Curated News: Staff Picks

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Rock and scroll: York lecturer’s punk rock band informs teaching.

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New research by University of Washington astronomer Rory Barnes and co-authors describes possible planetary systems where a gravitational nudge from one planet with just the right orbital configuration and tilt could have a mild to devastating effect on the orbit and climate of another, possibly habitable world.

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Researchers have discovered a set of eight celestial objects orbiting our home galaxy, the Milky Way, that appear to be rare dwarf satellite galaxies. Dwarf galaxies are the smallest known galaxy structures and may hold the key to understanding dark matter.

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In a study that helps to deconstruct how olfaction is encoded in the brain, neuroscientists at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a type of neuron that appears to help tune, amplify and dampen neuronal responses to chemosensory inputs from the nasal cavity.

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The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Russia Program, in partnership with the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Reserve and Udegeiskaya Legenda National Park, released a camera trap slideshow of a family of Amur tigers in the wild showing an adult male with family. Shown following the “tiger dad” along the Russian forest is an adult female and three cubs. Scientists note this is a first in terms of photographing this behavior, as adult male tigers are usually solitary. Also included was a photo composite of a series of images showing the entire family as they walked past the a camera trap over a period of two minutes.

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A scientific team from WCS, Myanmar’s Nature and Wildlife Conservation Division – MOECAF, and National University of Singapore (NUS) has rediscovered a bird previously thought to be extinct.

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It's time to clear up the confusion and debunk the false reports surrounding the potentially serious health risks of Hormone Therapy.

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Researchers have pinpointed a region in the human genome associated with peanut allergy in U.S. children, offering strong evidence that genes can play a role in the development of food allergies.

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A study reported today in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrates that consumption of a peanut-containing snack by infants who are at high-risk for developing peanut allergy prevents the subsequent development of allergy. The “Learning Early About Peanut allergy” (LEAP) study, designed and conducted by the Immune Tolerance Network and led by Gideon Lack at Kings College London, is the first randomized trial to prevent food allergy in a large cohort of high-risk infants.

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Henry Ford Hospital researchers say that breastfeeding and other factors influence a baby’s immune system development and susceptibility to allergies and asthma by what’s in their gut.

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University of Michigan researchers today released a detailed draft analysis of policy options for hydraulic fracturing, the natural gas and oil extraction process commonly known as fracking

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Men with short index fingers and long ring fingers are on average nicer towards women. This phenomenon stems from their fetal life, and the hormones these men have been exposed to in their mother’s womb. The findings might help explain why these men have more children.

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A team of Stony Brook University researchers have identified fatty acid binding proteins (FABPs) as intracellular transporters for two ingredients in marijuana, THC and CBD (cannabidiol). The finding, published early online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, is significant because it helps explain how CBD works within the cells. Recent clinical findings have shown that CBD may help reduce seizures and could be a potential new medicine to treat pediatric treatment-resistant epilepsy.

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A short nap can help relieve stress and bolster the immune systems of men who slept only two hours the previous night, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

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Evolutionary researchers have determined that settling for “Mr. Okay” is a better evolutionary strategy than waiting for “Mr. Perfect.” When studying the evolution of risk aversion Michigan State University researchers found that it is in our nature – traced back to the earliest humans – to take the safe bet when stakes are high, such as whether or not we will mate.

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A compound found in common foods such as red grapes and peanuts may help prevent age-related decline in memory, according to new research published by a faculty member in the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine.

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The Government of Madagascar has created the country’s first marine sanctuary for sharks as part of a new law to safeguard the country’s marine resources and the communities that rely on them, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

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A newly published research study conducted by researchers at the School of Nutrition and Health Promotion at Arizona State University, examined whether noticing and using calorie menu labels was associated with demographic characteristics of customers at a national fast food chain currently posting calorie counts. They found that approximately 60% of participants noticed the calorie menu labels but only 16% reported using the labels to determine food and beverage choices.

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Eating healthier is a common recommendation for people looking to reduce their risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other medical concerns. Now a growing body of research is evaluating whether certain dietary changes can impact the skin by reducing the signs of aging and improving some skin conditions. Nutricosmetics – the use of nutrition or nutritional supplements for skin health and beauty – is popular abroad and may be the next frontier for improving skin health and beauty in the United States.

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Encouraging adversaries to have more interpersonal contact to find common ground may work on occasion, but not necessarily in the U.S. Senate, according to new research.

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Lewy Body Dementia Association offers support to the family, friends and fans of Stan Mikita.

