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Christmas is supposed to be a magical time. The season is full of gifts, bright lights, family, friends and food, and sentimentality. It brings back memories of days long since passed. But for parents? Well, for parents the Christmas season can be stressful. Scratch that: It can be hella hard because we are all trying to live up to some impossible ideal […]
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People with sadistic personality traits tend to be aggressive, but only enjoy their aggressive acts if it harms their victims. According to a series of studies of over 2000 people, these actions ultimately leave sadists feeling worse than they felt before their aggressive act. The research appears in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, published by the Society for Personality and […]
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The Paleoneurobiology group of the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), led by Emiliano Bruner, has just published, in collaboration with the Museo de la Evolución Humana (MEH) in Burgos and the company Sociograph from Valladolid, a new paper on cognitive archaeology in which the hand-tool relationship is studied, analyzing the geometry of the tools, the grasp […]
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The enormous adaptability of the cholera bacterium explains why it is able to claim so many victims. Professor Ariane Briegel from the Leiden Institute of Biology has now discovered that this adaptability is due to rapid sensory changes in the bacterium. Her research has been published in PNAS. The Vibrio cholerae bacterium is the cause of cholera, a devastating illness […]
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Reuse and recycle. Americans employ the concept on nearly everything. Now, medical researchers are working hard to apply it to pacemakers and defibrillators. Millions of sick people in low-income nations suffer or die each year because they can’t afford these implantable medical devices that could help regulate their heartbeat. Researchers argue that many people could be saved if they had […]
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An annual physical typically involves a weight check and questions about unhealthy habits like smoking, but a new study from UC San Francisco suggests health care providers may be overlooking a critical question: Are you depressed or anxious? Anxiety and depression may be leading predictors of conditions ranging from heart disease and high blood pressure to arthritis, headaches, back pain […]
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The recent discovery of microRNAs as key regulators of biological processes has fueled an explosion of research activity into their function in health and disease. Researchers have now uncovered a microRNA cluster that regulates synaptic strength and is involved in the control of social behaviour in mammals. The researchers presume that their discovery may point to new therapeutic strategies for […]
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Scientists have identified two distinct control mechanisms in the developmental transition of undifferentiated stem cells into healthy brain cells. This fundamental research using mice may inform regenerative medicine treatments for neurodegenerative diseases and spinal cord injuries, in the future. When an embryo develops, stem cells differentiate into all the types of cells that the adult will need. Neural stem cells […]
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UT Southwestern researchers have succeeded in neutralizing what they believe is a primary factor in late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, opening the door to development of a drug that could be administered before age 40, and taken for life, to potentially prevent the disease in 50 to 80 percent of at-risk adults. Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is a protein that carries fatty substances […]
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A larger portion of green leafy vegetables in the diet may reduce the risk of developing liver steatosis, or fatty liver. In a study published in PNAS researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden show how a larger intake of inorganic nitrate, which occurs naturally in many types of vegetables, reduces accumulation of fat in the liver. There is currently no […]
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