Verbal interactions between parents and children create a social feedback loop important for language development, according to research forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. That loop appears to be experienced less frequently and is diminished in strength in interactions with autistic children.

Patients with terminal forms of leukemia and lymphoma who have run out of treatment options could still aid science -  a Phase 1 trial into a new class of BTK (Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase) inhibiting drugs at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth.

If it works, the new drug will improve a patients' life expectancy and quality of life by putting an end to chemotherapy with no side effects. 

Should mothers feel guilty if they actually feel stress during pregnancy? What if they suffer postpartum depression, do those things hurt baby brains?

No, but pop psychology coverage in mainstream media is increasingly making its way into policy decisions. The only thing harmed is mothers who feel even more stress knowing that their stress could be harming their child in the womb or in the developing stages.

The influential policy-informing 'evidence' that children's brains are irreversibly 'sculpted' by parental care is questionable evidence and a new paper warns that the success that advocates of 'brain-based' parenting have had in influencing government policy could be undermining parent-child relationships.

Radiological damage at Chernobyl doesn't just keep plant life from growing, it even keeps plant life from decomposing.

A paper in the journal Oecologia finds that microbes near the site of the Chernobyl disaster has slowed the decomposition of fallen leaves and other plant matter in the area. The resulting buildup of dry, loose detritus is a wildfire hazard that poses the threat of spreading radioactivity from the Chernobyl area.

A team of agronomists, entomologists, agroecologists, horticulturists and biogeochemists have determined that planting cover crops in rotation between cash crops - widely agreed to be ecologically beneficial - is even more valuable than previously thought. 

Writing in Agricultural Systems, the Penn State researchers quantified the benefits offered by cover crops across more than 10 ecosystem services. Benefits included increased carbon and nitrogen in soils, erosion prevention, more mycorrhizal colonization -- beneficial soil fungus that helps plants absorb nutrients -- and weed suppression.

Daniel H. Conrad, professor of microbiology and immunology at the
Virginia Commonwealth University
 School of Medicine, and colleagues have uncovered a new connection between allergy and cancer that could potentially lead to therapies involving common antihistamines. 

In the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, their study found that histamine, a component of the immune system that responds to allergens and foreign pathogens and is also linked to inflammation, plays a role in protecting tumors from the immune system. By blocking the production of histamine in animal models, the researchers were able to interrupt a process that promotes melanoma growth.