The link between the gut microbiome and obesity seems clear, but just how changes to gut bacteria can cause weight gain is not.

A new University of Iowa study in mice shows that drug-induced changes to the gut microbiome can cause obesity by reducing the resting metabolic rate - the calories burned while sleeping or resting. The findings, published in the journal eBiomedicine, highlight the critical role of gut microbes in energy balance and suggest that unhealthy microbiome shifts can lead to weight gain and obesity by altering resting metabolism.

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 14, 2015 -- In a biological system, the ratio of water-to-non-water molecules, known as the hydration level, influences both the arrangement of biomolecules and the strength of the electric interactions that occur between biomolecules, free ions, and functional groups, which are groups of atoms within molecules that strongly influence the molecules' chemical properties. To isolate the contribution of water to the vibrational fluctuations that occur between DNA, bulk water, and the charged biomolecular interface between the two, researchers at the Max-Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy in Berlin have performed two-dimensional spectroscopic analyses on double-stranded DNA helices at different hydration levels.

How are insomniacs able to function well with less sleep than others? It may be a beneficial biological trait.

With the release of a study that found gender bias in federal agencies that fund Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) research, Congresswomen Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), and Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) are demanding immediate action to ensure gender equality in publicly funded research. 

Tomorrow at 2PM two back-to-back talks by Jim Olsen and Marumi Kado at CERN will disclose the newest results of the CMS and ATLAS experiments, which will be based on the analysis of 2.5 to 4 inverse femtobarns of 13 TeV proton-proton collisions acquired by the experiments this year.
Why should you be interested ? Of course, because the year could end with a boom! Maybe the experiments have found evidence for something totally unexpected in their data. After all, 13 TeV is 63% more energy than 8 TeV. 

When we look out at the universe – even with the most powerful of telescopes – we can only see a fraction of the matter we know must be there. In fact, for every gram’s worth of atoms in the universe, there is at least five times more invisible material called “dark matter”. So far scientists have failed to detect it, despite spending decades searching.

The reason we know it exists is because of the gravitational pull of galaxy clusters and other phenomena we observe.

Most people can tell if you're angry based on the way you're acting. Professor Jeffrey Jenkins can tell if you're angry by the way you move a computer mouse.

The BYU information systems expert says people experiencing anger (and other negative emotions--frustration, confusion, sadness) become less precise in their mouse movements and move the cursor at different speeds.

Thanks to advances in modern technology, Jenkins and his colleagues can now gather and process enough data points from your cursor movement to measure those deviations and indicate your emotional state.

A rising trend in narcissism is good news for retailing and manufacturing firms offering customizable products, say marketing and psychology scholars in the Journal of Retailing. They say firms can increase the uniqueness of self-designed products by examining consumers' narcissistic behavior.

Engineers have harnessed the molecular machinery of living systems to power an integrated circuit from adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of life, and they did it by integrating a conventional solid-state complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit with an artificial lipid bilayer membrane containing ATP-powered ion pumps, opening the door to creating entirely new artificial systems that contain both biological and solid-state components.

Bottom Line: Improved screening and detection efforts, combined with decreases in risk factors like smoking, have reduced the incidence and mortality rates from several common types of cancer in many high-income countries. However, many low-and middle-income countries have seen cancer rates rise, partially due to increases in risk factors that are typical of Western countries.

Journal in Which the Study was Published: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research