Curated News: Staff Picks

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Settling a persistent scientific controversy, a long-awaited report shows that restricting calories does indeed help rhesus monkeys live longer, healthier lives.

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A synthesized steroid mirroring one naturally made by the dogfish shark prevents the buildup of a lethal protein implicated in some neurodegenerative diseases, reports an international research team studying an animal model of Parkinson’s disease. The clustering of this protein, alpha-synuclein (α-synuclein), is the hallmark of Parkinson’s and dementia with Lewy bodies, suggesting a new potential compound for therapeutic research.

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Acute myeloid leukaemia study finds personalised therapy is possible.

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An international team of researchers conducted a comparative genomic analysis to gain insights into the genome structure and evolution of the diatom Fragillariopsis cylindrus, as well as its role in the Southern Ocean.

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Anthropologists at Université de Montréal have dated the oldest human settlement in Canada back 10,000 years.

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The amount of gun violence in top-grossing PG-13 movies, which can be seen by children of all ages, has continued to exceed the gun violence in the biggest box-office R-rated films, a new analysis published in the journal Pediatrics shows.

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Fishing communities can survive ― and even thrive ― as fish abundance and market prices shift if they can catch a variety of species and nimbly move from one fishery to the next, a new University of Washington study finds.

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Climate scientists now reconstructed how tiny droplets of sulfuric acid formed high up in the air after the well-known impact of a large asteroid and blocking the sunlight for several years, had a profound influence on life on Earth.

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A long-running research and conservation project is helping save an at-risk species of turtle.

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If you are on Obamacare, you are likely a better tenant or homeowner.

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Emotions tend to run high in hospitals, and patients or patients’ loved ones can be rude to medical professionals when they perceive inadequate care.

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Researchers use Donkey Kong to help guide new approaches in neuroscience.

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The global map of alien bird species has been produced for the first time by a UCL-led team of researchers. It shows that human activities are the main determinants of how many alien bird species live in an area but that alien species are most successful in areas already rich with native bird species.

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It's the heat and the humidity, USGS-led study finds

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A team of seismologists analyzing the data from 671 earthquakes that occurred between 30 and 280 miles beneath the Earth's surface in the Pacific Plate as it descended into the Tonga Trench were surprised to find a zone of intense earthquake activity in the downgoing slab. The pattern of the activity along the slab provided strong evidence that the earthquakes are sparked by the release of water at depth.

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Scientists at the University of Luxembourg have identified a gene that may provide a new starting point for developing treatments for Alzheimer's disease.

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The fly sheds light on how the brain acts to signal 'fullness' and the possibility of conferring resilience against the impact of high-fat diets

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Bioengineers at The University of Nottingham are testing how to use shrimp shells to make biodegradable shopping bags, as a ‘green’ alternative to oil-based plastic, and as a new food packaging material to extend product shelf life.

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Sacred thinking isn't limited to political conservatives, according to a new report from researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Winnipeg. The findings are from four related studies that examine how liberals and conservatives justify their political attitudes on same-sex-marriage and the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

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In a perspective published January 6, 2017, in Science, Hamilton Farris, PhD, Associate Professor-Research at LSU Health New Orleans Neuroscience Center of Excellence, finds that the key insight of an important study is that perception can drive the evolution of observable traits.

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Overconfident e-mail recipients are helping phishing succeed

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Interstellar forecast for a nearby star: Raining comets! The comets are plunging into the star HD 172555, which resides 95 light-years from Earth. The comets were not seen directly around the star. Astronomers inferred their presence when they used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to detect gas that is likely the vaporized remnants of their icy nuclei.

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New research on the teeth of fossilized dinosaur embryos indicates that the eggs of non-avian dinosaurs took a long time to hatch--between about three and six months.

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New research on the teeth of fossilized dinosaur embryos indicates that the eggs of non-avian dinosaurs took a long time to hatch--between about three and six months.

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Current changes in the ocean around Antarctica are disturbingly close to conditions 14,000 years ago that led to the rapid melting of the Antarctic ice sheets and a three metre rise in global sea levels.

