Art is forever was true in the case of internationally renowned sculptor Mary Hecht.

Despite an advanced case of vascular dementia, Hecht was able to draw spur-of-the moment and detailed sketches of faces and figures, including from memory and her case study shows that the ability to draw spontaneously as well as from memory may be preserved in the brains of artists long after the deleterious effects of vascular dementia have diminished their capacity to complete simple, everyday tasks.

Researchers have developed a reliable method for detecting silver nanoparticles in fresh produce and other food products. 

Is there a need for that? Perhaps. Over the last few years, the use of nanomaterials for water treatment, food packaging, pesticides, cosmetics and other industries has increased. Farmers have used silver nanoparticles as a pesticide because of their capability to suppress the growth of harmful organisms - but it is unknown if these particles pose a potential health risk to humans and the environment.  

Decitabine, a drug used to treat blood cancers, may also stop the spread of invasive breast cancer. according to a study done in lab and animal models. Decitabine turns on a gene coding for protein kinase D1 (PRKD1) that halts the ability of cancer cells to separate from a tumor and spread to distant organs.

In the United States, 34 percent of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 are overweight or obese.  That has led policy makers and advocates to focus on controlling foods

Unhealthy lifestyle factors that begin in childhood, such as physical inactivity, lack of exercise and diet contribute to both the development of obesity and other chronic diseases, but it is unclear whether obesity itself or the associated lifestyle factors are underlying causes of cardiovascular and metabolic dysfunction and the related development of chronic disease. 

I think a lot about science outreach. As a non-scientist, I am simultaneously the exact person science outreach advocates say should be excited about science while a few believe my interest (along with 80% of you) in science should consist solely of paying taxes that can then go to government grants, to pay for science they can insist they are doing for us.

Satellite pictures of Saharan dust clouds have been in the news all summer - they don't just impact Africa, they even impact air quality in far-away cities like Houston.

Clouds of African dust often migrate across the Atlantic Ocean during summer months, affecting even U.S. air quality from mid-June through mid-September. Chellam said it's especially prevalent in late August and early September.

The dust, whipped up by sandstorms in northwest Africa and carried by trade winds across the Atlantic Ocean, takes about 10 days to two weeks to reach the United States and then even Texas.

Everyone agrees that interdisciplinary research is a good idea - for someone else. A survey of social and environmental scientists found that limits to career advancement and lack of credit for promotion and tenure were big obstacles.

There have been efforts to promote work on interactions between humans and the environment but success has been elusive. To better understand the obstacles facing natural and social scientists attempting such work, PhD student Eric D. Roy of Louisiana State University and co-authors from a variety of institutions surveyed researchers at all career stages who were interested and experienced in such research. 

Anthropomorphism is overlooked as a powerful tool for promoting low-profile species that are either endangered or require urgent attention, say the authors of a new paper.

As has been noted in the past, it also helps to use cute animals.

At present, anthropomorphism in conservation is limited to social, intelligent animals, such as chimpanzees, polar bears and dolphins but the authors say we shouldn't imply that other species are not worthy of conservation because they are not like humans in the 'right' ways.

It is well known that there are a lot of knobs turning in climate. Current models are assumption-based, with a set of fixed parameters and a solution that involves converging on an answer, and the assumptions impact the value that model accuracy has versus actual accuracy.

To get a good climate model for the future, we first have to have good climate models about the past. Researchers with the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel recently managed to successfully 'hindcast' climate shifts in the Pacific. These shifts also have a profound effect on the average global surface air temperature of the Earth and the most recent shift in the 1990s is one of the reasons that the Earth's temperature has not risen further since 1998.

Breast-feeding is back. When it comes to early establishment of gut and immune health for babies, 'breast is best' according to a new study of how 'good' bacteria arrive in babies' digestive systems.

How babies acquire a population of good bacteria can also help to develop formula milk that more closely mimics nature.