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Medicine27 Jun 2014

Potential Alzheimer's drug prevents abnormal blood clots in the brain

Without a steady supply of blood, neurons can't work. That's why one of the culprits behind Alzheimer's disease is believed to be the persistent blood clots that often form in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, contributing to the condition's hallmark memory loss, confusion and cognitive decline. New experiments in Sidney Strickland's Laboratory of Neurobiology and Genetics at Rockefeller University have identified a compound that might halt the progression of Alzheimer's by interfering with the role amyloid-β, a small protein that forms plaques in Alzheimer's brains, ...

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Social Science27 Jun 2014

'Bad' video game behavior increases players' moral sensitivity

BUFFALO, N.Y. — New evidence suggests heinous behavior played out in a virtual environment can lead to players' increased sensitivity toward the moral codes they violated. That is the surprising finding of a study led by Matthew Grizzard, PhD, assistant professor in the University at Buffalo Department of Communication, and co-authored by researchers at Michigan State University and the University of Texas, Austin. "Rather than leading players to become less moral," Grizzard says, "this research suggests that violent video-game play may actually lead to increased moral ...

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Environment27 Jun 2014

Ancient ocean currents may have changed pace and intensity of ice ages

Climate scientists have long tried to explain why ice-age cycles became longer and more intense some 900,000 years ago, switching from 41,000-year cycles to 100,000-year cycles. In a paper published this week in the journal Science, researchers report that the deep ocean currents that move heat around the globe stalled or may have stopped at that time, possibly due to expanding ice cover in the Northern Hemisphere. "The research is a breakthrough in understanding a major change in the rhythm of Earth's climate, and shows that the ocean played a central role," says ...

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Medicine27 Jun 2014

Research gives unprecedented 3-D view of important brain receptor

PORTLAND, Ore. — Researchers with Oregon Health & Science University's Vollum Institute have given science a new and unprecedented 3-D view of one of the most important receptors in the brain — a receptor that allows us to learn and remember, and whose dysfunction is involved in a wide range of neurological diseases and conditions, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, schizophrenia and depression. The unprecedented view provided by the OHSU research, published online June 22 in the journal Nature, gives scientists new insight into how the receptor — called the NMDA receptor ...

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Environment27 Jun 2014

Study: To address climate change, nothing substitutes for reducing CO2 emissions

The politically expedient way to mitigate climate change is essentially no way at all, according to a comprehensive new study by University of Chicago climatologist Raymond Pierrehumbert. Among the climate pollutants humans put into the atmosphere in significant quantities, the effects of carbon dioxide (CO2) are the longest-lived, with effects on climate that extend thousands of years after emissions cease. But finding the political consensus to act on reducing CO2 emissions has been nearly impossible. So there has been a movement to make up for that inaction by reducing ...

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Medicine27 Jun 2014

Some aggressive cancers may respond to anti-inflammatory drugs

New research raises the prospect that some cancer patients with aggressive tumors may benefit from a class of anti-inflammatory drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Studying triple-negative breast cancer, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that some aggressive tumors rely on an antiviral pathway that appears to drive inflammation, widely recognized for roles in cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases. The tumors that activate this particular antiviral pathway always have dysfunctional forms of the proteins ...

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Science27 Jun 2014

Diamond plates create nanostructures through pressure, not chemistry

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — You wouldn't think that mechanical force — the simple kind used to eject unruly patrons from bars, shoe a horse or emboss the raised numerals on credit cards — could process nanoparticles more subtly than the most advanced chemistry. Yet, in a current paper in Nature Communications, Sandia National Laboratories researcher Hongyou Fan and colleagues appear to have achieved a start toward that end. Their newly patented and original method uses simple pressure — a kind of high-tech embossing — to produce finer and cleaner results in forming silver ...

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Medicine27 Jun 2014

Research may yield new ways to treat antibiotic-resistant TB

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Scientists in the United States and India have successfully modified the precursor to one of the drugs used to treat tuberculosis, an important first step toward new drugs that can transcend antibiotic resistance issues that experts consider a serious threat to global health. The findings, reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, indicate that a new compound, 24-desmethylrifampicin, has much better antibacterial activity than rifampicin against multi-drug-resistant strains of the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. Rifampicin and related drugs ...

