Doctors in the U.S. and Japan have devised a way to treat atrial fibrillation by adding a little alcohol to minimally invasive therapies that target a cluster of misbehaving nerves known to trigger arrhythmia, dulling or stopping the transmission of electrical impulses that cause atrial fibrillation.
Children’s food allergies are gradually increasing, but they may be as much as doubling among black children. According to a study published in the March issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the scientific publication of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), self-reported food allergy nearly doubled in black children over 23 years.
Study shows the 1970s polynya within the Antarctic sea ice pack of the Weddell Sea may have been the last gasp of what was previously a more common feature of the Southern Ocean, and which is now suppressed due to the effects of climate change on ocean salinity.
Johns Hopkins researchers report that people with chronic insomnia show more plasticity and activity than good sleepers in the part of the brain that controls movement.
A new study from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) demonstrates that it is possible to qualify bison coming from an infected herd as free of brucellosis using quarantine procedures. These bison can then be used to seed conservation herds in other landscapes without the threat of spreading the disease.
Genetic and environmental evidence indicates that after the ancestors of Native Americans left Asia, they spent 10,000 years on a land bridge that once linked Siberia and Alaska. Archaeological evidence is lacking because it drowned when sea levels rose. University of Utah anthropologist Dennis O’Rourke and colleagues make that argument in the Friday, Feb. 28, issue of the journal Science.
Household wealth for Americans still has not recovered from the recession, despite last summer’s optimistic report from the U.S. Federal Reserve, a new study suggests.
Researchers at the University of Iowa have found that we don’t remember what we hear nearly as well as things we see or touch. In experiments, the team found that memory declined much greater with sounds than with sight or touch, and the forgetfulness began as early as four to eight seconds after being exposed to a sound. The finding suggests our brain may process auditory information differently than visual and tactile information. Results appear in the journal PLoS One.
UF/IFAS researchers show that low-oxygen environment helps create better suitors in sterile-insect process.
Hooking up people using similar phrases, according to one Texas Tech University researcher.
Judging the effects of climate change on extinction may be easier than previously thought, according to a paper published today in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Entrepreneurs and owners of small start-up businesses in rural areas must successfully pitch their ventures to “faraway, unknown banking officials” to survive, rather than relying on local lenders as in the past, according to a Baylor University study.
Researchers created new nerve cells in the brains and spinal cords of living mammals without the need for stem cell transplants to replenish lost cells.
New insights into how cancer cells arise and develop into tumors have come from researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. Some of them are exploring the process by studying stem cells.
Can babies learn to read? While parents use DVDs and other media in an attempt to teach their infants to read, these tools don’t instill reading skills in babies, a study by researchers at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development has found.
Physicists have now proposed a modular quantum computer architecture that promises scalability to much larger numbers of qubits. The components of this architecture have individually been tested and are available, making it a promising approach.
By adjusting water discharges in ways designed to boost salmon productivity, officials at a dam in central Washington were able to more than triple the numbers of juvenile salmon downstream of the dam over a 30-year period.
A panel of experts, including researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is recommending that depression be added to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and smoking as a cardiac risk factor.
Field ecologists go to great lengths to get data: radio collars and automatic video cameras are only two of their creative techniques for documenting the natural world. So when a group of ecologists set out to see how wind moves seeds through isolated patches of habitat carved into a longleaf pine plantation in South Carolina, they twisted colored yarn to create mock seeds that would drift with the wind much like native seeds.
A new study found evidence that assessing the route to cancer on a case-by-case basis might make more sense than basing a patient’s cancer treatment on commonly disrupted genes and pathways.
With the help of a tiny fragment of zircon extracted from a remote rock outcrop in Australia, the picture of how our planet became habitable to life about 4.4 billion years ago is coming into sharper focus.
Researchers have determined that a small region of the hippocampus known as CA2 is essential for social memory, the ability of an animal to recognize another of the same species. A better grasp of the function of CA2 could prove useful in understanding and treating disorders characterized by altered social behaviors, such as autism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. The findings, made in mice, were published on February 23, 2014, in the online edition of Nature.
The next time you want to turn down the emotional intensity before making an important decision, you may want to dim the lights first. A new study from the University of Toronto Scarborough shows that human emotion, whether positive or negative, is felt more intensely under bright light.
An editorial in American Family Physician proposes a simple way for physicians to communicate to patients about the best treatments for diabetes. The “lending a hand” illustration reprioritizes treatment goals, based on research on mortality reduction, to convey that glycemic control is no longer the primary intervention.
The brains of jazz musicians engrossed in spontaneous, improvisational musical conversation showed robust activation of brain areas traditionally associated with spoken language and syntax, which are used to interpret the structure of phrases and sentences. But this musical conversation shut down brain areas linked to semantics — those that process the meaning of spoken language, according to results of a study by Johns Hopkins researchers.
Remember that slim kid in school – the one with the cook-from-scratch mom? He’s likely one of the fittest dudes at your high school reunion according to new research from Cornell University, published online in the journal PLOS ONE.
A new study provides evidence for what many people who experience headache have long suspected—having more stress in your life leads to more headaches. The study released today will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 66th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, April 26 to May 3, 2014.
