The strongest known recurrent genetic cause of schizophrenia impairs communications between the brain’s decision-making and memory hubs, resulting in working memory deficits, according to a study in mice.
A Los Alamos National Laboratory toxicologist and a multidisciplinary team of researchers have documented potential cellular damage from “fullerenes” — soccer-ball-shaped, cage-like molecules composed of 60 carbon atoms. The team also noted that this particular type of damage might hold hope for treatment of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, or even cancer.
Today’s publication in Nature of the genetic blueprint for the zebra finch marks 10 years of success for the Ensembl project in helping researchers to navigate the genomes of a Noah’s Ark of species.
The first sequenced drafts of the human genome were announced 10 years ago this June. President Bill Clinton remarked at the time that, “genome science will have a real impact on all of our lives.” Although hopes were high, neither he nor the researchers involved promised magical genomic cures or personalized genomes for everyone by 2010.
Noted Air Force Office of Scientific Research-funded researcher, Dr. Graciela Chichilnisky is pioneering a new approach for measuring, anticipating and managing catastrophic risks, sometimes called “Black Swans” or natural catastrophes like hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis and floods that may possibly enhance the Air Force’s capabilities of preparing for disasters.
Take a look at this: Scientists from Buffalo, Cleveland, and Oklahoma City made a huge step toward making the blind see, and they did it by using a form of gene therapy that does not involve the use of modified viruses.
Dear EarthTalk: Some time ago there were issues with Native American tribes storing nuclear waste on their land, something that was both unhealthy to the communities and caused considerable controversy among tribal leaders. Where is this issue today? –M. Spenser, via e-mail
BOZEMAN, Mont. — Bile secretions in the small intestine send signals to disease-causing gut bacteria allowing them to change their behavior to maximize their chances of surviving, Montana State University research associate Steve Hamner told the Society for General Microbiology during its spring meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland.
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—The skull of a juvenile sauropod dinosaur, rediscovered in the collections of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Natural History, illustrates that some sauropod species went through drastic changes in skull shape during normal growth.
An estimated 20 million Americans take statins, making these cholesterol-lowering drugs the most widely prescribed class in the world. In coming years, these numbers are only expected to increase. In June 2011 the full patent for Pfizer’s blockbuster Lipitor (atorvastatin) will expire, making the drug significantly more affordable.
If you ask the average person whether in the long run it is climate change or an asteroid/comet impact that’s expected to kill more people annually, you’ll undoubtedly get some confused replies. Those asteroid movies are scary, but there are no verified instances of an asteroid strike killing any humans, are there?
PROVIDENCE, RI — Teens with a history of crack or cocaine use are significantly more likely to engage in unprotected sex than youth who have never used these drugs, putting themselves at increased risk for HIV, according to a study in the April issue of the Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse.
To probe the relationship between space and time in the developing mind, Daniel Casasanto of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and colleagues at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Stanford University showed children movies of two snails racing along parallel paths for different distances or durations.
When people talk about positive and negative emotions they often use spatial metaphors. A happy person is on top of the world, but a sad person is down in the dumps. Some researchers believe these metaphors are a clue to the way people understand emotions: not only do we use spatial words to talk about emotional states, we also use spatial concepts to think about them.
NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite, better known as TRMM has been tracking Cyclone Paul’s rainfall over the last week, and has watched is it made landfall in the Northern Territory and is now tracking Paul as it heads back toward the Gulf of Carpentaria for a return over water.
In gastric cancer patients who have had part or all of their stomach removed, the hormone ghrelin may lessen post-operative weight loss and improve appetite, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.
Did you know that filling out your census card will help computer scientists model how diseases spread in the United States?
A group of University of Colorado at Boulder faculty and students involved in the international Large Hadron Collider project in Europe are celebrating the most powerful smashing of subatomic particles into each other today in a quest to discover the physical conditions immediately following the Big Bang.
