Science 2.0

Zen Cooking: The Science Behind The Rejuvenating Diet Of The Masterless Monk

Sascha Vongehr — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 05:56:44 +0000

Zen cooking according to the teachings of the master-less monk Feng Sa Sha (风洒沙, Wind Sprinkling Sand) is, unsurprising perhaps when considering the radical fundamentality of Zen, not only the most inexpensive and easy as well as perhaps most importantly, great tasting of all cooking, but moreover it is the most healthy and wholesome diet – no surprise that it is consistent with and full of good science.

How Plant Leaves Grow Their Teeth

News Staff — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 02:01:35 +0000

A peptide and its receptors work to regulate auxin response and control leaf tooth growth in plants.

The plant hormone auxin has been known to take part in the development of leaf teeth, but the exact mechanism of their formation has been a mystery up till now. In this study, the research group has found that a peptide called EPIDERMAL PATTERNING FACTOR-LIKE 2 (EPFL2) and its receptor protein, ERECTA family receptor kinases, control the amount of auxin during leaf tooth growth. In plant leaves where the EPFL2 peptide is inactive, the leaf becomes round without teeth.

Young Children's Antibiotic Exposure Associated With Higher Food Allergy Risk

News Staff — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 01:58:30 +0000

COLUMBIA, SC - Antibiotic treatment within the first year of life may wipe out more than an unwanted infection: exposure to the drugs is associated with an increase in food allergy diagnosis, new research from the University of South Carolina suggests.

Drugs In The Water? Don't Blame The Students

News Staff — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 01:58:26 +0000

With nearly sixty percent of American adults now taking prescription medications--from antidepressants to cholesterol treatments--there is growing concern about how many drugs are flowing through wastewater treatment facilities and into rivers and lakes. Research confirms that pharmaceutical pollution can cause damage to fish and other ecological problems--and may pose risks to human health too.

Scientists have assumed that people flushing their unused medications down the drain or toilet was a major source of these drugs in the water.

But a new first-of-its-kind study tells a different story.

Strain Differences In Zika Infection Gene Patterns

News Staff — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 12:42:49 +0000

Scientists have revealed molecular differences between how the African and Asian strains of Zika virus infect neural progenitor cells.

The results could provide insights into the Zika virus' recent emergence as a global health emergency, and also point to inhibitors of the protein p53 as potential leads for drugs that could protect brain cells from cell death.

The findings, from the Emory/Johns Hopkins/Florida State team that showed this spring that neural progenitor cells are particularly vulnerable to Zika infection, were published in Nucleic Acid Research. The paper was also posted on BioRxiv before publication.

Why Does Dying Cost More For People Of Color? New Study Takes A Deeper Look

News Staff — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 12:42:46 +0000

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Dying in America is an expensive process, with about one in four Medicare dollars going to care for people in their last year of life. But for African Americans and Hispanics, the cost of dying is far higher than it is for whites.

And despite years of searching for the reason, no one has quite figured out why.

A new study by a University of Michigan Medical School team tried to get to the bottom of this expensive mystery with the most detailed study to date. The team published their findings today in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

One More Reason To Swear Off Tobacco: The Inflammatory Trap Induced By Nicotine

News Staff — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 12:42:42 +0000

An Umeå-based team in collaboration with US researchers reveals a new link between nicotine and inflammation. They report that nicotine strongly activates immune cells to release DNA fibres decorated with pro-inflammatory molecules, so called neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). The continuous exposure to these NETs can harm the tissue and could explain the hazardous consequences of tobacco consumption for human health.

Doctors: Beware Of Low Diastolic Blood Pressure When Treating Hypertension

News Staff — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 17:38:51 +0000

By analyzing medical records gathered over three decades on more than 11,000 Americans participating in a federally funded study, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have more evidence that driving diastolic blood pressure too low is associated with damage to heart tissue.

The researchers caution that their findings cannot prove that very low diastolic blood pressure -- a measure of pressure in arteries between heartbeats when the heart is resting and also the "lower" number in a blood pressure reading -- directly causes heart damage, only that there appears to be a statistically significant increase in heart damage risk among those with the lowest levels of diastolic blood pressure.

It's A Boy: Controlling Pest Populations With Modified Males

News Staff — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 17:38:47 +0000

Populations of New World screwworm flies - devastating parasitic livestock pests in Western Hemisphere tropical regions - could be greatly suppressed with the introduction of male flies that produce only males when they mate, according to new research from North Carolina State University, the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, the Panama-United States Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of Screwworm (COPEG) and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

Withholding tetracycline in the larval diet essentially means "It's a boy" when the genetically modified male flies successfully mate with females in the field, says Max Scott, an NC State entomologist who is the corresponding author of a paper describing the research.

Making Memories Stronger And More Precise During Aging

News Staff — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 17:38:44 +0000

When it comes to the billions of neurons in your brain, what you see at birth is what get -- except in the hippocampus. Buried deep underneath the folds of the cerebral cortex, neural stem cells in the hippocampus continue to generate new neurons, inciting a struggle between new and old as the new attempts to gain a foothold in memory-forming center of the brain.

