Feeling stressed? The scent of a lemon or any other fragrant plants will help you feel better, say scientists in Japan who report the first scientific evidence that inhaling certain fragrances alters gene activity(!) and blood chemistry in ways that can reduce stress levels.
Their study appears in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
People have inhaled the scent of certain plants since ancient times to help reduce stress, fight inflammation and depression, and induce sleep. Aromatherapy, the use of fragrant plant oils to improve mood and health, is a popular form of alternative medicine and linalool is one of the most widely used substances to soothe away emotional stress, the authors say.
Researchers from the University of Cincinnati find the forest and water conservation practices of the The ancient Mayans had concerns about forest and water conservation practices 3,000 years ago, according to paleoethnobotanist(1) David Lentz of the University of Cincinnati, who has concluded that not only did the Maya people practice forest management but when they abandoned their forest conservation practices it led to their eventual doom.
Scientists have linked an overactive response by one of the immune system's key weapons against infection, natural killer (NK) cells, to the onset of biliary atresia in infants, a disease where blocked bile ducts can cause severe liver damage and death.
Researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center also report that blocking a gene that helps NK cells attack bile duct tissues lessens damage and may be a way to treat the most common cause of chronically progressive liver disease in children. The study, to be published in the Aug. 3 Journal of Clinical Investigation, is posted online on the journal's website.
This is an oft mentioned safety rule that one should employ when driving to ensure an adequate distance is maintained with the vehicle in front of you. When conditions are wet or icy, the rule has been extended to recommend four seconds and up to 10 seconds respectively.
This effectively fixes the traffic volume to a constant arrival rate regardless of the speed of the vehicles. In other words, it presumes to maintain a constant flow of traffic despite the variations in individual drivers and makes the traffic volume absolutely dependent on the number of traffic lanes available.
Since we have a fixed arrival rate of 1 car every 2 seconds (per lane), then we can calculate how many vehicles per hour a road can handle.
Apollomania is sweeping the nation!
Well, not quite mania, perhaps just Apollostalgia. That's defined as showing an interest in the Apollo program history, while lacking the will to actually recommit to exploring space.
As we look at the 40th anniversary of humankind's first setting foot on a celestial body other than the Earth, I will state clearly that Apollo 12 was the peak of the Apollo program.
Now, it's true Apollo 11 is when humans first set foot on the moon. It's Apollo 11's anniversary, it's getting the lion's share of the attention right now.
But I maintain Apollo 12, launched a scant 4 months later, was the most important moon landing in all of history. Let's review:
New genetic research in BMC Evolutionary Biology found telltale mutations in modern-day Indian populations that are exclusively shared by Aborigines. The new study indicates that Australian Aborigines initially arrived via south Asia.
Dr Raghavendra Rao worked with a team of researchers from the Anthropological Survey of India to sequence 966 complete mitochondrial DNA genomes from Indian 'relic populations'. He said, "Mitochondrial DNA is inherited only from the mother and so allows us to accurately trace ancestry. We found certain mutations in the DNA sequences of the Indian tribes we sampled that are specific to Australian Aborigines. This shared ancestry suggests that the Aborigine population migrated to Australia via the so-called 'Southern Route'."
Plant fossils from the Okanagan highlands, an area centred in the Interior of British Columbia, provide important clues to an ancient climate.
Last week, scientists announced the interim results of one of modern physiology’s most closely watched experiments: the effects of caloric restriction on the lifespan of non-human primates.
The report was maddeningly mixed.
Caloric restriction seemed to reduce the incidence of several diseases, but when it came to mortality—a somewhat important factor when it comes to longevity— the data were statistically not significant. We still do not know if caloric restriction works in primates, which, of course, we are.
A new impact on Jupiter is getting all the attention this week but it can happen here - and has. Nanosized diamonds found just below the surface of Santa Rosa Island off the coast of Santa Barbara are evidence of a 'cosmic impact' approximately 12,900 years ago
The hypothesis by the researchers behind the study is that fragments of a comet struck across North America at that time.
Purdue University researchers have created magnetically responsive gold nanostars that gyrate when exposed to a rotating magnetic field and can scatter light to produce a pulsating or "twinkling" effect. This twinkling allows them to stand out more clearly from noisy backgrounds like those found in biological tissue.
Alexander Wei, a professor of chemistry, and Kenneth Ritchie, an associate professor of physics, led the team that created the new gyromagnetic imaging method.
