EUGENE, Ore. -- (March 8, 2016) -- If you have trouble sleeping, the neurons in your brain may be firing like those in roundworms randomly seeking food in the absence of clues, says University of Oregon biologist Shawn R. Lockery.

That connection is proposed in a theoretical neuroscience paper co-authored by 12 researchers at 10 institutions that is in the journal eLife. The research -- 14 years in the making -- was led by Lockery and supported by the National Institutes of Health.

As humans sleep, neurons fire randomly in between brief, alternating states of wakefulness and sleep. Such fragmentation is heightened in sleep disorders.

Crowds formed from tiny particles disperse as their environment becomes more disordered, according to scientists from UCL, Bilkent University and Université Pierre et Marie Curie.

The new mechanism is counterintuitive and might help describe crowd behaviour in natural, real-world systems where many factors impact on individuals' responses to either gather or disperse.

"Bacterial colonies, schools of fish, flocking birds, swarming insects and pedestrian flow all show collective and dynamic behaviours which are sensitive to changes in the surrounding environment and their dispersal or gathering can be sometimes the difference between life and death," said lead researcher, Dr Giorgio Volpe, UCL Chemistry.

By now the entire world has heard that famed Russian tennis champion Maria Sharapova has tested positive for a banned substance. According to a March 9 Reuters article, she has been suspended, lost major sponsors and there is a possibility that she will miss the upcoming Olympics. The substance she was taking is Meldonium or Mildronate.

This is a heart medication that is most commonly used in Eastern Europe. This medication has been banned effective only this past January. Meldonium works by regulating the energy metabolism pathways. It has been used for treatment of heart failure, arrhythmia, heart attacks and diabetes. It has not been approved for use in the United States.

If the price of oil decreases, carbon dioxide emissions increase. This is what two Spanish scientists claim after comparing the relationship between air pollution and economic development by using the real oil prices in Spain between 1874 and 2011 as an indicator. The scientists suggest a need to design new energy taxes.

In the 1970s, the first environmental movements warned that air pollution was the result of our production and consumption patterns. At that point in time, economists argued that an improvement in per capita income would reduce the level of environmental degradation -- a relationship called the Environmental Kuznets Curve (with an inverted 'U' shape). Later studies would go on to show that they were right.

Estoril, Portugal: Beta-blockers could be used to reduce the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations, according to new findings.

Beta blockers are primarily used to treat stress or heart problems, such as high blood pressure and angina, but these new findings suggest they could have a potential benefit for patients with COPD.

In a large-scale study involving more than 6,000 fifth graders, an innovative science curriculum was found to have a positive impact on science learning for students with different levels of English proficiency.

The study, led by NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and published in the American Educational Research Journal, evaluated the effects of Promoting Science Among English Language Learners (P-SELL), a fifth-grade science curricular and professional development intervention designed with English language learners (ELLs) in mind.