Featured Articles

Smart Insulin Automatically Adjusts Blood Sugar For 14 Hours

Smart Insulin Automatically Adjusts Blood Sugar For 14 Hours

Feb 09 2015 | comment(s)

For patients with type 1 diabetes, the daily routine involves constantly monitoring blood sugar and judging when and how much insulin to self-inject. A miscalculation or lapse in regimen can cause blood sugar levels to rise too high (hyperglycemia) - which could lead to heart disease, blindness and other long-term complications - or to get too low (hypoglycemia), which in the worst cases can result in coma or death.

To mitigate the dangers inherent to insulin dosing, a University of Utah biochemist and fellow scientists have created Ins-PBA-F, a long-lasting “smart” insulin that self-activates when blood sugar soars.
What Are Nano-Antioxidants?

What Are Nano-Antioxidants?

Feb 09 2015 | comment(s)

Antioxidants reduce oxidative stress caused by our body's internal energy production, fighting off infection, and repairing damage. Our bodies produce them naturally and they can be obtained less efficiently in food, but with over 200 conditions related to mitochondria, the energy factories in our cells, the future belongs to treatments that can repair damage to them.
Insecure In Your Relationship? You Spend A Lot Of Time On Facebook

Insecure In Your Relationship? You Spend A Lot Of Time On Facebook

Feb 09 2015 | comment(s)

If you are insecure or craving attention and need to feel better about yourself, chances are Facebook is your friend, according to surveys done by psychologists.

According to analysis of two surveys of nearly 600 people ages 18-83, people who are generally insecure in their relationships are more actively engaged on the social media site. They are frequently posting on walls, commenting, updating their status or "liking" something in hopes of getting attention. That leads the psychologists to conclude there are two kinds of insecure people who rely on Facebook: people who are higher in attachment anxiety and people who are higher in extraversion. 
Expensive Emergency Care Is Better

Expensive Emergency Care Is Better

Feb 09 2015 | comment(s)

Because Americans spend more per capita on health care than residents of any country, debate has rumbled on for years about whether all that investment yields sufficient results. Now a newly published study with a distinctive design, led by an MIT health care scholar, shows that increased spending on emergency care does, in fact, produce better outcomes for patients.

"If the question is, 'Do high-spending hospitals get better outcomes for emergency care?' -- we think that they do," says MIT economist Joseph Doyle. "We do find that if you go from a low-spending hospital to a high-spending hospital, you get significantly lower mortality rates."

How Big Is The Biggest Star?

How Big Is The Biggest Star?

Feb 09 2015 | comment(s)


Spot the biggest star. Rutherford Observatory

By Jillian Scudder, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Astrophysics at University of Sussex

The universe is such a big place that it is easy to get baffled by the measurements that astronomers make. The size of UY Scuti, possibly one of the largest stars we have observed to date, is certainly baffling.

Love At First Smell: Maybe Pheromones Can Get You A Date This Weekend

Love At First Smell: Maybe Pheromones Can Get You A Date This Weekend

Feb 09 2015 | comment(s)

With Valentine's Day this weekend, we will be treated to articles called things 'the science of kissing', 'the science of love', 'the science of attraction' - you name it and someone in the social sciences is capitalizing on the fuzzy nature of romance to attract some eyeballs. 

Love at first sight has long been discussed but is there love at first smell?


Can you get love in a spray bottle? Kate Upton is going to be around a lot of smelly men this week, if so. Credit: The American Chemical Society
Energy Drinks Increase Hyperactivity In Young Students

Energy Drinks Increase Hyperactivity In Young Students

Feb 09 2015 | comment(s)

Middle-school children who consume energy drinks are 66% more likely to be at risk for hyperactivity and inattention symptoms, according to results from the Yale School of Public Health, which could have implications for school success and lends support to existing recommendations to limit the amount of sweetened beverages schoolchildren drink.

The authors, led by professor Jeannette Ickovics, director of Community Alliance for Research and Engagement, recommend that children avoid energy drinks because of high levels of sugar and caffeine. 
Skin Wounds: How Epithelial Cell Sheets Force Them To Close

Skin Wounds: How Epithelial Cell Sheets Force Them To Close

Feb 09 2015 | comment(s)

Skin provides an essential protective barrier against foreign materials and pathogens and helps the body retain various fluids and electrolytes. When that barrier is damaged, the consequences can be devastating. Ulcers, bleeding and bacterial infections may result and the chances of these occurring increases the longer wounds remain open. 

