Body

Innovation in 'Big Data' helps address problems that were previously overwhelming. What we know about organisms is in hundreds of millions of pages published over 250 years. New software tools of the Global Names project find scientific names, index digital documents quickly, correcting names and updating them. These advances help "Making small data big" by linking together to content of many research efforts. The study was published in the open access journal Biodiversity Data Journal.

A collaboration between Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Harvard University pioneers the increase of memory using optogenetics in mice in Spain. The study was based on light stimulation of a group of neurons, named Tac2, in the cerebral amygdala. These neurons play a key role in the memory of fear. Treated mice increased their long-term memory. This is the first time in the world that Tac2 has been stimulated by optogenetics.

Seaweed has long been a staple food in many Asian countries and has recently caught on as a snack food in America as a healthful alternative to chips. The edible algae that fall in the category of seaweed are low-calorie and packed with nutrients. In addition, now scientists have found that a type of commercial red algae could help counteract food allergies. They report their findings in mice in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Among black men, those with more genetic variants descended from West Africa may have a relatively lower risk of being overweight, obese and diabetic, according to a new study out of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of Arizona. Obesity affects women and men of every ethnic group in the United States with strong gender and racial disparities.

Industrialized nations that view wildfire as the enemy have much to learn from people in some parts of the world who have learned to live compatibly with wildfire, says a team of fire research scientists.

The interdisciplinary team say there is much to be learned from these "fire-adaptive communities" and they are calling on policy makers to tap that knowledge, particularly in the wake of global warming.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have discovered that muscle cells affected by muscular dystrophy contain high levels of an enzyme that impairs muscle repair. This finding provides a new target for potential drug treatments for the disease, which currently has no cure.

Physicians have long used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect cancer but results of a University of California San Diego School of Medicine study describe the potential use of restriction spectrum imaging (RSI) as an imaging biomarker that enhances the ability of MRI to differentiate aggressive prostate cancer from low-grade or benign tumors and guide treatment and biopsy.