Fast-food marketing aimed at children emphasizes giveaways and movie tie-ins much more frequently than ads targeted at adults, according to research published August 28 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by James Sargent and colleagues from the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth. The researchers compared ads from fast food companies on children's TV channels such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network to those aired for adults. Ads targeted at children emphasized food packaging and street views of the restaurants, whereas adult ads emphasized the images of the food sold ...

Previously unknown archeological sites in forest islands reveal human presence in the western Amazon as early as 10,000 years ago, according to research published August 28 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Umberto Lombardo from the University of Bern, Switzerland and colleagues from other institutions. The study focuses on a region in the Bolivian Amazon thought to be rarely occupied by pre-agricultural communities due to unfavorable environmental conditions. Hundreds of 'forest islands'- small forested mounds of earth- are found throughout the region, their origins ...

Reef fish larvae are only millimeters-long when they hatch, but can smell the presence of coral reefs from several kilometers offshore, and use this odor to navigate home. The results are reported August 28 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Claire Paris from the University of Miami and colleagues from other institutions. The researchers used a novel drifting behavioral arena to find that larvae of two families, damselfish and cardinalfish, changed swimming speed and direction in response to the smell of reef water, but water from the open ocean did not evoke a similar ...

NEW YORK, NY (August 28, 2013) — A team of Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers, led by Nobel laureate Eric R. Kandel, MD, has found that deficiency of a protein called RbAp48 in the hippocampus is a significant contributor to age-related memory loss and that this form of memory loss is reversible. The study, conducted in postmortem human brain cells and in mice, also offers the strongest causal evidence that age-related memory loss and Alzheimer's disease are distinct conditions. The findings were published today in the online edition of Science Translational ...

All people have trillions of bacteria living in their intestines. If you place them on a scale, they weigh around 1.5 kg. Previously, a major part of these 'blind passengers' were unknown, as they are difficult or impossible to grow in laboratories. But over the past five years, an EU-funded research team, MetaHIT, coordinated by Professor S. Dusko Ehrlich at the INRA Research Centre of Jouy-en-Josas, France and with experts from Europe and China have used advanced DNA analysis and bioinformatics methods to map human intestinal bacteria. -The genetic analysis of intestinal ...

New evidence has emerged which supports the long-debated theory that life on Earth may have started on Mars. Professor Steven Benner will tell geochemists gathering today (Thursday 29 Aug) at the annual Goldschmidt conference that an oxidized mineral form of the element molybdenum, which may have been crucial to the origin of life, could only have been available on the surface of Mars and not on Earth. "In addition", said Professor Benner "recent studies show that these conditions, suitable for the origin of life, may still exist on Mars." "It's only when molybdenum ...

A team of scientists has reported direct visualization of magnetic charge crystallization in an artificial spin ice material, a first in the study of a relatively new class of frustrated artificial magnetic materials-by-design known as "Artificial Spin Ice." These charges are analogs to electrical charges with possible applications in magnetic memories and devices. The research team's findings appear in the August 29 issue of the journal Nature. The unique properties of spin ice materials have fascinated scientists since they were first discovered in the late 1990s in ...

STANFORD, Calif. - Pulmonary hypertension, a deadly form of high blood pressure that develops in the lungs, may be caused by an inflammation-producing molecular pathway that damages the inner lining of blood vessels, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The results, which will be published Aug. 28 in Science Translational Medicine, suggest that using medications to block this pathway could lead to the first-known cure for the disease, apart from lung transplantation. The new research could also lead to a better understanding ...

The world's largest ice sheet could be more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than previously thought, according to new research from Durham University. A team from the Department of Geography used declassified spy satellite imagery to create the first long-term record of changes in the terminus of outlet glaciers – where they meet the sea – along 5,400km of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet's coastline. The imagery covered almost half a century from 1963 to 2012. Using measurements from 175 glaciers, the researchers were able to show that the glaciers underwent ...

In this month's edition of Physics World, Paula Findlen from Stanford University profiles Laura Bassi -- an emblematic and influential physicist from the 18th century who can be regarded as the first ever woman to forge a professional scientific career. Once described as the "woman who understood Newton", Laura Bassi -- born in the city of Bologna in 1711 -- rose to celebrity status in Italy and all across the globe, gaining a reputation as being the best physics teacher of her generation and helping to develop the discipline of experimental physics. Bassi held numerous ...

A malaria control method that targets mosquito larvae and pupae as they mature in standing water could be an important supplementary measure in the fight against the disease, according to a new report. The Cochrane review -- led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in collaboration with Durham University and other researchers in the UK and US -- is the first systematic review looking at using larval source management (LSM) to control malaria, which causes an estimated 660,000 deaths worldwide every year. It found evidence that the method may significantly ...

