The brain uses biochemical signal molecules Nowadays the biochemical language of the nerve cells is the subject of intensive research right down at the molecular level, and for the first time researchers, some from the University of Copenhagen, have described just how nerve cells are capable of transmitting signals practically simultaneously. The cells of the nervous system communicate using small molecule neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin and noradrenalin. Dopamine is associated with cognitive functions such as memory, serotonin with mood control, and ...

Solomons, Md. (September 21, 2010) – In an era when fisheries management is rife with controversy, new research led by a team of University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science fisheries scientists shows that a new, stakeholder-driven process can improve the way we manage fisheries targeted by both commercial and recreational interests. In the September issue of the journal Fisheries, the team documents how this innovative process resulted in more content stakeholders while implementing more conservative harvest measures for the king mackerel fishery in the ...

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that the naturally-occurring hormone oxytocin selectively improves social cognitive abilities for less socially proficient individuals, but has little effect on those who are more socially proficient. The study was published today in Psychological Science. Researchers at the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Columbia University wanted to determine if oxytocin, popularly dubbed the "hormone of love," could have widespread benefit in making us more understanding ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — In the last two weeks, news media have covered stories on an Angus beef recall, oil-tainted Gulf shrimp and salmonella-infected eggs. Anecdotal evidence suggests that such headlines affect consumer spending. New research from Michigan State University demonstrates how these announcements indeed cause consumers as well as food industry professionals to make purchasing decisions. Consumers are not only quite attuned to food safety issues, but they also have significantly changed their shopping habits because of them, according to Chris Peterson, ...

BOULDER--The biblical account of the parting of the Red Sea has inspired and mystified people for millennia. A new computer modeling study by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) shows how the movement of wind as described in the book of Exodus could have parted the waters. The computer simulations show that a strong east wind, blowing overnight, could have pushed water back at a bend where an ancient river is believed to have merged with a coastal lagoon along the Mediterranean Sea. With the ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Mixed-use neighborhoods that combine residential and business development may help lead to lower levels of some types of violent crime, a new study suggests. The results were just as true in impoverished neighborhoods as they were in more affluent areas, offering one possible way of improving blighted areas, according to the researchers. But the findings come with an important caveat. In a sparsely populated neighborhood, increases in business-residential density actually leads to higher levels of violent crimes, at least for a while. However, after ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The presidents of six leading research universities and two higher-education associations joined Vice President Joe Biden and White House science advisor Dr. John Holdren this morning to discuss the scientific research and related activities that have been made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Participating in the event held in the Roosevelt Room of the White House were France Córdova, president, Purdue University; Ron Daniels, president, The Johns Hopkins University; Elson Floyd, president, Washington State University; ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Using digital evolution techniques that give scientists the ability to watch evolution in action, Michigan State University researchers have shed new light on what it is that makes species altruistic. Defined as the ability to sacrifice yourself for the sake of others, altruism has been a bit of a genetic mystery. Understanding why altruism evolves is one of the fundamental challenges in evolutionary theory. However, a paper published online in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B by researchers affiliated with MSU's BEACON Center for ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Unlike Vegas, what happens in China doesn't stay in China. The country's environmental challenges have worldwide implications, so more developed nations, such as the United States, need to help China adopt integrated solutions for the sake of global sustainability, a Michigan State University environmental scientist argues. "What happens in China affects the rest of the world," said Jianguo "Jack" Liu, University Distinguished Professor of fisheries and wildlife. Liu is known around the world for his work on environmental sustainability and coupled ...

BEAUMONT - Figuring out how a rice crop was faring used to be a head-scratching exercise with predictably unpredictable results. But now a few punches on a keyboard can yield a pretty close forecast for a rice crop and tell a farmer what changes could improve the outcome at harvest. The program, Rice Development Advisory, stems from extensive data collected over the years by researchers at the Texas AgriLife Research Center in Beaumont. They methodically accumulated reams of data in the course of studying and creating improved varieties of rice. As technology improved, ...

(CHICAGO) – Neurological researchers at Rush University Medical Center have found a new therapeutic target that can potentially lead to a new way to prevent the progression of Alzheimer's disease. The target called neutral sphingomyelinase (N-SMase) is a protein that when activated, can cause a chain of reactions in the cell leading to neuronal death and memory loss. Results from the study funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Alzheimer's Association will be published in the September 22 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. "There are multiple, neurotoxic, ...

At a time when new transfer arrangements mean children in Northern Ireland will no longer be formally assessed in science at age 11, researchers at Queen's University have found overwhelming support for science assessment in primary schools in England and Wales. The study, which was conducted by researchers at Queen's School of Education on behalf of the Wellcome Trust, is the first study to look at the attitudes and concerns of children and parents on the way science is assessed in primary schools in England and Wales. It is hoped the findings will be used to inform ...

PORTLAND, Ore - Research conducted at Oregon Health & Science University's Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute may spur debate about the risks associated with administering a specific compound in some forms of bone-marrow transplantation. The research is published in the current edition of Cell Host and Microbe. The VGTI research team, led by institute director Jay Nelson, Ph.D., studies human cytomegalovirus, a virus that may infect up to 80 percent of the American population. The exact percentage of infected citizens is unknown due to the fact that the virus causes minor ...

