Brain activity considered to be  spontaneous 'white noise' changes after a person learns a new task, according to researchers, and the degree of change reflects how well subjects have learned to perform the task.

The suggestion is that this learning-induced change in the brain's spontaneous activity may reflect  a 'memory trace' for the new skill, which makes it easier to use those parts of the brain together again when the same challenge is presented. 

In addition to helping anatomical connections between different brain regions, the changes in spontaneous brain activity may maintain a record of prior experience that constrains the way the same circuitries are recruited at the time of a task. 

The conventional family has changed over the last few decade but regardless of parent genders or family structure, adolescents' perception of proper family functioning has changed little, says a new study.

Previous studies have pointed to families without a regular structure, such as headed by a lone parent or including the children of other partners, etc. as leading to a greater risk of teenagers living in such families turning to drugs or being violent, having mental health problems or even exhibiting criminal behavior.

Ah, to be a lizard - lay around in the sun, star in Japanese movies and, if  your tail is pulled off, you grow it right back.

Humans are not so lucky about the regeneration part but Tel Aviv University research says we may come close.   

Prof. Meital Zilberman of TAU's Department of Biomedical Engineering has developed a new biologically active "scaffold" made from soluble fibers, which may help humans replace lost or missing bone. With more research, she says, it could also serve as the basic technology for regenerating other types of human tissues, including muscle, arteries, and skin.

While the body mass index (BMI) has been a popular yardstick for deciding who is at risk of obesity-related diseases because of their weight, since it is essentially a measure of density, identifying 'under-' and 'over-weight' risk groups, a more sophisticated approach than BMI is needed, says a new study.

Brookhaven National Laboratory scientists say your wine bottle may hold a secret to a new biofuel.
 
Inside cork is an enzyme responsible for the formation of suberin, the woody, waxy, cell-wall substance found in cork.   It helps keep wine inside your bottle but in plants suberin controls water and nutrient transportation and keeps pathogens out.

Adjusting the permeability of plant tissues by genetically manipulating the expression of this enzyme could lead to easier agricultural production of crops used for biofuels.

The 'heliosphere', the name given to the region of the sun's influence, may not have the comet-like shape predicted by existing models, say researchers.

As the solar wind flows from the sun, it carves out a bubble in the interstellar medium. Models of the boundary region between the heliosphere and interstellar medium have been based on the assumption that the relative flow of the interstellar medium and its collision with the solar wind dominate the interaction. This would create a foreshortened "nose" in the direction of the solar system's motion, and an elongated "tail" in the opposite direction.