Carnegie Mellon University scientists have discovered a crucial difference in the way learning occurs in the brains of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Published in NeuroImage, Sarah Schipul and Marcel Just examined how the brains of typical and ASD individuals gradually became adapted to visual patterns they were learning, without awareness of the pattern, or implicit learning.

Our Sun is a relatively quiet star that only occasionally releases solar flares or blasts of energetic particles that threaten satellites and power grids. You might think that smaller, cooler stars would be even more sedate. However, astronomers have now identified a tiny star with a monstrous temper. It shows evidence of much stronger flares than anything our Sun produces. If similar stars prove to be just as stormy, then potentially habitable planets orbiting them are likely to be much less hospitable than previously thought.

Signaling molecules of the Wnt family are ubiquitous in biology. From cnidaria to man, they are responsible for forming the basic shape of all organisms. Without Wnt, our body would not have a top or bottom, front or rear. In addition, Wnt controls numerous other development processes in the body. Overly active Wnt signaling, on the other hand, promotes carcinogenesis.

Wnt binds to receptors on the cell surface and fulfils its "classic" functions via a highly complex cascade of protein interactions in the cell's interior. At the end of this intracellular signaling pathway, specific genes in the nucleus are read (transcribed) - the known Wnt signal stimulates transcription.

A new study brings good news, a significant reduction in diabetes-related amputations since the mid-1990s, thanks to improvements in diabetes care over this period.  

Amputations of the lower limbs are one of the most serious and disabling complications of diabetes, and become necessary when the nerve and blood vessel damage caused by the condition affects the blood supply to the lower limbs, especially the feet. Serious problems with the feet (including ulceration) are a frequent reason for hospitalization amongst patients who have diabetes.

Chicago - A simple blood test taken before surgery may predict how quickly patients recover from their procedure, suggests a new study in the December issue of Anesthesiology, the official medical journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). According to the study, identifying a patient's immune state from blood samples taken before surgery, revealed patterns that may predict speed of recovery from postoperative pain and dysfunction.

Immune states are patient-specific immune responses to "stressors" that are released by cells during surgery, injury or trauma.

Though the open ocean leaves few places for fish to hide from predators, some species have evolved a way to manipulate the light that fills it to camouflage themselves, a new study finds. The study's insights could pave the way to improvements in materials like polarization-sensitive satellites. Underwater, light vibrates in way that "polarizes" it. While humans cannot detect this vibrational state of light without technology, it is becoming increasingly evident that many species of fish can; lab-based studies hint that some fish have even adapted ways to use polarization to their advantage, including developing platelets within their skin that reflect and manipulate polarized light so the fish are camouflaged.