Skilled motor movements of the sort tennis players employ while serving a tennis ball or pianists use in playing a concerto, require precise interactions between the motor cortex and the rest of the brain. Neuroscientists had long assumed that the motor cortex functioned something like a piano keyboard.

"Every time you wanted to hear a specific note, there was a specific key to press," says Andrew Peters, a neurobiologist at UC San Diego's Center for Neural Circuits and Behavior. "In other words, every specific movement of a muscle required the activation of specific cells in the motor cortex because the main job of the motor cortex was thought to be to listen to the rest of the cortex and press the keys it's directed to press."

A protein that can make the failing hearts in aging mice appear more like those of young health mice similarly improves brain and skeletal muscle function in aging mice, according to two papers in Science.
Professors Amy Wagers and Lee Rubin, of Harvard's Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology (HSCRB), report that injections of a protein known as GDF11, which is found in humans as well as mice, improved the exercise capability of mice equivalent in age to that of about a 70-year-old human, and also improved the function of the olfactory region of the brains of the older mice – they could detect smell as younger mice do.

Northwestern University researchers are the first to develop a new solar cell with good efficiency that uses tin instead of lead perovskite as the harvester of light. The low-cost, environmentally friendly solar cell can be made easily using "bench" chemistry -- no fancy equipment or hazardous materials.

"This is a breakthrough in taking the lead out of a very promising type of solar cell, called a perovskite," said Mercouri G. Kanatzidis, an inorganic chemist with expertise in dealing with tin. "Tin is a very viable material, and we have shown the material does work as an efficient solar cell."

Kanatzidis, who led the research, is the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

In 2009, President Barack Obama slightly eased restrictions on the human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research that was first funded by his predecessor, President George W. Bush, but limited to specific lines. Using an executive order, Pres. Obama allowed for a few more lines to be created while still obeying President Clinton's Dickey-Wicker Amendment, which limited research on embryos.

Is "gaydar" real? Though scientists dismiss it as being in the same vein as psychics or palm reading, some papers have claimed it is legitimate and that people can make reliable predictions of sexual orientation simply by hearing a voice or seeing a face, without there being an obvious 'tell'.

If it's real, then who has better gaydar, lesbian women or straight, can be just as validly determined.

The expectation is that lesbians will have superior gaydar due to their experience of choosing partners would be more tuned in to others orientation - but that could be a negative filter. Gay people tend to overestimate the prevalence of gay people. A group of scholars conducted a study which set out to reveal who has a greater interpersonal sensitivity.

How can you be both a necrophiliac and chaste?

Welcome to the fascinating world of bacterial reproduction. Bacteria don't have sex the way humans think of sex - they can mix their genetic material in a  process called recombination, by pulling in DNA from dead bacterial cells and inserting them into their own genome.

New research led by Imperial College London has found that this process – called recombination – is more complex than was first thought. The findings, published today in PLoS Genetics, could help us understand why bacteria which cause serious diseases are able to evade vaccines and rapidly become drug-resistant.

Mass outreach and awareness of bullying isn't doing much to stop bullying, it is mostly just teaching bullies what to watch out for and what buzzwords to use if they are accused.

There's another good reason to stop them, including throwing them out if they are caught; when victims feel like the system does not protect them, they protect themselves. 

A new presentation at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver saus that an estimated 200,000 high school students who are bullied bring weapons to school. Youths who have been victimized in multiple ways are up to 31X more likely to carry a weapon to school than those who have not been bullied. 

Chicago, IL (May 4, 2014) — Bariatric surgery, which is best known for its ability to help patients lose substantial weight, can also result in significant improvement in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), according to new research presented today at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW). Researchers at the University of South Florida-Tampa found that bariatric surgery resolved liver inflammation and reversed early-stage liver fibrosis, the thickening and scarring of liver tissue, by reducing fat deposits in the liver.

E-cigarettes are bad, marijuana is good, according to the latest culture war.

E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution. The user inhales the vapor created and ingests the nicotine. Some e-cigarettes are flavored, some have been found to contain toxic chemicals. They have been sold in the United States since 2007 and are marketed as an option to help smokers kick the habit. 

About 4,000 babies die in their sleep each year from due to suffocation and strangulation despite recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics that infants always be placed on their backs to sleep and that they share a room with parents but not a be

According to the study, these deaths from SIDS or SUID (sudden unexpected infant death) are seen more often among black families.

"We found that many infants are not placed to sleep on the back, and many still routinely share a bed during sleep," said lead author Eve Colson, M.D., professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine.