Curated News: Staff Picks

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Guilt-ridden busy moms and dads take heart: Mothers – and fathers – across most Western countries are spending more time with their children than parents did in the mid-’60s, according to a University of California, Irvine study. And time spent with kids is highest among better-educated parents – a finding that somewhat surprised study co-author Judith Treas, UCI Chancellor’s Professor of sociology.

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Over two thirds (68 per cent) of the public would like more rest, according to the world’s largest ever survey on the topic.

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The universe is expanding uniformly according to research led by UCL which reports that space isn’t stretching in a preferred direction or spinning.

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Why do some people lead a perfectly healthy lifestyle yet still die young? A new international study suggests that the answer lies in our DNA.

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Study confirms shift in westerly winds, which has led to climate impacts in Australia and the Southern Ocean, is human-induced Limited data on Antarctic climate means it’s difficult to disentangle changes caused by human activity from natural fluctuations

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Time is of the essence when getting people stricken with acute ischemic strokes to treatment. And the use of stent retrievers — devices that remove the blood clot like pulling a cork out of a wine bottle Current professional guidelines recommend that stent retrievers be used to remove blood clots from stroke patients within six hours for people to benefit. But new research finds that the procedure has benefits for people up to 7.3 hours following the onset of a stroke.

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Dental surface restorations composed of dental amalgam, a mixture of mercury, silver, tin and other metals, significantly contribute to prolonged mercury levels in the body, according to new research from the University of Georgia’s department of environmental health science in the College of Public Health.

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In order to properly decide if an upgrade is worth the cost, consumers should compare the new product with what they already own. But new research from Washington University in St. Louis shows there‘s a wide gap between what buyers should do and what actually happens when it comes to the most cutting-edge gadgets, products and services.

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Oscar Wilde may have considered consistency “the last refuge of the unimaginative” in human behaviour, but when it comes to fish, the element of predictability is critical. Such are the findings of new research led by the University of Bristol, which reveals that fish with consistent personalities are more successful in social groups and better at helping to build tighter shoals.

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Poverty and perceived hardship over decades among relatively young people in the U.S. are strongly associated with worse cognitive function and may be important contributors to premature aging among disadvantaged populations, report investigators in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

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Does eating too much sugar cause type 2 diabetes? The answer may not be simple, but a study published Sept. 26 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation adds to growing research linking excessive sugar consumption -- specifically the sugar fructose -- to a rise in metabolic disease worldwide. The study, conducted in mice and corroborated in human liver samples, unveils a metabolic process that could upend previous ideas about how the body becomes resistant to insulin and eventually develops diabetes.

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New findings from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show suspected water plumes erupting from Jupiter's icy moon Europa. These observations bolster earlier Hubble work suggesting that Europa is venting water vapor. A team of astronomers, led by William Sparks of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, observed these finger-like projections while viewing Europa's limb as the moon passed in front of Jupiter. The study will be published on Sept. 29 in The Astrophysical Journal.

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University of Sydney researchers have confirmed widespread bias in industry-funded research into artificial sweeteners, which is potentially misleading millions by overstating their health benefits.

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If water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine rise a few degrees by end of the century, it could mean trouble for lobsters and the industry they support. That’s according to newly published research conducted at the University of Maine Darling Marine Center and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.

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“The mouth is a spitting image of the Sarlacc from Star Wars,” says Bristol University’s Dr Jakob Vinther, referring to the beast with the gaping mouth in the sand dunes of Tatooine in the ‘Return of the Jedi’.

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An international study has found that having a high status job means that you are less likely to respond to standard treatment with medications for depression.

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An international research team discovered a human skeleton during its ongoing excavation of the famous antikythera shipwreck (circa 65 b. C. ). The shipwreck, which holds the remains of a greek trading or cargo ship, is located off the greek island of antikythera in the aegean sea.

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Scientists say ocean fossils found in mountains are cause for concern over future sea levels

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A new Yale study has found that incidents of extreme violence against police officers can lead to periods of substantially increased racial disparities in the use of force by police.

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An international team using ALMA, along with ESO’s Very Large Telescope and other telescopes, has discovered the true nature of a rare object in the distant Universe called a Lyman-alpha Blob.

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Molecular composition of multiple tumors shows genomic differences.

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Trophy hunters can play an important role in lion conservation, researchers from the University’s Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology have shown.

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Researchers have recently shown that magnetic bacteria are a promising vehicle for more efficiently delivering tumor-fighting drugs.

