News Articles

People who use cochlear implants for profound hearing loss do respond to certain aspects of music, contrary to common beliefs based on limited scientific research. Writing in Hearing Research, a team says exposure to the beat in music, such as drums, can improve the emotional and social quality-of-life of cochlear implant users and may even help improve their understanding and use of spoken language.
Previous research has shown that cochlear implants, which bypass the outer and inner ears to directly stimulate fibers of the auditory nerve, are deficient in transmitting the pitch and tone quality of music; users report hearing noise when music is played. Consequently, they may receive little training in music or musical movement.

Research on how science works - the science of science - can benefit from studying the digital traces generated during the research process, such as peer-reviewed publications. This type of research is crucial for the future of science and that of scientists, according to Frank Schweitzer, Chair of Systems Design at ETH Zurich, in Switzerland. Indeed, quantitative measures of scientific output and success in science already impact the evaluation of researchers and the funding of proposals. He shares his views in an Editorial spearheading a thematic series of articles entitled "Scientific networks and success in science", published in EPJ Data Science.

A new study of marine organisms that make up the 'biofouling community' - tiny creatures that attach themselves to ships' hulls and rocks in the ocean around the world - shows how they adapt to changing ocean acidification. Reporting in the journal Global Change Biology, the authors examine how these communities may respond to future change.

Almost 2,500 women of child-bearing age in the UK are at risk of transmitting mitochondrial disease to their children, according to the most recent estimates published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The research offers the most recent evidence yet of how many families could potentially be helped by new IVF techniques to prevent mitochondrial disease, which would be permitted by new regulations on which a vote in parliament is imminent.
Mitochondrial diseases are caused by inherited mutations in the DNA contained in mitochondria - tiny structures present in every cell that generate energy. Mitochondrial diseases can be devastating and particularly affect tissues that have high energy demands - brain, muscle (including heart), liver and kidney.

The most comprehensive analysis to date of research on the effect of negative stereotypes on older people's abilities has concluded that these stereotypes create a significant problem for that demographic.
A research team at the University of Kent's School of Psychology carried out a review and meta-analysis of Aged-Based Stereotype Threat (ABST).
They statistically analyzed international evidence from 37 research studies, both published and unpublished. They concluded that older adults' memory and cognitive performance is negatively affected in situations that signal or remind them of negative age stereotypes. These effects affect both men and women.

fter 200 million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, the government and BP cleanup crews mysteriously had trouble locating all of it.
Now, a new study led by Florida State University Professor of Oceanography Jeff Chanton finds that some 6 million to 10 million gallons are buried in the sediment on the Gulf floor, about 62 miles southeast of the Mississippi Delta.
"This is going to affect the Gulf for years to come," Chanton said. "Fish will likely ingest contaminants because worms ingest the sediment, and fish eat the worms. It's a conduit for contamination into the food web."

When donating blood, plasma, human tissue or any other bodily sample for medical research, most people might not think about how it's being used. But if you were told, would you care?
A new Michigan State University study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, indicates that most people are willing to donate just knowing that their contribution is going toward research. But, when specific scenarios are brought into the equation, that willingness changes.

Many co-products from the corn processing industry may be used in diets fed to pigs. Much attention over the last 10 years has been on co-products produced from the biofuels industry, including distillers dried grains and high-protein distillers grains. However, the wet milling industry also produces many different co-products that may be used in pig diets.
Because little information about co-products produced from the wet milling industry has been reported, research from the University of Illinois is helping to determine the nutritional value of four of these co-products so that producers and companies can incorporate these ingredients into swine diets, said Hans H. Stein, a U of I animal science researcher.

It's no surprise that pain shows up in brain scans but a new study finds distinct, consistent patterns of brain activity in response to needles used in vaccinations.
The researchers performed elecroencephalography (EEG) in 15 healthy babies receiving routine vaccinations. A noninvasive and painless procedure, EEG is done to measure electrical activity in the brain, using electrodes placed in specific locations on the scalp.
12 infants were tested during vaccinations at age one to two months, and five at age 12 months.

Bitcoin is the digital world's most popular "virtual currency", with millions in circulation. Fraudulent schemes have scammed at least $11 million in these virtual deposits from customers over the past four years, according to new cyber-security research from Southern Methodist University.
In the first empirical study of its kind, the authors found that four different types of schemes using authentic-looking web-based investment and banking outlets lured customers so deposits could be stolen.
As with real money, Bitcoin people were duped with the promise of "get rich quick" schemes, coupled with the inability to judge the legitimacy of web services to decide which financial sites are good or bad.

Researchers have revealed that genetically modified Camelina plants produce omega-3 fish oils suitable for feeding Atlantic salmon. The new GMO plants can produce up to 20% of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), one of the two omega-3 LC PUFA conferring health benefits. Consumption of omega-3 fish oils, specifically long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3 LC-PUFA), through eating oily fish like salmon and mackerel, has been linked with improved cardiovascular health and cognitive development. The primary dietary sources of these fatty acids are wild or farmed fish.

Researchers have mapped the physical structure of the nuclear landscape to better understand changes in genomic interactions occurring in cell senescence and aging. Their findings have allowed them to reconcile the contradictory observations of two current models of aging: cellular senescence of connective tissue cells called fibroblasts and cellular models of an accelerated aging syndrome.