In a study published online in Neuron, Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT in collaboration with an international team of scientists found they could bias the competition in favor of the newly generated neurons.

Embryo Geometry Hopes To Explain How Vertebrates Evolved

News Staff — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 11:30:09 +0000

A new hypothesis aims to explain how the complex vertebrate body, with its skeleton, muscles, nervous and cardiovascular systems, arises from a single cell during development and how these systems evolved over time. They give it a proper name, embryo geometry, but scientists are going to hold off on calling it a theory until it shows some chance of validation. Until then, it is like String Theory, more philosophy than science.

The paper, along with illustrations - or "blueprints" - depicting how it applies to different vertebrate organ systems, is in Progress in Biophysics&Molecular Biology.

Concerns Over Glutathione Skin Bleaching In The UK

News Staff — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 10:50:43 +0000

Skin bleaching with the use of glutathione is on the rise, despite the potential ethical issues and adverse side effects associated with the practice, warns a doctor in The BMJ this week.

Ophelia Dadzie, a consultant dermatologist at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Founder and Director of London Ethnic Skin Limited, says that "there is a lack of authoritative public health information in the UK about the efficacy and safety of this practice."

Skin bleaching is a cosmetic procedure that involves lightening constitutive skin colour, and one such agent used is glutathione, an antioxidant that can be administered orally or intravenously.

Bird Bugs Shed New Light On Malaria Infection

News Staff — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 10:50:39 +0000

The Griffith University study investigated parasite interactions in wild birds and found they are a crucial indicator of malaria infection risk.

The study Co-infections and environmental conditions drive the distributions of blood parasites in wild birds has been published in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

Why Pneumococci Affect Primarily Humans

News Staff — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 20:27:33 +0000

A special variant of a sugar molecule in the human nose might explain why pneumococcal infections are more common in humans than in other animals, researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden report in a study published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe. The discovery can help in the search for a broader vaccine able to protect against all types of pneumococci.

The bacterium S. pneumoniae or the pneumococcus exists naturally in the noses of children and adults, but is also one of the most common causes of infectious diseases in the world, with meningitis and pneumonia being amongst the most severe. Pneumococci cause more severe infections in humans than in other mammals, something that has hitherto remained a mystery.

Paleontology: A Monster Put In Its Place

News Staff — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 20:27:29 +0000

An analysis of the fossil known as the Minden Monster has enabled paleontologists to assign the largest predatory dinosaur ever found in Germany to a previously unknown genus, among a group that underwent rapid diversification in the Middle Jurassic.

Bloodthirsty Brains

News Staff — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 20:27:26 +0000

In a new research collaboration between the University of Witwatersrand and the University of Adelaide, previously held views on the evolutionary development of the human brain are being challenged. The findings of their studies, published today in
the Royal Society Open Science*, unseats previous theories that
the progression of human intelligence is simply related to the increase in size of the brain.

New Role Of Adenosine In The Regulation Of REM Sleep Discovered

News Staff — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 20:27:22 +0000

The regulation and function of sleep is one of the biggest black boxes of today's brain science. A new paper published online on August 2 in the journal Brain Structure & Function finds that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is suppressed by adenosine acting on a specific subtype of adenosine receptors, the A2A receptors, in the olfactory bulb. The study was conducted by researchers at Fudan University's School of Basic Medical Sciences in the Department of Pharmacology and the University of Tsukuba's International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine (WPI-IIIS). The research team used pharmacological and genetic methods to show that blocking A2A receptors or neurons that contain the A2A receptors in the olfactory bulb increases REM sleep in rodents.

Does Labor Day Matter When Only 62 Percent Of The Labor Force Is Participating?

News Staff — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 19:38:11 +0000

We see all of the rosy claims coming from the Federal government about unemployment rates yet around us we see no one can buy a home, young people have resigned themselves to living with their parents, and the deficit this year has climbed at a rate that is unprecedented.

It's because government unemployment statistics only tally people who get unemployment, and unemployment checks expire. It does not count people who have given up or who are chronically unemployed but that shows we have been in a period of stagnation for almost 10 years.

Labor Day is about to arrive but since 2009 it has become less meaningful than ever. U.S. labor force participation at 62 percent and declining, which means it could soon be below 50 percent.

Lunar Cycle Affects Timing Of Birth In Cows

News Staff — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 17:51:04 +0000

A popular belief that there is a higher number of births around the full moon has been shown to be true for dairy cows by a group of University of Tokyo researchers.

Previous studies have found conflicting evidence on the moon cycle affecting the timing of human births and many researchers remain unconvinced that the moon influences human births.

Associate Professor Tomohiro Yonezawa of the Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Sciences explains that the results may have varied because "multiple factors, such as the mothers' nutrition, social environment, and genetic background could disguise the moon's influence. However, cows may provide a good model for teasing apart the lunar effect from other factors that also influence birth."

