A new study into how the world's highest flying bird, the bar-headed goose, is able to survive at extreme altitudes may have future implications for low oxygen medical conditions in humans. An international team of scientists recently tracked the bar-headed goose while it migrated across the Himalayas. Now they have shown how these birds are able to tolerate running at top speed while breathing only 7% oxygen. Exercising at high altitude is a massive challenge since at the top of the highest mountains the air is only made up of 7% oxygen, compared with 21% at sea level. ...

New research from University of Liverpool scientists has cast doubt on the theory that neurological behaviour is a product of culture in people of Chinese origin. Scientists tested three groups – students from mainland China, British people with Chinese parents and white British people – to see how quickly their eyes reacted to dots appearing in the periphery of their vision. These rapid eye movements, known as saccades, were timed in all of the participants to see which of them were capable of making high numbers of express saccades – particularly fast responses which ...

The difference between an immune response that kills cancer cells and one that conversely stimulates tumor growth can be as narrow as a "double-edged sword," report researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine in the April 7, 2014 online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We have found that the intensity difference between an immune response that stimulates cancer and one that kills it may not be very much," said principal investigator Ajit Varki, MD, Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Cellular and Molecular ...

Genetic variants associated with enjoying the effects of d-amphetamine—the active ingredient in Adderall—are also associated with a reduced risk for developing schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), report scientists from the University of Chicago in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on April 7. The results support a long-standing hypothesis that dopamine, the neurotransmitter connected with the euphoric effects of amphetamine, is related to schizophrenia and ADHD. "Some of the variants that make you like amphetamine also ...

Laboratory chamber walls have been stealing vapors, causing researchers to underestimate the formation of secondary organic aerosol in the atmosphere. A study published April 7 in PNAS Online Early Edition describes how a team of scientists, including researchers from the University of California, Davis, showed that vapor losses to the walls of laboratory chambers can suppress the formation of secondary organic aerosol, which in turn has contributed to the underprediction of SOA in climate and air quality models. SOA impacts air quality and climate and makes ...

New research reveals that brain damage affecting the insula – an area with a key role in emotions – disrupts errors of thinking linked to gambling addiction. The research, led by Dr Luke Clark from the University of Cambridge, was published today, 07 April, in the journal PNAS. During gambling games, people often misperceive their chances of winning due to a number of errors of thinking called cognitive distortions. For example, 'near-misses' seem to encourage further play, even though they are no different from any other loss. In a random sequence like tossing a coin, ...

New insights into a surprisingly flexible immune system present in bacteria for combating viruses and other foreign DNA invaders have been revealed by researchers from New Zealand's University of Otago and the Netherlands. A team led by Dr Peter Fineran of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology are studying the genetic basis of adaptive immunity in bacteria that cause potato 'soft rot' and in E. coli bacteria. Through their recent collaboration they have found that these bacterial immune systems are much more robust and responsive than previously thought. Their ...

Genes amplify the stress of harsh environments for some children, and magnify the advantage of supportive environments for other children, according to a study that's one of the first to document how genes interacting with social environments affect biomarkers of stress. "Our findings suggest that an individual's genetic architecture moderates the magnitude of the response to external stimuli—but it is the environment that determines the direction" says Colter Mitchell, lead author of the paper and a researcher at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research ...

Researchers have discovered a way of reducing the fertility of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, potentially providing a new tactic to combat the disease. Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes are the main transmitters of malaria, which affects around 200 million people every year. The females mate only once during their lives. They store the sperm from this single mating in an organ called the spermatheca, from which they repeatedly take sperm over the course of their lifetime to fertilise the eggs that they lay.. The female needs the sperm to stay healthy whilst they are in storage ...

Melbourne researchers have solved a puzzle as to how an essential blood-making hormone stimulates production of the blood clotting cells known as platelets. Platelets are essential for stopping bleeding and are produced by small fragments breaking off their 'parent' cells, called megakaryocytes. The discovery, made by scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, identified how bone marrow cells could become overstimulated and produce too many platelets. In blood diseases such as essential thrombocythemia, too many platelets can lead to clogging of the blood vessels, ...

From time to time, living cells will accidently make an extra copy of a gene during the normal replication process. Throughout the history of life, evolution has molded some of these seemingly superfluous genes into a source of genetic novelty, adaptation and diversity. A new study shows one way that some duplicate genes could have long-ago escaped elimination from the genome, leading to the genetic innovation seen in modern life. Researchers have shown that a process called DNA methylation can shield duplicate genes from being removed from the genome during natural selection. ...

