News Articles

Haemoglobin S (HbS) is known to cause sickle cell disease and it is usually fatal if untreated so shouldn't natural selection have eliminated it?    Instead, the sickle cell gene is common in people of African, Mediterranean and Indian origin, areas with historically high levels of malaria.    A new study says such geographical adds to the hypothesis that the gene, though deadly, avoids disappearing through natural selection by providing protection against malaria.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in both men and women in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute.   But since cancer is a mutation, risk factors for it can never be eliminated.   However, risk factors can be made less risky so a group of researchers built on previous research that found black raspberries have antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-neurodegenerative and anti-inflammatory properties to see if they might also help to prevent colon cancer.Their study found that black raspberries were highly effective in preventing colorectal tumors in two mouse models of the disease.

There are three key factors associated with what gerontologists call "successful aging" - avoiding disease, maintaining physical and cognitive function, and continuing social engagement in late life.  But why do some groups clearly have those factors more than others?

The number of times the common cold has been cured, or prevented, is far too long a list for this site - though recently those claims have been overtaken by the kookier segments of homeopathy.But researchers at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge say they are onto something.   

Astronomers say they have found evidence of an intense warming period in the Universe’s early history, which they describe as a form of 'cosmic climate change'.The findings were made by researchers measuring the temperature of gas that lies in between galaxies and they say they found a clear indication that the temperature of this 'intergalactic medium' had increased steadily between the period when the Universe was one tenth of its current age and the point at which it reached one quarter of its current age.They speculate that the effect was caused by quasars; giant accreting black holes at the heart of galaxies which emit ultraviolet light and triggered a series of reactions in the gas clouds that caused the temperature to rise.

Surgery of any kind is a drastic step, especially for preventable conditions such as obesity, but a new study on gastric bypass surgery in obese rats also showed a decreased preference for sweet-tasting substances, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers. 

Some males give back too - even when it comes to sex.Male worms plug females after copulation as a form of 'gift', a nice gesture, rather than to prevent them from mating again, as most had previously been thought, according to researchers writing in Frontiers in Zoology who found that plugged females mated just as often and were just as attractive as those who were unplugged, and that plugging ultimately improved female fitness.Mating plugs have been documented for a broad range of animal groups, including insects, arachnids, reptiles, and rodents. In the worms studied, plugs consist of gelatinous mass deposited by the male onto the female's vulva at the end of copulation, which then hardens like glue.

Children who participate in oral sex in the 9th grade will be having intercourse by the 11th, according to results of a new survey conducted by researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Merced.   Solution: Sex education should include oral sex, they conclude.With results likely to shore up opposition to having sex education in schools at all, the study debunks the notion that oral sex acts as a protective measure delaying the onset of further sexual activity.   Study results are published online by the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine and will appear in the March 2011 print issue of the journal.

In what will be a puzzle for the segments of society that claim everything is about race and racism, a new study by Harvard and UCLA sociologists shows, that at least among the current generation in college, race is a non-issue in Facebook friendships.Of course, some Facebook friendships result from the social pressures of being in a polite society - if someone requests to be an online friend, they are likely to get it and the results showed the tendency to reciprocate a friendly overture is seven times stronger than any perceived attraction of a shared racial background.

Black Hat Abu Dhabi, running from the November 8th - 11th at Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, will discuss some of the major security concerns faced by the IT world - and even demonstrate them live. 

1950s horror movies were primarily irradiated monsters but they also contained a bit of a cultural slam - the heroes were often scientists but they were battling other scientists who were often not even evil, just in love with their data.    Science was the problem because it did not concern itself with ethics, was the mentality - it was even more confusing than that good Jedi versus bad Jedi stuff (really, since the 'Dark Side' had more power and was much easier and mostly meant taking orders from some old guy and not much actual evil, why wouldn't anyone choose the so-called Dark Side?) but it lent itself to philosophical discussions.

Dracula orchids tempt flies by masquerading as mushrooms. Goblin spiders lurk unseen in the world's leaf litter. The natural world is often just as haunting as the macabre costumes worn on city streets, as highlighted by two studies published this year by curators in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, David Grimaldi and Norman Platnick.