News Articles

Making a series of relatively minor and realistic changes to UK diets would reduce UK diet-related greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 20 percent and extend average life expectancy by eight months, according to new model. 

When a mirror reflects light, it experiences a slight push but it is negligible in our everyday lives. Our furniture is not moving because due to radiation pressure of light, a 100 Watt light-bulb causes a radiation pressure that is only a trillionth (one part to 1000000000000) of the normal atmospheric pressure.

Producing sperm is necessary to procreate and but procreation only happens the first time in those birth control public awareness films. In most cases, sperm must be produced continuously, and for an extended period of time, to insure reproduction.
A new study reveals that there are differences in reactivity to retinoic acid in spermatogonial stem cells, and these differences are a key factor to the persistence of sperm production with inexhaustible stem cells. 

A new gold standard has been set for openness and reproducibility in research - and it was done by Cambridge computer scientists. At a talk today at the 12th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation in Oakland, they are going to unveil peer-reviewed results with 200 GB of data and 20,000 lines of code.

Understanding extinct species diets requires greater understanding of the relationship between skull biomechanics and animals ancestry than previously thought, according to a new study. 

Consumers can reduce the risk of Campylobacter food poisoning by up to 99.2% by using disinfectant wipes in the kitchen after preparing poultry, according to a new study

Thinking "time is money" can be a barrier for people to act in environmentally friendly ways, even for tasks like recycling that take mere seconds, according to UBC research.
"Putting a price tag on time leaves individuals to focus on their own needs and goals, as opposed to the needs and goals of others, including the environment," says Ashley Whillans, PhD student in UBC's Department of Psychology and lead author of a paper on the subject. The paper featured five studies that employed different methods, ranging from the analysis of a British household survey to true and false quizzes. The research covered more than 7,000 individuals.

Do overweight kids watch more television, or does television cause weight kids? That has long been the contention for people seeking a magic bullet in obesity: If we just reduce television time, kids won't be fat.

Researchers have performed the first human-based study to identify calcium channels in cerebral arteries and determine the distinct role each channel plays in helping control blood flow to the brain. The study appears in the May issue of The Journal of General Physiology.
The contractile activity of smooth muscle cells in the walls of cerebral arteries determines the degree of constriction they experience (known as arterial tone) and thereby controls blood flow. Arterial tone is regulated in large part by the influx of calcium through voltage-gated calcium (CaV) channels, which are found in the membranes of excitable cells throughout the body. However, much of what is known about the identity and function of brain arterial CaV channels comes from experiments in rodents.

Stroke is a frequent and dreaded complication of atrial fibrillation. But predicting which of the estimated six million Americans with a-fib are at highest risk has long challenged physicians weighing stroke risk against the serious side effects posed by lifelong therapy with warfarin and other blood thinners.
Now researchers from Johns Hopkins performing sophisticated motion studies of heart MRI scans have found that specific altered function in the left atrium -- one of the heart's four chambers -- may signal stroke risk in those with a-fib and, possibly, those without it. The imaging technique combines standard MRI scans with a motion-tracking software that analyzes cardiac muscle movement.

Although closely related to the notorious carnivore Tyrannosaurus rex, a new lineage of dinosaur discovered in Chile is proving to be an evolutionary jigsaw puzzle, as it preferred to graze upon plants.
Palaeontologists are referring to Chilesaurus diegosuarezi as a 'platypus' dinosaur because of its extremely bizarre combination of characters that include a proportionally small skull and feet more akin to primitive long-neck dinosaurs.

Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight knows that it's no fun to feel hungry - the drive to tame hunger pangs can sabotage even the best-intentioned dieter.
But how exactly is it that fasting creates these uncomfortable feelings and consuming food takes them away? 
Working to unravel the complex wiring system that underlies this intense physiological state, investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have identified a long-sought component of this complicated neural network.