Curated News: Staff Picks

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Findings, recently published in the journal Science Advances, show that snakes did not lose their limbs in order to live in the sea, as has been previously suggested. The research led by scientists at the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences involves the analysis of a 90-year old reptilian fossil of Dinilysia patagonica, a 2-meter long reptile. Computed tomography (CT) scans of the bony inner ear of Dinilysia patagonica reveals how this ancestor to modern snakes became adept at burrowing.

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The sweet, juicy peaches we love today might have been a popular snack long before modern humans arrived on the scene. Scientists have found eight well-preserved fossilized peach endocarps, or pits, in southwest China dating back more than two and a half million years. Despite their age, the fossils appear nearly identical to modern peach pits.

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Findings, recently published in the journal Science Advances, show that snakes did not lose their limbs in order to live in the sea, as has been previously suggested. The research led by scientists at the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences involves the analysis of a 90-year old reptilian fossil of Dinilysia patagonica, a 2-meter long reptile. Computed tomography (CT) scans of the bony inner ear of Dinilysia patagonica reveals how this ancestor to modern snakes became adept at burrowing.

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Wisdom, a Layman albatross, is the world’s oldest living tracked bird at age 64. She has been spotted with a mate on her return to the Midway Atoll national wildlife refuge to lay an egg.

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Wisdom, a Layman albatross, is the world’s oldest living tracked bird at age 64. She has been spotted with a mate on her return to the Midway Atoll national wildlife refuge to lay an egg.

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According to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, brains can't really fit into the categories of "male" or "female" -- their distinguishing features actually vary across a spectrum. Researchers led by University of Tel-Aviv studied brain scans of some 1,400 individuals and could not find a single pattern that distinguishes between a male brain and a female brain.

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According to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, brains can't really fit into the categories of "male" or "female" -- their distinguishing features actually vary across a spectrum. Researchers led by University of Tel-Aviv studied brain scans of some 1,400 individuals and could not find a single pattern that distinguishes between a male brain and a female brain.

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A sick person is obviously willing to pay for a good medical treatment, but economists have found that healthy people are potentially a much broader, if largely overlooked, market for medical innovations.

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Current El Niño conditions in the Pacific Ocean have created high water temperatures that are seriously damaging coral reefs, including those on Christmas Island, which may be the epicenter for what could become a global coral bleaching event.

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It is well documented that black, Hispanic and Asian women typically develop advanced-stage breast cancer more often than white women. As a result, black women are likelier to receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy, or chemotherapy prior to surgery, in hopes of improving outcomes. However, a Yale Cancer Center study published recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that among minority women treated with early chemotherapy, black women fare worse than the other groups.

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Researchers for the first time have attempted to measure all the material leaving and entering a mountain range over more than a million years and discovered that erosion caused by glaciation during ice ages can, in the right circumstances, wear down mountains faster than plate tectonics can build them.

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Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a method to efficiently turn human stem cells into retinal ganglion cells, the type of nerve cells located within the retina that transmit visual signals from the eye to the brain.

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Many human gene variants have evolved specifically to protect older adults against neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases, thus preserving their contributions to society, report University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers in the November 30 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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n sub-Saharan Africa, dozens of major 'development corridors,' including roads, railroads, pipelines, and port facilities, are in the works to increase agricultural production, mineral exports, and economic integration. And, if all goes according to plan, it's going to be a disaster, say researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on Nov. 25.

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A camera so advanced that it can photograph and film methane in the air around us is now presented by a team of researchers from Linköping and Stockholm Universities. It can be an important part of the efforts to measure and monitor greenhouse gases.

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What do mercury levels in dolphins say about mercury levels in humans? Quite a bit, according to a new study by scientists at FAU Harbor Branch, which sheds light on the potential dangers of consuming locally caught seafood. This is the first time that researchers have closed the loop between marine mammal and human health, by taking findings from their research and applying them to explore the potential risks facing humans living in the same region.

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Using a computer model, scientists were able to show that Tribrachidium, a disc shaped seas creature that lived about 555-million-years ago, fed by collecting particles suspended in water. This is called suspension feeding and it had not previously been documented in organisms from this period of time.

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Using a computer model, scientists were able to show that Tribrachidium, a disc shaped seas creature that lived about 555-million-years ago, fed by collecting particles suspended in water. This is called suspension feeding and it had not previously been documented in organisms from this period of time.

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With the aim of producing high-quality X-rays with minimal radiation exposure, particularly in children, researchers have developed a new approach to imaging patients based on the Xbox gaming system.

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Research out of Melbourne University’s Oral Health Cooperative Research Centre tested a wide rage of sugar-free soft drinks and found that many of them can be just as harmful to teeth as their sugared counterparts due to acidic additives.

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Research out of Melbourne University’s Oral Health Cooperative Research Centre tested a wide rage of sugar-free soft drinks and found that many of them can be just as harmful to teeth as their sugared counterparts due to acidic additives.

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Running sophisticated simulations on a powerful supercomputer, an international research team has glimpsed the unique turbulence that fuels stellar explosions.

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Pre-existing asthma may be a strong predictor of future chronic migraine attacks in individuals experiencing occasional migraine headaches, according to researchers from the University of Cincinnati (UC), Montefiore Headache Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Vedanta Research.

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A new Report from Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WCS Canada) warns of the potential for major negative impacts on fish and fish habitat caused by large hydroelectric dams, like that currently under evaluation through the Next Generation Hydro initiative. The Report, which focuses on north-western Canada, notes that substantial destruction of fish habitats caused by such a dam, along with additional threats and effects will be either very expensive or impossible to mitigate.

