University of Adelaide researchers say a small wasp that scientists had forgotten about for more than 200 years is now making a name for itself – as a predator of Australia's most common dangerous spider, the redback. The wasp (Agenioideus nigricornis) was first described scientifically in 1775 by Danish entomologist Johan Christian Fabricius, thanks to samples collected in Australia during Captain Cook's first great voyage (1768). "Since then, scientists have largely forgotten about the wasp," says Professor Andy Austin from the University of Adelaide's Australian ...

Scientists at The University of Nottingham say adverse side-effects caused by the anti-parasitic drug quinine in the treatment of malaria could be controlled by what we eat. The research, carried out by Nottingham scientists on the University's campuses in the UK and Malaysia, indicates that natural variation in our levels of the amino acid, tryptophan, has a marked bearing on how we respond to quinine treatment. It appears that the lower our levels of tryptophan the more likely it is that we would suffer side-effects. And because tryptophan is an essential amino acid ...

VIDEO: Research carried out at Universidad Carlos III in Madrid analyzes the search and visualization systems used by commercial stock photography agencies, whose estimated annual net sales reach over 150 billion... Click here for more information. Stock photography agencies, and not just those companies that dominate the digital photography market, are at the forefront of information search tools. "Their search, visualization and information downloading systems are extraordinarily ...

Forgetfulness, lack of orientation, cognitive decline… about 700, 000 Germans suffer from Alzheimer's disease (AD). Now researchers from the University of Ulm, among them the Epidemiologist Professor Gabriele Nagel and the Neurologist Professor Christine von Arnim, have discovered that the serum-concentration of the antioxidants vitamin C and beta-carotene are significantly lower in patients with mild dementia than in control persons. It might thus be possible to influence the pathogenesis of AD by a person's diet or dietary antioxidants. 74 AD-patients and 158 healthy ...

WASHINGTON -- Teens who play mature-rated, risk-glorifying video games may be more likely than those who don't to become reckless drivers who experience increases in automobile accidents, police stops and willingness to drink and drive, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. "Most parents would probably be disturbed to learn that we observed that this type of game play was more strongly associated with teen drivers being pulled over by the police than their parenting practices," said study lead author Jay G. Hull, PhD, of Dartmouth ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- As outbreaks of preventable diseases such as whooping cough and measles increase in the United States, researchers from the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine are investigating whether altruism, known to influence adults' decisions to immunize themselves, influences parental decisions to vaccinate their children. "If enough people are immunized against a particular disease, it prevents outbreaks of that disease and protects the community. This is known as herd immunity, and it's a very important benefit of childhood immunization," ...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—September 11, 2012—Today, The Dengue Vaccine Initiative (DVI) welcomed new clinical trial results that reveal progress in developing the first-ever dengue vaccine. In a publication in The Lancet, pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur reported results from the first study conducted to evaluate the efficacy of any dengue vaccine candidate against clinical dengue disease in a population naturally exposed to dengue. Dengue vaccine development efforts have been difficult because dengue is caused by four different related viruses, known as DENV 1, 2, 3 and ...

New Orleans, LA – A research study conducted by Dr. Jesus Lovera, Assistant Professor of Neurology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, and colleagues has found that the herbal supplement Ginkgo biloba does not improve cognitive function in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS.) Cognitive impairment affects 40-60% of people with MS, most commonly affecting their processing speed, memory, and executive skills. The research findings were published online ahead of print in Neurology on September 5, 2012. This study followed up on a promising earlier small study by ...

People face this predicament all the time—can you determine a person's character in a single interaction? Can you judge whether someone you just met can be trusted when you have only a few minutes together? And if you can, how do you do it? Using a robot named Nexi, Northeastern University psychology professor David DeSteno and collaborators Cynthia Breazeal from MIT's Media Lab and Robert Frank and David Pizarro from Cornell University have figured out the answer. The findings were recently pub¬lished in the journal Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for ...

(Garrison, NY) When Facebook introduced a feature that enables people to register to become organ and tissue donors, thousands did so, dwarfing any previous donation initiative, write Blair L. Sadler and Alfred M. Sadler, Jr., in a commentary in Bioethics Forum, the blog of the Hastings Center Report, which analyzes the "Facebook effect" on donation. The Sadlers, Founding Fellows of The Hastings Center, helped draft the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, established in 1968 to standardize state laws on the donation of organs and tissue after death. Blair Sadler, a lawyer, is ...

WHAT: The genetic sequencing and reconstruction of the 1918 influenza virus that killed 50 million people worldwide have advanced scientists' understanding of influenza biology and yielded important information on how to prevent and control future pandemics, according to a new commentary by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and several other institutions. By sequencing the 1918 virus, researchers were able to confirm that the viruses that caused influenza pandemics in 1957, 1968, ...

By including chemotherapy as a conditioning regimen prior to treatment, researchers have developed a refined gene therapy approach that safely and effectively restores the immune system of children with a form of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), according to a study published online today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). SCID is a group of rare and debilitating genetic disorders that affect the normal development of the immune system in newborns. Infants with SCID are prone to serious, life-threatening infections within the first ...

