Curated News: Staff Picks

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A research team including NIBIB-funded scientists have developed a sunscreen that encapsulates the UV-blocking compounds inside bio-adhesive nanoparticles, which adhere to the skin well, but do not penetrate beyond the skin’s surface. These properties resulted in highly effective UV protection in a mouse model, without the adverse effects observed with commercial sunscreens, including penetration into the bloodstream and generation of reactive oxygen species, which can damage DNA and lead to cancer.

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Using photography and laboratory simulations, researchers studied how dogs raise fluids into their mouths to drink. They discovered that sloppy-looking actions at the dog bowl are in fact high-speed, precisely timed movements that optimize a dogs’ ability to acquire fluids.

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Experts recommend active individuals who participate in higher impact activities may need to maintain higher vitamin D levels, reports The Journal of Foot & Ankle Surgery.

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A childhood family breakup can have long-term negative consequences for the children. Recent University of Illinois research looks at overall health, depression, and smoking as a health-related behavior and finds that, for girls, all three are worse.

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A new study led by the American Museum of Natural History links modern birds to a "feathered father" that lived in South America some 90 million years ago.

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A new study led by the American Museum of Natural History links modern birds to a "feathered father" that lived in South America some 90 million years ago.

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Scientists have discovered enhanced weathering of rock could counter man-made fossil fuel CO2 emissions and help to protect our oceans.

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An optical device at nanoscale which allows light to pass in only one direction has been developed at TU Wien (Vienna). It consists of alkali atoms which are coupled to ultrathin glass fibres.

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As Typhoon Melor approached a landfall in the central Philippines, NASA's RapidScat instrument identified the strongest winds north of the center. As the storm was making landfall in the eastern Visayas and Bicol regions of the Philippines early on Dec. 14, 2015 NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible image that showed the extend of the storm.

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Providing help to friends, acquaintances, and even strangers can mitigate the impact of daily stressors on our emotions and our mental health, according to new research published in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

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LSU paleoclimatologist Kristine DeLong contributed to an international research breakthrough that sheds new light on how the tilt of the Earth affects the world's heaviest rainbelt. DeLong analyzed data from the past 282,000 years that shows, for the first time, a connection between the Earth's tilt called obliquity that shifts every 41,000 years, and the movement of a low pressure band of clouds that is the Earth's largest source of heat and moisture -- the Intertropical Convergence Zone, or ITCZ.

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A team of chemists from ITMO University, in collaboration with research company SOPOT, has developed a novel type of firefighting foam based on inorganic silica nanoparticles. The new foam beats existing analogues in fire extinguishing capacity, thermal and mechanical stability and biocompatibility. The results of the study were published in ACS Advanced Materials & Interfaces.

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New research shows a cereal familiar today as birdseed was carried across Eurasia by ancient shepherds and herders laying the foundation, in combination with the new crops they encountered, of 'multi-crop' agriculture and the rise of settled societies. Archaeologists say 'forgotten' millet has a role to play in modern crop diversity and today's food security debate.

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Most people can tell if you're angry based on the way you're acting. Professor Jeffrey Jenkins can tell if you're angry by the way you move a computer mouse. The BYU information systems expert says people experiencing anger (and other negative emotions--frustration, confusion, sadness) become less precise in their mouse movements and move the cursor at different speeds.

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A new study assessing the antioxidant effects of pomegranate extract on cardiovascular risk factors and muscle function showed reductions in blood pressure and some atheroprotective benefits, but no effects on inflammation, oxidative strength, or muscle strength. The limited gains with pomegranate supplementation are detailed in an article published in Journal of Medicinal Food, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available to download for free on the Journal of Medicinal Food website until Jan. 14, 2016.

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Multiple sclerosis (MS) may be triggered by the death of brain cells that make myelin, the insulation around nerve fibers, according to research on a novel mouse model. This can be prevented through the application of specially developed nanoparticles, even after the loss of those brain cells.

