News Articles

Rats move their eyes in opposite directions in both the horizontal and the vertical plane when running around. Each eye moves in a different direction, depending on the change in the animal’s head position,  according to a behavioral tracking study that used miniaturized high-speed cameras.
Like many mammals, rats have their eyes on the sides of their heads. This gives them a very wide visual field, useful for detection of predators. However, three-dimensional vision requires overlap of the visual fields of the two eyes. Thus, the visual system of these animals needs to meet two conflicting demands at the same time; on the one hand maximum surveillance and on the other hand detailed binocular vision.

Modern human mothers wean their babies earlier than our closest primate relatives - well, not all human mothers. As a TIME magazine cover made famous, some mothers never stop. 
But what about our extinct relatives, the Neanderthals? Teeth tell the tale. 

Archaeologists think they have some responses for the hypothesis that our early forebears were forced out of the trees and onto two feet when climate change reduced tree cover.
Our earliest ancestors changed from tree dwelling quadrupeds to upright bipeds capable of walking and scrambling and the authors in Antiquity ('Complex Topography and Human Evolution: the Missing Link') say our upright gait may have its origins in the rugged landscape of East and South Africa, which was shaped during the Pliocene epoch by volcanoes and shifting tectonic plates.

As men get older they are more likely to suffer from andropausal syndrome (AS), also known as 'menopause' and by other complicated terms 'androgen deficiency in the aging male' or' late-onset hypogonadism'.
Men with andropausal syndrome have decreased levels of anabolic hormones, including testosterone, and it has been suggested that these hormone deficiencies are what cause the clinical symptoms.

Saturn's moon Titan might be in for some wild weather as it heads into its spring and summer, if two new models are correct. Scientists think that as the seasons change in Titan's northern hemisphere, waves could ripple across the moon's hydrocarbon seas, and hurricanes could begin to swirl over these areas, too. The model predicting waves tries to explain data from the moon obtained so far by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Both models help mission team members plan when and where to look for unusual atmospheric disturbances as Titan summer approaches.

Ernie Pyle, the iconic embedded World War II embedded journalist killed by Japanese machine gun fire in 1945, made famous the adage, "There are no atheists in foxholes." 
He was making a point that it's better to be safe than sorry when your life is on the line - not letting the Devil get you cornered, he wrote, was the justification for a soldier who dug round foxholes. Atheists are a tiny minority anyway and there are even fewer in a war zone, Pyle felt. And he knew more soldiers than perhaps any journalist ever will.

A 12-year study (1999 to 2010) analyzed fatality reductions in bicycle-car collisions to determine the effect of mandatory helmet laws. 16 states had bike helmet laws in the beginning or the study. The researchers identified all relevant fatalities, totaling 1612, in states with and without bike helmet laws.
  
Relevance was determined by adjusting for factors previously associated with rates of motor vehicle fatalities (elderly driver licensure laws, legal blood alcohol limit and household income) and, among those, they found that the adjusted fatality rate was significantly lower in states with helmet laws. On average, 900 people die annually in bicycle-motor vehicle collisions — three quarters of those are from head injuries. 

Is the obesity epidemic due to the addictive qualities in food or that a lot more food is cheap and plentiful than ever before in history?
A paper presented at the 2013 Canadian Neuroscience Meeting, the annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience - Association Canadienne des Neurosciences (CAN-ACN), says the problem is addiction rather than food wealth - the authors claim that high-fructose corn syrup can cause behavioral reactions in rats similar to those produced by drugs of abuse such as cocaine.  It's the "Food Addiction" hypothesis that has recently become popular, which posits that we could be addicted to food just like drugs.  

Sourcing of ancient artifacts has gotten a new advance.

While at the University of Sheffield in the years 1965–1972, Professor Lord Colin Renfrew developed a technique that matched stone tools made of obsidian, naturally occurring glass, to their volcanic origins based on their chemical fingerprints. It was considered one of the greatest successes in scientific archeology, matching artifacts to specific volcanoes was a significant leap forward in understanding trade, contact, and cultural change in the ancient world.

It is often believed that mega-events like the Olympics are good for a city or country. Many of the benefits are implied but they still get a monetary value attached when selling it to the public; 'leadership','world-stage', etc. The hangover that occurs economically afterward often leaves host countries wondering who did the math.
But if you are a small charity relying on corporate donations, it may be a good idea to get behind all of those taxpayers underwriting big occasions. Even smaller events like political conventions, and certainly the Super Bowl, deliver a morale-boost in the form of hometown pride and that translates into corporate largess, says a new paper that refutes beliefs that corporate philanthropy remains stable even during high-profile activities.

Nearly 10,000 participants are in Istanbul at  the congress of the ERA-EDTA (European Renal Association - European Dialysis and Transplant Association) to share their knowledge and discuss the latest research findings. New pioneering studies have been presented: 
- Gupta, A et al. "SOLUBLE FERRIC PYROPHOSPHATE (SFP) ADMINISTERED VIA HEMODIALYSATE REDUCES ESA USE" 
By SFP-iron administration, the ESA dose could be reduced by 35% while maintaining stable Hb levels. There were no SFP-related adverse effects and no cases of iron overload.
 - Van Eps, C. "THE EFFECTS OF TOPICAL ANTIBACTERIAL HONEY ON CATHETER-RELATED INFECTIONS IN PERITONEAL DIALYSISPATIENTS " 

Extended use of the common antibiotic azithromycin may prolong the time between hospitalizations for patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a post-hoc analysis of a multicenter study which compared the hospitalization rates of patients treated with a 12-month course of azithromycin to the rates of those treated with placebo.