Resistance to an entire class of antibiotics – aminoglycosides -- has the potential to spread to many types of bacteria, according to new biochemistry research. A mobile gene called NpmA was discovered in E. coli bacteria isolated from a Japanese patient several years ago. Global spread of NpmA and related antibiotic resistance enzymes could disable an entire class of tools doctors use to fight serious or life-threatening infections. Using X-ray crystallography, researchers at Emory University School of Medicine made an atomic-scale snapshot of how the enzyme encoded ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — With the political divide over health care reform still strong going into this year's elections, a new analysis of state-level decisions shows signs of an emerging middle way toward reducing the ranks of the uninsured. The approach centers on efforts by governors and legislatures to get federal permission to customize Medicaid expansion in ways that satisfy political conservatives – while still allowing them to collect federal funding to increase health insurance coverage in their state. In a new Viewpoint published online by the Journal of the American ...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A team of researchers lead by Florida State University have found new evidence that permafrost thawing is releasing large quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere via plants, which could accelerate warming trends. The research is featured in the newest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We've known for a while now that permafrost is thawing," said Suzanne Hodgkins, the lead author on the paper and a doctoral student in chemical oceanography at Florida State. "But what we've found is that the associated changes ...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 7, 2014) -- A multidisciplinary group of scientists from the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging at the University of Kentucky have identified an interesting connection between the health of the brain tissue that supports cognitive functioning and the presence of dementia in adults with Down syndrome. Published in the Neurobiology of Aging, the study, which focused on detecting changes in the white matter connections of the brain, offers tantalizing potential for the identification of biomarkers connected to the development of dementia, including Alzheimer's ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study shows that a gene discovered 30 years ago and now known to play a fundamental role in cancer development produces five different gene variants (called isoforms), rather than just the one original form, as thought. The study of the NRAS gene by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) identified four previously unknown variants that the NRAS gene produces. The finding might help improve drugs for cancers in which aberrant ...

New research by Andrew Stokes, a doctoral student in demography and sociology in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, suggests that many obesity studies substantially underestimate the mortality risks associated with excess weight in the United States. His study, "Using Maximum Weight to Redefine Body Mass Index Categories in Studies of The Mortality Risks of Obesity," was published in the March issue of the open-access journal Population Health Metrics. "The scholarly community is divided over a large meta-analysis that found that overweight ...

The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), the largest component of the third Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III), pioneered the use of quasars to map density variations in intergalactic gas at high redshifts, tracing the structure of the young universe. BOSS charts the history of the universe's expansion in order to illuminate the nature of dark energy, and new measures of large-scale structure have yielded the most precise measurement of expansion since galaxies first formed. The latest quasar results combine two separate analytical techniques. A new kind ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Based on a fundamental chemical discovery by scientists at Oregon State University, it appears that trees may soon play a major role in making high-tech energy storage devices. OSU chemists have found that cellulose – the most abundant organic polymer on Earth and a key component of trees – can be heated in a furnace in the presence of ammonia, and turned into the building blocks for supercapacitors. These supercapacitors are extraordinary, high-power energy devices with a wide range of industrial applications, in everything from electronics to automobiles ...

Eating just 1 serving daily of legumes such as beans, chickpeas, lentils and peas can significantly reduce "bad cholesterol" and the risk of heart disease, found a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). High cholesterol levels are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, yet they are modifiable through diet and other lifestyle choices. Most chronic disease prevention guidelines recommend consumption of non–oil-seed legumes (dietary pulses) such as beans, chickpeas, lentils and peas along with other vegetables and fruits as part ...

TORONTO, April 7, 2014—Eating one serving a day of beans, peas, chickpeas or lentils can significantly reduce "bad cholesterol" and therefore the risk of cardiovascular disease, a new study has found. However, most people in North America would have to more than double their consumption of these foods known as pulses to reach that target, said the researchers at St. Michael's Hospital. The study, led by Dr. John Sievenpiper of the hospital's Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre, was published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Dr. ...

Passwords, gestures and fingerprint scans are all helpful ways to keep a thief from unlocking and using a cell phone or tablet. Cybersecurity researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have gone a step further. They've developed a new security system that continuously monitors how a user taps and swipes a mobile device. If the movements don't match the owner's tendencies, the system recognizes the differences and can be programmed to lock the device. The new system is called LatentGesture and was used during a Georgia Tech lab study using Android devices. The ...

Carbon nanotubes are reinforcing bars that make two-dimensional graphene much easier to handle in a new hybrid material grown by researchers at Rice University. The Rice lab of chemist James Tour set nanotubes into graphene in a way that not only mimics how steel rebar is used in concrete but also preserves and even improves the electrical and mechanical qualities of both. The technique should make large, flexible, conductive and transparent sheets of graphene much easier to manipulate, which should be of interest to electronics manufacturers, Tour said. He suggested ...

Dramatic distribution losses and a few major distribution gains are forecasted for southwestern bird and reptile species as the climate changes, according to just-published research by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of New Mexico, and Northern Arizona University. Overall, the study forecasted species distribution losses – that is, where species are able to live – of nearly half for all but one of the 5 reptile species they examined, including for the iconic chuckwalla. The threatened Sonoran (Morafka's) desert tortoise, however, is projected ...

TORONTO, April 7, 2014 – According to researchers at St. Michael's Hospital, there are two significant reasons why Peel has one of the highest rates of diabetes in Ontario: neighbourhood design that discourages walking and a population with many residents whose ethnic backgrounds predispose them to diabetes. Diabetes is a growing concern in Peel. That is why Peel Public Health partnered with researchers at St. Michael's Centre for Research on Inner City Health to develop an atlas of Peel that maps rates of diabetes in neighbourhoods across Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga. ...