News Articles

Physical activity, and that means enough to generate some sweat and breathe hard, is key to avoiding an early death, according to an analysis of 204,542 people followed for more than six years.

A new nanotechnology lubricant will be suitable for extreme conditions.Shuttles and equipment used in space consist of numerous elements that have several friction-prone components so the surfaces must be greased to ensure smooth operation. Conventional oils and greases cannot be used in space due to extreme temperature, pressure and radiation conditions so solid substances such as molybdenum disulfide and graphite are preferred for space usage.PhD student Triinu Taaber working in the laboratory of physics of nanostructures. Credit: Andres Tennus

Psychology papers often make make sweeping generalizations based on weak observational studies and that has led to an alarming overuse of the term 'narcissist'. Some people are self-centered, to be sure, but colloquial over-diagnosis of narcissism has led to poor distinction between actual narcissism and people who like to talk about themselves. All cows are animals but not all animals are cows, etc. but ever since a small paper came out of U.C. Berkeley in 1988, the psychology field has been over-using the diagnosis. An examination of 48 participants found that excessive use of first-person singular pronouns such as "I" and "me" indicated a narcissistic tendency.

The suicide rate among active duty U.S. military members has increased in the last decade and one party of politicians has contended that their opponents were pushing soldiers to suicide. 
Is there any truth to it?
Deployment dates for all services members (October 2001 through December 2007) and suicide data (October 2001 through December 2009) to estimate rates of suicide death to compare deployed service members with those who did not deploy, including suicides that occurred after separation from the military.

Scientists have achieved an unprecedented level of control over defects in liquid crystals that can be engineered for applications in liquid matter photonics. They can lasso an intangible ring created out of liquid crystal defects - attaching a microsphere to a long thin fiber using optical tweezers. 
Liquid crystals are familiar to us from their application in LCD screens. What makes them so interesting is that they are rich in defects. Thanks to advances in manipulation tools such as optical tweezers, the authors were able to create an arbitrary number of defect pairs on a long thin fibre plunged into a nematic liquid crystal - an ordered fluid with long organic molecules all pointing in the same direction like sardines in a tin.

Crocus and daffodil blossoms mean spring has arrived on land and a similar "greening" event, a massive phytoplankton bloom, unfolds each spring in the Atlantic Ocean.
But, what happens to all that organic material produced in the surface ocean? 

Patients with chronic kidney disease may be treated with a class of medications called Renin Angiotensin Aldosterone System inhibitors (RAASI's) but though they protect the heart and kidney, a significant percentage of patients develop a dangerous side effect; high potassium levels in the blood, a condition known as hyperkalemia. 
Elevated potassium puts patients at risk of death from cardiac arrhythmias. Lacking a drug to treat the problem, doctors either stop these beneficial drugs or may use kidney dialysis to quickly lower the potassium.

A short burst of intensive exercise before eating a high-fat meal is better for blood vessel function than the currently recommended moderate-intensity exercise, at least in young people.
Cardiovascular diseases including heart attacks and stroke are a leading cause of death and the process underlying these diseases start in youth. An impairment in the function of blood vessels is thought to be the earliest event in this process, and this is known to occur in the hours after consuming a high fat meal. 

With each new amyloid-targeting treatment for Alzheimer's disease that has been developed, there has been a corresponding concern about antibodies targeting amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) producing inflammation in the brain in some patients.
Gamma secretase inhibitors tend to produce adverse effects by interacting with Notch, an important pathway for cellular signaling. 

A new study has examined why beavers don't get tooth decay even though they don't brush their teeth or drink fluoridated water.

Thousands of years ago, Aristotle knew that some mushrooms glowed, so it is no surprise the great thinker wondered why.Science may finally have an answer for his question. A new study posits that the light emitted from those fungi attracts the attention of insects, including beetles, flies, wasps, and ants. Those insect visitors are apparently good for the fungi because they spread the fungal spores around. The new study also shows that the mushrooms' bioluminescence is under the control of the circadian clock. In fact, it was that discovery that led the researchers to suspect that the mushrooms' light must serve some useful purpose.

A  recent paper discusses shows how rapidly formed first impressions that influence our subsequent behavior towards that person can be accurately predicted based on the physical features found in everyday images of faces, such as those found on social media. The impressions we create through such images are important in a world where we increasingly get to know one another online rather than in the flesh.