Curated News: Staff Picks

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Teeth can reveal a lot, such as how the earliest mammals lived with their neighbors. Researchers have uncovered dozens of fossilized teeth in Kuwajima, Japan and identified this as a new species of tritylodontid, an animal family that links the evolution of mammals from reptiles. This finding suggests that tritylodontids co-existed with some of the earliest mammal species for millions of years, overturning beliefs that mammals wiped out mammal-like reptiles soon after they emerged.

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Young and single men are at risk of being addicted to video games. The addiction indicates an escape from ADHD and psychiatric disorder.

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Princeton University researchers have found that dopamine - a brain chemical involved in learning, motivation and many other functions - also has a direct role in representing or encoding movement. The finding could help researchers better understand dopamine's role in movement-related disorders such as Parkinson's disease.

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A team of researchers led by faculty at the University of Georgia has discovered the fate of much of the freshwater that pours into the surrounding oceans as the Greenland ice sheet melts every summer. They published their findings today in the journal Nature Geoscience.

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According to new research led by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) pulmonologist and critical care physician Mary B. Rice, MD, MPH, improved air quality in U.S. cities since the 1990s may not be enough to ensure normal lung function in children. The findings were recently published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care, a journal of the American Thoracic Society.

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ASU scientists part of study that shows how 'winner-winner' behavior may shape animal colonies.

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While environmental issues are often cited as a major factor in cities and towns in pursuing sustainability, a new study shows that economic concerns can be just as important to local governments in adopting concrete sustainability plans.

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Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration was the major driver behind the global climatic shifts that occurred between 53 and 34 million years ago, according to new research led by the University of Southampton.

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Most stream-resident fish stay throughout winter despite the ice. This has been shown by Christine Weber, previous researcher at Umeå University, by tagging trout and sculpins with transponders to follow fish migration. Fish's general state of health is the single most important factor for surviving winter. The findings have been published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

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An international team of including the Lomonosov Moscow State University researchers discovered which enzyme enables Escherichia coli bacterium (E. coli) to breathe. The study is published in the Scientific Reports.

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Large animals play a key role in mitigating climate change in tropical forests across the world by spreading the seeds of large trees that have a high capacity to store carbon, new research co-led by the University of Leeds has said.

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How easily did life arise on Earth, how likely is it on other planets? A new experiment strongly supports the idea that very early life coding molecules, ancestors of RNA and DNA, arose in primordial puddles with relative ease and speed, and not necessarily just in rarer fiery cataclysms.

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People who had cancer before receiving an organ transplant were more likely to die of any cause, die of cancer or develop a new cancer than organ recipients who did not previously have cancer, a new paper has found. However, the increased risk is less than that reported in some previous studies.

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A research team studying biodiversity at the Hannibal Bank Seamount off the coast of Panama has captured unique video of thousands of red crabs swarming in low-oxygen waters just above the seafloor.

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The soaring canopy and dense understory of an old-growth forest could provide a buffer for plants and animals in a warming world, according to a study from Oregon State University published today in Science Advances.

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In the face of scientific dogma that faults the population decline of monarch butterflies on a lack of milkweed, herbicides and genetically modified crops, a new Cornell University study casts wider blame: sparse autumnal nectar sources, weather and habitat fragmentation.

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In a proof-of-principle experiment, researchers at UNSW Australia have demonstrated that a small group of individual atoms placed very precisely in silicon can act as a quantum simulator, mimicking nature - in this case, the weird quantum interactions of electrons in materials.

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Studying a new type of pinhead-size, lab-grown brain made with technology first suggested by three high school students, Johns Hopkins researchers have confirmed a key way in which Zika virus causes microcephaly and other damage in fetal brains: by infecting specialized stem cells that build its outer layer, the cortex.

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Chimpanzees use manipulative dexterity to evaluate and select figs, a vital resource when preferred foods are scarce, according to a new Dartmouth-led study just published by Interface Focus.

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Researchers at Stockholm University are getting closer to corner light dark-matter particle models. Observations can rule out some axion-like particles in the quest for the content of dark matter. The article is now published in the Physical Review Letters.

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If shooting arrows from a crossbow into cubes of ballistics gelatin doesn't sound like biological science to you, you've got a lot to learn from University of Illinois animal biology professor Philip Anderson, who did just that to answer a fundamental question about how animals use their fangs, claws and tentacles to puncture other animals.

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Most of the cosmic rays arriving at Earth  from our galaxy come from nearby clusters of massive stars, according to new observations from the Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS), an instrument aboard NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft.The distance between the galactic cosmic rays’ point of origin and Earth is limited by the survival of a very rare type of cosmic ray that acts like a tiny clock.

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Since 1989, 74 people who were convicted of serious crimes, in large part due to microscopic hair comparisons, were later exonerated by post-conviction DNA analysis.

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A new study in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine finds a link between adequate sleep, earlier bedtimes and heart-healthy behavior.

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Long-snouted crocodylians in South America, India evolved separately to adopt river-dwelling lifestyle, protruding eyes.

