Scientists have identified a small RNA molecule named miR-182 that can suppress cancer-causing genes in mice with glioblastoma mulitforme (GBM), a deadly and incurable type of brain tumor. 
There are 16,000 new cases of the deadly brain tumor reported in the U.S. every year. Patients have a very poor prognosis, with median survival of just 14 to 16 months.

Standard chemotherapy drugs stop cancer cells from reproducing by damaging DNA but the new method instead stops the source that creates those cancer cells: genes that are overexpressing certain proteins.

Carbon capture could play a central role in keeping greenhouse gas emissions out of the atmosphere so many materials are being tested for the purpose of capturing CO₂. 
New results show that ordinary clay can work just as effectively as more advanced materials. Clay offers many benefits compared to other materials, particularly because other potential materials can be expensive, difficult to produce, toxic and not particularly environmentally friendly. A possible practical future use of this discovery could be to include clays in CO₂ filters for industrial-scale CO₂ emissions reduction.

Thermochromic nano-coatings can help reduce energy usage and generate savings by absorbing heat or permitting its reflection, depending on temperature.
 
The reasn is because minute dimensions can still have major effects - nanoparticles have an especially large surface-area-to-volume ratio, making them them extremely efficient and reactive. Researchers of the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT in Pfinztal near Karlsruhe are utilizing this characteristic to create novel coatings and incorporating active nano-materials into polymer systems. These coatings can be applied easily like paint or varnish.

In the developed world, we are aging rapidly. People age 85 and older make up the fastest growing age group in the United States and in other countries that trend will also increase.

Aging and aging well are not always the same thing, though, and issues like Alzheimer's are a concern. A new study of 256 people with an average age of 87 who were free of memory and thinking problems at the start of the study concluded that who participate in arts and craft activities and who socialize may delay the development in very old age of the thinking and memory problems that often lead to dementia.

Children who play a game together have a stronger connection than kids who play the same game but not in a synchronous way, according to a new paper. 

The authors assert that a physical activity performed in unison helps children feel more positively toward each other and could perhaps increase their empathy. 

"Synchrony is like a glue that brings people together -- it's a magical connector for people," said lead author Tal-Chen Rabinowitch, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Learning&Brain Sciences at the University of Washington.

An analysis of 22 years of data on hawksbill turtles in the Arnavons, located in the Solomon Islands, shows signs of recovery after 150 years of excessive hunting by natives.

The data included both beach counts and turtle tagging data and show a 200% increase from record lows in the 1990s, when the turtles had been hunted to the brink of extinction. Many of the hawksbill turtles that nest at the Arnavon Community Marine Conservation Area forage in distant Australian waters, and nesting on the Arnavons occurs throughout the year, with peak nesting activity coinciding with the austral winter. 


Credit: The Nature Conservancy