More men than women develop Parkinson’s disease and new work presented at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies says that it is do to sex differences in how brain cells change. Parkinson’s disease affects about 9 million people and becomes increasingly prevalent with age.
Researchers at the University of Maryland and the U.S.
Agriculture Department recently found that several parasites and the diseases
they vector into honey bee colonies are the source of most of the bee health
problems and supposed ‘die-offs’ observed in recent years
The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) feeds on insects. It attracts a meal with its flower-like reddish color and ripe fruity smell on leaves converted to ambush traps. Seeking nectar, an insect will inevitably touch the highly sensitive sensory hairs on the leaves. This causes the trap to snap shut at lightning speed, imprisoning the prey.
Dionaea must then decide how much energy to invest in the capture and consumption. It estimates the size of the prey by counting how often it touches the sensory hairs. Two touches and Dionaea activates a special hormone. With five or more stimuli, the plant produces enzymes and transport proteins for digesting and absorbing the prey.
A chemical byproduct, or metabolite, created as the body breaks down ketamine likely holds the secret to its rapid antidepressant action, National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists and grantees have discovered. This metabolite singularly reversed depression-like behaviors in mice without triggering any of the anesthetic, dissociative, or addictive side effects associated with ketamine.
Bioethicists from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and The Hastings Center, working with a research administrator at The Rockefeller University, are proposing a reexamination of an internationally recognized rule limiting in vitro research on human embryos to 14 days post-fertilization. Under the rule, such research is permitted before the cut-off date at 14 days and prohibited thereafter.
Crossref will enable registration for preprints by August 2016. Crossref's original registration policy prevented its members from registering content and assigning Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to "duplicative works." The new policy means that preprints will have separate DOIs from any later versions that may be registered, according to an announcement from the organization.
Preprint is a term that has several meanings, but in the proposal adopted by Crossref's Board of Directors it will be defined for Crossref purposes as "original content which is intended for formal publication, including content that has been submitted, but has not yet been accepted for publication."
The health benefits of walking and cycling outweigh the negative effects on health of air pollution, even in cities with high levels of air pollution, according to a study led by researchers from the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) and Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge. This new evidence strengthens the case for supporting cycling even in polluted cities -- an effort that in turn can help reduce vehicle emissions.
The NHS is far safer inside the European Union, argues Professor Martin McKee at the London School of Hygiene&Tropical Medicine in The BMJ today. He says the EU's international trade agreements now protect public services and that any threat to the NHS instead "comes from our own politicians and not from the EU."
Professor McKee was one of many academics concerned about free trade, specifically the much-politicized Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the United States, because socialized public services like the NHS could be opened up to competition under TTIP.
Brooklyn, NY - A study led by SUNY Downstate Medical Center's School of Public Health presents evidence linking personal care products used during pregnancy to adverse reproductive effects in newborns.
"The study found a link between women with higher levels of butyl paraben, which is commonly used as a preservative in cosmetics, and the following birth outcomes: shorter gestational age at birth, decreased birth weight, and increased odds of preterm birth," says Laura Geer, PhD, MHS, associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at SUNY Downstate.
Aedes mosquitoes carrying the bacterium Wolbachia--found inside the cells of 60 percent of all insect species--are drastically less able to transmit Zika virus, say researchers at Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) in a study published May 4 in Cell Host & Microbe.
ITHACA, N.Y. - The survival of the fittest might just be the survival of the steadfast instead. Having a positive attitude could be evolutionarily advantageous, according to Cornell researchers who simulated generations of evolution in a computational model.
The findings offer scientific support to the ancient philosophical insights from China, Greece and India, which encourage cultivating long-term contentment or life satisfaction rather than grasping at the fleeting joy of instant gratification, the researchers said.
"In an evolutionary sense, you have to evaluate your life on the basis of more than what happened just now," said Shimon Edelman, professor of psychology and a co-author of the study. advantageous in a computational model that simulates evolution.
MAYWOOD, IL - Loyola University Chicago researchers are among the co-authors of a groundbreaking study that found humans have a higher metabolism rate than closely related primates, which enabled humans to evolve larger brains.
The study, published in the journal Nature, found that humans also have a higher percentage of body fat, providing the energy reserves to fuel their faster metabolism. The findings may point toward strategies for combating obesity, researchers said.
The study found that, adjusted for body size, on a daily basis humans consume 400 more calories than chimpanzees and bonobos (closely related to chimps), 635 more calories than gorillas and 820 more calories than orangutans.
A star like the Sun has an internal driving in the form of a magnetic field that can be seen on the surface as sunspots. Now astrophysicists from the Niels Bohr Institute have observed a distant star in the constellation Andromeda with a different positioning of sunspots and this indicates a magnetic field that is driven by completely different internal dynamics. The results are published in the scientific journal, Nature.
