The press release
archive.

Medicine1 Jul 2015

New epigenetic mechanism revealed in brain cells

For decades, researchers in the genetics field have theorized that the protein spools around which DNA is wound, histones, remain constant in the brain, never changing after development in the womb. Now, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have discovered that histones are steadily replaced in brain cells throughout life - a process which helps to switch genes on and off. This histone replacement, known as turnover, enables our genetic machinery to adapt to our environment by prompting gene expression, the conversion of genes into the proteins that ...

Read the release

Social Science1 Jul 2015

Consumers understand supplements help fill nutrient gaps, new survey shows

Washington, D.C., July 1, 2015--The vast majority of consumers recognize that multivitamins, calcium and/or vitamin D supplements can help fill nutrient gaps but should not be viewed as replacements for a healthy diet, according to a new survey conducted on behalf of the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN). Conclusions from the survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults were published in Nutrition Journal in a peer-reviewed article titled, "Consumer attitudes about the role of multivitamins and other dietary supplements: report of a survey," authored by CRN consultant Annette ...

Read the release

Medicine1 Jul 2015

New insights into how the brain forms memories

Neurons in a brain region called the medial temporal lobe play a key role in our ability to quickly form memories about real-life events and experiences, according to a study published July 1st in Neuron. By recording from individual neurons in patients, the researchers reveal for the first time in humans the single-cell basis for the creation of episodic memories. "It was impressive to see how individual neurons signalled the learning of new contextual associations between people and places and that the changes in firing could occur just after one instance," says lead ...

Read the release

Medicine1 Jul 2015

Human brain may contain a map for social navigation

The brain region that helps people tell whether an object is near or far may also guide how emotionally close they feel to others and how they rank them socially, according to a study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published today in the journal Neuron. The findings promise to yield new insights into the social deficits that accompany psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and depression. The study focused on evidence for the existence of a "social map" in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that remembers locations in physical space ...

Read the release

Science1 Jul 2015

Seeing is believing

If your eyes deceive you, blame your brain. Many optical illusions work because what we see clashes with what we expect to see. That 3D movie? Give credit to filmmakers who exploit binocular vision, or the way the brain merges the slightly different images from the two eyes to create depth. These are examples of the brain making sense of the information coming from the eyes in order to produce what we "see." The brain combines signals that reach your retina with the models your brain has learned to predict what to expect when you move through the world. Your brain solves ...

Read the release

Environment1 Jul 2015

Lifelong learning is made possible by recycling of histones, study says

Neurons are a limited commodity; each of us goes through life with essentially the same set we had at birth. But these cells, whose electrical signals drive our thoughts, perceptions, and actions, are anything but static. They change and adapt in response to experience throughout our lifetimes, a process better known as learning. Research conducted at The Rockefeller University and collaborating institutions has uncovered a new mechanism that makes this plasticity possible. This discovery centers on a specific type of histone, proteins that support DNA and help control ...

Read the release

Science1 Jul 2015

Men with 'low testosterone' have higher rates of depression

WASHINGTON (July 1, 2015) -- Researchers at the George Washington University (GW), led by Michael S. Irwig, M.D., found that men referred for tertiary care for borderline testosterone levels had much higher rates of depression and depressive symptoms than those of the general population. "In an era where more and more men are being tested for "Low T" -- or lower levels of testosterone -- there is very little data about the men who have borderline low testosterone levels," said Irwig, associate professor of medicine and director of the Center for Andrology at the GW School ...

Read the release

Medicine1 Jul 2015

UT Arlington team develops new storage cell for solar energy storage, nighttime conversion

A University of Texas at Arlington materials science and engineering team has developed a new energy cell that can store large-scale solar energy even when it's dark. The innovation is an advancement over the most common solar energy systems that rely on using sunlight immediately as a power source. Those systems are hindered by not being able to use that solar energy at night or when cloudy conditions exist. The UT Arlington team developed an all-vanadium photo-electrochemical flow cell that allows for efficient and large-scale solar energy storage even at nighttime. ...

Read the release

Science1 Jul 2015

Tropical Cyclone Raquel triggers warnings in Solomon Islands

NASA's Terra satellite and RapidScat instrument showed a slowly developing Tropical Storm Raquel affecting the Solomon Islands on June 30 and July 1. A tropical cyclone warning was in effect for all provinces of the Solomon Islands on July 1. The RapidScat instrument that flies aboard the International Space Station measures surface winds. When it passed over former Tropical Depression 25P (now Raquel) it gathered data on sustained winds on June 30 from 7:02 to 8:35 UTC (3:02 to 4:35 a.m. EDT). The RapidScat data showed the strongest sustained winds were near 25 meters ...