Washington, DC – In order for targeted therapies against cancer to be effective, scientists need to understand upfront what related proteins in a signaling "network" makes a cancer cell resistant to a drug and selectively target them as well, say researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and Fox Chase Cancer Center. In the September 21 issue of Science Signaling, the investigators discuss how cancer cells activate a network of pro-growth proteins that can bypass a molecule being therapeutically targeted. The researchers specifically found that many ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In the complex world of ant-plant partnerships, serial monogamy can help trees maximize their evolutionary fitness, a new University of Florida study shows. Trees that sequentially partner with multi-species sets of ants produce more offspring than trees that maintain a lifelong association with any single ant — even when those sets include ant species that appear to harm the tree, said Todd Palmer, a UF biology professor. The study has broad implications because many of the world's ecosystems rely on cooperative partnerships between species, Palmer ...

Titan, one of Saturn's moons, is the only moon in the solar system with an atmosphere ― ten times denser than the atmosphere of Earth. Five years ago, the Cassini–Huygens mission to Saturn, a collaboration between the European Space Agency and NASA, sent a probe through Titan's atmosphere, revealing that Titan is home to a landscape that includes hills, valleys and most notably lakes. A researcher involved with the mission, Prof. Akiva Bar-Nun of Tel Aviv University's Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, has now determined the composition of these lakes. ...

Scientists from the California Institute of Technology and UCLA have discovered evidence of "universal ubiquitous magnetic fields" that have permeated deep space between galaxies since the time of the Big Bang. Caltech physicist Shin'ichiro Ando and Alexander Kusenko, a professor of physics and astronomy at UCLA, report the discovery in a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters; the research is currently available online. Ando and Kusenko studied images of the most powerful objects in the universe — supermassive black holes that ...

Grabbing a child firmly by the arm, yelling and repeatedly punishing him or her may not be without long-terms risks, according to researchers from the Université de Montréal. They are studying how this harsh parenting can impair the emotional development of a child, possibly leading to anxiety disorders such as social phobia, separation anxiety and panic attacks. "Several studies have shown that coercive parenting practices are linked to anxiety," says Françoise Maheu a professor at the Université de Montréal's Department of Psychiatry and lead investigator of the study. ...

PHILADELPHIA (September 21, 2010)—Molecularly targeted therapies can reduce tumors rapidly. However, not all tumors respond to the drugs, and even those that do often develop resistance over time. Looking for a way to combat the problem of resistance, researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center hypothesized that hitting already weakened cancer cells with a second targeted agent could kill them—but only if it was the right second agent. One well-validated molecular target for anti-cancer drugs is the epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR. Using a novel screening approach, ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – September 21, 2010 – Researchers from Italy have reported results from more than 10 years of follow-up showing that the placement of multiple endoscopic stents for the treatment of postoperative biliary strictures remains excellent with a low rate of stricture recurrence after this lengthy period of time. When strictures do recur, they can be safely and successfully retreated endoscopically. The study appears in the September issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal ...

Impulsive behaviour can be improved with training and the improvement is marked by specific brain changes, according to a new Queen's University study. A research team led by neuroscience PhD student Scott Hayton has pinpointed the area of the brain that controls impulsive behavior and the mechanisms that affect how impulsive behavior is learned. The findings could have a significant impact on the diagnosis and treatment of several disorders and addictions, including ADHD and alcoholism. "In the classroom, kids often blurt out answers before they raise their hand. ...

Tropical Storm Georgette formed pretty quickly and the GOES-11 satellite captured her clouds extending over extreme southern Baja California and western Mexico today. Georgette formed just south of Cabo San Lucas this morning and is headed for a Baja landfall. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite or GOES-11 is stationary in its position in space, watching over the weather in the western U.S. GOES-11 captured an infrared image of Tropical Storm Georgette's rounded cloud cover stretching north into Baja California, Mexico at 13:15 UTC 9:15 a.m. EDT today, ...

This Atlantic hurricane season has now spawned 14 tropical depressions and 12 of them have strengthened into tropical storms. The latest is now called Tropical Storm Lisa and is in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean. NASA's Aqua satellite flew over Lisa when she was still a low pressure area, but showed a center of circulation and banding of thunderstorms circling it, indicating the storm was getting organized. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured "Lisa" when she was still a low pressure area yesterday, Sept. 20 at ...

Hurricane Igor may be changing into an extra tropical storm and losing his warm core of energy, but he hasn't lost his punch as hurricane watches are up today in eastern Canada. The GOES-13 satellite captured a look at Hurricane Igor this morning, and noticed the storm continues to grow larger and part of that expansion is likely a result of absorbing Julia's remnants. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite or GOES-13 is stationary in its position in space, watching over the weather in the eastern U.S. GOES-13 captured a visible satellite image of Hurricane ...

An inexpensive, hundred-year-old therapy for pain – aspirin – is effective in high doses for the treatment of severe headache and migraine caused by drug withdrawal, according to a new study by researchers with the UCSF Headache Center. Study participants were administered aspirin through an IV and 25 percent of the time they reported a significant reduction in pain – three points on the 10-point pain scale. (A difference of three points downgrades a headache from severe to moderate, moderate to mild, or from mild to pain-free). Participants reported a more modest pain ...