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Using antidepressants during pregnancy greatly increases the risk of autism, Professor Anick Bérard of the University of Montreal and its affiliated CHU Sainte-Justine children’s hospital revealed today

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A survey of 10 hot, Jupiter-sized exoplanets conducted with NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes has led a team to solve a long-standing mystery -- why some of these worlds seem to have less water than expected. The findings, published in Nature, offer new insights into the wide range of planetary atmospheres in our galaxy and how planets are assembled.

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Tests carried out by a University of Southampton archaeologist have confirmed a former chalk quarry holds vital clues about prehistoric climate and the early human occupation of the UK.

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A new study finds some surprising ways in which women’s health at midlife is connected to when they had their first child and to their marital history.

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Further underscoring the prenatal origins of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine describe for the first time how abnormal gene activity in cell cycle networks that are known to control brain cell production may underlie abnormal early brain growth in the disorder.

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New research could lead to new treatments to prevent blockages and urinary tract infections experienced by many long-term catheter users.

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Using olive or sunflower oil on new born babies’ skin damages the barrier which prevents water loss and blocks allergens and infections, new research led by The University of Manchester has found.

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Feeling stressed out increases the likelihood that elderly people will develop mild cognitive impairment—often a prelude to full-blown Alzheimer’s disease. In a new study, scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System found that highly stressed participants were more than twice as likely to become impaired than those who were not. Because stress is treatable, the results suggest that detecting and treating stress in older people might help delay or even prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s. The findings were published online today in Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders.

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Economist Mark Sniderman, executive in residence at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management, on Friday predicted moderate expansion in the U.S. Economy in 2016 and a bump in interest rates.

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Patients with mild heart failure stand to benefit from a new drug that can halt the progression of their disease and reduce their risk of cardiovascular-related death. But the drug -- a tablet that combines the agents valsartan and sacubitril, sold under the trade name Entresto by drugmaker Novartis -- may be too good to be true, according to Arthur M. Feldman, MD, PhD, Executive Dean of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University (LKSOM), Chief Academic Officer of the Temple University Health System, and Laura H. Carnell Professor of Medicine at LKSOM.

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UAB researchers have found that, contrary to current thinking, astrocytes are repelled by the amyloid plaques that are linked to the disease. pplying mathematical models used for studying the galaxies or interactions between elementary particles, researchers at the Institute of Neuroscience of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, have analysed the spatial distribution of astrocytes: brain cells that are essential for the correct functioning of neurons.

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A University of Illinois study suggests a significant link between instability in the lives of college-age young adults and the likelihood that they will engage in risky sex.

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Tübingen researchers match bullets to wounds using organ-specific protein signatures found on projectiles.

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A 15 million year-old fossil sperm whale specimen from California belongs to a new genus, according to a study published December 9, 2015 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Alexandra Boersma and Nicholas Pyenson from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

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As world leaders hold climate talks in Paris, research shows that land surface temperatures may rise by an average of almost 8C by 2100, if significant efforts are not made to counteract climate change.

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Our vision and hearing aren't as reliable as we might think, according to a study by life scientists at UCLA.

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New research suggests that feeding our food waste, or swill, to pigs (currently banned under EU law) could save 1.8 million hectares of global agricultural land – an area roughly half the size of Germany, including hundreds of thousands of acres of South America’s biodiverse forests and savannahs – and provide a use for the 100 million tonnes of food wasted in the EU each year.

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Nauseated patients in the emergency department who sniffed pads saturated with isopropyl alcohol were twice as likely to obtain relief from their symptoms as nauseated patients who sniffed pads saturated with saline solution, according to a study published online today in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Isopropyl Alcohol Nasal Inhalation for Nausea in the Emergency Department: A Randomized Controlled Trial").

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An animation of satellite imagery over the course of 10 days shows a series of low pressure areas pummeling the Pacific Northwest. The video, created by the NASA/NOAA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland combined visible and infrared imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite.