The international consortium MetaHIT, which includes the research group of Jeroen Raes (VIB / Vrije Universiteit Brussel), publishes in the leading journal Nature that there is a link between richness of bacterial species in the intestines and the susceptibility for medical complications related to obesity. The researchers demonstrated that people with fewer bacterial species in their intestines are more likely to develop complications, such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. A flora with decreased bacterial richness appears to function entirely differently to the ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- It's a long, expensive, risky road to turn a scientific breakthrough into a treatment that can help patients. Fewer organizations are trying to tackle the challenges alone, says a new paper from MIT researchers published August 28 in the journal Science Translational Medicine. An essential new way to move discoveries forward has emerged in the form of multi-stakeholder collaborations involving three or more different types of organizations, such as drug companies, government regulators and patient groups, write Magdalini Papadaki, a research associate, ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Problems with a key group of enzymes called topoisomerases can have profound effects on the genetic machinery behind brain development and potentially lead to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to research announced today in the journal Nature. Scientists at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have described a finding that represents a significant advance in the hunt for environmental factors behind autism and lends new insights into the disorder's genetic causes. "Our study shows the magnitude of what can happen if topoisomerases ...

An analysis of gravity and topography data from Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has revealed unexpected features of the moon's outer ice shell. The best explanation for the findings, the authors said, is that Titan's ice shell is rigid and that relatively small topographic features on the surface are associated with large roots extending into the underlying ocean. The study is published in the August 29 issue of the journal Nature. Led by planetary scientists Douglas Hemingway and Francis Nimmo at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the study used new data from NASA's ...

Here's a sobering fact for millions of young women heading back to school: The more alcohol they drink before motherhood, the greater their risk of future breast cancer. That's according to new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis that, for the first time, links increased breast cancer risk to drinking between early adolescence and first full-term pregnancy. Previous studies have looked at breast cancer risk and alcohol consumption later in life or at the effect of adolescent drinking on noncancerous breast disease. “More and more heavy ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Stem cell technology has long offered the hope of regenerating tissue to repair broken or damaged neural tissue. Findings from a team of UC Davis investigators have brought this dream a step closer by developing a method to generate functioning brain cells that produce myelin — a fatty, insulating sheath essential to normal neural conduction. "Our findings represent an important conceptual advance in stem cell research," said Wenbin Deng, principal investigator of the study and associate professor at the UC Davis Department of Biochemistry and ...

Researchers have created a model that may explain the complexities of the origins of life. Their work, which appears in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, offers new insights into how RNA signaling likely developed into the modern "genetic code." "Our model shows that today's genetic code probably resulted from a combination of selective forces and random chance," explained Justin Jee, a doctoral student at NYU School of Medicine and the paper's lead author. The study's other co-authors included: Bud Mishra, who has appointments at NYU's Courant Institute ...

Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, both part of the National Institutes of Health, have identified the cells in two distinct areas of the body that are simultaneously targeted for damage by anthrax toxins, eventually causing illness and sometimes death. Their findings, which appeared online today in Nature, are based on testing in mice. However, the results may contribute to the development of anthrax treatments for humans, the researchers say. Anthrax disease is caused by ...

ARCATA, Calif.—Woodland salamanders are a viable indicator of forest ecosystem recovery, according to researchers from the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station. PSW Research Wildlife Biologist Dr. Hartwell Welsh and Garth Hodgson examined two species of woodland salamanders across four stages of tree development at Mill Creek—a disturbed old-growth redwood forest in northern California. They found that the numbers and body condition of two common species of salamander tracked closely with forest stand growth, development, and structural changes. Using ...

When a beating heart slips into an irregular, life-threatening rhythm, the treatment is well known: deliver a burst of electric current from a pacemaker or defibrillator. But because the electricity itself can cause pain, tissue damage and other serious side-effects, a Johns Hopkins-led research team wants to replace these jolts with a kinder, gentler remedy: light. In a paper published Aug. 28 in the online journal Nature Communications, five biomedical engineers from Johns Hopkins and Stony Brook universities described their plan to use biological lab data and an intricate ...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Reversing inflammation in the fluid surrounding the brain's cortex may provide a solution to the complex riddle of Parkinson's, according to researchers who have found a link between pro-inflammatory biomarkers and the severity of symptoms such as fatigue, depression and anxiety in patients with the chronic disease. Lena Brundin of Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine was part of a research team that measured inflammatory markers found in cerebrospinal fluid samples of Parkinson's patients and members of a control group. "The degree ...

MADISON, Wis. – Teachers who practice "mindfulness" are better able to reduce their own levels of stress and prevent burnout, according to a new study conducted by the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds (CIHM) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Waisman Center. The results of the study, led by Assistant Scientist Lisa Flook, were recently published in the journal Mind, Brain and Education. Mindfulness, a notion that stems from centuries-old meditative traditions and is now taught in a secular way, is a technique to heighten attention, empathy and other pro-social ...

VIDEO: A study led by University of Miami scientist Claire Paris, which appears in the Aug. 28 edition of PLOS ONE, was designed to test the response of larvae in a... Click here for more information. MIAMI – August 28, 2013 --How tiny fish larvae travel away from the reef, then know how to navigate their way back home is a scientific mystery. A new study led by Dr. Claire Paris, Professor at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science ...

Cambridge, Mass. – August 28, 2013 – Research by environmental scientists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) brings bad news to the western United States, where firefighters are currently battling dozens of fires in at least 11 states. The Harvard team's study suggests wildfire seasons by 2050 will be about three weeks longer, up to twice as smoky, and will burn a wider area in the western states. The findings are based on a set of internationally recognized climate scenarios, decades of historical meteorological data, and records of past ...