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Science27 Jun 2014

Youth regularly receive pro-marijuana tweets

AUDIO: Twitter has become one of the most popular social media sites among young people, and researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have been looking at Twitter.... Click here for more information. Hundreds of thousands of American youth are following marijuana-related Twitter accounts and getting pro-pot messages several times each day, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found. The tweets are cause for ...

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Environment27 Jun 2014

A new species of moth from the Appalachian Mountains named to honor the Cherokee Nation

A small, drab and highly inconspicuous moth has been flitting nameless about its special niche among the middle elevations of one of the world's oldest mountain ranges, the southern Appalachian Mountains in North America. A team of American scientists has now identified this new to science species as Cherokeea attakullakulla and described it in a special issue of the open access journal ZooKeys. In all probability, it has been frequenting these haunts for tens of millions of years before the first humans set foot on this continent, all the while not caring in the least ...

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Medicine27 Jun 2014

Kids who know unhealthy food logos more likely to be overweight

The more a child is familiar with logos and other images from fast-food restaurants, sodas and not-so-healthy snack food brands, the more likely the child is to be overweight or obese. And, unfortunately, studies have shown that people who are overweight at a young age, tend to stay that way. A research team that included a Michigan State University professor tested kids on their knowledge of various brands – including their ability to identify items such as golden arches, silly rabbits and a king's crown – and found that those who could identify them the most tended ...

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Technology27 Jun 2014

'Compressive sensing' provides new approach to measuring a quantum system

In quantum physics, momentum and position are an example of conjugate variables. This means they are connected by Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which says that both quantities cannot be simultaneously measured precisely. Recently, researchers have been developing novel techniques, such as "weak measurement," to measure both at the same time. Now University of Rochester physicists have shown that a technique called compressive sensing also offers a way to measure both variables at the same time, without violating the Uncertainty Principle. In a paper published in ...

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Medicine27 Jun 2014

Developmental psychologist explains her life's work studying the mysteries of the mind

HAMILTON, ON, June 27, 2014—Developmental psychologist Daphne Maurer has spent more than four decades studying the complexities of the human mind. As the director of the Visual Development Lab at McMaster University and president of the International Society on Infant Studies, Maurer will present her life's work at the Biennial International Conference on Infant Studies in Berlin July 4th. Over the course of her career she has established a reputation for building new understanding of one of the most challenging and mysterious aspects of human development: how our ...

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Science27 Jun 2014

Monkeys also believe in winning streaks, study shows

Humans have a well-documented tendency to see winning and losing streaks in situations that, in fact, are random. But scientists disagree about whether the "hot-hand bias" is a cultural artifact picked up in childhood or a predisposition deeply ingrained in the structure of our cognitive architecture. Now in the first study in non-human primates of this systematic error in decision making, researchers find that monkeys also share our unfounded belief in winning and losing streaks. The results suggests that the penchant to see patterns that actually don't exist may be ...

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Space27 Jun 2014

EARTH Magazine: Rosetta off to decipher a comet's secrets

Alexandria, Va. — "Hello World." Upon hearing that brief message, scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) and followers around the world sent up a collective cheer. Rosetta — the ESA spacecraft currently on a 10-year mission to orbit and land on a comet — awoke in January after a three-year hibernation, and was ready to get to work. The Rosetta spacecraft launched on March 2, 2004, to study Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In August, Rosetta will enter the comet's orbit. By November, scientists will plant a lander on the comet, in the hope of learning more about ...

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Medicine27 Jun 2014

Early life stress can leave lasting impacts on the brain

MADISON, Wis. — For children, stress can go a long way. A little bit provides a platform for learning, adapting and coping. But a lot of it — chronic, toxic stress like poverty, neglect and physical abuse — can have lasting negative impacts. A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers recently showed these kinds of stressors, experienced in early life, might be changing the parts of developing children's brains responsible for learning, memory and the processing of stress and emotion. These changes may be tied to negative impacts on behavior, health, employment ...

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Environment27 Jun 2014

Are conservatives more obedient and agreeable than their liberal counterparts?

Over the last few years, we've seen increasing dissent among liberals and conservatives on important issues such as gun control, health care and same-sex marriage. Both sides often have a difficult time reconciling their own views with their opposition, and many times it appears that liberals are unable to band together under a unifying platform. Why do conservatives appear to have an affinity for obeying leadership? And why do conservatives perceive greater consensus among politically like-minded others? Two studies publishing in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin ...

