By examining art printed from woodblocks spanning five centuries, Blair Hedges, a professor of biology at Penn State University, has identified the species responsible for making the ever-present wormholes in European printed art since the Renaissance. The hole-makers, two species of wood-boring beetles, are widely distributed today, but the "wormhole record," as Hedges calls it, reveals a different pattern in the past, where the two species met along a zone across central Europe like a battle line of two armies. The research, which is the first of its kind to use printed ...

In the 1960s and 1970s, classic social psychological studies were conducted that provided evidence that even normal, decent people can engage in acts of extreme cruelty when instructed to do so by others. However, in an essay published November 20 in the open access journal PLOS Biology, Professors Alex Haslam and Stephen Reicher revisit these studies' conclusions and explain how awful acts involve not just obedience, but enthusiasm too—challenging the long-held belief that human beings are 'programmed' for conformity. This belief can be traced back to two landmark empirical ...

Animals, including humans, actively select the gut microbes that are the best partners and nurture them with nutritious secretions, suggests a new study led by Oxford University, and published November 20 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology. The Oxford team created an evolutionary computer model of interactions between gut microbes and the lining (the host epithelial cell layer) of the animal gut. The model shows that beneficial microbes that are slow-growing are rapidly lost, and need to be helped by host secretions, such as specific nutrients, that favour the beneficial ...

A new study published November 20 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology has identified hundreds of small regions of the genome that appear to be uniquely regulated in human neurons. These regulatory differences distinguish us from other primates, including monkeys and apes, and as neurons are at the core of our unique cognitive abilities, these features may ultimately hold the key to our intellectual prowess (and also to our potential vulnerability to a wide range of 'human-specific' diseases from autism to Alzheimer's). Exploring which features in the genome separate ...

DENVER, Nov. 20 — Patients with online access to their medical record, including secure email communication with clinicians, had an associated increase in use of some clinical services, according to new Kaiser Permanente research published this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study examined health records of more than 500,000 Kaiser Permanente members in Colorado between May 2005 and June 2010. The researchers looked at office visits, telephone encounters, after-hours clinic visits, emergency department encounters, and hospitalizations ...

CHICAGO – Patients with online access to their medical records and secure e-mail communication with clinicians had increased use of clinical services, including office visits and telephone encounters, compared to patients who did not have online access, according to a study appearing in the November 21 issue of JAMA. "Using health information technology to foster efficient health care delivery is an important component of health care reform," according to background information in the article. "Prior studies suggest that providing patients with online access to health ...

CHICAGO – Although approved for use for treating traumatic brain injury (TBI) in nearly 60 countries, use of citicoline in a randomized trial that included more than 1,200 participants with TBI did not result in improvement in functional and cognitive status, according to a study appearing in the November 21 issue of JAMA. "Despite considerable advances in emergency and critical care management of TBI as well as decades of research on potential agents for neuroprotection or enhanced recovery, no effective pharmacotherapy has yet been identified," according to background ...

A rapid test for tuberculosis (TB) could help to reduce TB deaths, improve TB treatment, and also offer reasonably good value for money if introduced in southern Africa, an area that has high rates of HIV and a type of TB that is resistant to some drugs (multi-drug resistant TB), according to a study published in this week's PLOS Medicine. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently recommended the use of a new diagnostic test for TB (the Xpert MTB/RIF test), which can show a result within 2 hours, in people at high risk of multi-drug resistant TB and/or HIV-associated ...

Models used for predicting the likelihood of individuals developing chronic kidney disease and for predicting disease progression in people who already have the condition are useful tools but not yet robust enough to help inform clinical guidelines, according to a study published in this week's PLOS Medicine. Chronic kidney disease is a common but serious condition which can lead to kidney failure. The condition cannot be cured but progression of the disease can be slowed by controlling high blood pressure and diabetes, both causes of chronic kidney disease, and by adopting ...

In this week's PLOS Medicine, Charles Weijer and colleagues present the Ottawa Statement on the Ethical Design and Conduct of Cluster Randomized Trials, which aims to provide researchers and research ethics committees with detailed guidance on the ethical design, conduct, and review of CRTs. ### Funding: This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (grant numbers MOP85066, MOP89790). CW and JMG hold Tier I Canada Research Chairs. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the ...

New drugs derived from components of a specific diet used by children with severe, drug-resistant epilepsy could offer a new treatment, according to research published today in the journal Neuropharmacology. Scientists from Royal Holloway, in collaboration with University College London, have identified specific fatty acids that have potent antiepileptic effects, which could help control seizures in children and adults. The discovery could lead to the replacement of the ketogenic diet, which is often prescribed for children with severe drug-resistant epilepsy. The ...

Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London have sequenced the genetic code of a birch tree for the first time, which could help protect British birch populations. The genome, which is around 450 million letters, will help researchers understand the genetic basis of traits such as disease resistance and growth shape. There are over sixty species of birch trees around the world, with huge ecological and commercial importance. They are an essential part of the Boreal forest located around the North Pole, which is the world's largest land-based ecosystem. The team ...

It appears that it's not just us Brits who are fascinated with the UK weather. A group of researchers from Germany has taken to investigating the potential changes in extreme rainfall patterns across the UK as a result of future global warming and has found that in some regions, the time of year when we see the heaviest rainfall is set to shift. The study, published today, 21 November, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, finds that between 2061 and 2100, the south-east of the country will likely experience its most extreme rainfall later in the ...

