Who's to blame for obesity? Policymakers, the food industry, or individuals? URBANA, Ill. – Fast food restaurants take a lot of heat for the rise in obesity in the United States, but is it really ...

Rice University laser scientists create portable sensor for nitrous oxide, methane Compact device has sensitive nose for greenhouse gases Rice University scientists have created a highly sensitive portable sensor to test the air for the most damaging greenhouse gases. The device ...

Seashells inspire new way to preserve bones for archeologists, paleontologists Recreating the story of humanity's past by studying ancient bones can hit a snag when they deteriorate, but scientists are now reporting an advance inspired by seashells that can ...

Toward fixing damaged hearts through tissue engineering In the U.S., someone suffers a heart attack every 34 seconds — their heart is starved of oxygen and suffers irreparable damage. Engineering new heart tissue in the laboratory that could eventually be ...

Suburban sprawl accounts for 50 percent of US household carbon footprint Many U.S. cities are taking steps to grow urban centers in an attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But a challenge is the significant carbon footprint of spacious suburban living, ...

Emerging class of therapeutics represents a coming wave for developers and manufacturers After years of research, development and testing, a new class of drugs is emerging on the market with two frontrunners acting as harbingers of what's to come. The cover ...

New study examines patterns of cancer screening in Appalachian women LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 22, 2014) — A new study by University of Kentucky researchers shows that women who never or rarely screen for breast cancer are also unlikely to receive screening for cervical ...

The unexpected power of baby math Tel Aviv University researcher finds that adults still think about numbers like kids Children understand numbers differently than adults. For kids, one and two seem much further apart then 101 and 102, because two is ...

U-Michigan ecologists: No magic bullet for coffee rust eradication ANN ARBOR—Spraying fungicide to kill coffee rust disease, which has ravaged Latin American plantations since late 2012, is an approach that is "doomed to failure," according to University of Michigan ...

Health disparities among US African-American and Hispanic men cost economy more than $450 billion Greatest economic burden shouldered by African-American and Hispanic men African-American men incurred $341.8 billion in excess medical ...

UCLA researchers develop risk calculator to predict survival in heart failure patients A UCLA team has developed an easy-to-use "risk calculator" that helps predict heart failure patients' chances of survival for up to five ...

New CU-Boulder study shows differences in mammal responses to climate change Shrews 27 times less likely to respond to climate change than moose If you were a shrew snuffling around a North American forest, you would be 27 times ...

Modest familial risks for multiple sclerosis Even though multiple sclerosis is largely caused by genetic factors, the risk of patients' relatives developing the disease is lower than previously assumed. This is the conclusion of a new population registry-based study, ...

Bright star reveals new exoplanet By studying the star around which the planet revolves, they found that the star's rotation appears to be well-aligned with the planetary movement. The object can be well-studied because the star is relatively bright, it can ...

Drug alternatives to antibiotics may not be perfect, study shows New types of drug intended for use in place of antibiotics have been given a cautious welcome by scientists. Researchers have been probing the long-term effectiveness of drugs currently ...

From a carpet of nanorods to a thin film solar cell absorber within a few seconds This news release is available in German. Research teams at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and at the University of Limerick, ...

Xpert® MTB/RIF assay for pulmonary tuberculosis and rifampicin resistance in adults A second systematic review of a diagnostic test for tuberculosis (TB) endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), has confirmed the accuracy of the test. The updated ...

Hearing loss linked to accelerated brain tissue loss Although the brain becomes smaller with age, the shrinkage seems to be fast-tracked in older adults with hearing loss, according to the results of a study by researchers from Johns Hopkins and the National ...

Lawrence Livermore 'space cops' to help control traffic in space A team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists are using mini-satellites that work as "space cops" to help control traffic in space. The scientists used a series of six ...

Putting 'Adam' in his rightful place in evolutionary history Our most common male ancestor walked the earth 209,000 years ago – earlier than scientists commonly thought - according to new research from the University of Sheffield. The pioneering study, ...

European epilepsy consortium identifies new gene for severe childhood epilepsy A novel combination of technologies made this possible A European consortium of epilepsy researchers has reported the discovery of a new gene involved in ...

Particulate air pollution leads to increased heart attack risk The ESCAPE study * investigates the effects of air pollution on health. In eleven participating population groups in Finland, Sweden, ...

Got milk? Evolutionary connection between milk drinking, lactose digestion, and sunlight This week in Molecular Biology and Evolution Milk, as the popular slogan goes, does a body good. It contains essential nutrients including ...

Elevated blood pressure at home but not in clinic can indicate increased heart attack risk In an individual patient data meta-analysis of studies published before July 2013, Jan A Staessen and colleagues (University of Leuven, Belgium) found that patients with masked ...

Genetic counseling via telephone as effective as in-person counseling WASHINGTON — Genetic counseling delivered over the telephone is as effective as face-to-face counseling, finds the largest randomized study to date comparing the two methods. The multi-center ...