Read the release

Medicine1 Jul 2015

The public's political views are strongly linked to attitudes on environmental issues

A link to the full report can be found here. July 1, 2015 (Washington) - Public attitudes about climate change and energy policy are strongly intertwined with political party affiliation and ideology. But politics play a more modest, or even peripheral, role on public views about other key issues related to biomedical science, food safety and space, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis. The chart below highlights the wide mix of factors tied to public attitudes across a broad set of 22 science issues. It illustrates the strength of connection between political ...

Read the release

Medicine1 Jul 2015

Study details use of antipsychotic medication in young people

The use of antipsychotic medication increased among adolescents and young adults from 2006 to 2010 but not among children 12 years or younger, according to an article published online by JAMA Psychiatry. Antipsychotics have gained popularity as treatments for psychiatric disorders in young people. Clinical trials support the efficacy of several antipsychotics for child and adolescent bipolar mania, adolescent schizophrenia, and irritability associated with autism in adolescents and children. Yet most office visits by children and adolescents that involve antipsychotic ...

Read the release

Medicine1 Jul 2015

Longer-term follow-up shows greater type 2 diabetes remission for bariatric surgery compared to life

Among obese participants with type 2 diabetes mellitus, bariatric surgery with 2 years of a low-level lifestyle intervention resulted in more disease remission than did lifestyle intervention alone, according to a study published online by JAMA Surgery. It remains to be established whether bariatric surgery is a durable and effective treatment for type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and how bariatric surgery compares with intensive lifestyle modification and medication management with respect to T2DM-related outcomes. As demonstrated in observational studies and several small randomized ...

Read the release

Science1 Jul 2015

Research letter: Indoor tanning rates drop among US adults

Indoor tanning rates dropped among adults from 5.5 percent in 2010 to 4.2 percent in 2013, although an estimated 7.8 million women and 1.9 million men still engage in the practice, which has been linked to increased cancer risk, according to the results of a study published online in a research letter by JAMA Dermatology. Gery P. Guy Jr., Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, and coauthors analyzed data for 59,145 individuals from the 2010 and 2013 National Health Interview Survey, a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. In ...

Read the release

Medicine1 Jul 2015

Trends in antipsychotic medication use in children, adolescents, and young adults

New York, NY (July 1, 2015) -- Despite concerns that use of antipsychotic medications in treating young people has increased, use actually declined between 2006 and 2010 for children ages 12 and under, and increased for adolescents and young adults. In a study published today in JAMA Psychiatry, Mark Olfson, MD, MPH, of Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and NYS Psychiatric Institute, and his colleagues analyzed prescription data from 2006-2010 to identify trends in the use of antipsychotic medications in young people in the United States. They found that boys ...

Read the release

Medicine1 Jul 2015

Boys more likely to have antipsychotics prescribed, regardless of age

Boys are more likely than girls to receive a prescription for antipsychotic medication regardless of age, researchers have found. Approximately 1.5 percent of boys ages 10-18 received an antipsychotic prescription in 2010, although the percentage falls by nearly half after age 19. Among antipsychotic users with mental disorder diagnoses, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was the most common among youth ages 1-18, while depression was the most common diagnosis among young adults ages 19-24 receiving antipsychotics. Despite concerns over the rising use of ...

Read the release

Science1 Jul 2015

What makes fireflies glow? (video)

As fireflies are delighting children across the country with their nighttime displays, scientists are closing in on a better understanding of how the insects produce their enchanting glow. They report in the Journal of the American Chemical Society new evidence of how the beetles' chemistry works. Their findings could apply to the bioluminescence of other organisms, too. About 60 years ago, scientists figured out in broad strokes the cascade of reactions that allows fireflies to produce light. It starts with a chemical called luciferin, which interacts with the energy-transporting ...

Read the release

Medicine1 Jul 2015

What's in your landscape? Plants can alter West Nile virus risk

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A new study looks at how leaf litter in water influences the abundance of Culex pipiens mosquitoes, which can transmit West Nile virus to humans, domestic animals, birds and other wildlife. The study found that different species of leaf litter in standing water influence where Culex pipiens mosquitoes deposit their eggs, how quickly the larvae grow, how big they get and whether they survive to adulthood. Because the mosquitoes feed on bacteria that grow on leaf litter, the team also measured how native and non-native leaf species influenced bacterial ...