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A research team led by Associate Professor Miyake Chikahiro and PhD student Takagi Daisuke from the Kobe University Graduate School of Agricultural Science have reproduced the reaction in which harmful reactive oxygen species are created during plant photosynthesis, and clarified a mechanism behind plant withering. This discovery could help to ensure stable food supplies by cultivating plants that can withstand environmental stresses such as global warming. The findings were published on March 2 in the online version of Plant Physiology.

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Researchers believe that genetically modified bacteria can help explain how a developing animal keeps all of its parts and organs in the same general proportions as every other member of its species.

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New research based on high-resolution x-ray movies reveals that despite having extremely underdeveloped muscles and wings, young birds acquire a mature flight stroke early in their development, initially relying heavily on their legs and wings to work in tandem to power the strenuous movement. The new study, published today in the journal PLOS ONE, is important for understanding the development of flight in modern birds and reconstructing its origins in extinct dinosaurs.

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Several species of mammoth are thought to have roamed across the North American continent. A new study in the open-access journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, provides DNA evidence to show that these mammoths, which should only mate within their species boundaries, were in fact likely to be interbreeding.

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Researchers at the University of Waterloo have found that drawing pictures of information that needs to be remembered is a strong and reliable strategy to enhance memory.

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Astronomers are releasing today this new Hubble image of the Bubble Nebula to celebrate the 26th anniversary of the Hubble telescope's launch into Earth orbit on April 24, 1990. The Bubble Nebula is a giant cloud of gas and dust illuminated by the brilliant star inside it.

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Targeted missiles that can enter cancer cells and deliver lethal cell toxins without harming surrounding healthy tissue. This has been a long-standing vision in cancer research, but it has proved difficult to accomplish. A research group at Lund University in Sweden has now taken some crucial steps in this direction.

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At the UN this week envoys from more than 130 nations, including 60 world leaders, will convene to sign the Paris Climate Change Agreement. This historic deal, achieved during global climate talks last December, was bolstered by contributions from hundreds of city mayors and corporate CEOs who made their own climate pledges during the negotiations.

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Caltech researchers have mapped out a circuit of neurons that is responsible for motor impairment--such as difficulty walking--in patients with Parkinson's disease.

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A recent study by researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, published this month in the journal Toxins, may finally put to rest the ongoing debate about whether to use cold or heat to treat jellyfish stings. Their systematic and critical review provides overwhelming evidence that clinical outcomes from all kinds of jellyfish stings are improved following treatment with hot packs or hot-water immersion.

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Watercress extract taken multiple times a day significantly inhibits the activation of a tobacco-derived carcinogen in cigarette smokers, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), partner with UPMC CancerCenter, demonstrated in a phase II clinical trial presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

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Ligaments in the long necks of certain sauropods probably helped them graze more efficiently, according to a Montana State University paleontologist who recently published his theory about sweep-feeding in an international journal.

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Researchers have figured out what makes certain chemicals accumulate to toxic levels in aquatic food webs. And, scientists have developed a screening technique to determine which chemicals pose the greatest risk to the environment.

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In an Olympics tennis analogy, when a high degree of accuracy is required, a one-second delay in frontal cortex processing could make the difference between an Olympic gold and silver, according to the researchers.

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Much of the world may cringe as lemurs are hunted and killed or when entire forests are burnt and harvested for charcoal. However, if local residents don't perceive the actions as crimes or they believe there's a low risk of getting caught, then poaching and deforestation will continue.

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UMMS scientists develop multicolored labeling system to track genomic locations in live cells.

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click to visit the Cancer Channel

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A new study from the University of Houston Department of Health and Human Performance finds a child's risk for obesity or malnutrition may be tied to the mother's misperception of her child's weight status. A key to understanding this phenomenon may lie in how she regards her own weight status. Researchers say the situation shows that healthcare providers need to broaden their health care screenings.

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Researchers at The Ohio State University have pinpointed the area of the brain responsible for recognizing human facial expressions.

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A recent study at Oregon State University has identified specific intake levels of xanthohumol, a natural flavonoid found in hops, that significantly improved some of the underlying markers of metabolic syndrome in laboratory animals and also reduced weight gain.

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Blocking the hormone that raises sugar levels in the blood could increase insulin levels while keeping blood sugar levels down. The findings in mice, to be published in eLife, point to a novel way to treat diabetes - but only in some patients. They also challenge the benefits of the strategy in severely diabetic patients.

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Latest analysis shows that human limbs share a genetic programme with the gills of cartilaginous fishes such as sharks and skates, providing evidence to support a century-old theory on the origin of limbs that had been widely discounted.

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Astronauts who experience Earth from orbit often report feelings of awe and wonder, of being transformed by what they describe as the magic such a perspective brings. This phenomenon is called the "overview effect," and researchers from the University of Pennsylvania's Positive Psychology Center are studying it to better understand the emotions astronauts commonly recount.

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New research has measured the 'wealth effect' of upgrading the infrastructure in poorer sections of cities. Revamps, such as surfacing roads and joining them to the city grid, dramatically push up prices of the adjoining land and properties, says the study to be published in the journal, The Review of Economics and Statistics. Researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Toronto measured how households who owned property in the upgraded roads were also allowed to spend more on credit so they could buy items for the home or cars that made them better off.