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.
Scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered a mechanism that may explain how the brain can recall nearly all of what happened on a recent afternoon -- or make a thorough plan for how to spend an upcoming afternoon -- in a fraction of the time it takes to live out the experience. The breakthrough in understanding a previously unknown function in the brain has implications for research into schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders, Alzheimer's disease and other disorders where real experiences and ones that exist only in the mind can become distorted.
Have you ever been to the supermarket and chosen foods based on nutrition labels? Have you ever assumed a fat-laden, high-calorie coffee drink must be healthier because a barista claims the milk does not contain something science-sounding like rBST?
Labels were once used to inform. The government mandated accuracy beginning in 1938 to make sure people were getting what they thought they were buying. A decade ago a food maker was penalized for selling cheese that was fake cheese but today a vegan company wants to sell mayonnaise that isn't mayonnaise, and various food activists want mandatory labels on products they compete against.
Fragile bones are usually an old person's affliction, but sometimes children are born with them. Now, a team of researchers led by UConn professor Ernesto Canalis has shown in mice that a specific gene can cause the disease, called Hajdu-Cheney syndrome. Overabundant bone-absorbing cells may be causing the disorder's characteristic bone loss, and the researchers hope to find a potential treatment.
Cincinnati, OH, January 14, 2016 -- In 2011, almost 13% of high school students had been victimized with weapons. Weapon-related violence among adolescents can lead to injuries and long-term mental health problems. In a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers found that the risk and protective factors for carrying and using weapons vary by race and gender.
Fragile bones are usually an old person's affliction, but sometimes children are born with them. Now, a team of researchers led by UConn professor Ernesto Canalis has shown in mice that a specific gene can cause the disease, called Hajdu-Cheney syndrome. Overabundant bone-absorbing cells may be causing the disorder's characteristic bone loss, and the researchers hope to find a potential treatment.
PHILADELPHIA (January 14, 2016) - A new study from the Monell Center, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and collaborating institutions reports a uniquely identifiable odor signature from mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. The odor signature appears in urine before significant development of Alzheimer-related brain pathology, suggesting that it may be possible to develop a non-invasive tool for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.
A study was published last week on the DNA of Helicobacter pylori, the pathogen extracted from the stomach of Ötzi, the ice mummy who has provided valuable information on the life of Homo Sapiens. New research at the European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen (EURAC) further clarifies the genetic history of man who lived in the Eastern Alps over 5,300 years ago. In 2012 a complete analysis of the Y chromosome (transmitted from fathers to their sons) showed that Ötzi's paternal genetic line is still present in modern-day populations. In contrast, studies of mitochondrial DNA (transmitted solely via the mother to her offspring) left many questions still open.
Could alcohol abstinence campaigns like Dry January may do more harm than good?
The Dry January campaign estimates that last year over 2 million people cut down their drinking for January, but popular doesn't necessarily mean effective, and the claims lack rigorous evaluation. Like 'don't buy gas on Tuesday', it isn't really changing anything if people engage in the same behavior a little later.
While lithium-ion batteries have transformed our everyday lives, researchers are currently trying to find new chemistries that could offer even better energy possibilities. One of these chemistries, lithium-air, could promise greater energy density but has certain drawbacks as well.
Now, thanks to research at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, one of those drawbacks may have been overcome.
All previous work on lithium-air batteries showed the same phenomenon: the formation of lithium peroxide (Li2O2), a solid precipitate that clogged the pores of the electrode.
Farm to fork, locally grown and all of the other progressive terms for agriculture self-identification leave out one important fact: People would starve.
Seattle, for example could feed 4 percent of its population with P-Patches and backyard gardens teeming with kale. Organic agriculture for the masses is a popular myth but urban agriculture is a plain old pipe dream.
And 4 percent may be the high number, it could be more like 1 percent, according to a new University of Washington study - that's even if all viable backyard and public green spaces were converted to growing produce.
Large ornamental structures in dinosaurs, such as horns and head crests are likely to have been used in sexual displays and to assert social dominance, according to a new analysis of Protoceratops carried out by scientists at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).
This is the first time scientists have linked the function of anatomy to sexual selection in dinosaurs.
In the 1990s, and more recently during the Obama administration, there has been a wave of protectionism about United States technology and science jobs, with calls to cut visas for foreign-born workers.
It's a modern demonization of Asiatics, minus the buck teeth caricatures. In reality, it is forbidden by law to pay substantially less to someone because they are not a citizen, so foreign scientists and engineers were not undercutting Americans. In the Clinton era, this protectionism directly led to the exportation of jobs overseas - but student visas never slowed down, so we trained foreign students in the best schools in the world and then forced them to go back home to compete with America instead of becoming Americans.
