Nanocars Taken for a Rough Ride
Rice UniversityRice, NC State researchers test single-molecule cars in open air.
Rice, NC State researchers test single-molecule cars in open air.
Scientists at the University of Liverpool have discovered that muscle cells affected by muscular dystrophy contain high levels of an enzyme that impairs muscle repair. This finding provides a new target for potential drug treatments for the disease, which currently has no cure.
Researchers from the University of Liverpool have identified and dated the genetic mutation that gave rise to the black form of the peppered moth, which spread rapidly during Britain's industrial revolution.
A new study shows a fundamental shift in Americans’ attitudes about same-sex behavior. Since the 1990s, the percentage of adults who accept same-sex behavior has quadrupled, and those who have participated in same-sex experiences has doubled. These increases were among all generations, with Millennials leading the way.
Mediodorsal thalamus allows us to incorporate new information in decision-making.
While the evidence behind this age-related weakening of the circadian rhythm has been established in medical literature, the mechanisms behind it, and the connectivity structure of the neurons, have remained elusive. To better understand these neuronal and hormonal mechanisms and help develop potential treatments, researchers have conducted experimental analyses of the SCN’s connections, with the goal of determining its degree of heterogeneity. They discuss their work in this week’s CHAOS.
Not all habits are bad. Some are even necessary. But inability to switch from acting habitually to acting in a deliberate way can underlie addiction and obsessive compulsive disorders. Working with a mouse model, an international team of researchers demonstrates what happens in the brain for habits to control behavior.
At least 50 percent of the tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills is burned every three to four years or less frequently and is susceptible to becoming shrubland if fire frequencies are not increased.
Although researchers have been seeking the origins of preterm birth for many years, the causes are still relatively unknown. By studying the electrical activity that causes contractions, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and their collaborators have developed a multiscale model they believe may aid in predicting preterm birth.
While the latter half of the 20th century showed a widening gap between the more and less educated with respect to marriage and fertility, this trend has not significantly altered the genetic makeup of subsequent generations, a team of researchers has found.
A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers has created the world's fastest stretchable, wearable integrated circuits, an advance that could drive the Internet of Things and a much more connected, high-speed wireless world.
The toxic dinoflagellate, Alexandrium fundyense, is a photosynthetic plankton--a microscopic organism floating in the ocean, unable to swim against a current. New research by scientists at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa (UHM) School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) suggests that ingestion of this dinoflagellate changes the energy balance and reproductive potential of a particular copepod--a small crustacean--in the North Atlantic, which is key food source for young fishes, including many commercially important species.
Moulds and plants share similar ways in alkaloid biosynthesis.
Increase in the brain's grey matter proof that the brain has the ability to rescue itself.
Data from cohort studies helps reconstruct African-American heritage from before Civil War.
A new study indicates that sharks of the same species can have different personalities.
Researchers discover Silver Boa in the Bahamas Islands.
Fossil remains of a previously unknown family of carnivorous Australian marsupials that lived 15 million years ago have been discovered at the Riversleigh World Heritage Fossil Site in north-western Queensland by a UNSW Australia-led team of researchers.
A piece of international research led by the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country has retrieved the mitogenome of a fossil belonging to the first Homo sapiens population in Europe.
Many pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists believe that their clinical care extends from treating ill children through end-of-life care. However, are pediatricians actually meeting the needs of families and their dying child? In a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers surveyed bereaved parents and found that pediatric end-of-life care needs improvement.
A research group led by Professor Mochida Tomoyuki (Kobe University Graduate School of Science) and Dr. Funasako Yusuke (Tokyo University of Science, Yamaguchi) has developed a metal-containing compound which transforms into a solid when exposed to light and returns to liquid form when heated.
Researchers in the Center for Immunotherapy at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) have evaluated the human leukocyte antigen (HLA), a group of genes that help regulate the body’s immune system, for underlying differences in ovarian cancer patients’ response to therapy. The scientists report that women with certain types of HLA may have an increased risk of ovarian cancer and may also respond better to immunotherapy. The research was recently published online ahead of print in the journal Gynecologic Oncology.
Evidence is mounting that a diet mimicking the effects of fasting has health benefits beyond weight loss, with a new USC-led study indicating that it may reduce symptoms of multiple sclerosis.
New research from Aarhus BSS at Aarhus University explains why healthcare costs are running out of control, while costs to unemployment protection are kept in line. The answer is found deep in our psychology, where powerful intuitions lead us to view illness as the result of bad luck and worthy of help.
