEL HILL – UNC School of Medicine researchers have discovered an unlikely relationship between CXCR7 – a protein implicated in tumor growth and metastasis – and adrenomedullin – a hormone involved in cardiovascular health. Deleting CXCR7 allows adrenomedullin to run rampant, triggering the development of an enlarged heart and the overgrowth of the lymphatic vessels that traffic immune cells and fluids throughout the body. The study, published September 8 in the journal Developmental Cell, reveals that CXCR7 binds to the ligand adrenomedullin. The ...

CHAPEL HILL, NC – Researchers from the UNC School of Medicine have discovered that the protein RBM4, a molecule crucial to the process of gene splicing, is drastically decreased in multiple forms of human cancer, including lung and breast cancers. The finding, published today in the journal Cancer Cell, offers a new route toward therapies that can thwart the altered genetic pathways that allow cancer cells to proliferate and spread. "Historically, scientists haven't targeted the proteins in cancer cells that are involved in gene splicing," said Zefeng Wang, PhD, associate ...

For decades, doctors have developed methods to diagnose how different types of cells and systems in the body are functioning. Now scientists have adapted an emerging biomedical technique to study the vast body of the ocean. In a paper published this week in the journal Science, scientists demonstrate that they can identify and measure proteins in the ocean, revealing how single-celled marine organisms and ocean ecosystems operate. The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation funded the research. "Proteins are the molecules that catalyze ...

Feeling socially disconnected may lead us to lower our threshold for determining that another being is animate or alive, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "This increased sensitivity to animacy suggests that people are casting a wide net when looking for people they can possibly relate to — which may ultimately help them maximize opportunities to renew social connections," explains psychological scientist and lead researcher Katherine Powers of Dartmouth College. These findings enhance ...

(9/8/14, Lebanon, NH) —An ortho-oncology team at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center successfully adapted a shoulder surgical aid (the Spider Limb Positioner) to conduct a left hip disarticulation on a melanoma patient as described in a case report published online in Medical Devices. The Spider Limb Positioner is a pneumatic arm with three fully articulating joints that can be infinitely adjusted in relation to the operating table where it is mounted. The positioner mobilizes patients' limbs so surgeons don't have to, thereby freeing up both their hands ...

Hospitals across the country have seen sharp declines in rates of central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSIs) and ventilator-associated pneumonias (VAPs) among critically ill neonates and children, according to a new study in the journal Pediatrics. The study, "Health care-associated infections among critically ill children in the U.S.," analyzed incidences rates of CLABSIs, VAPs and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) for 173 neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and 64 pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) from 2007-2012. "Central ...

People struggling with mental illness often turn to pastors for help, but seminaries do very little to train ministers how to recognize serious psychological distress and when to refer someone to a doctor or psychologist, according to a Baylor University study. As a result, "many people in congregations continue to suffer under well-meaning pastors who primarily tell them to pray harder or confess sin in relation to mental health problems," said lead researcher Matthew S. Stanford, Ph.D., professor of psychology and neuroscience in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences. The ...

CHICAGO --- Only one in four students with asthma and half of children with food allergies have emergency health management plans in place at school, leaving schools inadequately prepared to manage daily needs and handle medical emergencies related to often life-threatening medical conditions, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study in partnership with Chicago Public Schools (CPS). "Given the amount of time kids spend in school, it's critical for school staff, clinicians and parents to make sure there's a health management plan in place for students with health conditions," ...

Tropical Depression 14W was a short-lived storm that only lasted through four bulletins from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared data on the storm's cloud top temperatures as it passed over China's Hainan Island and headed toward a final landfall in mainland China. Born in the South China Sea it made landfall in southeastern China on September 8. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument called AIRS that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared data on the storm on September 7 at 1:59 a.m. EDT. The AIRS data showed an ...

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Storm Norbert on September 7 before it weakened to a post- tropical storm. The AIRS instrument aboard captured infrared data that showed a "sliver" of strong thunderstorms remained around the center of the waning storm. When the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument gathered infrared data on Tropical Storm Norbert on Sept. 7 at 4:53 p.m. EDT, it showed only a small area of strong thunderstorms around the center where cloud top temperatures were near the -63F/-52C threshold for strong storms. At that time, Norbert ...

A well-known biologist once theorized that many roads led to Rome when it comes to two distantly related organisms evolving a similar trait. A new paper, published in Nature Communications, suggests that when it comes to evolving some traits – especially simple ones – there may be a shared gene, one road, that's the source. Jason Gallant, MSU zoologist and the paper's first author, focused on butterflies to illustrate his metaphorical roadmap on evolutionary traits. Butterfly wings are important biological models. While some butterflies are poisonous and notify their ...