Numerous genes that regulate the activity of a neurotransmitter in the brain have been found to be abundant in brain tissue of depressed females. This could be an underlying cause of the higher incidence of suicide among women, according to new research.

Studying postmortem tissue from brains of psychiatric patients, Monsheel Sodhi, assistant professor of pharmacy practice at  the University of Illinois at Chicago, noted that female patients with depression had abnormally high expression levels of many genes that regulate the glutamate system, which is widely distributed in the brain.

The Thing, Human Torch, Invisible Woman and Mister Fantastic are back this summer!

In the new movie reboot, the team gets its powers while in an alternate dimension. At Reactions, though, they stick to comic-book canon. In this week's video, they explain the original way the Fantastic Four got their power - radiation - with help from SciPop Talks.

It is hardly news when partygoers end up in the emergency room from an overdose of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), aka ecstasy (and a whole bunch of other names, such as Molly, E, X, many others).

Rather than simply report on another recent case at a music festival in California, in which ecstasy may have been the cause of two deaths, we thought it might be more interesting to explain what ecstasy really is, and debunk the myths that surround it.

If you are watching what you eat, working out, and still not seeing improvements in your cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, etc., here's some hope. A new report suggests that inflammation induced by deficiencies in vitamins and minerals might be the culprit.

The researchers show that - in some people - improvement results in many of the major markers of health when nutritional deficiencies are corrected. Some even lost weight without a change in their diet or levels of activity.

In patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), atherosclerosis is exceedingly common and contributes to the development of heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in this group. New research suggests that an organic byproduct generated by intestinal bacteria may be responsible for the formation of cholesterol plaques in the arteries of individuals with decreased kidney function. The findings suggest that targeting this byproduct may be a novel strategy for safeguarding the heart health of patients with CKD. 

U.S. farmers have long hoped to extend sugarcane's growing range northward from the Gulf coast because it substantially increase the land available for sugar and (for as long as subsidies last) biofuels.

Several hybrid canes developed in the 1980s have proved hardy in cooler climes, surviving overwinter as far north as Booneville, Arkansas, but no one had tested whether
the offspring of crosses between sugarcane and a hardy, cold-tolerant grass, Miscanthus - "miscanes" - actually photosynthesize, and thus continue to grow, when the thermometer dips.