High Alcohol Intake Decreases Female Fertility

News Staff — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 17:50:20 +0000

Women who have high alcohol intake, 14 or more servings of alcohol a week are slightly more likely to have reduced fertility, suggests a study published in The BMJ today.

In developed countries, up to 24% of couples experience infertility, defined as time to pregnancy of 12 months or more. Official guidelines in countries like the USA, UK and Denmark recommend that women trying to become pregnant should abstain from alcohol consumption. But the extent to which alcohol intake affects female fertility is unclear. So a group of Danish researchers carried out a large prospective cohort study to examine the association between pre-conception alcohol consumption and time to pregnancy.

Clark Kent Was Right - With The Glasses, You Didn't Know He Was Superman

News Staff — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 17:45:18 +0000

In comics, Clark Kent looks a lot like Superman, so similar every child has to wonder why no one puts it together. A pair of glasses on Kent, and a small lock of hair on Superman's forehead, are the only differences.

Yet that's probably enough, according to a new paper. Small alterations to
a person's appearance, such as wearing glasses, can significantly hinder positive facial identification.

Youth Crimes Spike Immediately After Drinking Age

News Staff — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 17:30:58 +0000

A new study from the Northern Medical Program at the University of Northern British Columbia has shown that minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) legislation in Canada can have a major effect on crimes committed by young adults. Young people just older than the legal age had significant increases in commission of all crimes, including violent crimes and nuisance crimes, compared to those immediately under the restriction.

Food Puzzles Enhance Feline Wellbeing

News Staff — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 17:30:44 +0000

Greater understanding of the importance of environmental enrichment in enhancing an animal's physical and social environment is bringing benefits for pet cats - particularly those that are kept solely indoors.

Zika Epidemic May Be Underestimated - Or Overestimated

News Staff — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 11:30:19 +0000

Social Psychologists: Female Smartphone Choices Reveal Hubris, Dishonesty And A Desire For Status

News Staff — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 11:06:27 +0000

Your choice of smartphone provides valuable information about you, according to a new social psychology paper. That's right, not only is your choice of smart phone indicative of your personality.

No Link To Lower IQs In Children Of Mothers Who Have Taken Newer Forms Of Epilepsy Drugs

News Staff — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 10:41:02 +0000

Two newer epilepsy drugs may not harm the thinking skills or IQs of school-aged children whose mothers took them while pregnant - but an older drug is linked to cognitive problems in children, especially if their mothers took high doses - according to new research from The University of Manchester.

Valproate, one of the most commonly prescribed antiepileptic medications, has been associated in the past with birth defects and developmental problems. However, two newer drugs - levetiracetam and topirimate - have had little or no investigations into their developmental impact until this latest research, published published in the August 31, 2016, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

New Survey Finds 75 Percent Of Americans Think Discrimination Still An Issue For Women

News Staff — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 01:08:06 +0000

In the wake of Hillary Clinton's historic nomination as the first woman presidential candidate of a major political party in the U.S., women continue to face obstacles in politics and the workplace, according to a national poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Three-quarters of Americans think there is at least some discrimination against women in this country, although just as many say it has decreased over the past generation.

Crowdsourcing Can Help Create Better Science Tests Cheaper

News Staff — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 01:08:03 +0000

When it comes to developing test questions, there's the ordinary way and the fancy way. The ordinary way is to just make up questions and put them on the test. However, this can lead to questions that are misleading, confusing, or simply don't test for the knowledge you're trying to measure. The fancy way takes a lot of possible questions, tries them out on students, and whittles them down to the most useful. But this process is both time-consuming and expensive.

A group of researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has found a way for schools, professors, textbook publishers, and educational researchers to check the quality of their test questions that turns out to be both fast and cheap. It invokes the power of crowdsourcing.

Sexual Function Problems Occur After Heart Attack, Disparities Exist Between Men And Women

News Staff — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 01:08:00 +0000

New research from the University of Chicago investigates what happens to men's and women's sexual function and relationships after a heart attack in an effort to help clinicians develop better care guidelines for patients. The study, published in JAMA Cardiology, shows impaired sexual function or new problems are common after heart attacks. They occur at the same rate as a loss of general physical function and at a higher rate than the incidence of depression after heart attack, but rarely do health care providers address these issues - particularly with women.

People Enhanced The Environment, Not Degraded It, Over Past 13,000 Years

News Staff — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 23:54:49 +0000

Human occupation is usually associated with deteriorated landscapes, but new research shows that 13,000 years of repeated occupation by British Columbia's coastal First Nations has had the opposite effect, enhancing temperate rainforest productivity.

Andrew Trant, a professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo, led the study in partnership with the University of Victoria and the Hakai Institute. The research combined remote-sensed, ecological and archaeological data from coastal sites where First Nations' have lived for millennia. It shows trees growing at former habitation sites are taller, wider and healthier than those in the surrounding forest. This finding is, in large part, due to shell middens and fire.