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Over 100 million women are on hormonal contraceptives. All of them contain some form of progesterone, either alone or in combination with estrogen. A study published on Sept. 15th in PLOS Pathogens reports that treatment with progesterone protects female mice against the consequences of influenza infection by reducing inflammation and improving pulmonary function, primarily through upregulation of amphiregulin in lung cells.

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An expert comments on a new study on the Greenland Ice Sheet that provides valuable insight on climate change. The research uses unique research methods to establish new estimates of ice loss for both modern and ancient times, the expert explains.

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The promise of stem cells to treat cardiovascular disease may soon be a step closer to clinical application as scientists from three institutions seek to perfect and test three-dimensional “heart patches” in a large animal model — the last big hurdle before trials in human patients.

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Managing inland fisheries in the 21st century presents several obstacles including the need to view fisheries from multiple scales, which usually involves populations and resources spanning sociopolitical boundaries.

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Exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may reduce levels of vitamin D in the bloodstream, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

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Feeding babies egg and peanut may reduce their risk of developing an allergy to the foods, finds a new study.

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New York University researchers offer a new theory, based on a computational model, on how the brain separates relevant from irrelevant information in these and other circumstances.

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Your eyes begin to open after a good night of sleep, but something feels weird. You try to take a deep breath but can’t draw air. You can’t sit up, and you may even see a shadow in the corner of the room. This isn’t a nightmare or a medical emergency—you likely just had a case of sleep paralysis.

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A study led by researchers from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Pitt Department of Psychology has identified a possible link between adolescent sleep habits and early substance abuse. The study, published today in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, found that both sleep duration and sleep quality during late childhood predict alcohol and cannabis use later in adolescence.

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Malaria-Transmitting Mosquitoes’ Preference for Cattle May Be Due to Chromosome Anomaly

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Addressing fundamental unknowns about the earliest history of Earth’s crust, scientists have precisely dated the world’s oldest rock unit at 4.02 billion years old. Driven by the University of Alberta, the findings suggest that early Earth was largely covered with an oceanic crust-like surface.

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Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found a switch that redirects helper cells in the peripheral nervous system into "repair" mode, a form that restores damaged axons.

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The size of a grain of rice, the carotid body, located between two major arteries that feed the brain with blood, has been found to control your blood pressure.

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A team of scientists led by Stony Brook University researchers have discovered a new mechanism for a bacterial toxin to inhibit inflammation.

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In a Perspective piece published this week in PNAS, cancer researchers from across the country, including faculty at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center, write that a greater emphasis on immune-based prevention should be central to new efforts like the federal Cancer Moonshot program, headed by Vice President Joe Biden.

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An international, multi-institutional research collaboration identified, for the first time, mutant traits in the mouse for 52 human disease genes, which significantly contributes to the understanding of the genetic bases for some human diseases.

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Chondrite meteorites contain a puzzling mismatch in isotopic composition with Earth’s crust. The mismatch puzzles scientists because they long believed that Earth formed from planetary objects similar to meteorites. A new paper in Nature explains how this mismatch could have come about.

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Astronomers have captured the sharpest, most detailed observations of a comet breaking apart 67 million miles from Earth, using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. This study of Comet 332P is published online in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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Most cancers have a sweet tooth but—mysteriously—some tumors prefer fat over sugar. Now, a study from Harvard Medical School reveals how these cancers develop their appetite for fat.

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A George Washington University researcher has identified a 6,200-year-old indigo-blue fabric from Huaca, Peru, making it one of the oldest-known cotton textiles in the world and the oldest known textile decorated with indigo blue.

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UCLA nanoscience researchers have determined that a fluid that behaves similarly to water in our day-to-day lives becomes as heavy as honey when trapped in a nanocage of a porous solid, offering new insights into how matter behaves in the nanoscale world.

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A new University of Washington study finds a trend toward earlier sea ice melt in the spring and later ice growth in the fall across all 19 polar bear populations, which can negatively impact the feeding and breeding capabilities of the bears. The paper is the first to quantify the sea ice changes in each polar bear subpopulation across the entire Arctic region using metrics that are specifically relevant to polar bear biology.

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A study of parents by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that about half of the children whose parents were surveyed spend time in homes that have firearms.

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An updated Cochrane Review published today provides an independent, rigorous assessment of the best available evidence to date about electronic cigarettes for quitting smoking.

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A neuroscientist maps brain cell activity that occurs during the delay between sensation and action.

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Current U.S. policies on using drones for targeted killing are characterized by ambiguities in interpretations of international law and too many generalities, despite recent efforts by the Obama administration to clarify the policies, a new RAND Corporation report finds.

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Public figures such as United States presidential candidates Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump may have to do a lot more than just say sorry to win back public trust after a misdeed, said a York University researcher whose study on trust was published today.