Research from North Carolina State University shows that honey bees "self-medicate" when their colony is infected with a harmful fungus, bringing in increased amounts of antifungal plant resins to ward off the pathogen. "The colony is willing to expend the energy and effort of its worker bees to collect these resins," says Dr. Michael Simone-Finstrom, a postdoctoral research scholar in NC State's Department of Entomology and lead author of a paper describing the research. "So, clearly this behavior has evolved because the benefit to the colony exceeds the cost." Wild ...

Extreme weather such as hurricanes, torrential downpours and droughts will become more frequent in pace with global warming. Consequently, this increases the risk for species extinction, especially in bio diverse ecosystems such as coral reefs and tropical rainforests. Human impact means that flora and fauna become extinct at a rate 100 times higher than normal. Climate change has been deemed as one of the main causes of species depletion. A research team in theoretical biology at Linköping University in Sweden has, through the use of mathematical modelling and simulation, ...

WASHINGTON — An estimated 2.2 million people in the United States live with epilepsy, a complex brain disorder characterized by sudden and often unpredictable seizures. The highest rate of onset occurs in children and older adults, and it affects people of all ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds, yet this common disorder is widely misunderstood. Epilepsy refers to a spectrum of disorders with seizures that vary in type, cause, severity, and frequency. Many people do not know the causes of epilepsy or what measures to take if they witness a seizure. A new report ...

Scientists have taken an important step forward in developing a new material using nano-sized magnets that could ultimately lead to new types of electronic devices, with greater capacity than is currently feasible, in a study published today in the journal Science. Many modern data storage devices, like hard disk drives, rely on the ability to manipulate the properties of tiny individual magnetic sections, but their overall design is limited by the way these magnetic 'domains' interact when they are close together. Now, researchers from Imperial College London have ...

The decline of Caribbean coral reefs has been linked to the recent effects of human-induced climate change. However, new research led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego suggests an even earlier cause. The bad news – humans are still to blame. The good news – relatively simple policy changes can hinder further coral reef decline. Employing a novel excavation technique to reconstruct the timeline of historical change in coral reefs located on the Caribbean side of Panama, a team of scientists led by Scripps alumna Katie Cramer and current ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Registered dietitians are one of several groups of healthcare professionals who report using dietary supplements as part of their health regimen, according to a newly published study in Nutrition Journal, a peer-reviewed, online journal that focuses on the field of human nutrition. According to data from the 2009 "Life…supplemented" Healthcare Professionals (HCP) Impact Study, 74 percent of dietitians use dietary supplements regularly while 22 percent reported using them occasionally or seasonally. The data also indicated that an overwhelming percentage ...

The deposition of amyloid beta in the brain of individuals with Alzheimer's disease is the focus of much research into both its cause and treatment. While there may not be a consensus as to whether the deposition contributes to the disease or is a consequence of the disease, there is agreement that it is not favoured thermodynamically, meaning that something else is promoting the process. Other proteins are often co-deposited in vivo with amyloid beta and one such protein is serum amyloid P component (or SAP). Recent evidence has suggested that SAP is elevated in Alzheimer's ...

HUNTSVILLE, Ala – Tales from the crypt are supposed to be scary, but new research from Vanderbilt University, the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and colleagues shows that crypts can be places of renewal too: intestinal crypts, that is. Intestinal crypts are small areas of the intestine where new cells are formed to continuously renew the digestive tract. By focusing on one protein expressed in our intestines called Lrig1, the researchers have identified a special population of intestinal stem cells that respond to damage and help to prevent cancer. The research, ...

It seems that "Lucy" was not the only hominin on the block in northern Africa about 3 million years ago. A team of researchers that included Johns Hopkins University geologist Naomi Levin has announced the discovery of a partial foot skeleton with characteristics (such as an opposable big toe bone) that don't match those of Lucy, the human ancestor (or hominin) known to inhabit that region and considered by many to be the ancestor of all modern humans. The discovery is important because it provides first-ever evidence that at least two pre-human ancestors lived between ...

WASHINGTON — The United States is now in a better position than at any time in the past to maintain a safe and effective nuclear weapons stockpile without testing and to monitor clandestine nuclear testing abroad, says a new report from the National Research Council. The report, requested by the Office of the Vice President and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, reviews and updates a 2002 study that examined the technical concerns raised about the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The report does not take a position on whether the U.S. ...

Scientists issued the first "State of the Planet" declaration at a major gathering of experts on global environmental and social issues in advance of the major UN Summit Rio+20 in June. The declaration opens: "Research now demonstrates that the continued functioning of the Earth system as it has supported the well-being of human civilization in recent centuries is at risk." It states that consensus is growing that we have driven the planet into a new epoch, the Anthropocene, where many planetary-scale processes are dominated by human activities. It concludes society ...

When battling a deadly parasite epidemic, less resistance can sometimes be better than more, a new study suggests. A freshwater zooplankton species known as Daphnia dentifera endures periodic epidemics of a virulent yeast parasite that can infect more than 60 percent of the Daphnia population. During these epidemics, the Daphnia population evolves quickly, balancing infection resistance and reproduction. A new study reveals that the number of vertebrate predators in the water and the amount of food available for Daphnia to eat influence the size of the epidemics and ...