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When we get cold sores, the reason is likely related to stress. For the first time, researchers discovered a cellular mechanism that allows the herpes simplex virus to reactivate. They also found how brain cells are duped into allowing this to happen so that the virus can cause disease.

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Emissions controls on coal-fired power plants are making a difference in reducing exposure of mercury to people, especially in the western Maryland community. A study of air quality from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science found that levels of mercury in the air from power plant emissions dropped more than half over a 10-year period, coinciding with stricter pollution controls.

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Despite the large number of posts on visual social media platforms that suggest—and fuel—depressing or suicidal thoughts, there aren’t many for users to read and share that would help them cope with their mental state more proactively, a University of Georgia study finds.

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In the next few weeks, they will seemingly be everywhere—in homes, at offices and at parties. They come in several varieties, and most people can probably name a favorite when it comes to holiday cookies. According to two Kansas State University experts, cookies can and should be enjoyed in moderation this holiday season. The experts provide tips to prepare, bake and store cookies safely, and offer advice on how people can alter ingredients to make cookie recipes a bit more healthful.

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Playing three-dimensional video games – besides being lots of fun – can boost the formation of memories, according to University of California, Irvine neurobiologists. Along with adding to the trove of research that shows these games can improve eye-hand coordination and reaction time, this finding shows the potential for novel virtual approaches to helping people who lose memory as they age or suffer from dementia.

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Three biomarker-based categories, called biotypes, outperformed traditional diagnoses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with psychosis, in sorting psychosis cases into distinct subgroups on the basis of brain biology, report researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. A hallmark of severe mental illness, psychosis is marked by hallucinations and delusions, or false, irrational beliefs.

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The faulted alluvial fans near Badwater in Death Valley are amongst the most visited and classic landforms in the U.S. New mapping and dating of these landforms, presented in this open-access study by Kurt Frankel and colleagues, help to determine the timing of past earthquakes and how tectonic deformation is distributed across the western U.S.

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People are less willing to rely on their knowledge and say they know something when they have access to the Internet, suggesting that our connection to the web is affecting how we think.

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An international research partnership has discovered the first Mosasaur fossil of its kind to be found in Japan. Not only does the 72-million-year-old marine reptile fossil fill a biogeographical gap between the Middle East and the eastern Pacific, but also it holds new revelations because of its superior preservation.

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Some of the same gene mutations that cause heart defects in children also lead to neurodevelopmental delays, including learning disabilities. New research may later enable clinicians to identify and treat infant heart patients at higher risk for neurodevelopmental problems.

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Until recently, endangered foxes on California's Catalina Island were suffering from one of the highest prevalences of tumors ever documented in a wildlife population, UC Davis scientists have found. But treatment of ear mites appears to be helping the wild animals recover.

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The article has been published in the journal Ethology, Ecology and Evolution, with a title the researcher Roberto Cazzolla Gatti borrowed from the novel by Lewis Carroll: "Self-consciousness: beyond the looking-glass and what dogs found there."

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Researchers at Umeå University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences have discovered that increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have shifted photosynthetic metabolism in plants over the 20th century. This is the first study worldwide that deduces biochemical regulation of plant metabolism from historical specimens. The findings are now published in the leading journal PNAS and will have an impact on new models of future CO2 concentration in the atmosphere.

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Scientists were able to deploy ruggidized seismometers that could withstand intense cold in Antarctica only recently. A line of seismometers strung across the West Antarctic Rift Valley and the Marie Byrd Land have given geologists their first good look at the mantle beneath the ice and rocks, revealing areas of hot rock that might affect the behavior of the overlying ice sheet.

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A team led by Michael Zingale of Stony Brook University is exploring the physics of Type Ia supernovas using the Titan supercomputer at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The team’s latest research focuses on a specific class of Type Ia supernovas known as double-detonation supernovas. This year, the team completed a three-dimensional (3-D), high-resolution investigation of the thermonuclear burning a double-detonation white dwarf undergoes before explosion. The study expands upon the team’s initial 3-D simulation of this supernova scenario, which was carried out in 2013.