Consumers will pay more when they are given different options to pursue short-term goals, but will pay more for similar options when pursuing long-term goals, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Many of the benefits of pursuing self-control goals such as being healthy are experienced in the future. Thus, a key component of our success in meeting our goals is the ability to remain motivated. One way for consumers to manage motivation is to strategically choose the options available to them in pursuing their goals," write authors Jordan Etkin ...

Ann Arbor, Mich. — Parents of newborns with the sickle cell anemia trait were less likely to receive genetic counseling than parents whose babies are cystic fibrosis carriers, a new study from the University of Michigan shows. University of Michigan researchers found that 20 percent of physicians reported their patients with newborns carrying the sickle cell trait did not get any genetic counseling. In contrast, parents of babies who were cystic fibrosis carriers received more counseling overall (92 percent vs. 80 percent). The research was published online in the ...

WASHINGTON ― To more effectively defend against ballistic missile attacks, the U.S. should concentrate on defense systems that intercept enemy missiles in midcourse and stop spending money on boost-phase defense systems of any kind, concludes a new, congressionally mandated report from a committee of the National Research Council. The committee was asked to assess the feasibility, practicality, and affordability of U.S. boost-phase missile defenses and compare them with other alternatives for countering limited nuclear or conventional ballistic missile attacks ...

Researchers from the University of Rochester and Texas A&M University have found that, over a period of five months following the disastrous 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill, naturally-occurring bacteria that exist in the Gulf of Mexico consumed and removed at least 200,000 tons of oil and natural gas that spewed into the deep Gulf from the ruptured well head. The researchers analyzed an extensive data set to determine not only how much oil and gas was eaten by bacteria, but also how the characteristics of this feast changed with time. "A significant amount ...

Consumers nurture romantic ideas of nature by engaging in practices that are often harmful to the environment, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. Could eco-friendly products provide a solution? "Nature is often considered the ideal place to escape from everyday life. Consumers enjoy romantic escapes from culture in contexts as diverse as surfing, tropical island holidays, and the Burning Man festival. But by viewing nature as simply the opposite of culture, consumers often expedite the destruction of the experiences of nature they desire most," ...

Consumers watching their diet should pay close attention to the amount of unhealthy foods they eat, but can relax when it comes to healthier options, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Although self-control is typically viewed as a battle between willpower and desire, consumers can't rely entirely on willpower to control their eating. They also need to create situations that will make them lose interest in food. One way is to keep better track of the quantity of unhealthy foods they eat," write authors Joseph P. Redden (University of Minnesota) ...

Consumers are more likely to change their behavior if they voluntarily commit to changing rather than being told what to do, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. So carefully nudge them along if you're trying to encourage more eco-friendly behavior. "Commitment promotes consistent changes in behavior, especially if consumers pledge specific steps to promote the desired behavior. Consumers who publicly express a commitment to the environment will reinforce their commitment and increase sustainable behavior," write authors Katie Baca-Motes, Amber ...

When reminded of money (not cost), consumers are more likely to evaluate a new product based on its primary features or brand name, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Money and symbols of money are ubiquitous in our daily consumer environment, and money is linked to social resources such as security, status, power, confidence, and freedom. Mere reminders of money have the potential to signal confidence and strength and thereby impact consumers when making decisions," write authors Jochim Hansen (University of Salzburg), Florian Kutzner (University ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A novel set of custom-designed "molecular beacons" allows scientists to monitor gene expression in living populations of stem cells as they turn into a specific tissue in real-time. The technology, which Brown University researchers describe in a new study, provides tissue engineers with a potentially powerful tool to discover what it may take to make stem cells transform into desired tissue cells more often and more quickly. That's a key goal in improving regenerative medicine treatments. "We're not the inventors of molecular beacons ...

This press release is available in French. Have you ever wondered why some people find it so much easier to stop smoking than others? New research shows that vulnerability to smoking addiction is shaped by our genes. A study from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital - The Neuro, McGill University shows that people with genetically fast nicotine metabolism have a significantly greater brain response to smoking cues than those with slow nicotine metabolism. Previous research shows that greater reactivity to smoking cues predicts decreased success at smoking cessation ...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—September 11, 2012—Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have gotten us one step closer to understanding and overcoming one of the least-understood mechanisms of HIV infection—by devising a method to precisely track the life cycle of individual cells infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In a paper being published online today in Lab on a Chip, the laboratory of Gladstone Investigator Leor Weinberger, PhD, announced the development of a device that can pinpoint and track HIV inside CD4 T cells—the type of white blood cell that the AIDS virus ...

In 1604, a new star appeared in the night sky that was much brighter than Jupiter and dimmed over several weeks. This event was witnessed by sky watchers including the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler. Centuries later, the debris from this exploded star is known as the Kepler supernova remnant. Astronomers have long studied the Kepler supernova remnant and tried to determine exactly what happened when the star exploded to create it. New analysis of a long observation from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is providing more clues. This analysis suggests that the supernova ...

A groundbreaking survey of Pakistanis has found stronger support for militant groups among the middle class than the poor. The finding by a team including Princeton researchers challenges the conventional wisdom about links between economic status and views on militants that has helped shaped American foreign-aid policies since 2001. The nationally representative survey of 6,000 Pakistani adults, conducted in the spring of 2009, also found that Pakistanis in general held militant groups in low regard. And, when the survey results were analyzed along with data that identified ...