Intermittent fasting, and fasting in general, has been a popular fad health gimmick, but the science isn't on its side. Instead, proponents believe mice are little people so if mice weaned on starvation diets lived longer, people would also.
The fungal pathogen Batrachochrytrium dendrobatridis (Bd), which has been known to cause the disease chytridiomycosis and decimate frog populations for close to half a century, is causing frogs to evolve around it, according to a new study which took a step toward identifying the genetic mechanisms that makes some frogs resistant to Bd infections in their study of lowland leopard frogs in Arizona.
The most comprehensive analysis to date of a series of earthquakes that included a 4.8 magnitude event in East Texas in 2012 didn't find evidence that the earthquakes were caused by wastewater injection - and they the difficulty of trying to claim earthquakes were caused by human activity, at least using currently available subsurface data.
DURHAM, N.C. -- The bearcat. The binturong. Whatever you call this shy, shaggy-haired creature from Southeast Asia, many people who have met one notice the same thing: it smells like a movie theater snack bar.
Most describe it as hot buttered popcorn. And for good reason -- the chemical compound that gives freshly made popcorn its mouthwatering smell is also the major aroma emitted by binturong pee, finds a new study.
Most people have never heard of a binturong, let alone caught a whiff of one up close. But for many zookeepers, the smell wafting from the binturong enclosure is so striking that they name their resident binturongs after the popular snack.
The unique features and blending characters of a new roundworm species, discovered in India, make the nematode a distinct yet intermediary or connecting link between two supposedly distant genera. The new worm is a hermaphrodite that primarily feeds on bacteria. The study, conducted by a research team from the Aligarh Muslim University, India, led by Dr Qudsia Tahseen, is published in the open access Biodiversity Data Journal.
April 13, 2016, NEW YORK, NY - Researchers led by Ludwig Cancer Research scientist Richard Kolodner have developed a new technique for sussing out the genes responsible for helping repair DNA damage that, if left unchecked, can lead to certain cancers.
Genome instability suppressing (GIS) genes play an important role in correcting DNA damage involving the improper copying or reshuffling of large sections of chromosomes. Called gross chromosomal rearrangements, or GCRs, these structural errors can disrupt gene order or even result in an abnormal number of chromosomes.
The western United States relies on mountain snow for its water supply. Water stored as snow in the mountains during winter replenishes groundwater and drives river runoff in spring, filling reservoirs for use later in summer. But how could a warming globe and a changing climate interrupt this process?
In a new study in Environmental Research Letters, a team of hydrologists that includes University of Utah professor Paul Brooks answers that question by simulating isolated climate change effects on Rocky Mountain stream systems, varying the type of precipitation (rain vs. snow) and the amount of energy (temperature) in the system. The answer, they found, depends less on how water enters the stream watershed, and more on how it leaves.
A research team confirms that 97 percent of climate scientists agree that climate change is caused by humans. The group includes Sarah Green, a chemistry professor at Michigan Technological University.
"What's important is that this is not just one study--it's the consensus of multiple studies," Green says. This consistency across studies contrasts with the language used by climate change doubters. This perspective stems from, as the authors write, "conflating the opinions of non-experts with experts and assuming that lack of affirmation equals dissent."
April 13, 2016, Barcelona, Spain: Adding coffee to the diet of people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) could help reverse the condition, according to a new study conducted in mice presented at The International Liver CongressTM 2016 in Barcelona, Spain.
The study found that a daily dose of coffee (equivalent to six cups of espresso coffee for a 70kg person) improved several key markers of NAFLD in mice that were fed a high fat diet. These mice also gained less weight than others fed the same diet without the dose of caffeine.
A recent survey revealed that people who claimed to eat more fast food also had possible exposure of higher levels of phthalates.
Is that bad? In 2016, when all chemicals are scary, it certainly is, and environmental groups have raised a fortune claiming such chemicals "leach" out of containers and into food. The television show "60 Minutes", which has long promoted health scares, did a story on them and ever since groups like Natural Resources Defense Council (which manufactured one prominent scare, alar on apples, with the left-wing public relations company Fenton Communications) have claimed all kinds of effects using rat studies.
Older adults, who are Facebook's fastest growing demographic, are joining the social network to stay connected and make new connections, just like college kids who joined the site decades ago, according to Penn State researchers.
"Earlier studies suggest a positive relationship between bonding and bridging social capital and Facebook use among college students," said Eun Hwa Jung, a doctoral candidate in mass communications. "Our study extends this finding to senior citizens."
In the study, the desire to stay connected to family and keep in touch with old friends -- social bonding -- was the best predictor of Facebook adoption and use, followed closely by the desire to find and communicate with like-minded people -- social bridging.
A signaling molecule called interferon gamma could hold the key to understanding how harmful autoantibodies form in lupus patients. The finding could lead to new treatments for the chronic autoimmune disease, said researchers at Penn State College of Medicine.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the most common form of lupus. In patients with SLE, the immune system forms autoantibodies that attack the body's own cells, causing inflammation and tissue damage. How these rogue antibodies form is an important area of interest for lupus researchers.
A research team has unearthed more evidence that casts doubt on the traditional "heart healthy" practice of replacing butter and other saturated fats with corn oil and other vegetable oils high in linoleic acid - in unpublished raw data whose co-principal investigator was Dr. Ancel Keys, the lead warrior in the fight to get saturated fat a warning label and who brought the Mediterranean Diet into the nutritional lexicon.
