There’s hope for the less-than-perfect male — if you’re a swordtail fish, that is. As the size and age of female swordtail fish increase, so does the preference for males with asymmetrical markings, according to a new Ohio University study. Molly Morris, associate professor of biological sciences, and colleagues found that older female swordtails spent more time with asymmetrically striped males than symmetrical males when offered a choice.
A combination of brain scanning with a new imaging agent and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis has left neuroscientists encouraged that they may finally be moving toward techniques for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease before its clinical symptoms become apparent. “When clinical symptoms start, the disease process has already been at work in the patient for many years and possibly even decades,” explains Anne Fagan Niven, Ph.D., research associate professor of neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “Up to 30 percent of neurons in vulnerable areas are already dead, and you can’t get them back. So finding markers that can help us identify patients prior to symptoms is really our big push now.”
On May 6, 2004, the Acting Director of CDER rejected the recommendations of FDA’s joint advisory committee and FDA review officials by signing the not-approvable letter for the Plan B switch application. While FDA followed its general procedures for considering the application, four aspects of FDA’s review process were unusual.
A compound found only in hops and the main product they are used in – beer – has rapidly gained interest as a micronutrient that might help prevent many types of cancer. Researchers at Oregon State University first discovered the cancer-related properties of this flavonoid compound called xanthohumol about 10 years ago. A recent publication by an OSU researcher in the journal Phytochemistry outlines the range of findings made since then. And many other scientists in programs around the world are also beginning to look at the value of these hops flavonoids for everything from preventing prostate or colon cancer to hormone replacement therapy for women.
You can blame your parents for your hair that frizzes in high humidity and for your short stature. And now researchers at Saint Louis University School of Public Health say your genetic makeup partly dictates how physically and mentally healthy you feel.
A new study suggests that ovarian tumors classified as serous borderline or low malignant potential (LMP) are not early precursors in the development of aggressive ovarian cancer, but may instead be part of an entirely different class of tumors. Furthermore, genes that were identified in this study as being expressed, or active, in these different classes of tumors could help identify targets for more specific diagnostics and therapies to treat this disease.
Although tornadoes are usually thought of as springtime storms that develop in early evenings out of isolated weather cells, the twister that touched down in Indiana in the middle of the night this past weekend was a typical “line storm”– one that is more likely to form late at night and in colder months.
For almost a hundred years most planes have looked like a tube with wings, but that may change thanks to NASA research. Engineers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., are testing a design for a flying wing, called a blended wing body or BWB, which would be more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly than today’s aircraft.
He was the greatest scientist of his day-perhaps of all time. But while Isaac Newton was busy discovering the universal law of gravitation, he was also searching out hidden meanings in the Bible and pursuing the covert art of alchemy. NOVA explores the strange and complex mind of Isaac Newton, on Newton’s Dark Secrets, airing Tuesday, November 15, 2005 at 8PM on PBS on PBS (check local listings). Using docudrama scenes starring Scott Handy (Masterpiece Theatre’s Henry VIII) as Newton, NOVA recreates the unique climate of late 17th-century England, where a newfound fascination with science and mathematics coexisted with extreme views on religious doctrine. Newton shared both obsessions.
A team of scientists is proposing that endangered California condors raised in captivity be released near seal and sea lion rookeries so that the birds can once again feast on the carcasses of marine mammals as their ancestors did centuries ago. The research team concludes that whales and seals have been an integral part of the condor’s diet since the last Ice Age, and that current efforts by the U.S. government to restore wild condor populations could be enhanced if captive-bred birds are released near marine mammal breeding grounds along the West Coast.
A new study suggests that early-stage Parkinson’s disease patients who lower their calorie intake may boost levels of an essential brain chemical lost from the neurodegenerative disorder.
The brains of babies born very prematurely do not develop as well as those who are carried to full-term, according to new research presented today at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, D.C. Dr. Sandra Witelson, a professor of psychiatry and behavioural neurosciences at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University and chief investigator on the interdisciplinary project at Hamilton Health Sciences, said that an ultrasound study of the brains of babies born around 26 weeks gestation showed that certain aspects of brain development were very compromised compared to infants in utero.
Two new drugs, when combined, killed up to 75 percent of breast cancer tumor cells in mice and suppressed the regrowth of tumors, according to researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center. The findings, published online Nov. 14 in the journal Cancer Biology and Therapy, may also have implications for prostate cancer, lymphoma, myeloma and other hematologic cancers.