Small magnetic whirls may revolutionize future data storage and information processing if they can be moved rapidly and reliably in small structures. A team of scientists of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and TU Berlin, together with colleagues from the Netherlands and Switzerland, has now been able to investigate the dynamics of these whirls experimentally. The skyrmions, as these tiny whirls are called after the British nuclear physicist Tony Skyrme, follow a complex trajectory and even continue to move after the external excitation is switched off. This effect will be especially important when one wants to move a skyrmion to a selected position as necessary in a future memory device.

A new study has shown an unprecedented degree of connectivity reorganization in newly-generated hippocampal neurons in response to experience, suggesting their direct contribution to the processing of complex information in the adult brain.

The hippocampus is an anatomical area of the brain classically involved in memory formation and modulation of emotional behavior. It is also one of the very few regions in the adult brain where resident neural stem cells generate new neurons life-long, thus providing the hippocampal circuitry with an almost unique renewal mechanism important for information processing and mood regulation.

Resveratrol found in common foods such as red grapes and peanuts may help prevent age-related decline in memory, according to a new paper.

Ashok K. Shetty, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine and Director of Neurosciences at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, has been studying the potential benefits of resveratrol, a controversial antioxidant that is found in the skin of red grapes, as well as in red wine, peanuts and some berries. Resveratrol has been promoted for its potential to prevent heart disease, but Shetty and colleagues believe it also has positive effects on the hippocampus, an area of the brain that is critical to functions such as memory, learning and mood.

Men on lower incomes are more likely to help their partners with housework than higher-earners, although women are still by far doing the most around the home, no matter how many hours they work or how much they are paid.

While the burden of keeping the home clean is starting to be shared more equally between couples, signs of a class divide are beginning to emerge, a researcher from the University of Warwick has found.

"There's a stark difference in couples' attitudes towards gender equality depending on how much they are earning," explained Dr Clare Lyonette, from the Institute for Employment Research, who led the study.

According to a new paper, policymakers must look beyond painkiller abuse in their efforts to reduce opioid overdose deaths.

In a comprehensive investigation, the scientists show that since 2002, new cases of non-medical abuse have declined, yet painkiller overdose deaths have soared - evidence that recreational use of painkillers is not a key driver of the opioid crisis.

The authors suggest that policymakers should instead focus on preventing new cases of opioid addiction caused by both medical and non-medical use and expanding access to opioid addiction treatment.

Three researchers say they can predict the spread of flu a week into the future with as much accuracy as Google Flu Trends can display levels of infection right now. 

The study in Scientific Reports uses social network analysis and combines the power of Google Flu Trends' "big data" with traditional flu monitoring data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

New research has identified the mechanism used by plants in stress conditions to sense low oxygen levels - and scientists then used that knowledge and advanced breeding techniques to reduce yield loss in barley under water-logged conditions.

In 2011, University of Nottingham Professor of Crop Science Michael Holdsworth and colleagues identified the mechanism used by plants in stress conditions to sense low oxygen levels and now they have discovered how this works in barley.

“We now know how to breed barley cultivars more tolerant to waterlogging and flooding,” says Holdsworth.

The world of single atoms and molecules may seem to be governed by chaotic fluctuations, but a team of researchers has found that the spontaneous formation of Turing patterns - responsible for the irregular yet periodic shapes of the stripes on zebras' bodies - can not only occur on the small scale, but can also be used for potentially very interesting applications.