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Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have measured the material along the Voyager 1 and 2 probes' trajectories as they move through space. Hubble data, combined with the Voyagers, have also provided new insights into how our sun travels through interstellar space.

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Findings indicate that higher consumption of grilled, barbecued, and smoked meat may increase the mortality risk among breast cancer survivors.

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Exploring where liquid goes, even in winter

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A new comprehensive review examines the potential health benefits of resistant starch, a form of starch that is not digested in the small intestine and is therefore considered a type of dietary fibre.

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More than 200 species of “true toads” have fully functional inner ears, but cannot fully use them because they have lost their tympanic middle ears, the part of the ear which transmits sound air pressures from the outside world to the inner ear. These “earless” toads rely on sounds to communicate, so why would they lose a sense that is key to their survival and reproduction?

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An analysis of the strongest tropical storms over the last half-century reveals that higher global temperatures have intensified the storms via enhanced rainfall. Rain that falls on the ocean reduces salinity and allows typhoons to grow stronger.

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Michigan’s Medicaid expansion has boosted the state’s economy and budget, and will continue to do so for at least the next five years, a new study finds.

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Cornell University researchers and a global team of astronomers have uncovered the cosmological source of a sporadically repeating milliseconds-long “fast radio burst.”

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Parents and nonparents alike buffer their views of physical discipline and rate it more common, acceptable and effective when it's labeled with a more neutral, less violent word

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Vitamin D deficiency may increase the risk of chronic headache, according to a new study from the University of Eastern Finland. The findings were published in Scientific Reports

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The things we consume, from iPhones to cars to IKEA furniture, have costs that go well beyond their purchase price. What if the soybeans used to make that tofu you ate last night were grown in fields that were hewn out of tropical rainforests? Or if that tee-shirt you bought came from an industrial area that had been carved out of high-value habitat in Malaysia?

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– UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have uncovered the chemical process behind anti-cancer properties of a spicy Indian pepper plant called the long pepper, whose suspected medicinal properties date back thousands of years.

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Electronic components that can be elongated or twisted – known as “stretchable” electronics – could soon be used to power electronic gadgets, the onboard systems of vehicles, medical devices and other products.

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Gambling addiction activates the same brain pathways as drug and alcohol cravings, suggests new research.

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Holidaymakers concerned about fresh volcanic eruptions causing flight-disrupting ash clouds across Northern Europe might be reassured by a study setting out the first reliable estimates of their frequency

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Kristy Archuleta and Sonya Britt, both associate professors in the Institute of Personal Financial Planning, offer tips for starting now to ensure financially merrier holidays in 2017.

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A life-threatening infection in an infant with leukemia led to a St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital discovery of how prolonged infection sets the stage for bacterial persistence despite antibiotic susceptibility.

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New research publishing December 27 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology characterizes the ability of populations to interbreed and exchange genes as a function of the level divergence of their genomes.

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A clump of just a few thousand brain cells, no bigger than a mustard seed, controls the daily ebb and flow of most bodily processes in mammals -- sleep/wake cycles, most notably. Now, Johns Hopkins scientists report direct evidence in mice for how those cell clusters control sleep and relay light cues about night and day throughout the body.

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The study is the first to draw a link between RBC size and microscopic traces of blood vessels and bone cells inside bones. They found that extinct mammal and bird relatives had smaller RBCs and were likely better athletes than earlier terrestrial vertebrates. The timing of RBC-size reduction coincided with Earth's greatest mass extinction 252 mya.

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In a landmark trial, researchers have demonstrated that when treating children between 9 and 23 months of age with antibiotics for ear infections, a shortened course has worse clinical outcomes without reducing the risk of antibiotic resistance or adverse events.

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Professor Rebecca Earle, food historian at the University of Warwick has been researching the traditional Christmas turkey, in order to find out how this north American bird has become a mainstay of festive food.

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Most salamanders are homebodies when it comes to mating. But some of the beasts hit the road, traversing miles of rugged terrain unfit for an amphibian in pursuit of a partner from a far-away wetland. (With video of a salamander on a treadmill.)

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Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have captured two festive-looking nebulas, situated so as to appear as one. Known as NGC 248, the nebula resides in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is a satellite of our Milky Way galaxy.