Most people lose the ability to digest the milk sugar lactose after weaning, but some populations retain high levels of an enzyme called lactase, which allows them to break down lactose in adulthood. In a study published March 13th in the American Journal of Human Genetics, researchers identified genetic factors associated with lactase persistence in African populations and found that this trait became more prevalent in recent history in conjunction with the introduction and spread of cattle domestication in Africa. The findings provide strong evidence that lactase persistence ...

Scientists from the UK and Australia have created a mouse that expresses a fluorescing 'biosensor' in every cell of its body, allowing diseased cells and drugs to be tracked and evaluated in real time and in three dimensions. This biosensor mimics the action of a target molecule, in this case a protein known as 'Rac', which drives cell movement in many types of cancer. Rac behaves like a switch, oscillating on the molecular level between two states – active or inactive. When Rac is active, the biosensor picks up chemical cues and glows blue. When Rac is inactive the ...

Babies are born with the ability to digest lactose, the sugar found in milk, but most humans lose this ability after infancy because of declining levels of the lactose-digesting enzyme lactase. People who maintain high levels of lactase reap the nutritive benefits of milk, however, offering a potential evolutionary advantage to lactase persistence, or what is commonly known as lactose tolerance. A new study led by University of Pennsylvania researchers — constituting the largest investigation ever of lactase persistence in geographically diverse populations of Africans ...

NEW YORK, NY – How does yoga improve your flexibility? In the Mar 13 cover story of Cell, Columbia University biological sciences professor Julio Fernandez and team report the discovery of a new form of mechanical memory that adjusts the elasticity of muscles to their history of stretching. Using highly sensitive atomic force microscopes, the researchers detected a chemical reaction that increases the elasticity of muscle proteins. Crucially, this reaction targets molecules that have been exposed to a stretching force. This finding changes our understanding of how muscles ...

In a series of experiments sparked by fruit flies that couldn't sleep, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have identified a mutant gene — dubbed "Wide Awake" — that sabotages how the biological clock sets the timing for sleep. The finding also led them to the protein made by a normal copy of the gene that promotes sleep early in the night and properly regulates sleep cycles. Because genes and the proteins they code for are often highly conserved across species, the researchers suspect their discoveries — boosted by preliminary studies in mice — could lead to new treatments ...

Your brain's ability to instantly link what you see with what you do is down to a dedicated information 'highway', suggests new UCL-led research. For the first time, researchers from UCL (University College London) and Cambridge University have found evidence of a specialized mechanism for spatial self-awareness that combines visual cues with body motion. Standard visual processing is prone to distractions, as it requires us to pay attention to objects of interest and filter out others. The new study has shown that our brains have separate 'hard-wired' systems to visually ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Cancer cells undergo extensive genetic alterations as they grow and spread through the body. Some of these mutations, known as "drivers," help spur cells to grow out of control, while others ("passengers") are merely along for the ride. MIT cancer biologists at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and geneticists from the Broad Institute have now performed the most comprehensive analysis to date of these changes in mice programmed to develop cancer. The team discovered mutations and other genetic disturbances that arise at certain stages ...

A portrait of prehistoric parenthood captured deep in the fossil record has been uncovered by an international team of scientists led by University of Leicester geologist Professor David Siveter. The 'nursery in the sea' has revealed a species new to science – with specimens preserved incubating their eggs together with probable hatched individuals. As a result, the team has named the new species Luprisca incuba after Lucina, goddess of childbirth, and alluding to the fact that the fossils are ancient and in each case the mother was literally sitting on her eggs. The ...

Scientists have identified a new species of ancient porpoise with a chin length unprecedented among known mammals and suggest the animal used the tip of its face to probe the seabed for food. Related to living crown porpoises, the extinct Californian porpoise, Semirostrum ceruttii, had an extension of its jaw called a symphysis — the analogue of the human chin — that measured 85 centimeters in the best-preserved specimen, researchers said. The typical symphysis of a crown porpoise measures one or two centimeters. "This is unique anatomy for a mammal," said Rachel Racicot, ...

Scientists have uncovered how inflammation and lack of oxygen conspire to cause brain damage in conditions such as stroke and Alzheimer's disease. The discovery, published today in Neuron, brings researchers a step closer to finding potential targets to treat neurodegenerative disorders. Chronic inflammation and hypoxia, or oxygen deficiency, are hallmarks of several brain diseases, but little was known about how they contribute to symptoms such as memory loss. The study used state-of-the-art techniques that reveal the movements of microglia, the brain's resident ...

In order to function properly, the human brain requires the ability not only to store but also to forget: Through memory loss, unnecessary information is deleted and the nervous system retains its plasticity. A disruption of this process can lead to serious mental disorders. Basel scientists have now discovered a molecular mechanism that actively regulates the process of forgetting. The renowned scientific journal "Cell" has published their results. The human brain is build in such a way, that only necessary information is stored permanently - the rest is forgotten over ...

DALLAS, March 13, 2014 – Heart attack and stroke are among the most serious threats to health. But novel research at UT Southwestern Medical Center has linked two major biological processes that occur at the onset of these traumatic events and, ultimately, can lead to protection for the heart. On one end of the cascade is the so-called Unfolded Protein Response (UPR), and at the other end are numerous proteins with modified glucose molecules attached to them. For years, researchers have made countless observations relating to these opposite ends of the spectrum. Now, ...