A study of more than 6,000 marine fossils from the Antarctic shows that the mass extinction event that killed the dinosaurs was sudden and just as deadly to life in the polar regions.
In the animal kingdom, sperm usually are considerably smaller than eggs, which means that males can produce far more of them. Large numbers of tiny sperm can increase the probability of successful fertilization, especially when females mate with several males.
Malnourished children are most likely to die from common infections, not starvation alone, and immune disorder may be part of the cause, according to a review led by Queen Mary University of London.
African study finds genes that double the chance of developing bacteraemia when infected with the Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria.
Among the valuable holdings in London's Wellcome Library is a rough pencil sketch made in 1953 by Francis Crick. The drawing is one of the first to show the double-helix structure of DNA--Nature's blueprint for the design of sea snails, human beings, and every other living form on earth.
Seabirds exposed to even a dime-sized amount of oil can die of hypothermia in cold-water regions, but despite repeated requests by Environment Canada, offshore oil operators are failing when it comes to self-monitoring of small oil spills, says new research out of York University.
In contradiction to the long-standing idea that larger planets take longer to form, U.S. astronomers today announced the discovery of a giant planet in close orbit around a star so young that it still retains a disk of circumstellar gas and dust.
A Utah mountainside collapsed 4,800 years ago in a gargantuan landslide known as a “rock avalanche,” creating the flat floor of what is now Zion National Park by damming the Virgin River to create a lake that existed for 700 years.
Drexel scientists have discovered an unusual mechanism for how two antimalarial drugs kill Plasmodium parasites. Amidst growing concerns about drug resistance, these findings could help to develop more effective drugs against the disease.
Spring snowpack, relied on by ski resorts and water managers throughout the Western United States, may be more vulnerable to a warming climate in coming decades, according to a new University of Utah study.
Paleobiologist Susannah Porter finds evidence of predation in ancient microbial ecosystems dating back more than 740 million years.
Symptoms of illness are not inevitably tied to an underlying disease --rather, many organisms, including humans, adapt their symptom expression to suit their needs. That's the finding of Arizona State University's Leonid Tiokhin, whose research appears in the Quarterly Review of Biology.
Scientists at the Duke Cancer Institute have identified a molecular key that breast cancer cells use to invade bone marrow in mice, where they may be protected from chemotherapy or hormonal therapies that could otherwise eradicate them.
In a computational analysis of the words used by more than 65,000 consenting Facebook users in some 10 million messages, it was discovered that women use language that is warmer and more agreeable than men.
Meerkats live in groups of up to 50 individuals, yet a single dominant pair will almost completely monopolise reproduction, while subordinates help to raise offspring through feeding and babysitting.
An international team of scientists, including the University of Kentucky's Renbin Yan, is solving one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in galaxy evolution.
A symbiotic relationship that has existed since the time of the dinosaurs is at risk of ending, as habitat loss and environmental change mean that a species of Australian crayfish and the tiny worms that depend on them are both at serious risk of extinction.
Additional immune-system-modulatory approaches may help reduce risk of cardiovascular disease.
Older Americans with some hearing loss shouldn’t feel alone if they have trouble understanding British TV sagas like “Downton Abbey.” A small study from the University of Utah suggests hearing-impaired senior citizens have more trouble than young people comprehending British accents when there is background noise.
Study shows that sea urchins defy aging, regardless of lifespan.
The researchers examined data from research and monitoring reports from the years 2000-2012, to see what chemicals have been analysed in Baltic Sea fish.
The UK Lung cancer screening trial (UKLS) has been successfully completed and demonstrated that patients with a high risk of developing lung cancer can be identified with early stage disease and have up to a 73% chance of surviving for five years or more. The UKLS trial was conducted by experts in the University of Liverpool.
With spring now fully sprung, a new study by University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers shows that buds burst earlier in dense urban areas than in their suburban and rural surroundings. This may be music to urban gardeners’ ears, but that tune could be alarming to some native and migratory birds and bugs.
Researchers from Brazil and Stanford University report on an ocular case study of three Brazilian infants with microcephaly presumed to be caused by Zika virus. Findings will appear in Ophthalmology, journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
New U.S. Geological Survey-led research suggests that even though amphibians are severely declining worldwide, there is no smoking gun - and thus no simple solution - to halting or reversing these declines.
In addition the technique to grow the blood vessels in a 3D scaffold cuts down on the risk of transplant rejection because it uses cells from the patient. It was developed by researchers from the University of Bath's Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, working with colleagues at Bristol Heart Institute.