The latest news on napping would have you believe that it’s a harbinger of doom. The Research Institute at the California Pacific Medical center studied communities of elderly women and linked napping and excess sleep in general to increased death from anything. By this logic, the entire nap-happy nation of Spain should watch out for falling pianos.
Show Me The Science Month Day 22
How do genes work together to build body traits? This is one of the hottest questions in genetics today, and the answer holds implications not only for our understanding of evolution, but also health, agriculture, and wildlife conservation. A
recent paper in Science (by Scientific Blogging's own
Redneck Geneticist) takes a look at how genetic variants work together to generate the physical diversity that we see in living organisms.
Contrary to popular belief (trekkies especially) space is not yet the final frontier - we still have plenty of unexplored frontier closer to home yet farther away from pop culture imagination: the oceans. The deep ocean remains one of the last truly explored regions, and it remains almost as mysterious as any distant galaxy.
According to Discovery Channel’s epic documentary, Blue Planet, Seas of Life, "Over 60% of our planet is covered by water more than a mile deep. The deep sea is the largest habitat on earth and is largely unexplored. More people have traveled into space than have traveled to the deep ocean realm."
About one in 3,500 people are affected with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a disease of the retina's visual cells that eventually leads to blindness. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has identified a genetic link between cats and humans for two different forms of RP. This discovery will help scientists develop gene-based therapies that will benefit both cats and humans.
Researchers examined the genetic mutations in two groups of cats; one with a congenital form of RP and another with a late-onset form and were able to identify the genes responsible for both forms of the disease in cats.
While number of calories taken in versus used will always be the the biggest factor in weight loss, the type of diet can make a difference too. If you want to lose fat instead of muscle, for example, or if you want to lower your triglyceride levels so you'll be less likely to develop diabetes and heart disease.
A new study by Donald Layman, a University of Illinois professor emeritus of nutrition, followed the weight-loss efforts of 130 persons at two sites, the U of I and Penn State University, during 4 months of active weight loss and 8 months of maintenance.
As researchers continue to examine the role of sweeteners in the diet, it's important that people understand the differences among various ingredients used in scientific studies, according to the Corn Refiners Association (CRA). Interchanging two distinctly different ingredients, such as pure fructose and high fructose corn syrup, creates factually incorrect conclusions and misleads consumers.
Recent studies using pure fructose that purport to show that the body processes high fructose corn syrup differently than other sugars due to fructose content are a classic example of this problem because pure fructose cannot be extrapolated to high fructose corn syrup. The abnormally high levels of pure fructose used in these studies are not found in the human diet.
72.28 percent of drug addicted men claim to have consumed drugs to be able to have sexual relations and most of them (58%) choose cocaine for this purpose. Of course, they're drug-addicted men so they may also say they do it to cook dinner.
The irony is that it's self-defeating, since cocaine is the most debilitating common drug when it comes to sexual performance.
It's not just men. 37.50% of drug addicted women do the same thing, resorting to cocaine (37%), speed balls (the colloquial term for intravenous use of heroin and cocaine together) at 25% and alcohol at 25%.
The Martian volcano Olympus Mons is about three times the height of Mount Everest but it's the small details that Rice University professors Patrick McGovern and Julia Morgan are looking at in thinking about whether the Red Planet ever had life.
Using a computer modeling system to figure out how Olympus Mons came to be, McGovern and Morgan reached the surprising conclusion that pockets of ancient water may still be trapped under the mountain.
If there's still ancient water, there may still be ancient life, they say. Their research is published in Geology.
Most college students will admit to searching their couch cushions for extra coins to do laundry. But Jon McKinney's cushion hunt isn't about finding money. He wants to help epidemiologists identify what's triggering diseases like asthma in children, and he's got the backing of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Working with Dr. Glenn Morrison, associate professor of environmental engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, the junior is developing the science behind “building forensics,” an emerging field that lies at the outer edge of environmental engineering.
Nanomaterials like carbon possess unique properties, which have led to first applications in novel electronic devices and sensors. These materials are based on ordered, atomically thin layers of carbon atoms, for example in the form of a single layer as so-called “graphene”, or rolled-up in carbon nanotubes.
The electronic properties of such structures are closely related to those of graphite, which consists of a stack of graphene sheets. Despite intensive research in the past, the fundamental behavior of electrons in this material are not fully understood and still controversially debated.
