Social interactions during adolescence can affect health many years into adulthood, according to research published June 27 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The authors of the study, led by Per E Gustafsson of Umeå University in Sweden, used data from a long-term study monitoring social relationships and health over 27 years, from age 16 to 43, for over 800 participants. The researchers found that problematic peer relationships in adolescence, as measured through teachers' assessments, were correlated with all components of metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster ...

The grasslands in Namibia are home to so-called "fairy circles" - circular bare spots, usually surrounded by a ring of taller grass – of unknown origin. These circles are described and characterized in a report published June 27 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The author, Walter Tschinkel of Florida State University, showed that the circles are not permanent, and go through a birth, maturation, and death process. The life spans appear to range from 24 to 75 years, and smaller circles were generally shorter-lived than larger ones. The ultimate cause, however, remains ...

Elephant movement in response to changes in rainfall patterns can be used to determine biologically relevant boundaries between seasons, as opposed to commonly used arbitrary definitions of seasons. The full report is published June 27 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. Elephant movement patterns are known to be affected by seasonal changes in rainfall. In different years, though, rainfall patterns can vary, and it can be difficult to determine seasonal boundaries, so the authors of the study, led by Patricia Birkett of the Amarula Elephant Research Programme at the ...

Boston, Mass. - Patients unable to breathe because of acute lung failure or an obstructed airway need another way to get oxygen to their blood—and fast—to avoid cardiac arrest and brain injury. A team led by researchers at Boston Children's Hospital has designed tiny, gas-filled microparticles that can be injected directly into the bloodstream to quickly oxygenate the blood. The microparticles consist of a single layer of lipids (fatty molecules) that surround a tiny pocket of oxygen gas, and are delivered in a liquid solution. In a cover article in the June 27 issue ...

When it came to eating, an upright, 2-million-year-old African hominid had a diet unlike virtually all other known human ancestors, says a study led by the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany and involving the University of Colorado Boulder. The study indicated that Australopithecus sediba -- a short, gangly hominid that lived in South Africa -- ate harder foods than other early hominids, targeting trees, bushes and fruits. In contrast, virtually all other ancient human ancestors tested from Africa -- including Paranthropus boisei, dubbed ...

Menlo Park, Calif. — Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have captured the most detailed images to date of airborne soot particles, a key contributor to global warming and a health hazard. The discovery reveals the particles' surprisingly complex nanostructures and could ultimately aid the understanding of atmospheric processes important to climate change, as well as the design of cleaner combustion sources, from car engines to power plants. The study, published in the June 28th issue of Nature, also pioneers a method ...

"For the first time we can actually see the structure of individual aerosol particles floating in air, their 'native habitat'," said DESY scientist Henry Chapman from the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) in Hamburg. "This will have important implications for various fields from climate modelling to human health." CFEL is a joint venture of Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, the German Max Planck Society and the University of Hamburg. Aerosol particles like soot play important roles in a wide range of fields from toxicology to climate science. Despite ...

The planet Tau Bootis b [1] was one of the first exoplanets to be discovered back in 1996, and it is still one of the closest exoplanets known. Although its parent star is easily visible with the naked eye, the planet itself certainly is not, and up to now it could only be detected by its gravitational effects on the star. Tau Bootis b is a large "hot Jupiter" planet orbiting very close to its parent star. Like most exoplanets, this planet does not transit the disc of its star (like the recent transit of Venus). Up to now such transits were essential to allow the study ...

One of the first planets discovered outside of the Solar System, Tau Bootis b, has eluded numerous attempts to measure the light coming from its atmosphere and so has remained something of a mystery. Now, for the first time, an international team has used an innovative technique to unravel direct light from the exoplanet itself to reveal its mass and orbit. Their results will be reported in Nature on June 28. "The problem with exoplanets is that in general we do not know the orientation of their orbit as we see them from Earth," says team member Ernst de Mooij, a postdoctoral ...

NEW YORK (June 27, 2012) -- Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have developed and successfully tested in mice an innovative vaccine to treat nicotine addiction. In the journal Science Translational Medicine, the scientists describe how a single dose of their novel vaccine protects mice, over their lifetime, against nicotine addiction. The vaccine is designed to use the animal's liver as a factory to continuously produce antibodies that gobble up nicotine the moment it enters the bloodstream, preventing the chemical from reaching the brain and even the heart. ...

University of British Columbia scientists, in collaboration with an industry partner, have successfully reversed diabetes in mice using stem cells, paving the way for a breakthrough treatment for a disease that affects nearly one in four Canadians. The research by Timothy Kieffer, a professor in the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, and scientists from the New Jersey-based BetaLogics, a division of Janssen Research & Development, LLC, is the first to show that human stem cell transplants can successfully restore insulin production and reverse diabetes ...

LA JOLLA, CA – Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have developed a powerful new technique for manipulating the building-block molecules of organic chemistry. The technique enables chemists to add new functional molecules to previously hard-to-reach positions on existing compounds—making it easier for them to generate new drugs and other organic chemicals. "This is a basic tool for making novel chemical compounds, and it should have a wide range of applications," said Jin-Quan Yu, PhD, a professor at Scripps Research and senior author of the new report, published ...

Geckos are known for sticky toes that allow them to climb up walls and even hang upside down on ceilings. A new study shows that geckos have gained and lost these unique adhesive structures multiple times over the course of their long evolutionary history in response to habitat changes. "Scientists have long thought that adhesive toepads originated just once in geckos, twice at the most," says University of Minnesota postdoctoral researcher Tony Gamble, a coauthor of the study. "To discover that geckos evolved sticky toepads again and again is amazing." The findings ...

Scientists at Queen Mary, University of London have uncovered a link between two genes which shows how stem cells could develop into cancer. The research, published in the online journal PLoS ONE, found a novel mechanism which could be the catalyst for stem cells changing into a tumour. Dr Ahmad Waseem, a reader in oral dentistry at Queen Mary, University of London who led the research, said: "It was quite an unexpected discovery. We set out to investigate the role of the stem cell gene Keratin K15 which was thought to be a biomarker for normal stem cells. "Through ...

Stem cells from patients with a rare form of muscular dystrophy have been successfully transplanted into mice affected by the same form of dystrophy, according to a new study published today in Science Translational Medicine. For the first time, scientists have turned muscular dystrophy patients' fibroblast cells (common cells found in connective tissue) into stem cells and then differentiated them into muscle precursor cells. The muscle cells were then genetically modified and transplanted into mice. The new technique, which was initially developed at the San Raffaele ...

Medical residents are an essential part of the hospital workforce. Although still in training the take on much of the day to day care of patients. A systematic review published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine shows that patient by properly supervised residents care is safe and of equal quality to that of fully trained doctors. Residency training is an essential part of a doctors education after they leave university. Once completed doctors are expected to provide high quality care and while many studies have looked at different aspects of residency ...

Standing for long periods during pregnancy may curb the growth of the developing fetus, suggests research published online in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Previous research has indicated that long working hours may increase the risk of birth defects, premature birth, stillbirth and low birthweight. The researchers assessed the fetal growth rates of 4680 mums to be from early pregnancy onwards between 2002 and 2006. Midway through their pregnancy, the women were quizzed about their work conditions and the physical demands of their jobs, including whether ...

A diet rich in vegetables could help stave off the development of the serious condition acute pancreatitis, suggests a large study published online in the journal Gut. Pancreatitis refers to inflammation of the pancreas - the gland behind the stomach, which, among other things, releases digestive enzymes to break down food. Occasionally these enzymes become active inside the pancreas, and start to digest the gland itself. In up to one in five of those with acute pancreatitis symptoms are severe and potentially life threatening. Previous research suggests that excessive ...

A heart attack doesn't just damage heart muscle tissue by cutting off its blood supply, it also sets off an inflammatory cascade that worsens underlying atherosclerosis, actively increasing the risk for a future heart attack. These findings from a study receiving advance online publication in Nature suggest an important new therapeutic strategy for preventing heart attacks and strokes, both of which are caused when atherosclerotic plaques rupture and block important blood vessels. "We have known for a long time that heart attack patients are at increased risk for ...

Geckos are known for sticky toes that allow them to climb up walls and even hang upside down on ceilings. A new study shows that geckos have gained and lost these unique adhesive structures multiple times over the course of their long evolutionary history in response to habitat changes. "Scientists have long thought that adhesive toepads originated just once in geckos, twice at the most," says University of Minnesota postdoctoral researcher Tony Gamble, a coauthor of the study. "To discover that geckos evolved sticky toepads again and again is amazing." The findings ...

Move over Elle Macpherson – the search is now on for the pig with the best legs as part of a new research project to improve the health and welfare of pigs on farms across the UK. The study, being led by Newcastle University, UK, was set up to see if we can predict from an early age whether a pig is at risk of becoming lame, simply by analysing the way it walks. Using video motion capture – a technique similar to that used in animation for Hollywood blockbusters such as Avatar and Lord of the Rings – the team measured changes in the pigs' gait, focussing on the angle ...

Scientists have identified a new mechanism of bacterial pathogenesis. The results of the research project, partly funded by the Academy of Finland, have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). Bacteria that cause chronic infections have an amazing but yet poorly known ability to subvert immune response, live and produce offspring, enter and wake up from a dormant phase to cause, in some instances, deadly complications. Bartonella bacteria cause chronic infections in mammals (incl. humans), ...

A new study confirms that doing short journeys on foot rather than taking the car or motorbike would avoid the death of 108 men and 79 women a year in Catalonia alone. This would imply annual savings of more than 200 million euros. Researchers from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Barcelona Public Health Agency (ASPB), headed by Catherine Pérez from the Healthcare Information Systems Service, have estimated the yearly economic benefits from a reduction in death rates by substituting at least one short vehicle journey for a walk. The authors conducted a ...

A condition that temporarily causes heart failure in people who experience severe stress might actually protect the heart from very high levels of adrenaline, according to a new study published in the journal Circulation. The research provides the first physiological explanation for Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, also called "broken heart syndrome" because it affects people who suffer severe emotional stress after bereavement, and suggests guidance for treatment. Around 1-2% of people who are initially suspected of having a heart attack are finally discovered to have this ...

The exhaust from diesel-fuelled vehicles, wood fires and coal-driven power stations contains small particles of soot that flow out into the atmosphere. The soot is a scourge for the climate but also for human health. Now for the first time, researchers have studied in detail how diesel soot gets stuck in the lungs. The results show that more than half of all inhaled soot particles remain in the body. The figure is higher than for most other types of particles. For example "only" 20 per cent of another type of particle from wood smoke and other biomass combustion gets ...