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Earth Science27 Jun 2014

Extinct undersea volcanoes squashed under Earth's crust cause tsunami earthquakes, according to new research

New research has revealed the causes and warning signs of rare tsunami earthquakes, which may lead to improved detection measures. Tsunami earthquakes happen at relatively shallow depths in the ocean and are small in terms of their magnitude. However, they create very large tsunamis, with some earthquakes that only measure 5.6 on the Richter scale generating waves that reach up to ten metres when they hit the shore. A global network of seismometers enables researchers to detect even the smallest earthquakes. However, the challenge has been to determine which small ...

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Environment27 Jun 2014

Climate change and the ecology of fear

Climate change is predicted to have major impacts on the many species that call our rocky shorelines home. Indeed, species living in these intertidal habitats, which spend half their day exposed to air and the other half submerged by water, may be subjected to a double whammy as both air and water temperatures rise. Given the reliance of human society on nearshore coastal ecosystems, it is critical that we better understand how climate change will affect them. In a recent study published in Global Change Biology, Northeastern University professor Geoffrey C. Trussell, ...

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Science27 Jun 2014

New report evaluates progress of comprehensive everglades restoration plan

WASHINGTON – Although planning for Everglades restoration projects has advanced considerably over the past two years, financial, procedural, and policy constraints have impeded project implementation, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council. Timely authorization, adequate funding levels, and creative policy and implementation strategies are needed to achieve restoration benefits and to expedite implementation of the Central Everglades Planning Project. Climate change and the invasion of nonnative plant and animal species further challenge ...

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Medicine27 Jun 2014

USAMRIID research sheds light on how deadly lassa virus infects cells

Scientists have discovered that the Lassa virus, which is endemic to West Africa, uses an unexpected two-step process to enter cells. The results, published in today's edition of the journal Science, suggest that the mechanism by which Lassa virus causes infection is more complicated than previously known. An international team of scientists from the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, the University of Kiel in Germany, and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) collaborated on the study, which could lead to new approaches ...

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Science27 Jun 2014

AJMC publishes results showing big data analytics can predict risk of metabolic syndrome

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and HARTFORD, Conn. – June 27, 2014 – Research published today in the American Journal of Managed Care demonstrates that analysis of patient records using state-of-the-art data analytics can predict future risk of metabolic syndrome. More than a third of the U.S. population has metabolic syndrome, a condition that can lead to chronic heart disease, stroke and diabetes. These conditions combine to account for almost 20 percent of overall health care costs in the U.S. The study was conducted by Aetna (NYSE: AET) and GNS Healthcare Inc. (GNS), a leading provider ...

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Science27 Jun 2014

Prevention incentives

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down—and so do movie tickets, cell phone minutes and discounts on airline flights. A private South African health plan increased patient use of preventive care such as mammograms and influenza vaccine with a program that incentivized healthy behavior using discounts on retail goods and travel. The study, which was led by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the RAND Corporation, was published today in The American Journal of Managed Care. "Even though most people know that preventive care is important, too few people take ...

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Earth Science27 Jun 2014

Extinct undersea volcanoes squashed under Earth's crust cause tsunami earthquakes, according to new

New research has revealed the causes and warning signs of rare tsunami earthquakes, which may lead to improved detection measures. Tsunami earthquakes happen at relatively shallow depths in the ocean and are small in terms of their magnitude. However, they create very large tsunamis, with some earthquakes that only measure 5.6 on the Richter scale generating waves that reach up to ten metres when they hit the shore. A global network of seismometers enables researchers to detect even the smallest earthquakes. However, the challenge has been to determine which small ...

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Science27 Jun 2014

A study warns of the risk entailed when night owls -- 'evening-type' people -- drive early in the morning

Researchers from the University of Granada have shown that individual chronotype—that is, whether you are a "morning-type" or an "evening-type", depending on the time of day when your physiological functions are more active—markedly influences driving performance. In fact, evening-types are much worse drivers—they pay less attention—at their "non-optimal" time of day (early in the morning) by comparison with their optimal time (during the evening). However, in this experiment morning-types were more stable drivers than evening-types and drove relatively well both in the ...

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