DETROIT— While Mother Nature continues to challenge drivers across the country, a team of traffic engineers is working hard on a new way to make rush-hour commutes safer and faster in any weather. "We can't do much about snow falling, but we can do something about road capacity and congestion," said Joseph Hummer, traffic engineering expert and Wayne State University College of Engineering chair of civil and environmental engineering. Hummer and a team of traffic engineers at the Regional Transportation Alliance and North Carolina State University believe metered roundabouts, ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Shame on you. These three simple words can temporarily — or, when used too often, permanently — destroy an individual's sense of value and self-worth. "In modernity, shame is the most obstructed and hidden emotion, and therefore the most destructive," said Thomas Scheff, professor emeritus of sociology at UC Santa Barbara. "Emotions are like breathing — they cause trouble only when obstructed." When hidden, he continued, shame causes serious struggles not only for individuals but also for groups. In an article published in the current issue ...

Tropical Cyclone Lusi is battling vertical wind shear that has been pushing the bulk of precipitation away from its center. NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of the storm that showed the strongest thunderstorms were being pushed away from the center. On March 12 at 22:25 UTC/6:25 p.m. EDT, The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Cyclone Lusi in the South Pacific Ocean. The image showed a concentration of thunderstorms just south of the center of circulation. On ...

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Gillian weakened to a remnant low pressure area after making landfall in the Western Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia then returned into the Gulf of Carpentaria. NASA's Aqua satellite flew over the tropical low as it struggled to re-intensify. The MODIS or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Gillian moving through Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria on March 13 at 4:25 UTC/12:45 a.m. EDT. Gillian appeared to have moved about two-thirds ...

New York, NY, March 13, 2014 – Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Case Medical Center have assessed the impact of the 2012 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations against routine prostate specific antigen (PSA) cancer screenings, which cited evidence that the risks of screening outweigh the benefits. Results of the current study indicate that the USPSTF recommendations have resulted in a decrease in the number of PSA screenings ordered by doctors, with the greatest decline seen among urologists. The findings are ...

Although the remarkable benefits of combined training have been clarified by numerous investigations, fitness enthusiasts struggle with the same question: Does the order of cardio- and resistance training influence the effectiveness of a training program? This question has now been the focus of a series of investigations in the Department of Biology of Physical Activity at the University of Jyväskylä. The international research group led by Professor Keijo Häkkinen and coordinated by PhD student Moritz Schumann has recruited a total of almost 200 recreationally active ...

VIDEO: Without Twist1 expression, mammary duct tissue fragments maintain a smooth surface (left). When Twist1 is turned on, cells rapidly detach and migrate away from the tissue (right). Both tissue fragments... Click here for more information. Studying epithelial cells, the cell type that most commonly turns cancerous, Johns Hopkins researchers have identified a protein that causes cells to release from their neighbors and migrate away from healthy mammary, or breast, tissue ...

Cardiovascular calcification (deposits of minerals in heart valves and blood vessels) is a primary contributor to heart disease, the leading cause of death among both men and women in the United States according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "Unfortunately, there currently is no medical treatment for cardiovascular calcification, which can lead to acute cardiovascular events, such as myocardial infarction and stroke, as well as heart failure," says Elena Aikawa, MD, PhD, Director of the Vascular Biology Program at the Center for Interdisciplinary ...

New Rochelle, NY, March 13, 2014—A soft-bodied, self-contained robotic fish with a flexible spine that allows it to mimic the swimming motion of a real fish also has the built-in agility to perform escape maneuvers. The innovative design and capabilities of this complex, autonomous robot is described in Soft Robotics (SoRo), a new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Soft Robotics website at http://www.liebertpub.com/soro. Andrew Marchese, Cagdas Onal, and Daniela Rus, from MIT (Cambridge, MA) and Worcester ...

Every cell in the body has to sense and respond to chemicals such as hormones and neurotransmitters. They do so by relaying information from receptors to intracellular biochemical pathways that control cell behaviour, but relatively little is known about how cells decode the information in dynamic stimuli. A team of researchers have found that differences in response kinetics working down the intracellular signalling pathway dictate differential sensitivity to different features of pulsatile hormone inputs. The study funded by the BBSRC and published today [14 March] ...

Oxygen-16, one of the key elements of life on earth, is produced by a series of reactions inside of red giant stars. Now a team of physicists, including one from North Carolina State University, has revealed how the element's nuclear shape changes depending on its state, even though other attributes such as spin and parity don't appear to differ. Their findings may shed light on how oxygen is produced. Carbon and oxygen are formed when helium burns inside of red giant stars. Carbon-12 forms when three helium-4 nuclei combine in a very specific way (called the triple alpha ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Researchers have discovered that creating a graphene-copper-graphene "sandwich" strongly enhances the heat conducting properties of copper, a discovery that could further help in the downscaling of electronics. The work was led by Alexander A. Balandin, a professor of electrical engineering at the Bourns College of Engineering at the University of California, Riverside and Konstantin S. Novoselov, a professor of physics at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. Balandin and Novoselov are corresponding authors for the paper just published ...

Employees who use treadmill workstations not only receive physical benefits but also are more productive at work, according to a recently published study by researchers from The University of Texas at Arlington, the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota. Darla Hamann, an assistant professor in the UT Arlington School of Urban and Public Affairs, and four colleagues wrote "Treadmill Workstations: The Effects of Walking while Working on Physical Activity and Work Performance", which was published by the journal PLoS One Feb. 20. In the study, sedentary employees from ...