News Articles

PG-13 films have lots of “happy violence,” say UCLA researchers. Borrowing from the late communications theorist George Gerbner, happy violence is that which is “cool, swift, and painless.” PG-13 films don’t consider the consequences of violent acts, such as injury, death, and the shattered lives of the people involved.
Any why this matters, says Theresa Webb, a researcher in the department of epidemiology and the Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center at UCLA's School of Public Health, is simple: youth violence is a commonplace occurrence in American society. Homicide is the second leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds overall.

By uncovering how one breast cancer drug protects the heart and another does not, Duke University Medical Center researchers believe they may have opened up a new way to screen drugs for possible heart-related side effects and to develop new drugs.
The Duke researches compared the actions of two breast cancer drugs in experiments involving human cells and rats. The drugs in question were the older drug trastuzumab, whose trade name is Herceptin, and the newer drug lapatinib, whose trade name is Tykerb.

Breast cancer survivors who eat a healthy diet and exercise moderately can reduce their risk of dying from breast cancer by half, regardless of their weight, suggests a new longitudinal study from the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
Previous studies have looked at the impact of diet or physical activity on breast cancer survival, with mixed results. This study is the first to look at a combination of both in breast cancer.

It's long been thought that humans hunted woolly mammoths to extinction. Anthropogenic global hunting, as it were. Or that a cataclysmic event did the trick.
It may be neither of those and just simple genetics.
DNA lifted from the bones, teeth, and tusks of the extinct mammoths revealed a “genetic signature” of a range expansion after the last interglacial period. After the mammoths’ migration, the population apparently leveled off, and one of two lineages died out.

They don't think these guys did it any more

A year-long clinical trial by Penn State researchers shows that diets focusing on foods that are low in calorie density - high in water and low in fat, like fruits, vegetables, soup, lean meat, and low-fat dairy products - can promote healthy weight loss while helping people to control hunger.

Genetically modified (GM) crops may contribute to increased productivity in sustainable agriculture, according to a new study which analyzes, for the first time, environmental impact data from field experiments all over the world, involving corn and cotton plants with a Bt gene inserted for its insecticidal properties.
The research was conducted by scientists at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, The Nature Conservancy, and Santa Clara University. The study is accompanied by a searchable global database for agricultural and environmental scientists studying the effects of genetically engineered crops.

It seems chimps can have a common culture yet also their own local traditions. Does this mean chimpanzees in Asia would learn to use chopsticks?
Yes, says a study released today, if they saw other groups doing it.
The study confirms captive chimpanzees have the capacity to sustain the same kind of multiple-tradition cultures many researchers believe exist in the wild, providing further evidence chimpanzees and humans shared a common ancestor five to six million years ago who had a similar level of cultural complexity.

MIT researchers were recently able to light a 60W light bulb from a power source seven feet away; there was no physical connection between the source and the appliance.
The MIT team refers to its concept as “WiTricity” (as in wireless electricity). Various methods of transmitting power wirelessly have been known for centuries and perhaps the best known example is radio waves. While such that sort of electromagnetic radiation is excellent for wireless transmission of information, it is not feasible to use it for power transmission.

Wireless power transfer over two-meter distance, from the coil on the left to the coil on the right, where it powers a 60W light bulb.

Think you know how to solve global warming? You'll soon get a chance to find out.
A new Web-enhanced version of the most commonly used climate modeling system will allow scientists, students or anyone else to test their theories about the planet's climate. The Community Climate System Model is already used by thousands of scientists, and the results from their models often make headlines around the world.

The Japanese are a polite people. If your host on a trip is Japanese they often make you feel like you are the most important person in the world. Low self esteem? Awe of your culture?
No, they have very high self-esteem and probably feel superior, a study says. Being nice to you may be just another way to prove it.
Surveying 500 students from three countries, the study used a test (Implicit Association Test (IAT)) created by University of Washington psychologist Anthony Greenwald and found that self-esteem was very positive among students from each of the nations. The consistency of the results across cultures was so clearly apparent that the researchers conclude that high self-esteem may be universal.

The relative amount of protein, carbohydrate, and fat that people choose to eat may be influenced by genetics, according to new research.
Jose Ordovas, PhD, director of the Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (USDA HNRCA), and colleagues found that the apolipoprotein A-II gene (APOA2) is associated with proportions of fat, carbohydrate, and protein in the diet, along with total calories and, therefore, with body-mass-index (BMI). These results are the first to show that the APOA2 gene is linked to food preferences that shape dietary patterns, particularly preferences for dietary fat.

Extracts of the hemp plant cannabis are traditionally used as a popular remedy against inflammation. At the beginning of the last century this natural remedy was even available at every chemist’s. But due to the intoxicating effect of the component THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) the plant was taken off the chemist’s shelves in the 1930s.
Scientists from the University of Bonn have discovered in experiments with mice that Endocannabinoids play an important role in regulating inflammation processes.