It has no wheels or legs or anything to help itself along, and yet it is able to move and to move quite fast. In terms of mobility, the snake is a masterpiece of engineering, and it is no coincidence that it should be studied to uncover the physics underlying its locomotion. Giancarlo Cicconofri, SISSA research fellow, and Antonio DeSimone, SISSA professor and head of MathLab, the School's laboratory for mathematical modelling and scientific computing, have developed a mathematical model to describe in detail slithering, one of the characteristic ways in which snakes move by propagating lateral undulations along the body, and described in their model as "snake in a tube".

An ensemble consisting of a binary mixture of particles of equal size can partition itself into its component fractions - provided that the two species differ in their diffusion constants.

CHICAGO-- American grocery shoppers face an array of front of pack (FOP) nutrition and health claims when making food selections. But relying on the front of pack (FOP) claims to determine the nutrition quality of the food may not be a consumer's best option. In the January issue of the Journal of Food Science study, published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), researchers from The Ohio State University and Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia examined and analyzed front of pack nutrition claims on more than 2,200 breakfast cereal and prepared meals released for sale between 2006 and 2010. What they found was that no type or number of front of pack claims could distinguish "healthy" foods.

A new analysis indicates that states’ Web-based and phone-based tobacco cessation programs can help people quit smoking, but certain personal characteristics may lead individuals to prefer one type of program over the other. 

Quitline (telephone-based counseling) programs are effective tools for people who are trying to give up smoking, and the evidence for Web-based cessation services is building. Research has found that only one percent to two percent of adult tobacco users in the United States access state quitlines each year, however. Also, sustained use of Web-based interventions is low, with most users visiting some cessation websites fewer than three times.

CHICAGO-- Cooks, chefs and food manufacturers are looking for natural ways to reduce sodium in recipes in nearly every culture. A big challenge to doing that is taste. Consumers typically describe reduced-sodium foods as lacking in taste and flavor. Findings of a study in the January issue of the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), found that Vietnamese fish sauce added to chicken broth, tomato sauce and coconut curry reduced the amount of sodium chloride by by 10-25 percent while still maintaining the perceived deliciousness, saltiness and overall flavor intensity.

WASHINGTON, DC -- As brain cells age they lose the fibers that receive neural impulses, a change that may underlie cognitive decline. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine recently found a way to reverse this process in rats. The study was published Feb. 3, 2016 in The Journal of Neuroscience. Researchers caution that more studies are needed, but the findings shed light on the mechanisms of cognitive decline and identify potential strategies to stem it.

"There's a tendency to think that aging is an inexorable process, that it's something in the genes and there's nothing you can do about it," said study co-author Gary Lynch. "This paper is saying that may not be true."

Some of the earliest nerve cells to develop in the womb shape brain circuits that process sights and sounds, but then give way to mature networks that convert this sensory information into thoughts. This is the finding of a study led by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center and published in the February 3 edition of Neuron.

Specifically, the study in mice found that nerve circuit templates in part of the brain's cortex - the layer that regulates thought and memory - are first laid down during mammalian development by nerve cells that secrete the signaling chemical somatostatin (SST). Later in the process, a second wave of related nerve cells, parvalbumin (PV) neurons, arrives to build the faster, more precise circuits needed for higher brain functions.

A Cochrane Library review suggests that smoking bans may reduce harms of passive smoking, unclear as they are, since there has never been evidence that second-hand smoke has harmed anyone. Yet epidemiologists have linked it to risks of heart disease and some have even claimed third-hand smoke - particulate matter residues on clothing or in a room - can cause cancer. 

But the review does correlate lower rates of cardiovascular disease with bans. 

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Pollens, the bane of allergy sufferers, could represent a boon for battery makers: Recent research has suggested their potential use as anodes in lithium-ion batteries.

"Our findings have demonstrated that renewable pollens could produce carbon architectures for anode applications in energy storage devices," said Vilas Pol, an associate professor in the School of Chemical Engineering and the School of Materials Engineering at Purdue University.

The following text, a short excerpt from the book "Anomaly!", recounts the time when the top quark was about to be discovered, in 1994-95. After the "evidence" paper that CDF had published in 1994, the CDF and DZERO experiments were both running for the first prize - a discovery of the last quark.

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