News Articles

A new study has discovered that microRNAs (miRNAs), small RNA molecules that play important roles in regulation in many types of tissue, play a major role in the distribution and determination of fat cells and whole body metabolism. The study also finds that microRNAs influence the development of lipodystrophy (abnormal fat accumulation) which affects many people with HIV receiving anti-retroviral therapy. 

How do you shape your hopes, ambitions and expectations when growing up in an environment devastated by HIV/AIDS? For her doctoral thesis, epidemiologist Ellen Blommaert looked for answers in Winam, a rural area of western Kenya where HIV/AIDS wreaked havoc among the population but where sexuality is very important.   She found that young people between 16 and 25 do modify their approach to sexual risks - but not in ways the western world understands. Sexuality plays an important role in their quest for a better future but because of the instability of social networks due to HIV and other factors, some of the youngsters increase their sexual networks, including, sometimes, sexual liaisons with multiple, concurrent partners. 

Orgasms aren’t just good for your sexual relationship, they may also promote good communication, according to a paper in Communication Monographs. In the aftermath of having experienced an orgasm, people are more likely to share important information with their partners. And, that communication is likely to be positive.

Today, scientists from the University of Leicester are driving the streets in electric vehicles (EV’s) fitted with specialized air monitoring sensors, with the intention of measuring the extent of air pollution in city environments. Where do electric vehicles get their electricity? From fossil-fuels that create pollution, using resources less efficiently than gasoline-powered engines.  Like with the head of the American EPA flying all over the country during Earth Week, the irony is not lost on the group, who instead weighed the issues and unsurprisingly decided what they wanted to do was going to bring more benefit than harm.

The gay marriage movement may seem like a modern development but it had its roots in World War II culture. By having homosexual characters in comedies, the concept was less threatening and still passed the censorship of film boards.
An article in the journal Zer by 
Carlos III University of Madrid professor in journalism Alejandro Melero studied the presence and visibility of the gay world in Spanish cinema between 1940 and 1975 - the era of fascist dictator Ferdinand Franco. It shows that there were genres that homosexuality appeared in more frequently. One such genre is comedy, in which it was common to portray gays as funny characters.

In cosmology, cold dark matter is believed to be a form of matter which moves slowly in comparison with light and interacts weakly with electromagnetic radiation. It is estimated that only a minute fraction of the matter in the Universe is baryonic matter, which forms stars, planets and living organisms. The rest, comprising over 80%, is dark matter and energy.

Unwed parents are becoming more common - some estimates are that more children will be born out of wedlock than in it by 2016. Unwed parents may eventually get married, though perhaps not to the person they first had children with.

Researchers have identified a biomarker that predicts whether glioblastoma – the most common form of primary brain cancer – will respond to chemotherapy.  
"Every patient diagnosed with glioblastoma is treated with a chemotherapy called temozolomide. About 15 percent of these patients derive long-lasting benefit," said Clark C. Chen, MD, PhD, vice-chairman of Academic Affairs, Division of Neurosurgery, UC San Diego School of Medicine and the study's principal investigator. "We need to identify which patients benefit from temozolomide and which another type of treatment. All therapies involve risk and the possibility of side-effects. Patients should not undergo therapies if there's no likelihood of benefit."

Locusts decide the most nutritious plant to eat based on ambient temperature - they choose their food and then where they digest it according to how hot it is.  

Invasion by exotic plant species affects the ability of soil to store greenhouse gases, which could have far-reaching implications for how we manage agricultural land and native ecosystems, according to a paper in New Phytologist, which found that invasive plants can accelerate the greenhouse effect by releasing carbon stored in soil into the atmosphere.
Since soil stores more carbon than both the atmosphere and terrestrial vegetation combined, the repercussions for how we manage agricultural land and ecosystems to facilitate the storage of carbon could be dramatic.

Many humans can't remember what they had for dinner last night. Nor can many other creatures. Some have exceptionally short memories. Defying popular convention, a new study finds that fish, believed to have a memory span of only 30 seconds, can actually remember context and associations up to twelve days later. 

Research into mitigating potential global warming caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide usually involves three areas: Developing alternative energy sources, capturing and storing greenhouse gases, and repurposing excess greenhouse gases.
Carbon storage will never happen, we can't even store nuclear waste in what science determined was the safest place on earth, but those other two are still possible.
Liquid Light Inc. of Monmouth Junction, N.J., got together with Andrew Bocarsly, a Princeton professor of chemistry, to devise an efficient method for harnessing sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into a potential alternative fuel known as formic acid.