Obesity is a well known risk factor for prostate, breast and colon cancer, but recent studies have shown that a protein responsible for generating fat cells also plays an important role in cancer. Researchers at the Genome Institute of Singapore have conducted, for the first time, a genome-wide analysis of how the protein, called perixosome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARg), turns on various genes related to obesity.

Simply suppressing the protein entirely could prevent the generation of adipocytes – the precursors to fat cells – the researchers say, but it would decrease the protein’s beneficial properties.

In a new research study, Neuroeconomist Paul J. Zak of Claremont Graduate University and his colleagues gave doses of oxytocin and a placebo to participants, who were then offered a blinded, one-time decision on how to split a sum of money with a stranger who could accept or reject the split. The results were overwhelming: Those given oxytocin offered 80% more money than those given a placebo.

According to Zak, this means that although we are inherently altruistic, we are also generous when we feel empathy toward one another. It is empathy that causes us to open up our wallets and give generously to help strangers.

“Oxytocin specifically and powerfully affected generosity using real money when participants had to think about another’s feelings,” Zak explains.

As sea levels rise, coastal communities could lose up to 50 percent more of their fresh water supplies than previously thought, according to a new study from Ohio State University.

Hydrologists here have simulated how saltwater will intrude into fresh water aquifers, given the sea level rise predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC has concluded that within the next 100 years, sea level could rise as much as 23 inches, flooding coasts worldwide.

Scientists previously assumed that, as saltwater moved inland, it would penetrate underground only as far as it did above ground.

A theory explaining the evolution of giant rodents, miniature elephants, and even miniature humans on islands has been called into question by new research published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

A new study refutes the ‘island rule’ which says that in island environments small mammals such as rodents tend to evolve to be larger, and large mammals such as elephants tend to evolve to be smaller, with the original size of the species being the key determining factor in these changes.

The new research findings suggest that the tendency to either evolve larger or smaller on islands varies from one group of species to another, irrespective of original size.

World Community Grid is the largest public humanitarian grid with more than 333,000-plus members and links to more than 780,000 computers. Eight projects have been run on World Community Grid to date, including protein folding and FightAIDS@Home, which completed five years of HIV/AIDS research in just six months.

Now Canadian researchers expect to accelerate the war on cancer by tapping into that global network of hundreds of thousands of people who volunteer their idle computer time to tackle some of the world’s most complex problems.

A research team, led by Dr.

For the past four years, Gabor Forgacs, Professor of Physics at University of Missouri-Columbia, has been working to refine the process of “printing” tissue structures of complex shape with the aim of eventually building human organs. In a new study, the research team led by Forgacs determined that the process of building such structures by printing does not harm the properties of the composing cells and the process mimics the naturally occurring biological assembly of living tissues.

The reason; each year, pharmaceutical companies invest millions of dollars to test drugs, many of which will never reach the market because of side effects found only during human clinical trials. At the same time, the number of patients waiting for organ transplants continues to increase.

It doesn't always seem that 'green' agriculture and the productivity improvements necessary to feed developing countries go hand-in-hand, but a group of speakers including Dr.

Like adults, children and monkeys rationalize their decisions following a tough choice, Yale University researchers report in Psychological Science.

The tendency to rationalize after, for instance, deciding what job to take, which car to buy, or who to marry, is a way to resolve “cognitive dissonance”—a psychological state in which an individual’s beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors are at odds, said Louisa Egan, the lead author and doctoral student of psychology.

The dissonance—the anxiety over an appealing road not taken—is uncomfortable and people are driven to resolve these feelings by rationalizing their choices, she said. One way to do this is by downgrading, or denigrating, the option that wasn’t chosen.

A consistently high level of physical activity from young adulthood into middle age increases the odds of maintaining a stable weight and lessens the amount of weight gained over time, according to a new analysis from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

People who reported at least 30 minutes of vigorous activity a day such as jogging, bicycling or swimming were more than twice as likely to maintain a stable Body Mass Index (BMI) over 20 years. BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. But even highly active people who gained weight, gained 14 pounds less over 20 years than those with consistently low activity.