Read the release

Medicine1 Jul 2015

Implantable 'artificial pancreas' could help diabetes patients control their blood sugar

Living with Type 1 diabetes requires constant monitoring of blood sugar levels and injecting insulin daily. Now scientists are reporting in the ACS journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research the development of an implantable "artificial pancreas" that continuously measures a person's blood sugar, or glucose, level and can automatically release insulin as needed. Type 1 diabetes, previously known as juvenile diabetes, affects about 1.25 million Americans. About 200,000 of them are under 20 years old. The condition arises when a person's own immune system destroys ...

Read the release

Social Science1 Jul 2015

Helping students stick with MOOCs

MOOCs -- massive open online courses -- grant huge numbers of people access to world-class educational resources, but they also suffer high rates of attrition. To some degree, that's inevitable: Many people who enroll in MOOCs may have no interest in doing homework, but simply plan to listen to video lectures in their spare time. Others, however, may begin courses with the firm intention of completing them but get derailed by life's other demands. Identifying those people before they drop out and providing them with extra help could make their MOOC participation much ...

Read the release

Environment1 Jul 2015

Producing fuel from Canada oil sands emits more carbon than from US crude

The production of petroleum from Canada's oil sands is on the rise with much of it destined for U.S. refineries. As the U.S. takes stock of its greenhouse gas emissions, scientists report in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology that the current oil sands production of fuels from "well-to-wheels" releases about 20 percent more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than making gasoline and diesel from conventional crudes. In 2013, the oil industry was producing nearly 2 million barrels per day from Canadian oil sands. By 2030, that number is expected to rise ...

Read the release

Science1 Jul 2015

Ultra-stable JILA microscopy technique tracks tiny objects for hours

JILA researchers have designed a microscope instrument so stable that it can accurately measure the 3D movement of individual molecules over many hours--hundreds of times longer than the current limit measured in seconds.* The technology was designed to track the machinery of biological cells, down to the tiniest bits of DNA, a single "base pair" of nucleotides among the 3 billion of these chemical units in human genes. But the instrument could be useful well beyond biology, biochemistry and biophysics, perhaps in manufacturing. JILA is a partnership of the National ...

Read the release

Medicine1 Jul 2015

New drug for neuroblastoma shows promise in phase I study

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., June 24, 2015 - Researchers at Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children's Hospital have completed the first clinical trial of a new treatment for children suffering from neuroblastoma. In a clinical trial led by Giselle Sholler, MD, pediatric oncologist at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital and the Neuroblastoma and Medulloblastoma Translational Research Consortium (NMTRC), DFMO, an investigational agent, showed minimal side effects with long-term survival of three patients. This is the first clinical study of an oral dosing form of DFMO in any pediatric population. ...

Read the release

Science1 Jul 2015

Should scientists be allowed to genetically alter human embryos?

Scientists have at their disposal a way to explore the possible prevention of genetic diseases before birth. But should they? Currently, the most promising path forward involves editing the genes of human embryos, a procedure rife with controversy. An article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, parses the explosive issue. Britt E. Erickson, a senior editor at C&EN, reports that at least one team of scientists has already published a study on altering disease-related genes of human embryos. The experiment was ...

Read the release

Science1 Jul 2015

Penn team identifies gene responsible for some cases of male infertility

In the most severe form of male infertility, men do not make any measurable levels of sperm. This condition, called azoospermia, affects approximately 1 percent of the male population and is responsible for about a sixth of cases of male infertility. Oftentimes men with azoospermia don't know the underlying cause of their condition. But new research led by University of Pennsylvania scientists suggests that mutations in an X chromosome gene called TEX11 are responsible for a significant number of cases of infertility -- an estimated 1 percent of cases of non-obstructive ...

Read the release

Science1 Jul 2015

Emergence of a 'devil's staircase' in a spin-valve system

Complex magnetic structures are at the heart of promising new materials for devices in "spintronics", a field of research aiming at more energy efficient data storage and processing. A prominent example is the so-called spin valve, where the magnitude of the electrical current passing through a device is very sensitively dependent on its magnetic configuration. These configurations can be readily controlled by a magnetic field in artificial layer systems, resulting in the giant magnetoresistance effect (GMR), a discovery rewarded with the 2007 Noble price in physics to ...

Read the release