Research: Muscular strength in male adolescents and premature death: cohort study of one million participants Low muscle strength in adolescence is strongly associated with a greater risk of early death from several major causes, suggests a large study published on bmj.com today. The effect is similar to well established risk factors for early death like being overweight or having high blood pressure, leading the authors to call for young people, particularly those with very low strength, to engage in regular physical activity to boost their muscular fitness. High ...

Research: General health checks in adults for reducing morbidity and mortality from disease: Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis Editorial: The value of conducting periodic health checks Researchers have found that routine general health checks, which have become common practice in some countries, do not reduce the number of deaths from cardiovascular disease or cancer. They do, however, increase the number of new diagnoses. Health checks were defined as screening for more than one disease or risk factor in more than one organ system offered to a general ...

How flowers have evolved particular colours, shapes and scents to attract pollinators has long fascinated ecologists. Now, using artificial flowers and high-speed video, researchers have gained intriguing insights into the intimate relationship between hummingbirds and the flowers they pollinate. The study, published in the British Ecological Society's journal Functional Ecology, is the first to measure how much energy hummingbirds use while hovering to feed from flowers of different orientation. Hummingbirds are among the smallest and most brightly-coloured birds on Earth, ...

Research: Sharing of clinical trial data among trialists: a cross sectional survey Nearly nine out of ten clinicians carrying out biomedical research trials believe that trial data should be shared more easily, even though they do express some practical concerns, a study published today on bmj.com reveals. BMJ has long championed transparency in medical research. Last month, the journal launched an open data campaign to compel greater accountability in healthcare, and from January 2013, it will require a commitment from trialists to make their data available on reasonable ...

Boston, MA — A new rapid test for tuberculosis (TB) could substantially and cost-effectively reduce TB deaths and improve treatment in southern Africa—a region where both HIV and tuberculosis are common—according to a new study by Harvard School of Public researchers. "This test is one of the most significant developments in TB control options in many years," said lead author Nicolas Menzies, a PhD candidate in health policy at Harvard School of Public Health. "Our study is the first to look at the long-term consequences of this test when incorporated into routine health ...

An FDA-approved drug initially used to treat insulin resistance in diabetics has shown promise as a way to improve cognitive performance in some people with Alzheimer's disease. Working with genetically engineered mice designed to serve as models for Alzheimer's, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers found that treatment with the anti-insulin-resistance drug rosiglitazone enhanced learning and memory as well as normalized insulin resistance. The scientists believe that the drug produced the response by reducing the negative influence of Alzheimer's ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– When your neighbor asks to borrow a cup of sugar and you readily comply, is your positive response a function of the give and take that characterize your longstanding relationship? Or does it represent payment –– or prepayment –– for the cup of sugar you borrowed last week, or may need to borrow a month from now? Adrian Jaeggi, a postdoctoral researcher in anthropology at UC Santa Barbara, and a junior research fellow at the campus's SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind, is studying this question of reciprocity, using chimpanzees and bonobos ...

A medical researcher with the University of Alberta and his team just published their findings about their work on developing 'homing beacon drugs' that kill only cancer cells, not healthy ones, thanks to nano-technology. John Lewis, the Frank and Carla Sojonky Chair in Prostate Cancer Research with the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, published his findings in the peer-reviewed journal, Nano Letters. He is also an associate professor in the Department of Oncology, a Fellow with the National Institute for Nanotechnology at the U of A and director of the Translational Prostate ...

This press release is available in German. Flowers need water and light to grow. Even children learn that plants use sunlight to gather energy from earth and water. Members of Professor Dr. Olaf Kruse's biological research team at Bielefeld University have made a groundbreaking discovery that one plant has another way of doing this. They have confirmed for the first time that a plant, the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, not only engages in photosynthesis, but also has an alternative source of energy: it can draw it from other plants. This finding could also have ...

CHESTNUT HILL, MA (Nov. 20, 2012) – The executive pay provisions of the TARP – the Troubled Asset Relief Program – stoked controversy. Bankers claimed the rules would thwart their efforts to attract and retain the best executives. But the pay rules may have had an unintended benefit of reducing the scope of the program, researchers say. A newly published report in the Journal of Banking, Finance & Accounting finds that pay provisions did discourage some banks from participating in TARP, which was intended to help banks weather the 2008-2009 financial crisis, according ...

Some grey seal mums adopt risky tactics when it comes to the future of their young, a strategy that can give their pup a real advantage, according to scientists. Researchers from Durham University, UK, and the University of St Andrews, looking at grey seal colonies in Scotland, found that some seal mothers are flexible in the parenting style they adopt and 'gamble' on the outcome of their actions, whilst other play it safe and steady. The study is the first to demonstrate how variation in personality traits in large marine mammals in the wild can persist, rather than ...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2012 — The American Chemical Society (ACS) today launched a new video series that highlights headline-making research from the society's suite of more than 40 peer-reviewed scientific journals. The first episode of Breakthrough Science focuses on research reported in one of those journals, ACS Nano. It involved development of new transparent solar cells, an advance toward giving windows in homes and other buildings the ability to generate electricity while still allowing people to see outside. The video is available at http://pubs.acs.org/page/videos/breakthroughscience.html. Breakthrough ...