An itch is just an itch. Or is it? New research from Gil Yosipovitch, M.D.,...
Recent News
How sea water could corrode nuclear fuel
Japan used seawater to cool nuclear fuel at the stricken Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant after the tsunami in March 2011 — and that was probably the best action to take at the time, says Professor Alexandra Navrotsky of the University of California, Davis. But Navrotsky and others have since discovered a new way in which seawater [...]
Can economy bear what oil prices have in store?
Stop wrangling over global warming and instead reduce fossil-fuel use for the sake of the global economy. That’s the message from two scientists, one from the University of Washington and one from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, who say in the current issue of the journal Nature (Jan. 26) that the economic [...]
Researchers Suggest a Proximate Cause of Cancer
Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Chemical Engineering are the first to show that mechanical property changes in cells may be responsible for cancer progression — a discovery that could pave the way for new approaches to predict, treat and prevent cancer. Postdoctoral student Parag Katira and his adviser, Roger T. [...]
Methamphetamine Use Increasing Again
Use of methamphetamines is on the rise nationally after a decrease a few years ago, according to university researchers. Use of meth dropped significantly in 2007 and 2008 after laws limiting the availability of pseudoephedrine went into effect made it much harder to obtain key ingredients. However, indicators of meth use – reported identification of [...]
America a bunch of sexual creeps
On average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States, according to findings released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over the course of a year, that equals more than 12 million women and men. Those numbers only tell part [...]
Binge drinking is bigger problem than previously thought
More than 38 million U.S. adults binge drink an average of four times a month and the most drinks they consume on average is eight according to a new Vital Signs report form the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While binge drinking is more common among young adults ages 18–34, of those age 65 [...]
Injecting sulfate particles into stratosphere won’t fix climate change
As the reality and the impact of climate warming have become clearer in the last decade, researchers have looked for possible engineering solutions – such as removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or directing the sun’s heat away from Earth – to help offset rising temperatures. New University of Washington research demonstrates that one suggested [...]
Big Three forgot Accounting 101
The Big Three were so driven by short-term profits that they forgot – or ignored – basic accounting practices that could have helped guard against production decisions with long-term damage, according to an award-winning study by Michigan State University and Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Essentially, the domestic automakers built far more vehicles than they [...]
Protein in the brain could be a key target in controlling Alzheimer’s
A protein recently discovered in the brain could play a key role in regulating the creation of amyloid beta, the major component of plaques implicated in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, according to researchers at Temple University’s School of Medicine. A group led by Domenico Pratico, professor of pharmacology and microbiology and immunology at Temple, [...]
Asteroid Likely Cold and Dark Enough for Ice
Though generally thought to be quite dry, roughly half of the giant asteroid Vesta is expected to be so cold and to receive so little sunlight that water ice could have survived there for billions of years, according to the first published models of Vesta’s average global temperatures and illumination by the sun. “Near the [...]
Mild cognitive impairment is common, affects men most
Researchers involved in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging reported today that more than 6 percent of Americans age 70 to 89 develop mild cognitive impairment (MCI) every year. Also, the condition appears to affect men and those who only have a high school education more than women and those who have completed some higher [...]
Genes Influence Criminal Behavior
Your genes could be a strong predictor of whether you stray into a life of crime, according to a research paper co-written by UT Dallas criminologist Dr. J.C. Barnes. “Examining the Genetic Underpinnings to Moffitt’s Developmental Taxonomy: A Behavior Genetic Analysis” detailed the study’s findings in a recent issue of Criminology. The paper was written [...]
High animal fat diet increases diabetes risk
Women who consumed a diet high in animal fat and cholesterol before pregnancy were at higher risk for gestational diabetes than women whose diets were lower in animal fat and cholesterol, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health and Harvard University. Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes seen during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes [...]
Scorpions inspire scientists in making tougher surfaces for machinery
Taking inspiration from the yellow fattail scorpion, which uses a bionic shield to protect itself against scratches from desert sandstorms, scientists have developed a new way to protect the moving parts of machinery from wear and tear. A report on the research appears in ACS’ journal Langmuir. Zhiwu Han, Junqiu Zhang, Wen Li and colleagues [...]
Capsules that clean: New-look laundry detergents head for supermarket shelves
Consumers who remember laundry detergents from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s are about to get that déjà vu feeling — and younger people quite a surprise — as detergent manufacturers once again try a major repackaging of their products. Laundry capsules that contain single doses of detergent and take up less space than conventional detergents [...]
Could Alzheimer’s disease be diagnosed with a simple blood test?
Spanish researchers, led by Pedro Carmona from the Instituto de Estructura de la Materia in Madrid, have uncovered a new promising way to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease more accurately. Their technique, which is non-invasive, fast and low-cost, measures how much infrared radiation is either emitted or absorbed by white blood cells. Because of its high sensitivity, [...]
It’s official: Spanish labor market is craaaazzzy
Unemployment time series in Spain behave in a chaotic way according to a study at the University of Seville. Such chaos demonstrates the complex and unpredictable nature of the Spanish labour market in the long run. However, short term patterns can be predicted using complex mathematical models. “Using mathematical techniques we have found evidence of [...]
A path to the brain through the nose
A significant obstacle to progress in understanding psychiatric disorders is the difficulty in obtaining living brain tissue for study so that disease processes can be studied directly. Recent advances in basic cellular neuroscience now suggest that, for some purposes, cultured neural stem cells may be studied in order to research psychiatric disease mechanisms. But where [...]
Saliva HIV test passes the grade
A saliva test used to diagnose the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is comparable in accuracy to the traditional blood test, according to a new study led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and McGill University. The meta-analysis, which compared studies worldwide, showed that the saliva HIV test, OraQuick HIV1/2, had [...]
Marine mammals on the menu in many parts of world
The fate of the world’s great whale species commands global attention as a result of heated debate between pro and anti-whaling advocates, but the fate of smaller marine mammals is less understood, specifically because the deliberate and accidental catching and killing of dolphins, porpoises, manatees, and other warm-blooded aquatic species are rarely studied or monitored. [...]