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UNC Lineberger researchers say the findings of a new study indicate that activity trackers could be a useful tool for tracking symptoms and physical function

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Itai Roffman of the University of Haifa documented groups of bonobos performing complex actions to extract food – a characteristic that has hitherto been regarded as an exclusive evolutionary advantage of archaic pre-humans

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New research from The New York Academy of Medicine reveals the circumstances contributing to mental health problems in a range of urban residents.

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For those who suffer from diseases like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s or conditions such as Autism spectrum disorder, any form of non-literal speech such as sarcasm, teasing or ‘white lies’ can be very confusing. A new video inventory of examples of these forms of indirect speech developed at McGill should help in the diagnosis and clinical testing of those with disorders of this kind.

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An international team of astrophysicists has for the first time witnessed a star being swallowed by a black hole and ejecting a flare of matter moving at nearly the speed of light.

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A microscopic marine alga is thriving in the North Atlantic to an extent that defies scientific predictions, suggesting swift environmental change as a result of increased carbon dioxide in the ocean.

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New research from the University of Birmingham, UK, has shown that progesterone supplements in the first trimester of pregnancy do not improve outcomes in women with a history of unexplained recurrent miscarriages.

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The World Meteorological Organization, the weather agency of the United Nations announced on Wednesday that 2015 is the hottest year on record, breaching the symbolic and significant milestone of 1 degree Celsius above the pre-industrial era. The report comes the week before world leaders assemble in Paris to try to negotiate an agreement to fight climate change. Records go back to 1880.

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The World Meteorological Organization, the weather agency of the United Nations announced on Wednesday that 2015 is the hottest year on record, breaching the symbolic and significant milestone of 1 degree Celsius above the pre-industrial era. The report comes the week before world leaders assemble in Paris to try to negotiate an agreement to fight climate change. Records go back to 1880.

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North American bison adjust their diet seasonally in order to take full advantage of the growing season when grasses become less nutritious, a new study led by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder has discovered.

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A study recently published online on November 23rd in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that that those who breastfed were a great deal less likely -- up to 50 percent less -- to develop diabetes 2 in subsequent years than those who did not breast feed.

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VY Canis Majoris is a stellar goliath, a red hypergiant, one of the largest known stars in the Milky Way. It is 30-40 times the mass of the Sun and 300 000 times more luminous. In its current state, the star would encompass the orbit of Jupiter, having expanded tremendously as it enters the final stages of its life.

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A study recently published online on November 23rd in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that that those who breastfed were a great deal less likely -- up to 50 percent less -- to develop diabetes 2 in subsequent years than those who did not breast feed.

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The Weizmann Institute of Science’s Prof. Michael Eisenbach previously revealed that sperm use multiple navigation systems, such as heat-seeking and chemical. Now he has found that opsins – proteins involved in the visual system – contribute to the heat-seeking movement, helping sperm sense warmth.

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A new drug combination may be effective in treating men with metastatic prostate cancer. Preliminary results of this new approach are encouraging and have led to an ongoing international study being conducted in 196 hospitals worldwide.

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A team led by Iowa State's Massimo Marengo responded to the buzz about a mysterious dimming star by studying data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. They conclude the dimming was probably caused by a family of comets passing in front of the star.

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If Pleistocene megafauna -- mastodons, mammoths, giant sloths and others -- had not become extinct, humans might not be eating pumpkin pie and squash for the holidays, according to an international team of anthropologists.

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Travelling abroad involves risk of illnesses and carriage of antibiotic resistant bacteria, especially among students. Illnesses such as travellers’ diarrhoea and respiratory tract infections are most common. Even if travellers follow the travel medicine clinics’ advice on how to reduce risks during travel, the risk of falling ill is not reduced. This according to a dissertation at Umeå University in Sweden.

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Army ants construct complex bridges from their own bodies to span gaps and create shortcuts in the floor of the tropical forests of Central America, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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A study published in the journal, Nature, adds to growing evidence that the people of Europe’s DNA underwent widespread changes, altering their height, digestion, immune system and skin color with the spread of agriculture.

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A study published in the journal, Nature, adds to growing evidence that the people of Europe’s DNA underwent widespread changes, altering their height, digestion, immune system and skin color with the spread of agriculture.

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Biologists at Tufts University have succeeded in inducing one species of flatworm to grow heads and brains characteristic of another species of flatworm without altering genomic sequence. The work reveals physiological circuits as a new kind of epigenetics – information existing outside of genomic sequence – that determines large-scale anatomy.

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Among the 5 000 existing species of mammals, more than 100 have their genome sequenced, whereas the genomes of only 9 species of reptiles (among 10 000 species) are available to the scientific community. This is the reason why a team at the University of Geneva has produced a database including the newly-sequenced genome of the corn snake. Within the same laboratory, the researchers have discovered the exact mutation that causes albinism in that species.

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A study shows that the number of infant deaths and injuries attributed to crib bumpers has spiked significantly in recent years. The study authors recommend that sale of the items be banned.

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Weight loss surgery curbs the sweet tooth by acting on the brain's reward system, according to a study published November 19 in Cell Metabolism. The researchers found that gastrointestinal bypass surgery, which is used to treat morbid obesity and diabetes, reduced sugar-seeking behavior in mice by reducing the release of a reward chemical called dopamine in the brain. The findings suggest that positive outcomes are more likely if sugary foods seem less rewarding after surgery.

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More than half of all tree species in the world's most diverse forest--the Amazon--may be globally threatened, according to a new study.