New research from the University of Adelaide has delved into the reasons why some people are unable to break free of their delusions, despite overwhelming evidence explaining the delusion isn't real.
By the time most people are 25, they have made the most important memories of their lives, according to new research from the University of New Hampshire.
An University of Iowa study shows that police officers move as much on the job as someone holding a baby or washing dishes. The finding comes from police wearing armbands that monitored their physical activity. Results appear in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Overweight and obese people who feel their physicians are judgmental of their size are more likely to try to shed pounds but are less likely to succeed, according to results of a study by Johns Hopkins researchers.
Researchers have developed the technology for a catheter-based device that would provide forward-looking, real-time, three-dimensional imaging from inside the heart, coronary arteries and peripheral blood vessels.
New insights into one of the molecular mechanisms behind light harvesting, which enables photosynthetic organisms to thrive, even as weather conditions change from full sunlight to deep cloud cover, will be presented at the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting. Researchers will describe how probing these natural systems is helping us understand the basic mechanisms of light harvesting -- work that could help improve the design and efficiency of devices like solar cells in the future.
UC Riverside baseball players who participated in novel brain-training research saw significant improvement in vision, resulting in fewer strikeouts and more hits. The experiment demonstrated that improvements from a multiple perceptual-learning approach transfer to real-world tasks.
When a team goes on a multi-game winning streak, it has nothing to do with momentum, according to a new study in the journal Economics Letters. By examining varsity college hockey teams winning and losing record, Cornell University researchers discovered that that momentum advantages don’t exist.
A study by researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center shows vitamin D as an add-on therapy could provide some relief for chronic hives, a condition with no cure and few treatment options.
One factor that makes glioblastoma cancers so difficult to treat is that malignant cells from the tumors spread throughout the brain by following nerve fibers and blood vessels to invade new locations. Now, researchers have learned to hijack this migratory mechanism, turning it against the cancer by using a film of nanofibers thinner than human hair to lure tumor cells away.
Feeling extreme loneliness can increase an older person’s chances of premature death by 14 percent, according to research by John Cacioppo, professor of psychology at the University of Chicago.
Research on urban neighborhoods must take into account differences among cities and rely on some techniques that have not been used extensively by sociologists studying neighborhood effects, according to Mario Small, professor of sociology at the University of Chicago.
A region deep inside the brain controls how quickly people make decisions about love, according to new research at the University of Chicago.
Instead of only using a standard clinical interview to determine whether individuals met the criteria for a clinical diagnosis of bipolar disorder, UCLA researchers combined the results from brain imaging, cognitive testing, and an array of temperament and behavior measures. Using the new method, they and their collaborators have identified about 50 brain and behavioral measures that are both under strong genetic control and associated with bipolar disorder. Their discoveries could be a major step toward identifying the specific genes that contribute to the illness.
Being critical, angry and defensive isn’t always a bad thing for couples having a big disagreement — provided they are in a satisfying relationship. In that case, they likely will have a “big resolution” regardless of how negative they were during the discussion, according to a study by a Baylor University psychologist.
From his decades of skating research, Jim Richards, Distinguished Professor of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology at the University of Delaware, knows that proper air position is critical to successful jumps. A computer simulation developed by Richards’ team at UD in collaboration with Maryland-based C-Motion Inc. enables skaters and their coaches to observe an athlete’s actual movements on a computer screen and then see how those movements can be manipulated to improve jumping technique.
Atomtronics is an emerging technology whereby physicists use ensembles of atoms to build analogs to electronic circuit elements. Using lasers and magnetic fields, atomic systems can be engineered to have behavior analogous to that of electrons, making them an exciting platform for studying and generating alternatives to charge-based electronics. Using a superfluid atomtronic circuit, JQI physicists, led by Gretchen Campbell, have demonstrated a tool that is critical to electronics: hysteresis. This is the first time that hysteresis has been observed in an ultracold atomic gas. This research is published in the February 13 issue of Nature magazine, whose cover features an artistic impression of the atomtronic system.
The first genome sequencing of the Ice Age skeletal remains of a 1-year-old boy has given scientists definitive proof that the first human settlers in North America were from Asia and not Europe, and that these people were the direct ancestors of modern Native Americans, according to research that includes a Texas A&M University professor.
The Wildlife Conservation Society announced today that the Government of Madagascar has approved carbon sales with Microsoft and its carbon offset partner, The CarbonNeutral Company, and Zoo Zurich.
Prions can be notoriously destructive, spurring proteins to misfold and interfere with cellular function as they spread without control. New research, published in the open access journal PLOS Biology on February 11 2014, from scientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research reveals that certain prion-like proteins, however, can be precisely controlled so that they are generated only in a specific time and place. These prion-like proteins are not involved in disease processes; rather, they are essential for creating and maintaining long-term memories.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have demonstrated a new approach to treating muscular dystrophy. Mice with a form of this muscle-weakening disease showed improved strength and heart function when treated with nanoparticles loaded with rapamycin, an immunosuppressive drug recently found to improve recycling of cellular waste.
Income inequality is making Americans sick, according to a groundbreaking Social Science and Medicine article by Jonathan Metzl and Helena Hansen.
A pair of Georgia Tech studies take a closer look at puzzling summertime streak, trying to understand the nature of these features: water-related or not?
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