Fortunately, epithelial cell sheets are self-repairing. The moment the integrity of the barrier is compromised, cellular mechanisms are initiated to close the gap. Cells begin crawling forward, and contractile cables are formed in the cells surrounding the wound to help pull the gap closed.
How Cavendish Measured Gravity On A Table Top

How Cavendish Measured Gravity On A Table Top

Feb 09 2015 | comment(s)


Cavendish torsion balance and Cavendish Signature image via Wikimedia Commons. Composite image by Lalena Lancaster
Are There Evidences For Cosmic Inflation? (II)

Are There Evidences For Cosmic Inflation? (II)

Feb 09 2015 | comment(s)

After the joint analysis by Planck, BICEP2 and Keck Array has been made public (arXiv:1502.00612) invalidating the March 2014 announcement by BICEP2 (arXiv:1403.3985v1), a Forbes contributor writes « When Science Gets It Wrong: Gravitational Waves ». Obviously, scientific institutions should be more careful before launching or supporting certain kinds of propaganda.
With a Grain of Salt

With a Grain of Salt

Feb 09 2015 | comment(s)



Research shows that six month old infants who have been introduced to salted starchy food have a greater preference to salty taste as compared to infants who are not yet fed such foods. This early exposure to salty food is carried on to preschool with preference to salty food.
Is The Next Big Diet Fad Chili Peppers?

Is The Next Big Diet Fad Chili Peppers?

Feb 09 2015 | comment(s)

A recent finding about capsaicin from chili peppers curbing obesity in mice may be why nutritionists and diet marketing groups latch onto it in 2015. The world doesn't need another gimmick diet but clearly people need to eat less. Fully one third of the world is overweight, by World Health Organization estimates. Now a group at the University of Wyoming has found promise in the potential of capsaicin -- the chief ingredient in chili peppers -- as a diet-based supplement.
R.I.P. Venus Express: Remembering Eight Years on the Brink of Hell

R.I.P. Venus Express: Remembering Eight Years on the Brink of Hell

Feb 08 2015 | comment(s)


It was a hell of a ride to our hellish sister planet.

Eight long years of studying Venus is way more than ESA scientists were expected from its mission.

Venus Express spacecraft that launched on Nov. 9, 2005 and entered the orbit of its target planet on Apr. 11, 2006, was originally planned to last for 500 days. The mission was successfully extended three times and ended in slow death while entering Venusian hostile atmosphere this January.
Causes and Cures for Deforestation

Causes and Cures for Deforestation

Feb 08 2015 | comment(s)

Cute, clever, incorrect.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations's Forest Resource Assessment for 2005 used the word "alarming" 20 times to describe the trend lines for def
Motion Of Skyrmions Observed

Motion Of Skyrmions Observed

Feb 08 2015 | comment(s)

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.

Plasma Collection Could Outpace Overall Blood Collection By 2018

Plasma Collection Could Outpace Overall Blood Collection By 2018

Feb 08 2015 | comment(s)

Kalorama Information expects the market for plasma collection to grow, and to outpace overall blood collection through 2018. The primary market driver will be plasma-derived immunoglobulins (Ig) used to produce intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) therapies. The growth of mature markets associated with the collection, processing and therapeutic use of whole blood and derived products are by and large endangered without the robustness of the global plasma market. This is the finding of Kalorama Information's recent Blood: The Worldwide Market for Blood Products, Blood Testing, Blood Equipment, and Synthetic Blood Products.

Experience-dependent Plasticity In The Adult Brain

Experience-dependent Plasticity In The Adult Brain

Feb 08 2015 | comment(s)

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.
Bariatric Surgery May Reduce Life Expectancy For Morbidly Obese Diabetics

Bariatric Surgery May Reduce Life Expectancy For Morbidly Obese Diabetics

Feb 08 2015 | comment(s)

Bariatric surgery improves life expectancy for many obese diabetic patients, but it may cut life expectancy for patients who are super obese with very high body mass indexes, according to a University of Cincinnati researcher.

"For most patients with diabetes and a BMI (body mass index) greater than 35, bariatric surgery increases life expectancy," says Daniel Schauer, MD, assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at UC. "However, the benefit of surgery decreases as BMI increases. The patients with a BMI over 62 likely don't gain any life expectancy with surgery."

The findings were published recently online in the Annals of Surgery.

Resveratrol May Help Prevent Memory Loss

Resveratrol May Help Prevent Memory Loss

Feb 08 2015 | comment(s)

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.

Citations: The Intellectual Premier League

Citations: The Intellectual Premier League

Feb 08 2015 | comment(s)


Bronks/Wikimedia Commons

By Mark Beeson, Professor of International Politics at University of Western Australia

Of the many things academics obsess about, few rank more highly than citation counts. We all like to think our work is at least read by our peers, even if it doesn’t actually change the world. Google Scholar has become one of the more important indicators of our relative standing, although it can be a rather humbling one at times. The simple fact is that most of us simply don’t make it into what we might call the intellectual Premier League.