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A team of astronomers using the NSF's Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia and NASA's Deep Space Network radar transmitter at Goldstone, California, has made the most detailed radar images yet of asteroid 2004 BL86.

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Salk scientists discover how a "mini-brain" in the spinal cord aids in balance

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A new acoustic fish-tracking tag is so tiny it can be injected with a syringe. It’s small size enables researchers to more precisely and safely record how fish swim through dams and use that information to make dams more fish-friendly.

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This Hubble Space Telescope photograph of an oddball arc of stars in galaxy NGC 7714 tells of a 100-million-year-old close encounter.

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New research from Kansas State University finds that despite receiving food safety messaging, a majority of home chefs still contaminate their food because of poor food-handling techniques.

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Full implementation of new hypertension guidelines could prevent 56,000 cardiovascular disease events (mostly heart attacks and strokes) and 13,000 deaths each year, without increasing overall health care costs, an analysis conducted by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center found. The paper was published today in the online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Richard Kim, MD, a cardiac surgeon at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, recently used a 3D printed heart as a model to plan a life-saving procedure for his young patient, Esther Perez.

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Former National Football League (NFL) players who participated in tackle football before the age of 12 were more likely to have memory and thinking problems in adulthood, according to a new study published in the January 28, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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People’s perceptions of the cost of a drug may affect how much they benefit from the drug, even when they are receiving only a placebo, according to a new study of people with Parkinson’s disease published in the January 28, 2015 online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Psychopathic violent offenders have abnormalities in the parts of the brain related to learning from punishment, according to an MRI study led by Sheilagh Hodgins and Nigel Blackwood.

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Iowa State's Steve Kawaler is part of a team that used data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft to find an 11.2 billion-year-old star with at least five Earth-size planets. That means Earth-size planets have been forming for most of the history of the universe.

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Most young adults might assume they have years before needing to worry about their cholesterol. But new findings from researchers at the Duke Clinical Research Institute suggest that even slightly high cholesterol levels in otherwise healthy adults between the ages of 35 and 55 can have long-term impacts on their heart health, with every decade of high cholesterol increasing their chances of heart disease by 39 percent.

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Neurons that trigger our sense of thirst—and neurons that turn it off—have been identified by Columbia University Medical Center neuroscientists. The paper was published today in the online edition of Nature.

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Human beings are not the only great ape species likely to be severely impacted by climate change in the future. According to a new study by the Drexel University, Wildlife Conservation Society, and other groups, the Nigerian-Cameroon chimpanzee—the most endangered of all chimpanzee subspecies—may lose much of its habitat within the next five years and fully half of it in the next century.

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The recommendation that adults should get 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week may be too ambitious for many middle-aged and older adults. That’s one recommendation from physical activity and health experts who published a paper this week in the British Medical Journal.

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Analyzing every marijuana-related Twitter message sent during a one-month period in early 2014, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have found that the “Twitterverse” is a pot-friendly place. In that time, more than 7 million tweets referenced marijuana, with 15 times as many pro-pot tweets sent as anti-pot tweets.

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In some of the first research findings to be published from the European Space Agency’s Rosetta Mission to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, scientists report this week in Science on early measurements of the comet’s subsurface temperature and production of gas from the surface of its nucleus.

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Inflammatory bowel diseases are associated with a decrease in the diversity of bacteria in the gut, but a new study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has linked the same illnesses to an increase in the diversity of viruses.

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Researchers beginning to understand how antibiotic-resistant bacteria travel aerially.

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University of Kentucky Department of Computer Science's Brent Seales is on his way to making history, and uncovering it, with revolutionary software and 2,000-year old Herculaneum scrolls.

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Classic psychedelic drugs include LSD, psilocybin and mescaline. This new School of Public Health research is published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

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New research shows that stomach sleepers with epilepsy may be at higher risk of sudden unexpected death, drawing parallels to sudden infant death syndrome in babies. The study is published in the January 21, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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By zapping ordinary metals with femtosecond laser pulses researchers from the University of Rochester in New York have created extraordinary new surfaces that efficiently absorb light, repel water and clean themselves. The multifunctional materials could find use in durable, low maintenance solar collectors and sensors.

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According to recent research from the Arnold School of Health at the University of South Carolina, use of social media sites like Facebook can be associated with a significant drop in pounds, especially during the critical maintenance period of a weight loss journey.

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As the earth warms, scientists have been focused on how glaciers melting will affect sea level rise. But, another lurking impact is the amount of carbon that will be released when glaciers melt. This is the first attempt to calculate how much carbon will be released.

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Thinking small has enabled an international team of scientists to gain new insight into the evolution of planetary building blocks in the early solar system.