A probiotic that prevents obesity could be on the horizon. Bacteria that produce a therapeutic compound in the gut inhibit weight gain, insulin resistance and other adverse effects of a high-fat diet in mice, Vanderbilt University investigators have discovered. "Of course it's hard to speculate from mouse to human," said senior investigator Sean Davies, Ph.D., assistant professor of Pharmacology. "But essentially we've prevented most of the negative consequences of obesity in mice, even though they're eating a high-fat diet." Regulatory issues must be addressed before ...

A research team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), working with the Cleveland Clinic, has demonstrated a dramatically improved technique for analyzing biological cells and tissues based on characteristic molecular vibration "signatures." The new NIST technique is an advanced form of the widely used spontaneous Raman spectroscopy, but one that delivers signals that are 10,000 times stronger than obtained from spontaneous Raman scattering, and 100 times stronger than obtained from comparable "coherent Raman" instruments, and uses a much larger ...

NASA's TRMM satellite measured up Super Typhoon Rammasun's rainfall rates, rainfall totals and cloud heights providing a look at the inner workings and aftermath of the storm. Super Typhoon Rammasun struck the southern coast of China on Friday, July 18 as a very powerful super typhoon with sustained winds estimated at 135 knots (~155 mph or equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane on the US Saffir-Simpson scale), making it the strongest typhoon to hit the area in several decades. Rammasun made landfall at 3:30 p.m. (local time) on Hainan Island where the southern half of ...

Contrary to previous assumptions, researchers find that preschoolers are able to gauge the strength of their memories and make decisions based on their self-assessments. The study findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "Previously, developmental researchers assumed that preschoolers did not introspect much on their mental states, and were not able to reflect on their own uncertainty when problem solving," says psychological scientist Emily Hembacher of the University of California, Davis, lead author of ...

This news release is available in French. Montreal, July 22, 2014 — People diagnosed with depression need to step out for a cigarette twice as often as smokers who are not dealing with a mood disorder. And those who have the hardest time shaking off the habit may have more mental health issues than they are actually aware of. Those insights were among the collective findings recently published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research by a team of researchers based in part at Concordia University. While nearly one in five North American adults are regular smokers, ...

Heading into the war room to fire up the troops? Declaring war on the competition to boost sales? Well, CEO, you might want to tamp down them's fightin' words—you could be shooting yourself in the foot. A new Brigham Young University business study finds that bosses who try to motivate their employees with violent rhetoric—think of Steve Jobs declaring "thermonuclear war" on Samsung—end up motivating rival employees to play dirty. "Business executives use violent language all the time," said David Wood, BYU professor of accounting and one of two BYU authors on the paper. ...

VIDEO: In this video, biodesign researcher Krupa Navalkar describes a new diagnostic technique for pinpointing Valley Fever. Click here for more information. On July 5, 2011, a massive wall of dust, ("haboob," in Arabic), blanketed Phoenix, Arizona, creating an awesome spectacle, (or stubborn nuisance, depending on your perspective). Dust storms are a common occurrence in the arid desert environments of the American Southwest. But windborne dust can be a serious health risk, ...

WASHINGTON D.C., June 22, 2014 -- Interest in magnetic random access memory (MRAM) is escalating, thanks to demand for fast, low-cost, nonvolatile, low-consumption, secure memory devices. MRAM, which relies on manipulating the magnetization of materials for data storage rather than electronic charges, boasts all of these advantages as an emerging technology, but so far it hasn't been able to match flash memory in terms of storage density. In the journal Applied Physics Letters, from AIP Publishing, a France-U.S. research team reports an intriguing new multi-bit MRAM storage ...

WASHINGTON D.C., June 22, 2014 – Even within a phylum so full of mean little creatures, the yellow-colored Ormia ochracea fly is distinguished among other arthropods for its cruelty -- at least to crickets. Native to the southeastern U.S. states and Central America, the fly is a most predatory sort of parasite. It swoops onto the back of a singing male cricket, deposits a smear of larvae, and leaves its wicked brood to invade, kill and consume the cricket from inside out. None of this would be possible without the fly's ability to find a cricket -- the cornerstone of ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Researchers believe they now know why the supersonic trans-Atlantic Concorde aircraft went the way of the dodo -- it hit an evolutionary cul-de-sac. In a new study, Adrian Bejan, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke University, shows that a law of physics he penned more than two decades ago helps explain the evolution of passenger airplanes from the small, propeller-driven DC-3s of yore to today's behemoth Boeing 787s. The analysis also provides insights into how aerospace companies can develop successful future designs. The ...

WASHINGTON D.C. July 22, 2014 -- One of the traditional arguments against Darwinian evolution has been that no one can confirm the process exists because it occurs on a time scale immensely greater than a human lifetime. Adrian Bejan, the J. A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University, has disagreed with that notion ever since 1996 when he discovered the Constructal Law, a fundamental principle of physics that underlies the evolution of flow systems as they change in design over time. In a new paper in the Journal of Applied Physics, ...

Scientists have discovered that greater mouse-eared bats use polarisation patterns in the sky to navigate – the first mammal that's known to do this. The bats use the way the Sun's light is scattered in the atmosphere at sunset to calibrate their internal magnetic compass, which helps them to fly in the right direction, a study published in Nature Communications has shown. Despite this breakthrough, researchers have no idea how they manage to detect polarised light. 'We know that other animals use polarisation patterns in the sky, and we have at least some idea ...