A new study led by researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine indicates that CT scans are more effective than traditional lung cancer detection methods at identifying aggressive lung cancers in their most treatable stages. The data, published online March 27 in the journal Radiology, demonstrate that lung cancers found through annual CT screening are similar to those found in routine practice, both in terms of tumor growth rates and cell-type distribution. In fact, the report showed that 79 percent of the cases diagnosed through annual repeat CT scans were detected at ...

PHILADELPHIA –- A new animal model of nerve injury has brought to light a critical role of an enzyme called Nmnat in nerve fiber maintenance and neuroprotection. Understanding biological pathways involved in maintaining healthy nerves and clearing away damaged ones may offer scientists targets for drugs to mitigate neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's and Parkinson's, as well as aid in situations of acute nerve damage, such as spinal cord injury. University of Pennsylvanian biologists developed the model in the adult fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. "We ...

Women take longer to give birth today than did women 50 years ago, according to an analysis of nearly 140,000 deliveries conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The researchers could not identify all of the factors that accounted for the increase, but concluded that the change is likely due to changes in delivery room practice. The study authors called for further research to determine whether modern delivery practices are contributing to the increase in labor duration. The researchers compared data on deliveries in the early 1960s to data gathered ...

As any comic book lover knows, when superheroes band together the bad guys fall harder. The strength that comes in numbers is greater than the sum of its parts. The same holds true, researchers have recently learned, when different species of crabs (genus Trapezia) and snapping shrimp (Alepheus lottini) in the central Pacific band together to defend their coral homes from hungry seastars. In these frequent conflicts "one-plus-one doesn't always equal two, sometime it is more," explains Seabird McKeon, a marine biologist at the National Museum of Natural History's Smithsonian ...

A small study from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers found that online virtual communities may be an effective way to train patients in meditation and other mind/body techniques. The ability to learn and practice approaches that elicit the relaxation response – a state of deep rest that has been shown to alleviate stress-related symptoms – in a virtual environment could help surmount several barriers that can restrict participation. "Our finding that a medical intervention – in this case teaching a mind/body approach that includes the relaxation response ...

The first typhoon of the northern hemisphere 2012 typhoon season is headed for landfall in Vietnam. NASA's Aqua and TRMM satellites have been providing forecasters with valuable data on Typhoon Pakhar, that includes rainfall rates, cloud extent and temperature. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite flew almost directly over Pakhar when it was a newly formed tropical storm in the South China Sea on March 29, 2012 at 1122 UTC/4:22 p.m. Asia local time (or 7:22 a.m. EDT). The intensifying storm had wind speeds of about 45 knots (~52 mph/~83 kph) and was ...

Stir lots of small particles into water, and the resulting thick mixture appears highly viscous. When this dense suspension slips through a nozzle and forms a droplet, however, its behavior momentarily reveals a decidedly non-viscous side. University of Chicago physicists recorded this surprising behavior in laboratory experiments using high-speed photography that can capture action taking place in one hundred-thousandths of a second or less. UChicago graduate student Marc Miskin and Heinrich Jaeger, the William J. Friedman and Alicia Townsend Friedman Professor in Physics, ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and CHICAGO, Ill. -- Tokai Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing new treatments for prostate cancer, today announced that its lead candidate galeterone (TOK-001) was well-tolerated with minimal side effects and demonstrated efficacy in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) in a Phase 1 study. The data will be presented in an oral presentation titled, "ARMOR1: Safety of galeterone (TOK-001) in a Phase 1 clinical trial in chemotherapy naïve patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC)," abstract ...

CHICAGO — Patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer had limited side effects and in many cases a drop in prostate-specific antigen expression with galeterone (TOK-001), a small-molecule oral drug, according to phase I data presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012, held here March 31 - April 4. Castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is an advanced form of prostate cancer that occurs when the disease progresses after treatment with androgen deprivation therapy. Galeterone works against CRPC by blocking the androgen receptor, reducing levels of the ligand ...

CHICAGO — The use of metformin in men with prostate cancer before prostatectomy helped to reduce certain metabolic parameters and slow the growth rate of the cancer, according to the results of a phase II study. Anthony M. Joshua, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., staff medical oncologist at the Princess Margaret Hospital, University Health Network in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, presented the data at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012, held here March 31 - April 4. Metformin is the most commonly prescribed medication for diabetes. Prior laboratory research has suggested that metformin may ...

CHICAGO — The antiangiogenic drug pazopanib has demonstrated clinically meaningful activity in patients with refractory urothelial cancer, according to results presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012, held here March 31 - April 4. The results also revealed that increases in interleukin-8 levels early after treatment with pazopanib may predict a lack of tumor response to the therapy. "Historically, prognosis of patients with relapsed or refractory urothelial cancer is quite dismal," said Andrea Necchi, M.D., faculty member in the department of medicine at Fondazione ...

Today, the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) publish their jointly developed European Union Standards for Tuberculosis Care (ESTC). The 21 patient-centred standards aim to guide clinicians and public health workers to ensure optimal diagnosis, treatment and prevention of tuberculosis (TB) in Europe – with nearly 74,000 reported TB cases in the EU/EEA in 2010 clearly showing that TB remains a public health challenge across the region. The new EU-specific guidelines were developed by a panel of 30 experts ...

TORONTO -- Low oxygen levels in tumors can be used to predict cancer recurrence in men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer even before they receive radiation therapy. The clinical research, led by radiation oncologists at the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) Cancer Program, University Health Network (UHN) is published online today in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-11-2711). "We've not only shown that men do worse if they have low oxygen levels (hypoxia) in their prostate cancer, but ...