It used to be that poor people did not have enough food, and sometimes we are still told that they don't, but instead it is the case that poor people are far more likely to belief, and then the claim was that poor people had plenty of food, but it was the wrong kind.

This gave rise to the notion of "food deserts", areas in dense urban areas where large grocery stores are too expensive or regulations are too onerous to stay in business and instead only small bodegas can survive. Get rid of the food deserts and poor people would be less obese, but a new paper in PLOS Medicine disputes the notion that making another change without any evidence will cure obesity. 

Adjusting a specific deep-brain circuit's firing frequency immediately and dramatically alters rats' forebrain activity and alertness levels,  which could eventually take deep brain stimulation to a whole new level.

Deep brain stimulation may one day have potential for restoring consciousness in minimally conscious patients and countering other cases of impaired consciousness. The findings also highlight the importance of determining optimal stimulation frequencies for DBS devices used across a wide range of brain disorders and demonstrate a method for making those determinations. 

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered the most tenuous molecular gas ever observed. They detected the absorption of radio waves by gas clouds in front of bright radio sources. This radio shadow revealed the composition and conditions of diffuse gas in the Milky Way galaxy.

Many people hold the door open for strangers. But what do people give in return?

Their responses appeared to depend on the door holder's effort, according to scientists at the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC. If the door holder made a high effort by making eye contact, smiling and holding open the door, more recipients would say "thank you," researchers found. If the door holder who made a high effort had dropped some pens while trying to hold open the door, the recipient was more likely to stop and help pick them up.

Genes that act as brakes to stop the development of an aggressive form of leukaemia have been identified by researchers.

Their findings offer fresh insights into how to tackle the disease and could lead to new therapies that prevent relapses.

Scientists have found that two molecules - Hif-1alpha and Hif-2alpha - work together to stop the formation of leukemic stem cells in an aggressive type of blood cancer called Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML).

The cancer occurs when production of new blood cells by the bone marrow goes awry. This leads to the formation of leukemic stem cells, which fuel the disease and provide a constant flow of abnormal leukaemia cells.

New Haven, Conn.--It is well documented that a healthy diet and exercise are key in cancer prevention and management, but the exact mechanism hasn't been clear. Now, Yale Cancer Center researchers have found an explanation in the tiny protective ends of chromosomes called telomeres. The findings will be presented Dec. 11 at the 2015 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

The researchers used a previously published Yale weight-loss intervention study called LEAN to examine how body fat and weight loss through lifestyle changes are associated with telomere length in breast cancer survivors enrolled in a weight-loss trial. Telomeres shorten with cell division and are associated with aging and increased risk of breast cancer mortality.