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have demonstrated a new design for an atomic clock that is based on a chip-scale frequency comb, or a microcomb. The microcomb clock, featured on the cover of the inaugural issue of the new journal Optica,* is the first demonstration of all-optical control of the microcomb, and its accurate conversion of optical frequencies to lower microwave frequencies. (Optical frequencies are too high to count;microwave frequencies can be counted with electronics.) The ...

NEW YORK, NY -- As part of a multinational, collaborative effort, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have helped identify over 100 locations in the human genome associated with the risk of developing schizophrenia, in the largest genomic study published on any psychiatric disorder to date, conducted with 80,000 people. The findings, published online in Nature, point to biological mechanisms and pathways that may underlie schizophrenia, and could lead to new approaches to treating the disorder, which has seen little innovation in drug development ...

Stuck in traffic? On hold for what seems like an eternity? Consumers often face situations that undermine their feelings of control. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, when a person's sense of control is threatened, they are more likely to seek out products that require hard work. "Intuitively, it would seem that feeling a loss of control might cause consumers to seek out a product that does NOT require them to exert very much effort. But we find that consumers actually look to products that require hard work to restore their belief that they ...

To support the fair sale of gaseous hydrogen as a vehicle fuel, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a prototype field test standard to test the accuracy of hydrogen fuel dispensers. Once the standard is field tested, it will serve as a model for constructing similar devices for state weights and measures inspectors to use. Three automakers plan to begin selling hydrogen-fueled vehicles to consumers in 2015. The state of California has opened nine refueling stations and is funding the construction of an additional 28 ...

Television commercials for luxury vehicles pack a lot in their 30-second running times: the camera offers quick shots of the soft leather upholstery, the shiny colors, the state-of-the-art entertainment system, and the four-wheel drive. But these multiple angles and shifting perspectives have a negative impact on consumer evaluation of products, according to a new study from a Tel Aviv University researcher. TAU's Dr. Yael Steinhart and her collaborators Yuwei Jiang of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Rashmi Adaval of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and ...

Imagine that you have a cup of coffee and sit down to read People magazine. How long do you think the energy boost will last before you reach for another cup? Would you need more caffeine if you tried to read War and Peace? A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research finds that consumers wrongly believe that pharmacological products such as coffee and aspirin lose their effectiveness when they engage in more strenuous activities. "People make assumptions about how long it takes for products to wear off. For example, they know that cars burn gasoline more quickly ...

Have you ever received a request for help and wondered how deserving the recipients are of your donation? This way of thinking may seem inconsistent with your moral values, especially if you consider yourself an otherwise compassionate and empathic person. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that moral identity decreases donations when recipients are deemed to be responsible for their plight. "Our research examines how moral values of empathy and justice have distinct influences on people when they are asked to make donations benefiting others whose ...

Have you found yourself at a fancy restaurant trying to impress new friends or in a foreign country and unsure of what to order? Not wanting to appear foolish, you just go along with everyone else. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, we're more likely to copy other people's choices when we lack social acceptance or enough information to make an informed decision. "We suggest that when someone is deciding between options for which their preferences are not well formed, observing the choice of another consumer makes the option chosen by the other ...

Dartmouth scientists and their colleagues have devised a breakthrough laser that uses a single artificial atom to generate and emit particles of light. The laser may play a crucial role in the development of quantum computers, which are predicted to eventually outperform today's most powerful supercomputers. The study appears in the journal Physical Review B. The new laser is the first to rely exclusively on superconducting electron pairs. "The fact that we use only superconducting pairs is what makes our work so significant," says Alex Rimberg, a professor of physics ...

(Boston)-- Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) have found that participants who received care through BMC's Violence Intervention Advocacy Program (VIAP)--an interventional program targeting the physical, mental, emotional and social needs of violently injured youths—were less likely to retaliate for their injuries and experienced life changing behaviors through connections to caring, steady, supportive adults who helped them feel trust and hope. These findings are reported in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine. ...

How would a child respond to this question? Would his or her list be full of relatives, animals from movies and books, or perhaps neighborhood pets? Would the poppies blooming on the front steps make the list or the oak tree towering over the backyard? How might the animals children name compare to those named by children raised in a different cultural or language background or in a community that offers more direct contact with the natural world? In a study conducted by Andrea Taverna of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (Formosa, Argentina) ...

Highly purified crystals that split light with uncanny precision are key parts of high-powered lenses, specialized optics and, potentially, computers that manipulate light instead of electricity. But producing these crystals by current techniques, such as etching them with a precise beam of electrons, is often extremely difficult and expensive. Now, researchers at Princeton and Columbia universities have proposed a new method that could allow scientists to customize and grow these specialized materials, known as photonic crystals, with relative ease. "Our results point ...

Infrared data gathered on the tropical low pressure area known as System 92L gave forecasters a hint that the low would become the Atlantic Ocean hurricane season's second tropical depression. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over System 92L on July 21 at 11:53 a.m. EDT and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument gathered infrared data on the developing low pressure area. The infrared data shows temperature, and AIRS data showed some areas of very cold cloud top temperatures, exceeding the threshold of -63F/-52C that indicates cloud tops near the top of the troposphere. ...